Tag Archives: Reviews

A Year in Books/Day 66: Marcel Proust

Posted on March 11, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: Marcel Proust A Life
• Author: Jean-Yves Tadie (Translation by Euan Cameron)
• Year Published: 1996/Translation Copyright: 2000 (Penguin Books)
• Year Purchased: 2005
• Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
• About: This is one of the most complex, obsessively detailed and clear-eyed biographies I have ever read. Don’t let the hefty 779 pages deter you; it’s a smooth read and well worth your time.
• Motivation: Proust fascinates me like few others. I first came across his name as a teenager, when I discovered that I share a birthday with the great writer. That was all it took for me to decide to find out more about the Frenchman (yes, I’m that kind of self-absorbed). Fortunately, I never looked back; my life is infinitely richer for that decision. He is one of my favourite authors. I ended up reading this biography in 2006 whilst on a cruise. This is definitely my idea of vacation reading!
• Times Read: 1
• Random Excerpt/Page 577: “This explains why, shortly after 24 December, Proust asked Louis de Robert if he would take his book to Ollendorff, pointing out that he would offer to have it published at his own expense; the choice of this publisher, whose list consisted mainly of books on nature study, was scarcely a fortunate one; his response was to become famous.”
• Happiness Scale: 9
  

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A Year in Books/Day 65: Alone! Alone!

Posted on March 8, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: Alone! Alone! Lives of Some Outsider Women
• Author: Rosemary Dinnage
• Year Published: 2004 (The New York Review of Books)
• Year Purchased: 2005
• Source: Unknown
• About: A study of women-some famous, others obscure-who fought against the expectations of mainstream society to forge spaces of their own, however tenuous or unappreciated.
• Motivation: I’ve always had an adversarial (if amiable) relationship with institutionalized normalcy; it’s something I’ve never worried about emulating. I love kooky and strong and talented women. Those profiled in this book just happen to be some of the most amazing creative and intellectual ladies to ever come along.
• Times Read: 2
• Random Excerpt/Page 269: “Katherine Mansfield’s diaries cannot be considered the equal of Virginia Woolf’s-she died too young for that, for one thing-but there was a strong bond between them. They were in search of the same kind of writing, the same kind of honesty, in spite of a difference in age and experience; and-notwithstanding ambivalences-they recognized it.”
  

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• Happiness Scale: 9 1/2

A Year in Books/Day 64: 1900

Posted on March 7, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: 1900 A FIN-DE-SIECLE READER
• Edited by: Mike Jay and Michael Neve
• Year Published: 1999 (Penguin Books)
• Year Purchased: 2001/2002
• Source: Unknown
• About: A collection of late 19th century writings, on topics from God to sex, science to feminism, ‘1900’ offers an insightful, interesting, first-person look at the state of humanity at the advent of the modern era.
• Motivation: The turn of the (20th) century was one of the most exciting, uncertain and fertile times in history. Some of my favourite writers, activists and artists date from this period.
• Times Read: 2
• Random Excerpt/Page 1: “Using these biological frameworks, a range of views of humanity’s future evolution was also offered, but the most compelling prediction of Darwin’s natural selection was that the human race was separating into two distinct groups: the ‘fit’ and the ‘unfit’. This view forms one of the most striking literary motifs of the period, and is the central idea behind two of its most recognizable literary classics: The Time Machine and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.”
• Happiness Scale: 7 1/2

A Year in Books/Day 63: Quotable Women

Posted on March 4, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: Quotable Women A Celebration
• Editor: Molly Jay
• Year Published: 2004 (Running Press)
• Year Purchased: 2011
• Source: A Christmas gift from my baby brother.
• About: Quotes by legendary kick ass women are interspersed with vibrant artwork by female artists.
• Motivation: I’m also a legend-when it comes to collecting quotes. I have been keeping quote books since I was a teenager. I’m a bit obsessive that way, actually. I find inspiration in strong, creative, intelligent women. My brother knows me well, it seems.
• Times Read: 1
• Random Excerpt/Page 89: “I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.”-Emily Bronte
• Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 62: A Treasury of Royal Scandals

Posted on March 3, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: A Treasury of Royal Scandals The Shocking True Stories of History’s Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors
• Author: Michael Farquhar
• Year Published: 2001 (Penguin Books)
• Year Purchased: 2001
• Source: A gift from a friend.
• About: A light, humorous and historically accurate compilation of tasty, titillating royal scandals from around the world.
• Motivation: I’m a total history nerd. I usually read heavier fair but love to pepper the tougher stuff with easier non-fiction delights. This definitely fits that bill well.
• Times Read: 1
• Random Excerpt/Page 211: “Claudius, in fact, had a tough time commanding respect from anyone before he came to the throne. When he fell asleep after dinner, as was his tendency, the gathered guests would pelt him with dates and olive pits. He later tried to explain away his stupidity, saying it was merely an act that served him well during the reign of his vicious nephew. Few were convinced, however, including the author of a contemporary book called ‘A Fool’s Rise to Power’.”
• Happiness Scale: 9

