Back In The Stacks

I finished the beautiful The Classic Era Of Crime Fiction last week and very, very, very reluctantly returned it to the library today. That book is a feast for the eyes. I must find my own copy! (Review coming soon.)

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So, anyway. I had to have something to assuage the pain of giving back the book, right? Hasn't it been said that a book makes an excellent palliative? Two work even better. Here's what I found:

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Carver Country: The World Of Raymond Carver - Raymond Carver (text), Bob Adelman (photographs), Tess Gallagher (introduction). It's been over 20 years, and I still miss Raymond Carver. I first discovered his work a few months before he died, in a short story anthology of 20th century fiction, edited by Clifton Fadiman (Anne Fadiman's father). The story was "A Small, Good Thing". I read it over and over, mesmerized. Then I went out and hunted down every single book I could find by Carver. All that summer I was immersed in Raymond Carver. When I read in the newspaper in early August that he'd died, I was as stunned and uncomprehending as if I had unexpectedly lost someone I'd known. This anthology includes letters, poems and short stories accompanied by black-and-white photographs depicting scenes from Carver's hometown of Yakima, Washington, other places he lived during his 50 years as well as people he knew and loved.

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Jane Eyre's American Daughters: From The Wide, Wide World To Anne Of Green Gables -- A Study Of Marginalized Maidens And What They Mean - John Seelye. That's a clunker of a subtitle, but it's also what reeled me in. Part I seems to be about Bronte's novel and Part II discusses the heroines of novels by Susan Warner, Martha Finley, Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Jean Webster. It'll be interesting to see if he truly can tie them to Jane Eyre.

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I do love my library. When I'm there, I feel like a plant that's getting a thorough watering after a long dry spell.

Doris?!

One of my new collegues (Canadian, about my age, very cool) told me the other night over dinner (roasted duck stuffed with rice, jujubes, peas, lentils and chestnuts) that I seemed like a Doris to her. I was startled. I'm so utterly convinced of my X-treme...Susan-ness, Susan-ity?? that it's difficult to wrap my head around another identity.

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Furthermore, Doris didn't feel very flattering. Doris felt like curlers under a head scarf, too-tight stretch pants and several missed trips to the facial waxing salon. On the book side, Doris felt like shabby Harlequin romance novels someone left in the doctor's office waiting room.

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I couldn't fault Canadian Cool. Back in the 1980s, I had a neighbor named Pam and I couldn't stop calling her Betty. I have no idea why. Also, another new coworker seems like Nancy rather than Jeanne.

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But Doris? Me? The name seemed to belong to a generation long before mine. Was Canadian Cool trying to subtly hint that I come across as staid? Old and finished? Doris. So close and yet so far from Dorothy, as in Dorothy Parker, who I dearly love. One syllable, as unreachable as the sun. Damn.

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I ate a lot of duck and drank more than I'm used to, so when I fell into bed a couple of hours later, I was still chewing on Doris. When the alarm went off the next morning, my mind was clear and fresh and my first two thoughts were: Doris Lessing. Doris Kearns Goodwin.

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I've felt fine ever since. Thanks, Canadian Cool!

Suzy, Suzy, Book Group Floozy

You know my story. For a long time after I came to Korea, I pined for a book group. There was a once-a-month book swap in Daegu, but wouldn't you know it? A couple of months after I joined, the bookish heart and brains of the swap packed his bookshelves and moved back to New Zealand. Six dark months went by and I found BOOKLEAVES. Then there was the book swap at the Wolfhound, which I hit intermittently. My Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm and I have been grinning to beat the band.

A few weeks ago, I found out about Talya's book group and wanted to go, but there was a conflict with a BOOKLEAVES meeting. I'm visiting for the first time this weekend though! I finished Shangahai Baby and I'm ready!

Meanwhile...

As soon as I arrived at my new school, I noticed that there were bookworms afoot. Almost immediately, I met Faulkner Guy and we swapped Middlemarch and Go Down, Moses. Then more bookworms began emerging. Then I noticed that there's a email list of all the foreign teachers. Curiosity got the better of me. I sent out a message wanting to know who would be interested in forming a book club here at Erewhon. About a dozen people responded. Wow!

