photo via sarah.of.a.lesser.god
This feature (for now in the custody of sarah.of.a.lesser.god) is our way of sharing those book titles, both fiction and nonfiction, that have been standouts in recent reading, and hopefully getting some from our readers in return. The focus is primarily, but not necessarily exclusively, on books concerning women and feminism, and/or written by female authors.
My Pick: Blood and Roses: One Family’s Struggle and Triumph During the Tumultuous Wars of the Roses by Helen Castor. As always I am an incurable history geek, and this book definitely helped keep my sanity on a disastrous family vacation this month. The book is remarkable in part because of the documentary evidence it is based on: a chest containing hundreds of handwritten letters concerning the Paston family, over three generations, that have been preserved for over half a century. The family worked its way up from villein status to reach the upper echelons of society as time progressed. A large portion of the letters were dictated by one of the family’s matriarchs, as she was not literate, and they’re a terrific window into the concerns of women in that society — managing and defending the home while the husbands and sons were off at war (including literally holding down the fort during a siege by family enemies), guaranteeing foodstocks, handling tenant grievances, and securing marriages for the next generation.
That anxiety over marriage matches comes through clearly, even five hundred years later, as one Paston daughter reaches the “advanced” age of twenty-eight before she is betrothed, and she is grateful enough to refer to him to her mother as “my master, my best beloved that you call, and I must needs call him so now, for I find no other cause and as I trust to Jesu never shall, for he is full kind to me.” Another Paston daughter, one generation later, elopes with a household confidant, an arrangement so scandalous that her mother tries to have it dissolved and her brother feels personally affronted by the perceived blight on the family name, calling her “our ungracious sister.”
A bonus for Shakespeare fans: the Paston’s chief benefactor was Sir John Fastolf, later immortalized as Falstaff in King Henry IV. As we perch on the cusp of spring, I’d love to know what books have kept you warm through winter. Share your picks in the comments!
I really, REALLY loved Game Change , the narrative about the 2008 election. Lots of great insider stuff, vividly told–the descriptions of what was happening with Bill and Hillary during the Democratic primary and the complete breakdown of the McCain campaign go even deeper and more detailed than anything that was published before (and will confirm your worst suspicions about both Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin).
I’ve got a stack of books with me on vacation and just finished I Robert Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife , which is set in 19th century America and is twisted, dark, sexy, dangerous and very unexpected. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Am now reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog which I am liking so far but which MamaSharper—usually a voracious reader—abandoned in frustration. Have any of y’all read that one?
Becky, you have got to tell me what The Elegance of the Hedgehog is about. The title alone is awesome.
And Game Change might be one of those books I’ll get when it comes out in paperback, since hardcovers are not fun to carry around in a handbag. But I’d love to read it.
I know, awesome title, right? It’s about an extremely precocious 12 year old French girl and the concierge of her building, who is a working-class old woman who’s a prodigious reader and autodidact. The story is told in both their first-person voices. It’s very French in its self-conciousness and ironic-ness (?) but I’m enjoying it so far.
I felt that way about Game Change too. I don’t like to read hardcovers because I hate carrying them around, but i read this one on my sofa and it was worth sitting–well, lying–down to read. I can give you my copy if you want it.
Oooh this is a great, great book Sarah, I also loved it. Actually another equally good book set slightly later but also using family papers is Adam Nicholson’s Quarrel with the King, which is set during the English civil war.
Also have you read Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall yet, my favourite book of the last year and a great piece of historical fiction.
Becky – I’m a bit with MamaSharper, I found the Elegance of the Hedgehog a little too whimsical for the sake of it. But I loved The Crimson Rooms, which I’ve just finished and also Game Change which is gossip journalism at its best, totally addictive.
As to my reading right now – I’ve just started Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn (I’m enjoying it but it’s early days) and also just finished Lonely by Emily White, which is a memoir about lonliness and is brilliant, it’s beautifully written, very powerful and incredibly well-researched. I recommend it.
I did try reading Wolf Hall a couple of months ago but it was a tough nut for me, maybe because my mind is not used to processing fiction writing unless I know it’s for school! A shame, because I love the history of that period. I may give it another whirl, since it’s on my stepdad’s bookshelf. He LOVED it.
Just finished “When Will There Be Good News?” by Kate Atkinson. I have never read her before and I could NOT put it down! It was so good. I just ran to the library to get some more of her older books. It’s just really good fiction.
I’m currently doing a Margaret Atwood double feature. I just finished her 2007 poetry collection The Door and am on to The Year of The Flood, the recent follow-up to 2003′s Oryx and Crake (which I loved). The Door focuses on aging, loss, meaninglessness, and perseverance. So far, The Year of the Flood is ok. It changes time and perspective a little too much for my taste, but I’m hoping that, like Oryx and Crake, it will have a strong finish that redeems the initial investment.
