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Top Ten Books of 2013

Posted in Annual Review, Anthony Trollope, Book List, D.E. Stevenson, G. Willow Wilson, G.B. Stern, Georgette Heyer, Graeme Simsion, Guy Gavriel Kay, Harold Nicolson, Mollie Panter-Downes, Nigel Nicolson, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Sheila Kaye-Smith on December 31, 2013| 43 Comments »

What a strange year it has been, full of changes, new adventures and, as far as this blog is concerned, very abnormal reading habits. But, however altered my reading schedule may have been, the quality of books remained excellent and it was not at all difficult to pick my ten favourite books from 2013:

10. The Talisman Ring (1936) – Georgette Heyer
Having discovered Heyer a decade ago, I thought I’d read all her best works. But no, other bloggers assured me, I still needed to read The Talisman Ring. Nonsense, I thought, but it was Heyer so I was determined to read it anyways. Of course, I discovered that everyone was right and that this hilarious tale of a fanciful young woman, a dashing smuggler, and their put-upon elders is indeed one of the greatest things Heyer wrote.

9. Alif the Unseen (2012) – G. Willow Wilson
I struggled to review all the books I wished to this year and that included some of my favourites, like Alif the Unseen. An extraordinary combination of fantasy, religion, and 21st technology, this story of an Indo-Arab hacker who finds himself on the run from the corrupt state authorities is powerful, timely, and above all, engaging. It was one of only two books this year that kept me reading until late into the night (the other is #6 on this list).

8. The English Air (1940) – D.E. Stevenson
Stevenson is an author whose quality varies dramatically from book to book. I love her but most of her novels are merely good rather than excellent. The English Air is one of those excellent exceptions, sensitively following the struggles of a young German man who finds himself torn between England and Germany at the beginning of the Second World War. Stevenson paints as alluring a portrait of the domestic charms of middle-class pre-war England as anyone but it is her intelligent handling of Franz’s divided loyalties that makes this rise above most of her other works.

7. The Rosie Project (2013) – Graeme Simsion
This quirky and touching romantic comedy about a socially inept Australian scientist’s search for love was an absolute delight. I loved it so much in fact that I read it not once but twice this year and am now busy pressing everyone I know to read it too.

6. Under Heaven (2010) – Guy Gavriel Kay
Kay, the master of historical fantasy, has now published two books inspired by Chinese history: Under Heaven and River of Stars. I read both this year and both are extraordinarily good but Under Heaven was, to me, the most absorbing. Kay is astonishingly good at balancing character development, political intrigue, and action, making for a book that left my pulse racing and my mind whirling.

5. London War Notes (1971) – Mollie Panter-Downes
The fact that I was even able to get my hands on a copy of this all-too-rare book was a miracle; as anyone who has had the privilege of reading this will agree, it is a travesty that it has not yet been reprinted. During the Second World War, Mollie Panter-Downes’ “Letter from London” was published every second week in the New Yorker magazine, giving her American readers a glimpse of the wartime experience in London. In typical Panter-Downes fashion, she is observant and articulate, intelligent and unsentimental. These letters capture Londoners at their best and worst and are an extraordinary historical record as well as examples of first-rate journalism.

4. Framley Parsonage (1861) – Anthony Trollope
I had some reservations but, for the most part, I adored the fourth book in Trollope’s Barsetshire series. Trollope’s handling of the virtues and failings of his young men reminded me once more of the truthfulness of his writing (and the consistency of human beings, regards of the century) while his female characters, young and old, were delightfully strong, funny, and sympathetic.

3. The Harold Nicolson Diaries (2004) – edited by Nigel Nicolson
An absorbing and revealing collection of wonderfully-written diaries and letters, I loved getting to glimpse all the different facets of Nicolson’s character, from youth to old age.

2. A Time of Gifts (1977) – Patrick Leigh Fermor
In another year, this might have grabbed the top spot. Fermor’s account of the first leg of the charmed journey he took across Europe as a teenager is beautifully written and had me longing to set out on adventures of my own.

1. Speaking of Jane Austen (1943) – Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern
All the other titles on this list were wonderful but not nearly as wonderful as this collection of delightfully eccentric Austen-focused essays. And, of course, it is the only book I have ever come across that spends a sufficient amont of time lavishing praise on the deserving Emma (if you are looking for the fastest way to my heart, look no further).

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Happiness in Marriage

Posted in Book List on February 14, 2013| 13 Comments »

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. – Nietzsche

I love to read books that explore affectionate marriages and Valentine’s Day seems an appropriate day to celebrate them. So many novels and plays seem to assume that romance and even love fade as soon as the honeymoon is over. Back from the honeymoon? Time for the adultery to begin! What a sad world it would be if that were true. But real life – daily interaction with many happily married couples – has proven to me that it is not the case. And when it comes to books, long-standing relationships always provide more fascinating and complex material than courtships which last only a few years or months. The day-to-day challenges of maintaining a relationship, of working to sustain it through those years when work and children demand your attention and exhaust your patience, as you yourself change through the decades – how could that not be more interesting than a simple marriage plot which always ends at the altar?

Here are just five of my favourite books that provide glimpses into successful marriages:

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer – Heyer’s best novel, the story of a marriage of convenience between a viscount and a wealthy merchant’s daughter who come with time to realise the value of quiet, steady, companionable love.

Two-Part Invention by Madeleine L’Engle – L’Engle’s touching memoir of forty years of marriage, written while her husband was dying.

