I'm always amazed at the diversity we bring to the table. Here's what we discussed:
1984 - George Orwell
You Play the Girl - Carina Chocano
The Healer's Museum - J.M. Barrows
Lamb - Christopher Moore
Murder by the Book - Lauren Elliott
Redhead by the Side of the Road - Anne Tyler
The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai
Rage - Bob Woodward
Embracing Coincidence - Carol Lynn Pearson
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The Daughters of Erietown - Connie Schultz
Life and Fate - Vasily Grossman
A Writer at War - Vasily Grossman
Holy Island - LJ Ross
From Mary Lou in Maryland:
Cokie Roberts, Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (2004). This history is written in the conversational voice familiar to us from PBS and NPR. It is a delight to read as well as being well researched. We know that Martha Washing held the troops together during that terrible winter at Valley Forge. We are familiar with admonition Abigail Adams gave John when the Constitution was being drafted: “Remember the Ladies.” Of course they didn’t as often as they should have. In the author’s words, “These are the mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and friends of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, fought in the Revolutionary War, attended the Constitutional Convention, and served in the new government.” She protests the necessity of listing them in her Cast of Characters according to the roles of the famous men in their lives:
Signers of the Declaration of Independence: John Adams, husband of Abigail Smith Adams; George Ross, uncle-in-law of Betsy Ross;
Soldiers and Statesmen of the Revolutionary Period: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, son of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, brother of Harriett Pinckney Horry, husband of Sarah Middleton Pinckney and then Mary Stead Pinckney; George Washington, husband of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington.
Signers of the Constitution: Alexander Hamilton, husband of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, son-in-law of Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, brother-in-law of Angelica Schuyler Church; James Madison, husband of Dolly Payne Madison
This example illustrates how the women wove the social fabric of the times. All of the successes of the nation’s formative years show their influence. Their courage, accomplishments, and good sense will astound the reader. This book is a delightful, insightful presentation of our nation’s early history.
Richard Hack, Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie (2009). The famous author was very protective of her privacy, did not authorize any biographies, and resisted publicity and interviews. She wrote a couple incomplete and inaccurate autobiographies and Hack relied upon those as well as letters, correspondence with her publishers, and other materials that became available once her daughter Rosalind Hicks founded The Agatha Christie Society and donated her Greenway House residence and gardens to Britain’s National Trust. The book begins with an account of the famous author’s mysterious 11-Day disappearance in 1926. It remains a mystery to this day, as appears to have been her intention. Hack presents a plausible theory of how this episode may have played out. Whatever happened, her first marriage dissolved not long thereafter. Some years later she met and married archeologist Max Mallowan and the couple spent many happy winters on digs in the Middle East. At that time, Rosalind gradually took over most of her mother’s business with her publishers while Agatha concentrated on her writing. As Hack outlines Christie’s entire writing career, from novels to theatre, an understanding of here complex personality also emerges.
Agatha Christie as Mary Westmacott, Unfinished Portrait (1944). According to Richard Hack, this is the most autobiographical of Christie’s novels. The childhood upbringing of the heroine is very similar to Christie’s own in both setting and experiences. As such, the novel is interesting reading. It also seems to be a fictionalized version of the sort of psychological trauma that may have been the basis for Christie’s 1926 disappearance. It is a disturbing and unhappy book.
Alexander McCall Smith, Emma: A Modern Retelling (2014). The setting is the village of Highbury in Norfolk in the 21st century. Emma Woodhouse returns home after completing her university education in interior design at Bath University. Smith brings us up to date on the events of Emma’s childhood, including the hiring of the Scottish governess Miss Taylor. Mr. Woodhouse is as anxiety-ridden and Emma is as proud and meddlesome as Austin’s characters. The conflicts and plot remain the same. The cultural updating is hilarious. Smith is easily Austin’s equal in presenting the twists and ironies of internal monologues. Wherever you place Emma in the Austin canon, you will enjoy this book.
