What do your bookshelves say about you?

If a stranger walked into your home today and perused your bookshelves, what would he or she learn about you? In our house, the stranger might surmise that he or she had wandered into the home of someone suffering from a split personality disorder, until it was made clear that two avid readers live here. That is because my husband and I are on fairly opposite ends of the political spectrum and read entirely different types of books.

Given the abundance of cookbooks on my half of the bookshelves, the stranger would know that I like to spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen. Well-worn and smudged baking tomes that, upon opening sprinkle specks of flour like snow, stand shoulder to shoulder with general cookbooks that are somewhat pristine.  Thus, the stranger learns, I love to bake, but am less enthusiastic about cooking.

Moving along the shelves, the profile of a classics lover emerges, and yet hardly that of a literary snob. Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy and Edith Wharton keep company alongside Adriana Trigiani, Jodi Picoult and Penny Vincenzi. No bodice rippers (does that make me unromantic, I hope not), and no science fiction (far out I’m not I guess).

A fair amount of sports related material cues the stranger into my love for all things baseball.  The absence of celebrity or political memoirs reflects my general disinterest in the thoughts of those stars of Hollywood and the beltway. Instead, the memoirs that make the grade are, not surprisingly, those of foodies and athletes, and regular people with special stories to tell.

There are few psychological thrillers and no serial killer stories; some mysteries, but only of the cozy sort.  Each of these facts is evidence of my propensity to be easily upset by disturbing images -- a serious character flaw in the eyes of my childhood cousins, who wanted to see every horror film ever released.

Completing the tour, there are numerous non-fiction titles, but few involve the same subject matter. Lots of novels, not of one sort, but instead a broad mix:  literary works, women’s fiction, historical reads and books based in today’s pop culture, to name a few. And, since I also make a concerted effort to rotate some books in and out, the view is never quite the same at any given time. Come back and visit in a year and you might just meet someone new.

So, how about you? Do you recognize yourself in your books?

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which bloggers highlight one title that they are eagerly anticipating.  This week I chose:


Clara and Mr. Tiffany
Random House
Release Date:  January 2011



Goodreads description:
Against the unforgettable backdrop of New York near the turn of the twentieth century, from the Gilded Age world of formal balls and opera to the immigrant poverty of the Lower East Side, bestselling author Susan Vreeland again breathes life into a work of art in this extraordinary novel, which brings a woman once lost in the shadows into vivid color.

It’s 1893, and at the Chicago World’s Fair, Louis Comfort Tiffany makes his debut with a luminous exhibition of innovative stained-glass windows, which he hopes will honor his family business and earn him a place on the international artistic stage. But behind the scenes in his New York studio is the freethinking Clara Driscoll, head of his women’s division. Publicly unrecognized by Tiffany, Clara conceives of and designs nearly all of the iconic leaded-glass lamps for which he is long remembered.

Clara struggles with her desire for artistic recognition and the seemingly insurmountable challenges that she faces as a professional woman, which ultimately force her to protest against the company she has worked so hard to cultivate. She also yearns for love and companionship, and is devoted in different ways to five men, including Tiffany, who enforces to a strict policy: he does not hire married women, and any who do marry while under his employ must resign immediately. Eventually, like many women, Clara must decide what makes her happiest—the professional world of her hands or the personal world of her heart.

What are you waiting for?

A bit of history

THE LADY'S SLIPPER by Deborah Swift

My rating:  4 of 5 stars

Lately, I have been on a hot streak, one good book after the next. Each time I pick up a book now, I say to myself, will it end here? After reading The Lady’s Slipper, I am happy to report that lady luck still has my number. Set in the time immediately following King Charles II’s restoration to the throne, The Lady’s Slipper is a perfect blend of intrigue, history, and a little romance thrown in for good measure.