On Wednesday evening, nine of us got together for that first meeting. We went to a restaurant where they have kalguksoo, this wonderful soup with seafood, vegetables and these really big, hearty and oh-so-tasty noodles. After dinner, everyone wrote down a suggestion for what we could read. These suggestions included: Three Men And A Boat, House of Leaves, White Noise, 1984, New York Stories, Laughter In The Dark, A Farewell To Arms, The Age of Innocence and The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. Many people wanted to read White Noise, but just as many people had already read it, so it was eliminated. Finally, we settled on Laughter In The Dark by Vladimir Nabokov. Our next meeting is May 20.

I'm happy that I got my wish so easily; it was almost like rubbing the genie's lamp. On the other hand, three book groups? Some of the BOOKLEAVES members raised their eyebrows when they found out I'm going to visit Talya's group. What will they say when they find out I've started a group right in my own backyard? Words like excessive and amok come to mind. "You're a book group slut," one of the members of my new group assured me. Another new group person joked that I was two-timing them. "Three-timing," I muttered.

The Newest Member Of The Gang

I wasn't even in the ballpark this year! Last year, I predicted one of the finalists (Tree Of Smoke by Denis Johnson). Actually, I wondered briefly if Louise Erdrich would win for The Plague Of Doves -- it was one of the finalists -- but then put it out of my mind because I've never really warmed up to her writing. All Souls by Christine Schutt was the other finalist, so it was definitely Girls' Night Out. Sadly, Joyce Carol Oates wasn't even a bridesmaid this year. Sigh.
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I'm looking forward to reading Olive Kitteridge and welcoming it to my Pulitzer shelf (not necessarily in that order).

Isn't the cover gorgeous?

Thinking In Pulitzer

Maybe Joyce Carol Oates might win for My Sister, My Love this year. She's never had a novel win a Pulitzer, although she's been nominated 3 times. She should have gotten it years ago for The Goddess And Other Women, a collection of short stories that was published in the 1970s. C'mon Pulitzer committee. What writer has worked harder than JCO for so many years?

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I've still got a strong hunch about The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, though. I saw a first edition of this novel at Yongsan Station on Saturday morning and I was so tempted to go ahead and buy it in case it's the winner, but I held off. Two reasons: I was sure to jinx myself as well as Mr. Wroblewski and I was feeling too damn lazy to cart around a massive Chunkster like that all weekend.

Sigh. Waiting for the announcement is so difficult. It's worse than the Oscars because I don't even know who the finalists are. There's still a cheer or two left in me from the readathon, so...

Go!

Go!

JCO!

Readathon Post 3

Okay, I'm back for that last hour-and-a-half. Who's still awake? Since I last saw you, I swapped my DNF copy of Love In The Time of Cholera for a copy of Nausea, and in the process, met a wonderful bookworm named Amanda. Her taste in books is decidedly dystopian. I also went to book group and they readily agreed to read Little Women for the June meeting. On the way home, I met up with Talya who passed me her copy of Shanghai Baby. I read 4 chapters on the train. The author seems like a Chinese Erica Jong. I used to love Erica Jong when I was in high school, so that's not all bad.
Back to cheering now. Please tell me there's someone out there to cheer to!

Readathon Post 2

I'm cheering my way through the list of readers, but since I woke up at 6 a.m. and had no nap today, I'm starting to fade. But I'm not packing it in until I've commented at least once to everyone. Then I'll come back for a while before book group starts tomorrow afternoon.

This internet cafe is frickin' cold. Dude has the air-conditioning on. It's probably to help keep him awake as well. House is on -- dubbed in Korean. It's the episode where the gorgeous teen model turns out to be technically male.

Back to cheering. And here comes another episode of House. This is the one where Howard Hessemann needs a new heart, but he's not eligible, so House and the team have to get creative about looking for a donor.

Readathon Post 1

By my calculations, we're going into Hour 3.
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Time to brag a little...I finished a book during the first hour - Slam by Nick Hornby. I bought it this morning for my son to read and devoured it whole this evening. That was totally unexpected.
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During Hour 2, I got serious about my cheerleading duties. It's fun to see so many new people participating! I love to visit all the blogs and see what your reading stack looks like, as well as your snack stack. I wanted some shrimp-flavored chips for myself, but I couldn't find any. I'm having corn chips and a can of Lipton lemon-flavored tea.
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It's getting on towards midnight in Korea. I'm in Seoul at a 24-hour internet cafe. Okay, back to cheerleading!