Greenery Street by Denis Mackail – a delightful comedy about young, rather hopeless but very happy newlyweds

Dear Octopus by Dodie Smith – a wonderful play about a very entertaining family celebrating the 50th anniversary of the blissfully happy and resolutely optimistic parents, Charles and Dora.

The Laskett by Roy Strong – a very personal memoir of a close marriage, cleverly disguised as a gardening book.

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Top Ten Books of 2012

Posted in A.A. Milne, Angela Thirkell, Anna Reid, Annual Review, Book List, Charles Ritchie, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Elizabeth von Arnim, Madeleine L'Engle, Michael Steinman, Mollie Panter-Downes, Roy Strong, Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell on December 31, 2012| 41 Comments »

I always have fun making this list but, for the first time, it was easy as well as fun. There was no struggling over what belong in each spot and no angst-ridden hours spent juggling the merits of one book over another in deciding which deserved to make the list. These are, without a doubt, the ten best books I read in 2012. They have stuck in my mind since I read them and I cannot go a day without recommending at least one of them to friends, family members, other bloggers or people I randomly meet on the street (like the woman I met at the coffeeshop on Friday. Such are the dangers of engaging me in conversation). Without further ado, here are ten best books I read in 2012:

Best Books of 2012 - Part 1

10. The Home-Maker (1924) – Dorothy Canfield Fisher
This is, quite rightly, one of the best-loved Persephone titles among readers. It is a wonderfully thoughtful book about gender roles, societal pressure, and personal fulfillment and treats all of its characters – adult or child – with respect for the everyday struggles they face.

9. Two-Part Invention (1988) – Madeleine L’Engle
This book was heartbreaking, beautiful, and, above all, surprising. It is a portrait of L’Engle’s forty year marriage written during her husband’s final illness but it is also a reflection on her faith and what religion meant in her life. It is a highly emotional and intelligent book and I cried more tears over this than anything else I read this year.

8. The Siren Years (1974) – Charles Ritchie
No matter how many times I read this (and I have lost count at this point), it remains the best wartime diary I have ever come across. Ritchie’s diplomatic and social connections in London exposed him to an extraordinary variety of people, from political leaders and petty bureaucrats to authors and exiled royalty. The joy of Ritchie’s diaries comes from the meld of political details and domestic ones. I find it just as interesting to hear about how the Canadian High Commission handled refugee claims as I do to discover what Ritchie saw on his walk through London each day on the way to work or what he talked about at lunch with Nancy Mitford.

7. Leningrad (2011) – Anna Reid
I still get chills thinking about this book, which looks at what happened to those trapped in Leningrad while it was under siege during the Second World War. It is uncomfortable and upsetting to read but so very well done.

6. The Headmistress (1944) – Angela Thirkell
Possibly the most perfectly-formed of Thirkell’s Barsetshire novels, The Headmistress focuses on the experiences of the Belton family during the Second World War. Mrs Belton, the middle-aged mother of three, is one of Thirkell’s best heroines. Her struggles to understand her adult children and to live with her constant fear for her sons broke my heart.

5. The Laskett (2003) – Roy Strong
A gardening tome that even non-gardeners would love, this book describes the evolution of Strong’s garden at his country home, The Laskett. Though there are plenty of details about the garden’s layout and plant choices, what makes this book special are the stories Strong shares about the friends and experiences that influenced the garden’s formation. This is a garden that clearly reflects both Strong and his wife’s personalities and experiences and it is a book that acts as a tribute to their delightfully unique lives.

4. Good Evening, Mrs Craven (1999) – Mollie Panter-Downes
A wonderfully varied collection of short stories about life in England during the Second World War. Panter-Downes’ domestic focus exactly suits my tastes as does her interest in the quiet disappointments and muted struggles faced by her characters. There is nothing sensational about the events in these stories, making them both relatable and, to me, touching.

3. It’s Too Late Now (1939) – A.A. Milne
2012 was the year of Milne and as much as I loved his plays, his pieces for Punch, his passionate plea for pacifism, and his light verse, it was his autobiography that gave me the most pleasure. Looking back on the first fifty-odd years of his life, Milne joyously recalls the happy days of his childhood and, later, his determined pursuit of a writing career. It has nothing in common with gossipy tell-alls and that is part of what I loved about it. It is a fun book to read and I suspect Milne had even more fun writing it.

2. Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907) – Elizabeth von Arnim
It has been a long time since I’ve fallen as hard for a fictional character as I did for Fräulein Rose-Marie Schmidt. These letters, written to her erstwhile suitor Roger Anstruther, reveal a woman who is both romantic and practical, youthful and mature. She is clever and funny and resilient and I want to be her almost as much as I want to befriend her.

1. The Element of Lavishness: Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and William Maxwell (2001) – edited by Michael Steinman
I read this in January and, honestly, no other book I read this year came even close to eclipsing it in my affections. I had never read anything by either Warner or Maxwell before and knew very little about either of them but that made no difference. Through their letters, I got to know both of them intimately and to witness the wonderful warmth and depth of their friendship as it evolved over the decades. While both were extraordinary writers, it is Warner’s letters I remember the best now, almost a year after I read them. She wrote beautifully about the domestic details of her life and the letters written between the death of her partner Valentine and her own death are as good a record of aging and loss as I have ever read.

