Poppy's Paperbacks 2012

[poppyshake]

 

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time.

 

Review: This was chosen for the May Reading Circle and very happy I was about it too. It's long been a favourite, I re-read it every couple of years or so and it never disappoints. As I said on the circle thread it always makes my 'Holiday Cottage Bookshelf List' which I've drawn up just incase I ever own one (you need to plan ahead ) I usually hate the sad old bookshelves in holiday cottages because they're full of abandoned books that nobody gives three straws for. Well MY bookshelf .. or bookcase because I'm never going to fit them all on one measly shelf .. is going to delight and amaze. Holidaymakers will not need to go anywhere .. they can just lounge on the chintzy chairs in front of the woodburner (this is a British holiday after all ) and be transported to better places (which you would hardly think possible). And definitely there on the shelves somewhere (I'm not going to alphabetize them .. that's too unrelaxing for a holiday shelf) will be I Capture the Castle ... and everyone will love it and love me for putting it there. It will be better than the view (which will be stunning) and more exciting even than the teatray (which quite frankly will make you drool.) They will tell all their friends and my holiday cottage will be booked up forever and what's more .. they will have re-discovered their love of reading all thanks to me. I have great faith in my book choices .. or I did but .. and this is a shock that I'm still reeling over .. apparently not everyone likes this book .. which of course leads me to think that there may possibly be other books on that much loved and well thought out bookcase that not only would people not like if they read but may already be on their 'hate with a vengeance' booklist and consequently just spying it sitting there on the shelf will make them mutinous and determined not to enjoy their holiday. I can imagine Henry James's The Ambassadors putting a serious dampener on my holiday arrival. That coupled with a few bad pub lunches could totally do for my cottage and I would be forced to holiday in it myself .. surrounded by books I've already read and too dispirited to make up the welcome tray.

 

You have to have faith in what you believe in though or you're done for (and the shelf would start getting random and resemble all those I've previously been disappointed in) and so I still put great faith in this story. I think it may hinge on what you make of the narrator and diarist Cassandra .. if you like her and like her way of telling the story then you will love it .. and this will be evident by the end of the first chapter .. probably even by the end of the first page. Cassandra along with her elder sister Rose (beautiful but discontented), brother Thomas (still at school), father Mortmain (a successful author of one book written many moons ago but losing the plot now .. literally) stepmother Topaz (not at all wicked but kind and a communer with nature though she overdoes the 'arty' persona somewhat) and Stephen (the son of their former housekeeper who still lives in despite his mothers death) live in extreme poverty in a crumbly old castle which becomes more ramshackle with every passing year. Most of them are quite bonkers .. or eccentric rather. Rather like Jane (in P&P) Rose can't be so beautiful for nothing (though alas she hasn't Jane's sweet disposition) and when two rich young men move into the neighbourhood .. she sees her chance to escape. Cassandra notes it all down.

 

More thoughts here .. May 2012 Reading Circle

 

10/10

 

The film is also worth seeing .. it doesn't follow the story religiously but it doesn't stray too far away either. Main cast as follows ..

Cassandra .. Romola Garai

Rose ... Rose Byrne

Mortmain ... Bill Nighy

Topaz ... Tara Fitzgerald

[poppyshake]

I've been reading Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own which is absolutely fantastic as you might expect (what do you mean no Steve?? ) when up came a name that I'd never heard of before ... Aphra Behn ... and Virginia speaks of her so glowingly that I felt ashamed for not having heard of her before .. like I must have been living under a rock or something. She's one of the first if not THE first professional female writer .. writing in the 1600's (you're all going to tell me you know aren't you?). Virginia has this to say about her ...

'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. It is she--shady and amorous as she was--who makes it not quite fantastic for me to say to you tonight: Earn five hundred a year by your wits.'