A Year in Books/Day 61: English Romantic Poetry

Posted on March 1, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: English Romantic Poetry An Anthology
• Editor: Stanley Appelbaum
• Year Published: 1996 (Dover Thrift Editions)
• Year Purchased: 1999/2000
• Source: A gift from a friend.
• About: When you hear the term “English Romantic Poets”, who initially comes to mind? If you say anyone other than William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley or John Keats….then you are lying. This anthology contains scores of poems by the aforementioned wordsmiths.
• Motivation: My friend was cleaning out her shelves and I emerged precisely a dozen volumes richer. While this period of poetry is not my favourite, I do have a soft spot for Coleridge and find much to admire of everyone on the list.
• Times Read: A few
• Random Excerpt/Page x: “For many, Shelley remains the perfect Romantic: for his quest after truth and justice, for his unparalleled learning (Greco-Roman and otherwise) and breadth of scope (poems on love, politics, history and philosophy), for the dazzling variety and novelty of his meters and stanzas, for the exquisiteness of his diction and delicacy of his thought.”
• Happiness Scale: 7
  

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A Year in Books/Day 60: The First Elizabeth

Posted on February 29, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: The First Elizabeth
• Author: Carolly Erickson
• Year Published: 1983 (St. Martin’s Griffin)
• Year Purchased: 1990’s
• Source: Antique Barn at The Ohio State Fair, Columbus, Ohio
• About: My favourite historical personage and all around kick-ass woman receives an above-average biographical treatment here.
• Motivation: See above. Also, I love my fellow redheads.
• Times Read: 2
• Random Excerpt/Page 187: “There were more festivities in the coming days. The queen went to Woolwich to launch a fine new ship for her navy, christened the ‘Elizabeth’, and returned to Greenwich to watch more military games-among them a “great casting of fire, and shooting of guns, till twelve at night.” The recent peace, these exercises proclaimed, had not dimmed England’s warlike spirit; let other nation’s take warning.”
• Happiness Scale: 10
  

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A Year in Books/Day 59: Jailbird

Posted on February 29, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: Jailbird
• Author: Kurt Vonnegut
• Year Published: 1979 (Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence)
• Year Found: 2009
• Source: It was on the giveaway table in our apartment building.
• About: It’s Vonnegut, and it’s awesome. Walter F. Starbuck is a classic character and this novel makes for a wonderful albeit quick (as is the Vonnegut way) read. Of course, it is always better to read Vonnegut than to try to explain his work. So, you should go do that now.
• Motivation: I love Vonnegut-the-writer and adore Vonnegut-the-person. He made it look easy and it is never easy. The book was also free. The back cover photo of the writer, taken by his wife Jill Krementz, is one of my favorites.
• Times Read: 2
• Random Excerpt/Page 127: “About the young man and his radio. I decided that he had bought the thing as a prosthetic device, as an artificial enthusiasm for the planet. He paid as little attention to it as I paid to my false front tooth. I have since seen several young men like that in groups-with their radios tuned to different stations, with their radios engaged in a spirited conversation. The young men themselves, perhaps having been told nothing but “shut up” all their lives, had nothing to say.”
• Happiness Scale: 9

A Year in Books/Day 58: Angela’s Ashes

Posted on February 27, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: Angela’s Ashes
• Author: Frank McCourt
• Year Published: 1996 (Scribner)
• Year Purchased: 1997
• Source: Unknown
• About: This is one of the most famous memoirs of all-time-I certainly don’t need to illustrate its contents or expound on its merits. I’ll just say that it is harrowing, lovely and every bit as good as all of the press it received back in the 1990s insisted it was. McCourt deserved the towering heap of praise-and the Pulitzer-that he was given.
• Motivation: I was alive when it came out. Seriously, this is one of the few books that almost everyone I know has read; this includes the few hard-core non-readers in my wide orbit. It also came highly recommended by a friend, who read it as soon as it hit the shelves of the bookstore she managed.
• Times Read: 2
• Random Excerpt/Page 59: “The room had a fireplace where we could boil water for our tea or an egg in case we ever came into money. We had a table and three chairs and a bed, which Mam said was the biggest she had ever seen. We were glad of the bed that night, worn out after nights on floors in Dublin and Grandma’s. It didn’t matter that there were six of us in the bed, we were together, away from grandmothers and guards, Malachy could say ye ye ye and we could laugh as much as we liked.”
• Happiness Scale: 9

A Year in Books/Day 57: Inside Oscar

Posted on February 26, 2012 by maedez

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• Title: Inside Oscar The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards 10th Anniversary Edition
• Authors: Mason Wiley and Damien Bona
• Year Published: 1986/This Edition: 1996 (Ballantine Books)
• Year Purchased: 1996/1997
• Source: Birthday gift
• About: Everything that you could ever want to know about Hollywood’s most important event in one ridiculously long volume (nearly 1200 pages). It includes data up to 1994. It’s a reminder that the Oscar telecast is a gaudy, self-congratulatory but mostly entertaining display of vanity gone wild.
• Motivation: You’re going to get sick of me telling you that I am a film buff and write about old movies. However, I am and I do! This is just one of many handy reference books in my library.
• Times Read: Cover-to-cover: 1/As reference tool: Countless
• Random Excerpt/Page 50: “Louella Parsons was upset at what she considered Hepburn’s indifference to the honor. “Katy was not very gracious,” Louella wrote in her column. “She didn’t send a telegram of appreciation when unable to attend. Someone at RKO realized this and sent one.” There was mail waiting for Best Director loser Frank Capra when he returned home-his relatives from Sicily had sent letters of congratulation, mistaking his nomination for a victory.”
• Happiness Scale: 10