The novel's title references a rare orchid plant that is the axis on which much of the plot turns. Alice Ibbetson, a botanist and painter, learns of the plant’s appearance on the property of Richard Wheeler, a neighboring landowner.   Having witnessed horrific acts of violence in the bloody English Civil War, Wheeler wants to separate himself from both the royalists and the prospect of further violence and has given up his wealth for the simple life led by the Quakers.

Afraid that Wheeler will not care for the orchid properly, Alice steals it. In conspiracy with Sir Geoffrey Fisk, a rival of Wheeler’s who is interested in the orchid for his own purposes, Alice attempts to breed the plant, all the while denying the theft to Wheeler. When a mysterious older woman believed to be a sorceress is found murdered, Alice is framed by Fisk and Ella, a housemaid with designs on Alice’s husband.

In The Lady's Slipper, the author has neatly avoided what is for me, a shortcoming of some historical fiction -- that is, to pad such work with so much painstaking detail that at times you feel as though you are reading a textbook. Here, the history provides a frame of reference for a great story fueled by timeless motives of greed, envy, and lust, and the universal theme of redemption.  Ms. Swift has struck just the right balance, including enough history to support the narrative and make it thoroughly interesting and authentic, while never impeding plot flow.  The intertwined stories of the orchid’s fate, the mounting problems between the Quakers and the King’s men, and Alice’s murder trial and its aftermath make for a riveting narrative.  The action is peppered with lively descriptive passages including a ribald cuckolding procession, and the vicious mob scene Alice faces as she is brought to court.  The information about the botanicals was fascinating to me, and a unique feature in books of this genre.

The characters are also wonderful: I felt for the lovely Alice, haunted by the untimely loss of her parents and young sister. I loathed Sir Geoffrey and wanted to throttle Ella, although both had sympathetic facets to their back stories. In fact, one of the things I appreciated most about this author was the way in which she was able to make me feel for Sir Geoffrey in the end. The most interesting character to me is Sir Geoffrey’s son Stephen, a young man who was never comfortable in his life as the Squire’s son. When Stephen agrees to infiltrate the Quaker movement on behalf of royalists like his father, he discovers his true self ; at first he is devastated when Wheeler uncovers his treachery, but Stephen manages to come into his own in surprising fashion.   Top all of this off with a poignant epilogue, and you have the makings of a rich, escapist read.

So why only 4 stars you say? Without giving anything away, I will say that the reason that I did not rate this book higher is that there is one plot contrivance at the end which I felt was just too much of a coincidence for me. That point alone, however, does not diminish my enthusiasm for this book. In fact, I was excited to read in the author interview section of this edition that Ms. Swift is planning a book that features one of the characters from this novel. That is one I will definitely put on my wish list!

I received an advance reader's edition of this novel from the publisher, St. Martin's Press.  The Lady's Slipper will be released in December of 2010.

What to read when Dancing with the Stars is over

BALLROOM!
   Obsession & Passion inside the World of Competitive Dance
   by Sharon Savoy

My rating:  3.5 of 5 stars

Sharon Savoy is a world famous ballroom dancing champion who has won numerous titles during her twenty year career.  Originally trained as a professional ballet dancer under George Balanchine of the prestigious School of American Ballet, Savoy segued into the world of ballroom dancing after being sidelined with an ankle injury and she never looked back.  In addition to dancing all over the world, Savoy has won Blackpool, the "Wimbledon of ballroom dancing," four times in her event of Exhibition dance.  In this memoir of her life in dance, Savoy takes the reader inside the world of competitive dancing, and a fascinating world it is.

Apart from watching Dancing with the Stars (some seasons yes, some seasons, no), I did not know much  about this subject, but that did not stop me from zipping through this book in record time.  The writing is fully accessible to those with little dance background, and the anecdotes regarding the idiosyncrasies of the competitive dance world are quite interesting.  At times I felt as though I were sitting in the arena watching the competition unfold, so vivid were her descriptions; at other times, the book becomes quite intimate as Savoy recounts her battles with nerves, self-image, domineering partners, and the politics that can sometimes taint the world of competitive dance.  The book's drama even extends beyond the dance floor as Savoy reveals a shocking end to her 18-year marriage and dance partnership.