Busy Book Week!

Tick...tick...tick...we're down to mere hours now, regarding Dewey's Readathon. Although my participation is on the half-assed side this time, I still can't help but feel that frisson of excitement. A soupcon of pleasure. Why am I lapsing into French?

Anyway, my plan is to bookend the Readathon with stints of cheerleading at the beginning and end, and make a short appearance sometime in the middle before I run off to book group. I'll do my best; where are my pom-poms?

After the Readathon, it's only a few more hours until the 2009 Pulitzers are announced on April 20th. I'm laughably bad at guessing who will win the fiction award, so here goes again: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. No, I haven't read it. Yes, I know Oprah chose it for her club. It's just a feeling I have.

The following weekend will find me visiting Talya's book group, so I must hurry and read their selection -- Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui.

Right now, I'm reading A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes. I love it. It's like the siren call. Could collecting ever completely take over reading in my life? Is there a deep-seated reason for my blog title? You're going to get a long and involved review of AGM, I promise. So brace yourselves.

The Pulitzer Project

The Pulitzer Fiction Challenge is the challenge that's closest to my heart. I think it's because my purpose is twofold: I want to read *and* own them all. I haven't taken stock in a while, so here goes:

2008-The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz read it/own it

2007-The Road - Cormac McCarthy read it/own it

2006-March - Geraldine Brooks read it/own it

2005- Gilead - Marilynne Robinson read it/own it

2004- The Known World - Edward P. Jones read it/own it

2003- Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides read it/own it

2002- Empire Falls - Richard Russo read it/own it

2001- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon read it/own it

2000- Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri haven't read yet/own it
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1999- The Hours - Michael Cunningham read it/don't own it
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1998-American Pastoral - Philip Roth haven't read yet/own it
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1997-Martin Dressler: The Tale Of An American Dreamer - Steven Millhauser haven't read yet/own it
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1996-Independence Day - Richard Ford read it/don't own it
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1995-The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields read it/don't own it
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1994-The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx read it/don't own it
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1993- A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain - Robert Olen Butler haven't read yet/own it
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1992-A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley read it/own it
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1991-Rabbit At Rest - John Updike read it/don't own it
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1990-The Mambo Kings Play Songs Of Love - Oscar Hijuelos haven't read yet/own it
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1989-Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler read it/don't own it/pine for it
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1988-Beloved - Toni Morrison haven't read yet/own it
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1987-A Summons To Memphis - Peter Taylor read it/own it
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1986-Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry read it/own it/pray to it daily
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1985-Foreign Affairs - Alison Lurie read it/don't own it
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1984-Ironweed - William Kennedy read it/don't own it
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1983-The Color Purple - Alice Walker read it/don't own it
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1982-Rabbit Is Rich - John Updike read it/don't own it
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1981-A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole read it/don't own it
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1980-The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer read it/own it
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1979-The Stories Of John Cheever - John Cheever haven't read yet/own it
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1978-Elbow Room - James McPherson haven't read yet/don't own
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1977-No Award Given
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1976-Humboldt's Gift -Saul Bellow haven't read yet/own it
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1975-The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara read it/don't own it
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1974- No Award Given
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1973-The Optimist's Daughter - Eudora Welty haven't read yet/own it
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1972-Angle Of Repose - Wallace Stegner read it/possibly lost it
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1971-No Award Given
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1970-Collected Stories of Jean Stafford - Jean Stafford haven't read yet/don't own
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1969-House Made of Dawn - N. Scott Momaday haven't read yet/don't own
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1968-The Confessions Of Nat Turner - William Styron haven't read yet/own it
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1967-The Fixer - Bernard Malamud haven't read yet/don't own it
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1966-Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter read it/don't own it
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1965-The Keepers Of The House - Shirley Ann Grau haven't read yet/don't own it
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1964-No Award Given
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1963-The Reivers - William Faulkner haven't read yet/don't own it