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Canadian Book Challenge 6

Posted in Book List, Canadian Book Challenge 6 on July 2, 2012| 7 Comments »

Well, the Canadian Book Challenge 6 has officially started and, as promised, here is my book list. The aim of the challenge is to read 13 Canadian books over the course of a year, with “Canadian” being defined however you like. It could mean that the book is set in Canada, that the author is Canadian, or that it is about a Canadian. There are no rules about how you choose your books: some participants like to read one book from each of the thirteen provinces and territories, some like to concentrate on one geographic region, or on one author…you can really do whatever you like. I, as usual, am entering the challenge with no particular plan, just the intention of reading as many Canadian books as I can and enjoying them all! Accordingly, here is my very random reading list for the challenge:

Fiction

New Under the Sun by Kevin Major
Needing a change, Shannon Carew takes a job in the National Parks system in Newfoundland and Labrador. The journey brings her life full circle, returning her to the birthplace she abandoned years before. As she makes new connections, and unearths old ones, Shannon learns the land holds many memories, stories of Maritime Archaic, the Vikings, the Basques, the Beothuk, and the Europeans who came after.

Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson
Seeking refuge from her mysterious past, the beautiful Mrs. Dorval arrives in a small British Columbia town at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers. As Frankie Burnaby, the young schoolgirl Mrs. Dorval befriends, pieces together Hetty’s story, she begins to realize that her enigmatic idol is also a treacherous opponent.

No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
An astounding novel about family and ancestry from one of Canada’s greatest writers.

Underground by Antanas Sileika
Inspired by true events, Underground tells the story of a troubled romance between Lukas and Elena, two members of the underground Lithuanian resistance movement in mid-1940s.

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
…the internationally celebrated epic of a beleaguered country struggling to be free. It is the tale of a people so cursed by the dark sorceries of the tyrant king Brandin that even the very name of their once beautiful home cannot be spoken or remembered. But, years after their homeland’s devastation, a handful of men and women set in motion a dangerous crusade—to overthrow their conquerors and bring back to the world the lost brightness of an obliterated name: Tigana.

Children’s Books

The Guests of War Trilogy by Kit Pearson
Examining the experiences of two British children evacuated to Canada during the Second World War, I adored these three books growing up.

The Daring Game by Kit Pearson
I do love a good boarding school story. Ironically, this is the only one of Pearson’s books I didn’t read as a child, though it is set at a fictionalized version of the school that I attended (and where Pearson was a boarder in the 1960s).

The Mountain and the Valley by Ernest Buckler
…an affectionate portrait of David Canaan, a sensitive boy who becomes increasingly aware of the difference that sets him apart from his family and his neighbours. David’s desire to write is the secret that gives this haunting story its detailed focus and its poignant theme.

Short Stories

Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro
What could be more quintessentially Canadian than a book of Munro’s short stories, especially this, her first?

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod
Focusing on the complexities and abiding mysteries at the heart of human relationships, the seven stories of The Lost Salt Gift of Blood map the close bonds and impassable chasms that lie between man and woman, parent and child.

Glengarry School Days by Ralph Conner
The 15 sketches that make up Glengarry School Days look back affectionately on childhood in Ontario at the time of Confederation. Yet behind Connor’s delightful account of boyhood enthusiasms – and his clear desire for a more orderly and courageous world – lie glimpses of the moral rigidity that also characterized homesteading life in early Canada.

Copernicus Avenue by Andrew J. Borkowski
Set primarily in the neighbourhood of fictional Copernicus Avenue, Andrew Borkowski’s debut collection of short stories is a daring, modern take on life in Toronto’s Polish community in the years following World War II. Featuring a cast of young and old, artists and soldiers, visionaries and madmen, the forgotten and the unforgettable, Copernicus Avenue captures, with bold and striking prose, the spirit of a people who have travelled to a new land, not to escape old grudges and atrocities, but to conquer them.

Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich by Stephen Leacock
Of the many books by Canada’s most celebrated humorist, none has received more acclaim than his brilliant, caustic treatment of the glittering rich who gather at the Mausoleum Club on Plutoria Avenue.

Graphic

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
HARK! A VAGRANT takes readers on a romp through history and literature — with dignity for few and cookies for all — with comic strips about famous authors, their characters, and political and historical figures, all drawn in Beaton’s pared-down, excitable style. This collection features favourite stories as well as new, previously unpublished content. Whether she’s writing about Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, or Nancy Drew, Beaton brings a refined sense of the absurd to every situation.

Paul Has a Summer Job by Michel Rabagliati
This sweet and funny coming-of-age story marks a high-water mark in great old-fashioned storytelling in graphic novels. This book tells the story of Paul, a Montreal teenager who, against the backdrop of Quebec in the 1970s, tastes the freedom and responsibilities of adulthood for the first time. Thanks to plummeting grades, Paul defiantly quits high school and takes a job at factory. A year later, tired and depressed, Paul accepts a strange job offer to go be a counselor at a summer camp in the mountains run by a freewheeling Catholic priest. Paul finds himself guiding a motley band of kids– misfits, loners, and troublemakers — through the rough terrain of growing up.

Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China by Guy Delisle
I have read and loved Delisle’s other graphic memoirs (Burma Chronicles, Pyongyang, Jerusalem) so, of course, I am looking forward to this.

Non-fiction

A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed
A uniquely personal insight into the Middle East from one of Canada’s most respected foreign correspondents.