Paulette Jiles, Enemy Women (2002). The author was born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks. She now has dual citizenship in Canada, where she has won several national poetry awards. This is her first novel, growing out of 7 years of research into her family’s history during the Civil War. Innumerable stunning prose poems grace the narrative. The heroine is 18-year-old Adair Colley, one of three daughters of a local Justice of the Peace who tries to remain neutral during the war. In November 1864 he is taken by the lawless Missouri Union Militia, who also plunder, trash, and set fire to their home. Adair takes her sisters and joins the stream of refugees walking north to escape the violence from both sides. She is searching for their father, but instead ends up in a women’s prison, a horrific place of corruption, abuse and violence. Her interrogator, a Union Major, falls in love with her. Adair’s efforts to regain her freedom and return home form the basic plot of the story. Each chapter begins with brief quotes from military dispatches, newspapers, and private correspondence about the Civil War in Missouri. The novel is an intimate and powerful exposition of the degradation and violence of war applied to an individual life. Adair is a very spunky heroine and despite the dark subject, the novel is a joy to read.
Signers of the Declaration of Independence: John Adams, husband of Abigail Smith Adams; George Ross, uncle-in-law of Betsy Ross;
Soldiers and Statesmen of the Revolutionary Period: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, son of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, brother of Harriett Pinckney Horry, husband of Sarah Middleton Pinckney and then Mary Stead Pinckney; George Washington, husband of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington.
Signers of the Constitution: Alexander Hamilton, husband of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, son-in-law of Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, brother-in-law of Angelica Schuyler Church; James Madison, husband of Dolly Payne Madison
This example illustrates how the women wove the social fabric of the times. All of the successes of the nation’s formative years show their influence. Their courage, accomplishments, and good sense will astound the reader. This book is a delightful, insightful presentation of our nation’s early history.
Richard Hack, Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie (2009). The famous author was very protective of her privacy, did not authorize any biographies, and resisted publicity and interviews. She wrote a couple incomplete and inaccurate autobiographies and Hack relied upon those as well as letters, correspondence with her publishers, and other materials that became available once her daughter Rosalind Hicks founded The Agatha Christie Society and donated her Greenway House residence and gardens to Britain’s National Trust. The book begins with an account of the famous author’s mysterious 11-Day disappearance in 1926. It remains a mystery to this day, as appears to have been her intention. Hack presents a plausible theory of how this episode may have played out. Whatever happened, her first marriage dissolved not long thereafter. Some years later she met and married archeologist Max Mallowan and the couple spent many happy winters on digs in the Middle East. At that time, Rosalind gradually took over most of her mother’s business with her publishers while Agatha concentrated on her writing. As Hack outlines Christie’s entire writing career, from novels to theatre, an understanding of here complex personality also emerges.
Agatha Christie as Mary Westmacott, Unfinished Portrait (1944). According to Richard Hack, this is the most autobiographical of Christie’s novels. The childhood upbringing of the heroine is very similar to Christie’s own in both setting and experiences. As such, the novel is interesting reading. It also seems to be a fictionalized version of the sort of psychological trauma that may have been the basis for Christie’s 1926 disappearance. It is a disturbing and unhappy book.
Alexander McCall Smith, Emma: A Modern Retelling (2014). The setting is the village of Highbury in Norfolk in the 21st century. Emma Woodhouse returns home after completing her university education in interior design at Bath University. Smith brings us up to date on the events of Emma’s childhood, including the hiring of the Scottish governess Miss Taylor. Mr. Woodhouse is as anxiety-ridden and Emma is as proud and meddlesome as Austin’s characters. The conflicts and plot remain the same. The cultural updating is hilarious. Smith is easily Austin’s equal in presenting the twists and ironies of internal monologues. Wherever you place Emma in the Austin canon, you will enjoy this book.
Paulette Jiles, Enemy Women (2002). The author was born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks. She now has dual citizenship in Canada, where she has won several national poetry awards. This is her first novel, growing out of 7 years of research into her family’s history during the Civil War. Innumerable stunning prose poems grace the narrative. The heroine is 18-year-old Adair Colley, one of three daughters of a local Justice of the Peace who tries to remain neutral during the war. In November 1864 he is taken by the lawless Missouri Union Militia, who also plunder, trash, and set fire to their home. Adair takes her sisters and joins the stream of refugees walking north to escape the violence from both sides. She is searching for their father, but instead ends up in a women’s prison, a horrific place of corruption, abuse and violence. Her interrogator, a Union Major, falls in love with her. Adair’s efforts to regain her freedom and return home form the basic plot of the story. Each chapter begins with brief quotes from military dispatches, newspapers, and private correspondence about the Civil War in Missouri. The novel is an intimate and powerful exposition of the degradation and violence of war applied to an individual life. Adair is a very spunky heroine and despite the dark subject, the novel is a joy to read.
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