Anyway the really spooky bit .. the bit that really hammered it home in my dull brain was that when I went to bed last night the TV was on and just as I was closing the curtains and getting ready to switch it off .. the lady on it mentioned the name of Aphra Behn (it was a repeat on BBC4 of that mad woman historian's programme .. I will have to look up the name because I always get confused and call it 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' which is something quite different .. ah yes it's called 'Harlots, Housewives and Heroines' and I've seen bits of it before but usually it's about royal mistresses) .. and she quoted Virginia's words above as proof of how influential and important Aphra was. It was just so odd because I had only read that very passage earlier in the day .. and then here it was again and here she was .. picture and everything. Isn't life strange? If my TBR wasn't already groaning under it's own weight then I'd definitely be tempted to add some of Aphra's titles to it ... they are supposed to be a little bit saucy though who knows what passed for sauce in the 1600's. If I come across anything though I will take it as a further sign to snatch it up straight away. If I hadn't been reading A Room of One's Own then the TV would have been switched off because the name meant nothing (and I was tired) .. as it was I sat on the edge of the bed and watched the entire piece. Aphra Behn kept me up last night .. but as I haven't been laying flowers on her tomb as I ought I really can't complain about it.

I have learnt something .. isn't it wonderful? It gives me hope that a successful Lemon Meringue Pie is not beyond my capabilities.

[Kylie]

I love stories like that. I had a similar thing happen yesterday, when I read in my book of literary trivia that Jonathan Swift was a dean at St Pat's church in Dublin. Later that day, I saw Timstar's post about visiting that church, and he made the same connection.

 

I have Aphra Behn's Oroonoko on my TBR pile (it's on the 1001 list). I must confess that I thought Aphra was a man until you just mentioned otherwise. I know Ben has read Oroonoko, and I think he enjoyed it. It's a very slim book but I have found it daunting because of the time it was written in. I may be wrong, but I think/expect the writing style might make it difficult to read.

[willoyd]

I've been reading Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own which is absolutely fantastic as you might expect (what do you mean no Steve?? ) when up came a name that I'd never heard of before ... Aphra Behn ... and Virginia speaks of her so glowingly that I felt ashamed for not having heard of her before .. like I must have been living under a rock or something. She's one of the first if not THE first professional female writer .. writing in the 1600's (you're all going to tell me you know aren't you?).

 

She is a regular feature of English Lit courses, which is how I came to hear of her, although in actual fact there were quite a number of others around at the same time (e.g. Eliza Haywood, Margaret Cavendish, Delarivier Manley, Mary Pix), even if we've barely heard of many/most/all of them today.

Edited June 8, 2012 by willoyd

[Kylie]

We'll get a nice .. out of commission .. red double decker and give it a makeover. I don't know about drugs .. I might need a sedative

 

Do you mean you might need a sedative to deal with us?

 

Frankie, did you know that there's a stereotype about the English and bathing?

Is there?? ... isn't that the French? I'm always the last to know

 

I've heard the English say that about the French, but we Aussies say it about you English folk. I think we also say it about the French, but we enjoy picking on English people more.

 

If you really want to stay the night there Kylie it's worth chancing your arm .. they can only say no and they might very well say yes

 

It looks like there are a lot of nooks and crannies there, so maybe I could just hide when closing time rolls around.

[Roland Butter]

 

I've heard the English say that about the French, but we Aussies say it about you English folk. I think we also say it about the French, but we enjoy picking on English people more.

 

 

As in "Where's the safest place to hide your wallet? Under the soap in a Pom's house". That's actually quite funny.

[Kylie]

Hahaha! I haven't actually heard that one. Very funny.

[poppyshake]

I love stories like that. I had a similar thing happen yesterday, when I read in my book of literary trivia that Jonathan Swift was a dean at St Pat's church in Dublin. Later that day, I saw Timstar's post about visiting that church, and he made the same connection.