The Juggler’s Children: Family, Myth and a Tale of Two Chromosomes by Carolyn Abraham
Carolyn Abraham explores the stunning power and ethical pitfalls of using genetic tests to answer questions of genealogy–by cracking the genome of her own family.

Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile by Taras Grescoe
Ultimately, Straphanger’s subject is the city, and it offers a global tour of alternatives to car-based living, told through encounters with bicycle commuters, subway engineers, idealistic mayors and disillusioned trolley campaigners. Along the way, Grescoe meets libertarian apologists for the automobile, urbanists who defend suburban sprawl, champions of buses, rapid transit and light rail, and planners fighting to liberate cities from the empire of the automobile.

My Grandfather’s House by Charles Ritchie
In this book, Charles Ritchie looks back at some of the characters that peopled his childhood and youth, in the years before his brilliant career in Canada’s diplomatic corps began. In these essays we are introduced to his uncles, Harry “Bimbash” Stewart and the dashing, doomed Charlie Stewart; to his indomitable mother; to his mad cousin Gerald; to the newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook; to his college friend Billy Coster, who threw away wealth and a secure future; and to a host of others. With his usual unerring eye and elegant prose, Charles Ritchie brings them all to life again, with affection and wit.

I can’t wait to begin reading!

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A Gardening Reading List – Part IV

Posted in Book List, Gardens and Gardening on January 13, 2012| 16 Comments »

"Le Parc de Saint Cloud, 1900" by Henri Lebasque

While I was on holidays last September, I posted a three part gardening reading list (see Part I, Part II, and Part III). At the time, I asked for readers’ recommendations and promised to compile them into a fourth and final post. I very promptly started on that post but one thing led to another…and here it finally is. In January. Which, really, is when I most want to read about gardens so let’s just pretend I cleverly planned it that way and this is really a product of my genius, not my absentmindedness.

Thank you very much to everyone who responded to my initial posts with their recommendations. You all had wonderful suggestions and going through them again this week has only made me more determined to track these books down.

George Forrest, Plant Hunter by Brenda McLain
George Forest was a professional plant collector in the heyday of the British Empire. Risking his safety and health, he discovered hundreds of new species, introduced many plants to our gardens, and became one of the most outstanding plant collectors in the Sino-Himalaya. This book tells of Forrest’s adventures and his legendary escape from death at the hands of warring Lamas. It describes the impact of his plant discoveries and introductions and his competitiveness and rivalry with other plant hunters, Reginald Farrer, Frank Kingdon Ward and Joseph Rock.

Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katharine S. White
Whether White is discussing her favorite garden catalogs, her disdain for oversized flower hybrids, or the long rich history of gardening, she never fails to delight readers with her humor, lively criticism, and beautiful prose. But to think of Katharine White simply as a gardener, cautioned E. B. White in his introduction to the book, would be like insisting that Ben Franklin was simply a printer. Katharine White had vast and varied interests in addition to gardening and she brought them all to bear in the writing of these remarkable essays.

The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift
This is a book about time and the garden: all gardens, but also a particular one: that of the Dower House at Morville, where the author arrived in 1988 to make a new garden of her own.

Katherine Swift takes the reader on a journey through time, back to the forces which shaped the garden, linking the history of those who lived in the same Shropshire house and tended the same red soil with the stories of those who live and work there today. It is an account which spans thousands of years. But is also the story of one life: of relationships tested to breaking point, of despair and loss as well as joy and achievement. It is a journey through the seasons, but also a journey of self-exploration. It is a book about finding one’s place in the world and putting down roots.

The Laskett: The Story of a Garden by Sir Roy Strong
This is the story of a garden. It is also the portrait of a marriage expressed through the vision and mystery of creating a garden. Neither the author, Roy Strong, nor his wife, designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, had foreseen this when they eloped and married in 1971. Over thirty years on, they find themselves surrounded by the largest formal garden created in Britain since the war, increasingly recognized as one of the most important of the second half of the 20th century. And yet it was done not only with little money and less labor, but quite unconsciously. It is not, however, so much the horticultural triumph that will grip the reader as what this garden on the Welsh Borders in Herefordshire has come to mean in the lives of its creators. The Laskett is the story of a great love affair, a portrait of a marriage, a haunting and human tale of a garden as the domain of ghosts and as the habitat of memory. No one who reads this remarkable book will put it down unmoved.

The 3,000 Mile Garden by Roger Phillips and Leslie Land
Two professional gardeners, one British, the other American, having met at a New Hampshire “mushroom foray,” continue to share their gardening adventures in this delightful collection of their letters.

The Invisible Garden by Dorothy Sucher
A longtime city dweller and expert storyteller takes a fresh look at gardening in Vermont, tapping the connection between the mysteries of the earth and those of the human spirit.

Two Gardeners: Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence – A Friendship in Letters edited by Emily Herring Wilson
A legendary editor at The New Yorker during its first thirty-four years, Katharine S. White was also a great garden enthusiast. In March 1958 she began publishing her popular column, “Onward and Upward in the Garden.” Her first column elicited loads of fan mail, but one letter in particular caught her attention. From Elizabeth Lawrence, a noted southern garden writer, it was filled with suggestions and encouragement. When Katharine wrote back her appreciation, she reported on her Maine garden and discussed the plants and books that interested her. Thus began a correspondence that would last for almost twenty years, until Katharine’s death in 1977.