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1962-The Edge Of Sadness - Edwin O'Connor haven't read yet/don't own it
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1961-To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee read it/don't own it
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1960-Advise and Consent - Alan Drury haven't read yet/don't own it
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1959-The Travels of Jaime McPheeters - Taylor haven't read yet/don't own it
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1958-A Death In The Family - James Agee read it/don't own it
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1957-No Award Given
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1956-Andersonville - MacKinlay Kantor read it/own it
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1955-A Fable - William Faulkner haven't read yet/don't own it
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1954-No Award Given
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1953-The Old Man and The Sea - Ernest Hemingway read it/don't own it
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1952-The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk haven't read yet/don't own it
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1951-The Town - Conrad Richter read it/own it
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1950-The Way West - A.B. Guthrie haven't read yet/don't own it
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1949-Guard of Honor - James Gould Cozzens haven't read yet/don't own it
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1948-Tales Of The South Pacific - James A. Michener haven't read yet/don't own it
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1947-All The King's Men - Robert Penn Warren haven't read yet/own it
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1946-No Award Given
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1945-A Bell For Adano - John Hersey haven't read yet/don't own it
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1944-Journey In The Dark -Flavin haven't read yet/don't own it
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1943-Dragon's Teeth - Upton Sinclair haven't read yet/don't own it
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1942-In This Our Life - Ellen Glasgow haven't read yet/don't own it
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1941-No Award Given
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1940-The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck read it/don't own it
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1939-The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings read it/own it
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1938-The Late George Apley - John P. Marquand haven't read yet/own it
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1937-Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell read it/own it/burn incense before it
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1936-Honey In The Horn - Davis haven't read yet/don't own it
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1935-Now In November - Josephine Winslow Johnson haven't read yet/don't own it
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1934-Lamb In His Bosom - Caroline Miller read it/don't own it
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1933-The Store - Thomas Stribling haven't read yet/don't own it
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1932-The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck read it/own it
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1931-Years Of Grace -Margaret Anne Barnes haven't read yet/don't own it
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1930-Laughing Boy - LaFarge read it/don't own it
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1929-Scarlet Sister Mary - Julia Peterkin haven't read yet/don't own it
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1928-The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder haven't read yet/own it
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1927-Early Autumn - Louis Bromfield haven't read yet/don't own it
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1926-Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis read it/own it
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1925-So Big -Edna Ferber read it/don't own it
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1924-The Able McLaughlins - Wilson haven't read yet/don't own it
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1923-One Of Ours - Willa Cather haven't read yet/own it
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1922-Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington haven't read yet/don't own it
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1921-The Age Of Innocence - Edith Wharton haven't read yet/own it
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1920-No Award Given
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1919-The Magnificent Ambersons - Booth Tarkington haven't read yet/own it
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1918-His Family - Ernest Poole haven't read yet/don't own it

Pulitzer Fiction winners total: 82
Pulitzer Fiction winners I've read: 39
Pulitzer Fiction winners I own: 35

I'm pleased with my progress on both fronts, but I've still got a long way to go!

Bybee-ary

I don't know when I'll ever get over that naughty but victorious feeling; the feeling that I'm getting away with something as I exit my library with an armload of books.

Here's today's armload:

D.H. Lawrence: Portrait Of A Marriage - Brenda Maddox. Lawrence and Frieda were featured characters in Mansfield, so I want to read more about them as well as more about Mansfield and John Middleton Murry.

The Benchley Roundup - Robert Benchley. How can anyone resist a guy who wrote the line, "There are two ways to travel -- first class and with children." ? Actually, I've been a fan since I was a junior in high school. We were assigned "How To Sleep Anywhere", but I would've read it anyway. My adoration was complete when I first watched Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle. Campbell Scott as Benchley got almost as many great lines as Dorothy Parker, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. This edition was printed in 1954. It's in terrific shape and exudes that lovely smell of aged paper and dust.