 

I have Aphra Behn's Oroonoko on my TBR pile (it's on the 1001 list). I must confess that I thought Aphra was a man until you just mentioned otherwise. I know Ben has read Oroonoko, and I think he enjoyed it. It's a very slim book but I have found it daunting because of the time it was written in. I may be wrong, but I think/expect the writing style might make it difficult to read.

I expect it will be a challenge but because you've said it's a very slim book .. I am encouraged

She is a regular feature of English Lit courses, which is how I came to hear of her, although in actual fact there were quite a number of others around at the same time (e.g. Eliza Haywood, Margaret Cavendish, Delarivier Manley, Mary Pix), even if we've barely heard of many/most/all of them today.

Ahh now if I had studied harder at school and had the same interests then as now I probably would have learnt about her earlier. Given what Virginia has to say about the prejudices against and hardships for women writers in the 1700/1800's ... goodness only knows what Aphra and the others had to contend with.

[poppyshake]

Do you mean you might need a sedative to deal with us?

No .. you might need to give me one that's all

I've heard the English say that about the French, but we Aussies say it about you English folk. I think we also say it about the French, but we enjoy picking on English people more.

Well I never I don't think we're soap dodgers in general .. though it can be a bit whiffy in Tesco's on a hot day We might be smelly but look at all the great people we've produced ... Austen & the Brontes and Dickens .. The Beatles & the Stones and the Kinks ... Colin Firth etc etc ... and you've given us Kylie Minogue and Rolf Harris .. that's where being clean gets you

It looks like there are a lot of nooks and crannies there, so maybe I could just hide when closing time rolls around.

Take Jasper with you .. there's always a certain amount of wildlife sharing the space also .. though I expect things have improved on that score now Sylvia runs things.

[Kylie]

No .. you might need to give me one that's all

 

No way! I would never sedate you. I will be encouraging you even more.

 

Well I never I don't think we're soap dodgers in general .. though it can be a bit whiffy in Tesco's on a hot day We might be smelly but look at all the great people we've produced ... Austen & the Brontes and Dickens .. The Beatles & the Stones and the Kinks ... Colin Firth etc etc ... and you've given us Kylie Minogue and Rolf Harris .. that's where being clean gets you

 

Touche! I would certainly never kick a smelly Beatle, Kink, Stone or Firth out of my bed. You're welcome to keep Minogue and Harris.

 

(I don't for a second think that any of you are soap dodgers. It's probably a leftover thing from Dickensian times. Or maybe we completely made it up because, as I said, we like to tease you. )

 

Take Jasper with you .. there's always a certain amount of wildlife sharing the space also .. though I expect things have improved on that score now Sylvia runs things.

 

Oh good heavens. Jasper would have us kicked out in no time at all. He would probably demolish the whole shop.

[poppyshake]

 

Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs - Jeremy Mercer

 

Waterstone's Synopsis: 'Shakespeare and Company' in Paris is one of the world's most famous bookshops. The original store opened in 1921 and became known as the haunt of literary greats, such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Bernard Shaw, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and James Joyce. Sadly the shop was forced to close in 1941, but that was not the end of 'Shakespeare and Company'...In 1951 another bookshop, with a similar free-thinking ethos, opened on the Left Bank. Called 'Le Mistral', it had beds for those of a literary mindset who found themselves down on their luck and, in 1964, it resurrected the name 'Shakespeare and Company' and became the principal meeting place for Beatnik poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, through to Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell. Today the tradition continues and writers still find their way to this bizarre establishment, one of them being Jeremy Mercer. With no friends, no job, no money and no prospects, the thrill of escape from his life in Canada soon palls but, by chance, he happens upon the fairytale world of 'Shakespeare and Co' and is taken in. What follows is his tale of his time there, the curious people who came and went, the realities of being down and out in the 'city of light' and, in particular, his relationship with the beguiling octogenarian owner, George Whitman.