Sissinghurst by Adam Nicolson
The story of this piece of land, an estate in the Weald of Kent, is told here for the first time from the very beginning. Adam Nicolson, who now lives there, has uncovered remarkable new findings about its history as a medieval manor and great sixteenth-century house, from the days of its decline as an eighteenth-century prison to a flourishing Victorian farm and on to the creation, by his grandparents Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, of a garden in a weed-strewn wreck.

Anything by Gladys Taber

In the Heart of the Garden by Helene Wiggin (fiction)
The tale of a garden in the heart of England, and the generations of women who have found solace there. The plot of land at Fritha’s Well first becomes a garden in AD 912. It lives through the terror of the Plague years, the divisions of Civil War, and the heartbreak of the Great War.

If you have any other suggestions, please mention them in the comments!

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Eastern European Reading Challenge 2012

Posted in Book List, Read East 2012 on December 30, 2011| 7 Comments »

When I was recapping my reading challenges for 2011 earlier this week, it became clear to me just what a wonderful time I’d had participating in the Eastern European Reading Challenge. I did not reach my goal of reading twelve books – I managed eleven – but I learned so much and discovered some truly amazing authors who I had never tried before. The challenge is being continued into 2012 and it didn’t take long for me to decide to continue with it.

I will again be aiming for the Scholar level (12 books). Participates must choose titles about or by an author from any of the following regions: Croatia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Belarus, Estonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Rep., Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Romania, Moldova, and Kosovo. Ideally, I’d like to read 6 fiction and 6 non-fiction books for the challenge but I won’t hold myself to that. As always, the most important thing is to enjoy what books I do choose.

Of course the highlight of signing up for any challenge is creating a book list and I’m quite proud of this one (look! It has categories!). If you’re interested in joining the challenge and looking for more ideas, you can also check out my initial list from when I signed up and my list of what I actually read (there is shockingly little overlap between the two). If you have any suggestions of books that would work for this challenge, ones you’ve read or even just heard of, please let me know! I’m always looking for new ideas.

FICTION IN TRANSLATION

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky
The story of three unforgettable women whose destinies are tangled up in a family dynamic that is at turns hilarious and tragic.

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić
Dubravka Ugrešić takes the story of Baba Yaga and weaves it into something completely fresh. The result is an extraordinary meditation on femininity, ageing, identity, secrets, storytelling and love.

They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy
An unrivaled portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, as seen through the eyes of two young Transylvanian cousins, Count Balint Abady and Count László Gyeroffy.

Kornél Esti by Dezső Kosztolányi
Here is a novel which inquires: What if your id (loyally keeping your name) decides to strike out on its own, cuts a disreputable swatch through the world, and then sends home to you all its unpaid bills and ruined maidens? And then: What if you and your alter ego decide to write a book together?

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth’s classic saga of the privileged von Trotta family encompasses the entire social fabric of the Austro-Hungarian Empire just before World War I. The author’s greatest achievement, The Radetzky March is an unparalleled portrait of a civilization in decline, and as such is a universal story for our times.

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
Hašek’s most important work was centered around the deeply funny story of a hapless Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army — dismissed for incompetence only to be pressed into service by the Russians in World War I (where he is captured by his own troops). A mischief-maker, bohemian and drunk, Hašek demonstrated his wit in this classic novel of the Czech character and preposterous nature of war.

Cape of Storms by Nina Berberova
Nina Berberova portrays a very specific generation––one born in Russia, displaced by the Revolution, and trying to adapt to a new home, Paris. Three sisters––Dasha, Sonia, and Zai––share the same father, Tiagen, an attractive, weak-willed, womanizing White Russian, but each thinks differently about her inner world of beliefs and aspirations, and consequently each follows a different path.

The Golden Bird: Folk Tales from Slovenia by Vladimir Kavčić
Eighteen tales from Slovenia tell of clever and magical animals, beautiful princesses, brave princes, ogres, and demons.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FICTION

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
It is an old, old tale, the German story of Briar Rose, the Sleeping Beauty. Now one of America’s most celebrated writers tells it afresh, set this time in the forests patrolled by the German army during World War II. A tale of castles, of mists and thorns, of a beautiful sleeping princess, and an astonishing revelation of death and rebirth.

Sashenka by Simon Sebag Montefiore
A sweeping epic of Russia from the last days of the Tsars to today’s age of oligarchs.

The Siege by Helen Dunmore
A brilliantly imagined novel about war as experienced by ordinary people, and a profoundly moving celebration of love, life and survival.

TRAVEL WRITING

On the Road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe by Andrzej Stasiuk
Andrzej Stasiuk is a restless and indefatigable traveller. His journeys – by car, train, bus, ferry – take him from his native Poland to small towns and villages with unfamiliar yet evocative names in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine.

Blue River, Black Sea by Andrew Eames
A journey along the Danube to the heart of the Europe nobody knows, exploring how much we really know about the “New Europe.”

MEMOIR

How I Came to Know Fish by Ota Pavel
Ota Pavel’s magical memoir of his childhood in Czechoslovakia.

Forbidden Bread: A Memoir by Erica Johnson-Debeljak
The author leaves behind a successful career as an American financial analyst to pursue Ales Debeljak, a womanizing Slovenian poet who catches her attention at a cocktail party. The story begins in New York City, but quickly migrates, along with the author, to Slovenia. As she struggles to forge an identity in her new home, Slovenia itself undergoes the transformation from a communist to a capitalist society.