In Dubious Battle - John Steinbeck. YES! BIG SCORE!!! I've been looking for this novel for over a year now. Matt from my book group recommended it to me, and it's been hidden from my eyes till now. This edition seems to be for Koreans majoring in English. The introduction and annotations are by Pongshik Kang and are in Korean. (There's a photo in the front of Kang in Salinas posing with a life-sized statue of Steinbeck. Kang is lightly holding Steinbeck's wrist.) There are also some critical essays at the end of the novel, written in English.

Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell. A nice copy from Everyman's Library. I've been meaning to read Gaskell for years. This is her first novel, so that's probably a good place to start.

Between last week and this week, it seems as if more English books have appeared on the shelves. I'd love to get behind the circulation desk and see what else they're hiding.

Rilla of Ingleside

I loved this book, but it was depressing. Rilla of Ingleside spans the whole of World War I, and Rilla Blythe's coming-of-age. In a way, this doesn't feel like part of the series because the horrifying events in Europe are pressing down hard on the idyllic world we've come to know.

I appreciate how L.M. Montgomery, fresh from the experience of war felt the need to set it all down. The details of what it was like to be a Canadian woman watching and waiting are invaluable. This should be required reading for any WWI literature class. I was only peripherally aware that Canada was in the war for the duration, and it was an eye-opener to read of Canada's frustration at President Woodrow Wilson dragging his feet regarding the US entering the war.

The vilification of Mr. "Whiskers-on-the-moon" Pryor was a little hard to take. His pacifist stance was really quite brave, but L.M. Montgomery seems to regard him with contempt. He was saying much the same thing that many European intellectuals were espousing at that time. Although I know it was the feeling of the time, the patriotism was laid on really thick. Canada/England good, Germany bad.

Who else thinks that horrible bitchy Irene was the one who sent Walter the feather? I hated to see him go off to war. He was one of the few who saw the stark ugliness of it early on, and was terrified and revolted, as any sane and sensible person would be. But he joins up and then he becomes Canada's Rupert Brooke. His last letter to Rilla was profoundly depressing -- he'd swallowed the propaganda package whole. It reminded me of that song "The Scarlet Tide" on the Cold Mountain soundtrack: "Man goes beyond his own decision/gets caught up in the mechanism/of swindlers who act like kings/and brokers who break everything..." For the life of me, I couldn't see Walter's sacrifice as beautiful or inspiring. It was a shame.

I enjoyed reading about Rilla bringing home war-baby Jims in a soup tureen and raising him by Morgan's book, but with the awful world events swirling around her, I found it difficult to really focus on Rilla or develop a deep attachment, although she meets her challenges head-on and matures admirably during the course of the novel. Susan Baker had my undivided attention because she not only seemed to follow the war developments the most closely, she was fiercely articulate about them. For me, it is she and not Rilla who is the quintessential spirit of the women on the home front. Sadly, Anne seemed little more than a shadowy presence.

A minor but masterfully done scene was the one in which young Bruce Meredith "sacrifices" his beloved cat so that Jem can come home safely. It was chilling to see how the strain of war can take its toll on even the youngest of the watchers and waiters.

Rilla of Ingleside is dedicated to Frederica Campbell MacFarlane. According to the dedication, she was a great friend of Montgomery's. Has anyone read Montgomery's biography? How exactly did MacFarlane impact her life?

M Is For Mansfield; M Is For Mailbox

My former co-worker (and favorite Kiwi bookworm!) Willie went to New Zealand for his vacation and brought back this novel about Katherine Mansfield for me. It arrived today, and looks wonderful.
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Mansfield by C.K. Stead covers 3 significant years in Katherine Mansfield's life: World War I was being fought, her brother was killed, she was in the beginning stages of the disease that would claim her life in 1923 when she was only 34, she was surrounded by most of the legendary literary figures of that time and she was on the precipice of discovering how she really wanted to write short stories. I'm a huge fan of her work, so I can't wait to dig into this novel.

Little Women and the Feminist Imagination

Would it be too geeky to say that I haven't read any literary criticism for ages and therefore, I had a wonderful time reading the essays in Little Women and the Feminist Imagination? Little Women is one of those books from my childhood, but I only recently read the whole novel all the way through and enjoyed it thoroughly.