Savoy refers to those dancers who "leave it all on the dance floor," and I would venture to say that she has left most, if not all, on the pages of this book.  If you're looking for a behind the scenes look at a world to which few are given access, I would try this.

I was given a hardcover edition of this book for review by the publisher, University Press of Florida.  Ballroom! was released on October 31, 2010.

A new one from an old favorite

MY READING LIFE by Pat Conroy

My rating:  4 of 5 stars

I am sure that for most of us there are one or more authors whose books we would read no matter what.  Pat Conroy is one of those authors for me. I simply love his books. I even thoroughly enjoyed his nonfiction effort, My Losing Season, describing his senior year of college playing on The Citadel basketball team. Needless to say I was quite excited to find out that he had a new book coming out this month.  My Reading Life is a collection of essays about the people, books and life experiences that have most profoundly affected his life as an author.

Conroy starts, unsurprisingly, with his mother. Anyone familiar with his work knows that Conroy’s family and violent childhood occupy a central role in several of his novels, and undoubtedly impacted the rest. In writing about his mother and the influence she had on him first as a reader, and then later as a writer, Conroy also delivers a moving tribute to the novel Gone With the Wind, explaining to those north of the Mason-Dixon line exactly what Mitchell’s work means in the South.

There are stories about a beloved high school English teacher who helped to shape Conroy as a writer, man, and citizen of the world. Conroy introduces the reader to many colorful characters, including the owner of an Atlanta bookshop that became a mecca for Southern writers and the eccentric customers who frequented the store. Through their stories, Conroy beautifully elucidates what books meant to each of them, sentiments that will deeply resonate with book lovers everywhere.

Poignant moments abound in this retrospective, but there are also moments of pure hilarity including a school librarian who thought The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a football book, and who would have preferred that the books were never checked out.

In addition to the people that formed Conroy’s “reading life,” we learn about his writing process and the writer who most influenced him.  He expounds on what he deems the greatest novel ever written, how it changed him, and why everyone should read it. Along the way, I was surprised to learn that he does not count many writers as friends.

This is a relatively short book, and I finished it in two days.  Some of the essays are better than others.  The first half of the book I thought was uniformly terrific; compelling stories, beautifully written -- vintage Conroy. The second half was less so, with one or two of the essays being a little over the top for me. As a result, I finished the book with the feeling that hardcore Conroy fans will probably still love it, but I am less certain that someone who has never read his work would feel the same way. Nonetheless, as Conroy himself relates without apology, he is a “storyteller” at heart, and I still believe that few tell a story quite like he does. My Reading Life is no exception.

I received a bound manuscript edition from the publisher, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.  My Reading Life went on sale in November, 2010.

Who's counting?

Among readers, it is quite common to refer to a To Be Read (“TBR“) pile.  I would guess that that phrase has different meanings to different people. What exactly do you mean when you say you have a specific amount of books on this pile? Do you count the books on your nightstand only? Or do you include the books piled up on the floor, the top of the closet, and the shelves in the hall?

At the present moment, I have six books on the nightstand that I have not yet started, and two books that I am reading. In the living room there are 10 books piled on an end table that are next up on the list to be read. So, I would say that my TBR pile is 16 books.

But what about all the other books in the house that I have not read.  I do intend to read them at some point, so technically are they are part of the TBR pile? In that case, the number is easily over 150. Wow. Just seeing that number in print should be incentive enough to stop bringing books into the house for a while, no? But then I read a review, see a blog, hear an author speak, and it’s off to the races again -- or should I say the nearest book supplier.