A Romantic Education by Patricia Hampl
Golden Prague seemed mostly gray when Patricia Hampl first went there in quest of her Czech heritage. In that bleak time, no one could have predicted the political upheaval awaiting Communist Europe and the city of Kafka and Rilke. Hampl’s subsequent memoir, a brilliant evocation of Czech life under socialism, attained the stature of living history, and added to our understanding not only of Central Europe but also of what it means to be engaged in the struggle of a people to define and affirm themselves.

HISTORY

When Miss Emmie Was in Russia: English Governesses Before, During and after the October Revolution by Harvey J. Pitcher
An intimate and revealing portrait of pre-Revolutionary Russian society which, contrary to received wisdoms, reveals a complex, liberal and humane society, full of enormous potential and past achievement. It is also the biography of five intrepid women who, by travelling abroad and working as governesses in Russia, achieved an intellectual dignity, a purpose and an authority which was denied them in their homeland.

Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes
Beginning in the eighteenth century with the building of St. Petersburg and culminating with the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself–its character, spiritual essence, and destiny.

Prague in Danger: The Years of German Occupation, 1939-1945 by Peter Demetz
A dramatic account of life in Czechoslovakia’s great capital during the Nazi Protectorate.

The Last Days of the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July 16–17, 1918 has long been a defining moment in world history. This book gives a riveting day-by-day account of the last fourteen days of their lives, as the conspiracy to kill them unfolded.

OTHER

We the People by Timothy Garton Ash
On 4 June 1989 the Communist regime in Warsaw collapsed as Solidarity won the election, 12 days later Imre Nagy was buried in Budapest, 31 years after his execution. The Berlin Wall came down and in Prague, Vaclav Havel masterminded the Velvet Revolution. Timothy Garton Ash was witness to all these events.

The Czech Reader: History, Culture, Politics edited by Jan Bazant, Nina Bazantova, and Frances Starn
The Czech Reader brings together more than 150 primary texts and illustrations to convey the dramatic history of the Czechs, from the emergence of the Czech state in the tenth century, through the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and the Czech Republic in 1993, into the twenty-first century.

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository, an online book retailer with free international shipping. If you buy via these links it means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you).

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Top Ten Books of 2011

Posted in Angela Thirkell, Annual Review, Anthony Trollope, Book List, Charles Ritchie, Dezső Kosztolányi, Elizabeth Cambridge, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth von Arnim, Gwethalyn Graham, Kevin Roose, Susan Hill on December 29, 2011| 27 Comments »

Oh, the excruciating pain of making this list! I am very pleased with the end result but how cruel to have spent the last few days playing off my favourite books against one another to get down to the ten you see here (and ten it must be for when I attempted to make a list of fifteen things got wildly out of hand). What I did realise quickly was what an excellent reading year I’ve had, full of wonderful, memorable books. May 2012 bring more of the same!

10. The Unlikely Disciple (2009) – Kevin Roose
The best books are the ones that get you so excited that you cannot stop talking about them, so that soon all your friends and family know exactly what you’re reading. That is what happened while I was reading The Unlikely Disciple. Roose, then an undergraduate at Brown, went ‘undercover’ for a semester at an evangelical Christian university. His insightful, respectful, and very detailed chronicle of his time there left me highly entertained and incredibly engaged, pondering some of the issues he touched on (the influence of religious groups in politics, evangelical Christianity’s attitudes towards women, and journalistic ethics, to name a few) for weeks after I had finished reading.

9. Skylark (1924) – Dezső Kosztolányi
Set in 1899 in a small town in Austria-Hungary, this is the story of Skylark’s mother and father and the joyous week they spend enjoying themselves while their spinster daughter is away visiting family. Mother and Father’s excitement at their outings to the restaurant and the theatre (and, in Father’s case, a meeting of the local drinking club) is humourously and heartwarmingly told but it is the return of the pathetic, pitiable Skylark (and Father’s outburst in anticipation of her return) that truly makes this a brilliant novel. A wonderful and sympathetic view of the burden faced by parents with beloved but unmarriageable daughters.

8. An Appetite for Life (1977) – Charles Ritchie
Ritchie, though he was a prominent diplomat, is now best remembered for his skill as a diarist and rightly so. This, the earliest published volume of his diaries, covers the years 1924-1927, as Ritchie was finishing off his studies in Halifax and then experiencing the delightful distractions on offer at Oxford during his first year there. Ritchie is marvellously candid and his daily ponderings – here, unsurprisingly given his youth, focused on women, sex, and school – manage to be both amusing and touching.

7. Christopher and Columbus (1919) – Elizabeth von Arnim
I took the longest time to decide which von Arnim novel was going to make the list but this beat out The Pastor’s Wife by the sheer force of its charm. A light, fanciful escape from reality, Christopher and Columbus tells the story of two orphaned teenage German-English twins and their exploits once shipped off to neutral America by their uncle during WWI. While sailing, Anna-Rose and Anna-Felicitas befriend the delightful, doting Mr Twist, an American millionaire who made his fortune by designing a no-drip tea pot. The adventures of this trio make for enchanting reading, with von Arnim’s witty narrator saving it from descending into anything too saccharine.

6. Earth and High Heaven (1944) – Gwethalyn Graham
Without question, this was the biggest reading surprise of the year. My first reaction upon finishing was that it was the most Persephone-like non-Persephone book I’ve ever read. Set in Montreal in 1942, the novel revolves around the challenges faced by Erica Drake, an editor at a newspaper, and Marc Reiser, a lawyer, when they meet and fall in love. Anti-Semitism and family relationships are at the heart of this novel but it is also full of comments on the war, whether it be French-speaking Canada’s reluctance to be involved or the deadening effect of the destruction of the London Blitz, experienced first-hand by Erica’s sister. It is an absolutely amazing novel that deserves a much wider audience.