My dream a few months ago about having to give a lecture about Little Women was still fresh in my mind when I descended on Little Women and the Feminist Imagination and decided to make it part of the first wave of my library loot. I galloped through it in a matter of days. Here are some of the essays that stood out for me:

• "Waiting Together: Alcott On Matriarchy" This was a comparison of the Bennet girls and their mother in Pride and Prejudice and the March girls and Marmee in Little Women. In a nutshell, Mrs. Bennet sends her daughters out into the world to find their husbands. Marmee keeps her daughters close to home and the men are attracted to their home and hearth.



• "Reading For Love" Catharine R. Stimpson introduces the idea of the "paracanon" -- books that we read not because they're "the best of the best" but books that are loved regardless of their stature. "...If a beloved book were human, it would embrace us." "We are grateful to the beloved text for being there." "The reader and text are a couple." Strange as this sounds for a discussion in a volume of literary criticism, it's got a familiar feel. Stimpson makes the excellent point that finding out about students' paracanons could go a long way in informing and creating a course syllabus.
  


• "Portraying Little Women Through The Ages" is a discussion of the three film versions. Personally, I love the 1933 version. Angular and New England-bred, Katharine Hepburn is the perfect Jo. The other sisters don't seem quite right, but Hepburn and George Cukor's direction and his respect for the book make it all okay. Second on my list is the 1994 version. The spirit of the novel shines strongly, but they mess with the text too much. All the sisters seem right -- maybe Winona Ryder a little less than the others, but I love her, anyway. Laurie (Christian Bale) is just as I always imagined him. Marmee is slightly too modern, but hey, it's Susan Sarandon and in my book, she can do what she likes. Gabriel Byrne finally gave fans of the book and films a Professor Bhaer that's easy on the eyes. Running an extremely distant third is the execrable 1949 version with June Allyson as Jo. If you haven't seen it, run right out and avoid it. The casting sucks (except for Margaret O'Brien as Beth, which is undercut by having Elizabeth Taylor play her younger sister Amy) , the direction sucks, the music sucks, it's too Technicolor-y. Ugh.
  


• "Getting Cozy With A Classic: Visualizing Little Women (1868-1995)" A discussion of some of the many illustrators of Little Women. The book has never been out of print, so there have been hundreds, maybe thousands of editions. Four illustrations from the first edition are included in this essay. They were done by May Alcott, Louisa's sister. To call them bad is almost like a compliment, as if they were real art. Girl couldn't draw. Having said all of that, I did enjoy seeing them from a historical perspective. Poor May's drawings were dropped in favor of an illustrator named Billings for the 1870-something edition, then in 1880, Frank Merrill did a great job, but unfortunately, this is also the edition that was published by Roberts Brothers, who got the bright idea to "clean up" Louisa May Alcott's text by removing slang, colloquialisms and "correcting" the characters' grammar. Happily, the original text was restored during the 1980s. The author of this essay, Susan R. Gannon, points out that the same things seem to get illustrated over and over, like Marmee with the girls around her chair as she reads the letter from Mr. March, exhorting them to become you-know what. Gannon particularly examines what illustrators have made of the skating scene, in which Jo (who is seething because Amy burned the book Jo had been writing for her father) fails to warn Amy that the ice is softening, and Amy has an accident. All of them, from May Alcott on down, avoid Jo's murderous anger. May Alcott drew Amy as a fashion plate, skating confidently on the ice, Frank Merrill played up Laurie as the rescuer and other editions have shown Jo weeping on her mother's lap after it's all over.
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• "Queer Performances: Lesbian Politics In Little Women" Was Louisa May Alcott a lesbian? Was Jo March? (The ideological kind, rather than the genital kind) Homosocial relationships are the strongest in the novel. "Patriarchy ultimately divides and conquers the women who empower each other through their love." Okay...
  
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• Another essay, written by a male, wonders what is there to attract the male reader. The best bet would be Laurie, but as Jo is a boyish girl, he's a girlish boy...a 5th sister. He finally realizes his dream of being part of the March clan after Beth's death makes a place for him. The other men are indistinct.
  


• David Watters takes a look at the novel via architecture. He notices where scenes take place and what these places and rooms typically meant to a 19th-century reader.
  