Before that it was The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt which was good. Wonderful level of detail. Deeply flawed, relatable characters. A bit melancholy but often un-put-down-able.
I’ma add this to my list! I love people-who-became-Shakespeare’s-people!
A longtime Jane Eyre fan, I’m currently reading Shirley and I have to say it’s BLOWING MY MIND. It’s not a passionate romance, but it features a character who’s not afraid to be unfeminine and has overt, explicit conversations between men who devalue women and women standing up for their intelligence and capabilities! Inconceivable for 1849!!
I have no patience for Game Change. That stuff just infuriates me. But my mom, who defines the term “political junkie”, loves that insider stuff.
I read Ha Jin’s collection of short stories, A Good Fall. It’s fascinating to me how immigrant stories are similar regardless of the culture of the writer. I also just finished a collection of Sarah Orne Jewett’s work. In case you don’t know her, she wrote around the same time as Edith Wharton, but she wrote about rural farming and seagoing New Englanders. It’s a bit like Willa Cather in her clear love for the people of the area. It’s very understated and sometimes lyrical. She also reminds me a bit of Annie Proulx sometimes in her understanding of the working poor, but she’s not as down-and-dirty.
@theorchidthief: Isn’t Atkinson great? Her <Behind the Scenes at the Museum knocked my socks off.
Sigh…html much, mm? Guess not.
@MM – Yes! The Museum one is next on my list.
@MM and the Orchid Thief, Behind The Scenes is brilliant, I actually love her second novel the most, Human Croquet. The only one i’m not so keen on is the second Jackson novel, One Good Turn which I found a little irritating but i think that’s just because i love her so much.
@JoyTulip – I loved the Children’s Book, couldn’t put it down, it’s easily my favourite Byatt book. I just thought the characters were so well developed.
You’ve sold me on Blood & Roses! Sounds wonderful – I’m a history buff as well…
Books I’ve really enjoyed recently:
“Weekends at Bellevue” by Julie Holland. M.D. A memoir about Dr. Holland’s experiences working in the psychiatric ER and her own personal growth during the experience. A fun, quick read by a writer with an awesome sense of comedic timing and insight into a world I didn’t know anything about. Also really interesting to read about a woman who self-describes as “tough” and “macho” and how those qualities both helped and hindered her in her career. She got a bit of flak for what some people perceived as her talking too much about herself and her “machismo,” but I think it was just that part of the book – talking about her personal growth – that made it so good.
Right now I’m about half way through “The Ask” by Sam Lipsyte. A sort of dark comedy that I worried would veer into something sexist and weird. (It’s seems like such a “guy” novel and is a little coarse and, well, men seem to like it a little tooooo much. I guess I need to work on that…. :O) Anyhow, really well written, full of surprises, and a great look at anxieties re: work and self-worth.
I keep trying to read Lolita, but get depressed and need to put it down. Sometimes I feel like Nabakov is just Bukowski in a coat and tie. I know it’s not true and that there’s a difference between what someone writes about and who they really are, but… this sort of stuff is just so relentlessly “ick” that I can’t get my head around it.
@PetiteXL: My mom really enjoyed Weekends at Bellevue, since she’s general counsel for a hospital and a former nurse. I might see if I can borrow it! And your “Nabakov is just Bukowski in a coat and tie” made me snort.
I just finished Submersion Journalism which is a collection of immersion journalism pieces. I really loved it. I was sort of reminded of the New Kings of Nonfiction which I am also a huge fan of. Before that I read Weekends at Bellevue which was not good. At all. I really wish I had just listened to every NPR interview the author did rather than read the book. I’m about to start in on Baba Yaga Laid and Egg and have high hopes.
@jennifer: Why didn’t you like “Weekends at Bellevue?” I really enjoyed it and have recommended it to so many people…
I tried to read Nabokov’s short stories a while back and found them so supportive of the traditional Russian class structure that I finally got pissed off and stopped reading it. Sure, the Russian Revolution didn’t bring equality, but it’s not like the Whites were the good guys.
@PetiteXL: I thought the writing was pretty terrible and was beyond bored by the memoir-y part of it. I bought the book based on an interview where she represented it as all “true facts! anecdotes! stories from the trenches!” and was hoping for more of that. Plus all the descriptions of the author abusing patients and then working out her power trip stuff in therapy later was just not appealing.
@jennifer Yes, it seems like many people came away with the same thoughts and feelings as you did. I guess I just saw her as human – and one who could acknowledge and was willing to work on her flaws. I thought some of her behaviors towards the patients were inappropriate for sure, and she often acknowledged that, which I thought was good. Also, she wrote about the worst things that she did in part I think to show the growth that she needed to do, and then did.
I will agree that the NPR story was a bit different from what you get in the book, though…