5. Hostages to Fortune (1933) – Elizabeth Cambridge
My love for this quiet novel has come on slowly. I enjoyed it when I read it, yes, but with each passing month I find myself loving it more. I remain particularly impressed with Cambridge’s portrait of Catherine and William’s marriage and how it evolves, through separation during the war, the arrivals of babies, and the numbingly chaotic years spent scrambling to raise ( and afford to raise) their three children.

4. The American Senator (1877) – Anthony Trollope
My first encounter with Trollope was an unqualified success. Since then, I’ve read The Warden and Barchester Towers and enjoyed both but neither came close to equaling my delight with The American Senator. Was it Mr Elias Gotobed’s comically offensive but generally true statements that charmed me so? The love story of the gentle, deserving Mary Masters? Or was it the magnificent anti-heroine, Arabella Trefoil, whose single-minded pursuit of a husband is awesome to behold? The combination of these stories makes for an eventful, always fascinating, deeply satisfying novel that quite rightly convinced me that Trollope was an author after my own heart.

3. Wives and Daughters (1866) – Elizabeth Gaskell
I feel a bit of a cheat to place a reread so high on my list but…This book is absolutely perfect and fully earned its spot. I don’t think I will ever tire of Molly Gibson, Cynthia Kirkpatrick, Squire Hamley or, that most magnificent creation, Mrs. Hyacinth Kirkpatrick Gibson.

2. Howards End is on the Landing (2009) – Susan Hill
In any other year, this book would have probably garnered top spot. Hill’s memoir of a lifetime spent in the company of books and other authors delighted me from the first page to the last. Everything about this book was perfect for me. There was enough of the familiar in Hill’s reading to comfort me (because one of the delights of reading about books is coming across opinions on books you know well) and enough of the new to excite me and make me eager to track down those unknown titles. Even before I had finished reading my library edition, I rushed out to buy a copy of my very own.

1. Summer Half (1937) – Angela Thirkell
Anyone who has been following my blog this year could have probably predicted that Thirkell would take the top spot. Since my first encounter with Thirkell last January, I have fallen completely in love with her Barsetshire novels and, of the twelve I’ve now read, I think Summer Half is the most perfectly formed. It centers on the masters and students of Southbridge School and their interactions with some of the local families. As with all good Thirkell novels, romance is in the air and the narrator’s sharp wit is there to comment on both the comically disastrous pairings and the ideal but bumbled ones. Most importantly, Summer Half introduces my favourite Thirkell character, the astounding Lydia Keith. Of all the books I read this year, not only is this the one that I am most eager to return to, it is the one I most wish I owned countless copies of so I could pass it on to everyone I meet.

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A Gardening Reading List – Part III

Posted in Book List, Gardens and Gardening on September 26, 2011| 5 Comments »

Deux Femmes dans un Jardin en Ete - Henri Lebasque

A gardening reading list, presented in three parts – See Part I and Part II

The Curious Gardener’s Almanac: Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom by Niall Edworthy
…contains over 1000 entries of remarkable information about flowers, vegetables, fruits, trees, herbs, insects, birds, water, soil, tools, composts, climate, recipes, gardens and gardeners, myths, superstitions, biodynamics… In short it is a collection as profuse and variegated as gardening itself. Woven into this wealth of knowledge are famous quotations, anecdotes, traditional sayings, lines of verse, and words of rural wisdom. The spirit and focus of the Almanac is British but the wider picture is international as so much of our gardens originated from overseas.

The Garden in the Clouds by Antony Woodward
It was a derelict smallholding so high up in the Black Mountains of Wales it was routinely lost in cloud. But to Antony Woodward, Tair-Ffynnon was the most beautiful place in the world. Equally ill-at-ease in town and country after too long in London’s ad-land, Woodward bought Tair-Ffynnon because he yearned to reconnect with the countryside he never felt part of as a child. But what excuse could he invent to move there permanently? The solution, he decided, was a garden.

A Countrywoman’s Notes by Rosemary Verey
Twelve chapters endeavour to capture the atmosphere of successive months, encompassing the minutiae of plant and wildlife behaviour in the garden and hedgerow. The author celebrates the intimacies of a rural world in an idyllic setting, but with an eye to modern existence and an appreciation of progress.

The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf
This is the story of these men – friends, rivals, enemies, united by a passion for plants – whose correspondence, collaborations and squabbles make for a riveting human tale which is set against the backdrop of the emerging empire, the uncharted world beyond and London as the capital of science. From the scent of the exotic blooms in Tahiti and Botany Bay to the gardens at Chelsea and Kew, and from the sounds and colours of the streets of the City to the staggering vistas of the Appalachian mountains, The Brother Gardeners tells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners.

A Little History of British Gardening by Jenny Uglow
This lively “potted” history of gardening in Britain takes us on a garden tour from the thorn hedges around prehistoric settlements to the rage for decking and ornamental grasses today, tracking down ordinary folk, aristocrats and grand designers

Four Hedges by Clare Leighton
Clare Leighton was one of the finest engravers of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, when she settled in the countryside with her long-term partner, the political journalist Henry Noel Brailsford, she turned her creativity to the land. Gardening became her passion. Her obsession. This is the story of the garden she carved from meadowland deep in the Chiltern Hills.