I remember my mother reading to me as a child a story about a pot of soup that never could be emptied . . . it just kept refilling itself no matter how much anyone ate from it.  That was one of my favorite picture books. As an adult, I seem to have internalized that story when it comes to my beloved books in the form of the “To Be Read Pile.” How about you? How many books do you consider to be on your TBR pile? And does that pile ever stop growing?

A great discovery

A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP by Douglas Kennedy

My rating:  4.5 of 5 stars

Every once in a while, you stumble on an author who is extremely prolific, but for some reason, you just seem never to have read any of his books, or for that matter, even heard about them.  It is a great thing when that happens if you love the book, because then there is so much more to look forward to.  Happily, this happened to me recently upon reading A Special Relationship.

The novel's protagonist, Sally Goodchild, is an American foreign correspondent on assignment in Somalia when she meets fellow journalist, Englishman Tony Hobbs.  A whirlwind romance culminates in a surprise pregnancy, and the pair marry and move to London.  Domestic life gradually deteriorates as Sally suffers through a difficult pregnancy and Tony becomes increasingly distant.  After giving birth, Sally is hit with an extreme case of postpartum depression and is hospitalized for weeks.  Following her release, while still struggling with her illness, Sally's sister suffers a loss that causes Sally to fly home.  When she returns to London, Sally finds that Tony has taken their son and left to start a new life with another woman.  Alone in an unfamiliar city, Sally fights for her son against seemingly insurmountable odds, while at the same time coming to terms with her husband's profound betrayal.

Douglas Kennedy is one great storyteller.  This is a curl up on the sofa type of book, that you can fall into for hours because the story keeps you glued to the pages.  There is something entirely relaxing, enjoyable even, about reading a novel where the lines of right and wrong are so clearly drawn. There is no gray here: Tony is a bum, and Sally is the good guy. She's not perfect, but she is so plainly in the right.

Apart from the riveting nature of the story, Kennedy captures the female voice perfectly, a point surprising, I think for a male author.  Perhaps most compelling to me was the way he described the world inhabited by Sally during the throes of her depressive illness; he gets totally inside her mind and illuminates for those who have never been exposed to this particular issue, just how frightening and unpredictable this disease can be.  I was not surprised to read that he spent considerable time researching this disorder.

All of the characters are well-drawn.  Two of the most appealing, apart from Sally, are the lawyers who represented Sally:  barrister Maeve Doherty, a strong, smart woman sympathetic to Sally's cause, and my favorite, Nigel Clapp, her socially awkward, but legally adept solicitor. 

If you are looking for an engaging novel with a wholly satisfying ending, I highly recommend this one.  Mr. Kennedy now has one new fan, and I venture to say that you might become one too after reading this book.

As a point of information, the publisher has included two features, a reading group guide with suggested questions, and the transcript of an interview with the author.  Both features enhanced my appreciation of this book.

I received an advance reader's edition of this book from the publisher, Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.  The trade paperback edition has an on sale date of January 4, 2011.

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which bloggers highlight a book that they are eagerly anticipating.  This week I chose:



Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt
Release Date:  February 2011

















Amazon.com description:


July 1964. Chartwell House, Kent: Winston Churchill wakes at dawn. There’s a dark, mute “presence” in the room that focuses on him with rapt concentration.
It’s Mr. Chartwell.
Soon after, in London, Esther Hammerhans, a librarian at the House of Commons, goes to answer the door to her new lodger. Through the glass she sees a vast silhouette the size of a mattress.
It’s Mr. Chartwell.
Charismatic, dangerously seductive, Mr. Chartwell unites the eminent statesman at the end of his career and the vulnerable young woman. But can they withstand Mr. Chartwell’s strange, powerful charms and his stranglehold on their lives? Can they even explain who or what he is and why he has come to visit?
In this utterly original, moving, funny, and exuberant novel, Rebecca Hunt explores how two unlikely lives collide as Mr. Chartwell’s motives are revealed to be far darker and deeper than they at first seem.

I thought this one sounded intriguing.  What are you waiting for?