• "Communities of Education in Bronte and Alcott" As even casual readers of Charlotte Bronte know, she had an extremely negative view of education, whether it was on the teaching side or the student side. Alcott shares some of this negativity (Amy's bad experience at school with Mr. Davis and the pickled limes), but seems optimistic that education can be done right, as with Jo's work at Plumfield in Little Men and Jo's Boys. Alcott was an outspoken admirer of Bronte's work, saying it possessed both brain and heart.
  
• "Learning From Marmee's Teaching" This essay discusses the miseducation of girls both in Alcott's time and in the 1990s. Marmee's firm belief in volunteer work and her feeling that helping others was a panacea for many ills (although this zealousness led to Beth catching scarlet fever from the Hummels) has its modern-day echo in Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia.

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• While some of the essayists regarded Jo's marriage as a failure or simply tragic, others read the trilogy and focused instead on what Jo became -- a successful writer and educator with loving family all around her. Professor Bhaer allowed her to flourish; he let her be her own person.

• Janice Alberghene, one of the co-editors of this volume, compares Little Women to a 1948 novel by African-American writer Dorothy West titled The Living Is Easy. Cool! I had no idea this novel even existed. One more for the wishlist!

• "Alcott In Japan: A Selected Bibliography" Compiled by Aiko Moro-Oka. Disappointment. The introduction to this bibliography is a scant two paragraphs. First translated into Japanese in 1906, Little Women is really popular in Japan because "most Japanese families lived simply and creating a happy home was their ideal". Also, "Young women were encouraged to aspire to careers by Jo's energetic and independent way of life." I wish there had been more discussion. How did Aiko Moro-Oka respond to the novel? Personal recollections from a sampling of Japanese women would have been nice as well. If the Japanese like it, I wonder how the Koreans feel. I did see a Korean copy of it a couple of years ago in the bookstore at the train station in Gumi. I picked it up and was pleased that I could pick out the characters' names in Hangul.

Right now, I'm all about Alcott. I went out and bought Jo's Boys this weekend. Do you think my book group might consider reading Little Women?

Anne's House Of Dreams

I'll be honest. Anne Of Windy Poplars is my first DNF for 2009. I couldn't see the point. Anne and Gilbert are apart and in a holding pattern while Gilbert's in medical school. Anne is teaching geometry and writing long epistles to her beloved about the interesting country folk she encounters. Looking at the copyright date (1936), it seems that L.M. Montgomery went back and wrote this one to plug the chronological gap. For me, that particular novel interferes with the lovely flow of the series. Besides, I was ready to cut to the chase.

My impatience was rewarded by Anne's House Of Dreams. Anne and Gilbert get married in the orchard at Green Gables. After that, they move to Glen St. Mary, about 60 miles away from Green Gables. Gilbert is taking over his great-uncle's medical practice. He finds a small house by the sea, which Anne says is her "house of dreams".

This book seems more tightly plotted and written, and has a very romantic subplot. Leslie Moore is a beautiful but mysterious woman who craves Anne's friendship but also seems to loathe her on some level. She's trapped in a loveless marriage to a brain-damaged man. Leslie takes in a boarder -- a writer named Owen Ford, whose grandparents used to live in the house of dreams. Love springs up between Leslie and Owen, but they're both too honorable to admit it to each other, although they confide in Anne. Since this *is* Anne-land, things work out fine. As an added bonus, I was mightily impressed with L.M. Montgomery for a plot twist that I never saw coming.

Less conflicted about Anne are nearby neighbors Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia. Funny, wise and tender, Captain Jim tugged at my heart and reminded me in many ways of Matthew from the first novel. Miss Cornelia bursts into the series in this book with great tartness and vigor. I laughed out loud at how her story was resolved in this volume.

Meanwhile, Anne experiences heartbreak when her first baby, a girl, lives only one day. The depiction of her grief and anguish felt so real. Later, I read that L.M. Montgomery's second son was stillborn, not too many years before this novel was written. A year later, the stork (Montgomery's delicacy in discussing such matters -- not mine) visits again, and Anne and Gilbert have a healthy son.

I haven't yet finished Rilla Of Ingleside, but as of now, Anne's House Of Dreams is my favorite in the series.