Please feel free to suggest your own favourites and once I’m back I’ll do a fourth post devoted to them!

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A Gardening Reading List – Part II

Posted in Book List, Gardens and Gardening on September 19, 2011| 2 Comments »

Garden at Champigny - Henri Lebasque

A gardening reading list, presented in three parts – See Part I

The Virago Books of Women Gardeners edited by Deborah Kellaway
From diggers and weeders, to artists and colourists, writers and dreamers to trend-setters, plantswomen to landscape designers, women have contributed to the world of gardening and gardens. Here Deborah Kellaway has collected extracts from the 18th century to the present day, to create a book that is replete with anecdotes and good-humoured advice.

We Made a Garden by Margery Fish
One of Britain’s most esteemed gardening writers recounts how she and her husband set about creating an exemplary cottage garden from unpromising beginnings on the site of the former farmyard and rubbish heap that surround their newly purchased home in the countryside of Somerset, England.

Cuttings: A Year in the Garden with Christopher Lloyd
Arranged to cover the seasons, this magical book will delight all who love good gardening and good gardening writing.

The Rose by Jennifer Potter
In The Rose, Jennifer Potter reveals what makes this flower so special. Challenging many long-cherished ‘truths’, she begins in the Greek and Roman empires and moves across Europe, the Middle East, and on to China and the Americas across 4,000 years, uncovering how and why this unique flower has driven people to distraction with its charm, mystery and beauty.

Weeds: A Cultural History by Richard Mabey
A lively and lyrical cultural history of plants in the wrong place, by one of Britain’s best and most admired nature writers.

Please feel free to suggest your own favourites and once I’m back I’ll do a fourth post devoted to them!

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A Gardening Reading List – Part I

Posted in Book List, Gardens and Gardening on September 12, 2011| 7 Comments »

The Garden in Spring 1914 - Henri Lebasque

As the leaves begin to turn and fall, as the nights get crisper and the air takes on a uniquely autumnal fragrance, I am thrilled to be leaving the long, hot days of summer behind. Summer has its charms but it remains my least favourite season. That said, I shall miss the bright variety of my summer garden even as I take pleasure this autumn in planning and planting for a colourful spring.

But even as I’m plotting what bulbs to use, what plants to move, I’m thinking even further ahead, into the dark, rainy months of winter when books are more suitable companions than trowel and pruning shears. To that end, I’ve composed a gardening-themed book list in three parts, to be presented over the next few weeks while I’m on vacation. There’s no real logic to how these books were selected. Some are histories of plants or people, others personal chronicles of gardening adventures. I have read none of them and cannot offer any personal guarantee of quality but was intrigued enough to have put them on my TBR list. Please feel free to suggest your own favourites and once I’m back I’ll do a fourth post devoted to them!

The Curious Gardener: A Year in the Garden by Anna Pavord
From what to do in each month and how to get the best from flowers, plants, herbs, fruit and vegetables, through reflections on the weather, soil, the English landscape and favourite old gardening clothes, to office greenery, spring in New York, waterfalls, Derek Jarman and garden design, Anna Pavord always has something interesting to say and says it with great style and candour.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Gardens by Vita Sackville-West
In this unique gardening chronicle Vita Sackville-West weaves together simple, honest accounts of her horticultural experiences throughout the year with exquisite writing and poetic description. Whether singing the praises of sweet-briar, cyclamen, Indian pinks and the Strawberry grape, or giving practical advice on pruning roses, planting bulbs, overcoming frosts and making the most of a small space, her writings on the art of good gardening are both instructive and delightful.

The Oxford Companion to the Garden edited by Patrick Taylor
This Companion is devoted to gardens of every kind and the people and ideas involved in their making. It combines a survey of the world’s gardens with articles on a range of topics, such as garden visiting, horticulture, scientific issues, and the social history of gardens, as well as biographies of garden designers, nurserymen, and others. Over half the entries are devoted to individual gardens, ranging from palace gardens such as Versailles to private gardens of outstanding design or plant interest, botanic gardens and arboreta, and late 20th-century land art. The geographical coverage is worldwide, with contributions from leading authorities and top garden writers from more than 25 countries.

Flower Hunters by Mary Gribbin and John Gribbin
From the Douglas-fir and the monkey puzzle tree, to exotic orchids and azaleas, many of the plants that are now so familiar to us were found in distant regions of the globe, often in wild and unexplored country, in impenetrable jungle, and in the face of hunger, disease, and hostile locals. It was specimens like these, smuggled home by the flower hunters, that helped build the great botanical collections, and lay the foundations for the revolution in our understanding of the natural world that was to follow. Here, the adventures of eleven such explorers are brought to life, describing not only their extraordinary daring and dedication, but also the lasting impact of their discoveries both on science, and on the landscapes and gardens that we see today.

Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants by Jennifer Potter
This elegantly written and gorgeously produced book is a portrait of the father and son who created an earthly Eden in the seventeenth century.

The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants by Anna Pavord
…traces the search for order in the natural world, a search that for hundreds of years occupied some of the most brilliant minds in Europe.

And a few garden-related books I have already read and reviewed:
The Gardener’s Year – Karel Čapek
Paths of Desire – Dominique Browning
Elizabeth and Her German Garden – Elizabeth von Arnim
Merry Hall – Beverley Nichols

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