 

Review: This is Jeremy's account of the time he spent at 'Shakespeare & Co', sleeping amongst the books. Like a lot of things that happen in life, he only found himself there by chance (or so he says). He left Canada (and his sad and rather seedy life) in a bit of a hurry after a death threat and was at a loose end wandering around Paris in the rain, with no money in his pockets, when he happened upon the bookstore. It has a reputation for taking in waif and strays .. waif and stray writers that is .. and luckily Jeremy had had some crime fiction published. The owner, George Whitman, gives him the job of trying to get rid of one of the residents who has long outstayed his welcome .. "you know, I don't normally ask writers to do anything other than make their beds in the morning, but you ... I think you're different." .. Then as we ate our soup he explained the first great task that would be asked of me. It involved the unusual case of an old poet and an unpleasant eviction'. Soon the existing residents are showing him the ropes and teaching him how to scrounge food and deal with light fingered customers. There's a sort of hierarchy at the shop depending on how long you've been there and how much of a favourite with George you are and some of the residents are quite territorial and jealous of newcomers. It has to be said too that the shop is a bit on the ramshackle side .. 'the bookstore weaves a thin line between romantic tumble and filthy sty, and the delicate balance is forever endangered by the fact that George's financial modesty extends to bookstore maintenance. He uses guests with a passing knowledge of plumbing or carpentry to execute repairs, he recycles wood and shelves from the neighbours garbage and shuns the rainbow of supermarket cleaning supplies in favour of cold water and old newspapers ... one respected magazine editor who'd been invited to stay in the third floor apartment lasted all of a quarter of an hour before fleeing to the sanctuary of a hotel. The cockroach scuttling across his pillow served as an early warning: a mouldy bowl of stewed apples on the counter proved to be the coup de grace'.

 

George is an absolute legend, a complete enigma and quite shadowy so although there's a reasonable amount of background information about him you don't feel you know him that well but then that's probably all anyone ever did know because he's quite unpredictable. There are mad hatter tea parties, story telling on the banks of the Seine, violent haggling at the church rummage sales (the priests would sometimes hide books from George as they didn't approve of him buying them and selling them on at a profit .. this led to many an undignified tussle) and a wishing well fund for the needy (with a sign saying 'Give what you can, take what you need, George'). George is both gregarious and reclusive, he might growl and hide away or he might be in the kitchen cooking one of his infamous pancake breakfasts .. in this way he reminded me very much of wise old Mr Badger in Wind in the Willows. Despite his advanced age (at this point George is 86) he is as giddy as a teenager over a pretty face and falls in love quite easily and young women seem to fall for him too .. he must have been a charismatic old devil. This is Jeremy's story and so it doesn't focus totally on the bookstore but the main bulk of the book is about his time there. It goes without saying, but I will anyway that anyone with the slightest interest in the bookstore will love it. I'm too squeamish to ever spend the night there .. even if they would let me .. so reading about it (and visiting it ) is the next best thing.

 

9/10

 

NB: I believe the book also goes under the title 'Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co'.

[~Andrea~]

Great review poppy, it sounds really good. Might have to pop it on the wish list. I take it it's a true story? It almost sounds like fiction.

[poppyshake]

Great review poppy, it sounds really good. Might have to pop it on the wish list. I take it it's a true story? It almost sounds like fiction.

Thanks Andrea Yes it's a true story, though it may have been embellished a bit .. these writers can't help it

[Kylie]

Great review, Poppyshake. Sounds like they definitely wouldn't let me stay there though (and I'm not so sure now that I would want to - apart from the cockroaches, there's a hierarchy among the residents - that's not for me).

 

I recently 'liked' Shakespeare & Co on Facebook and now I see their updates and am continually jealous of the various things they have going on there.

[vodkafan]

Good review Poppy, sounds great

[poppyshake]

 

Cakes and Ale - Somerset Maugham

 

Book Blurb: Cakes and Ale is both a wickedly satirical novel about contemporary literary poseurs and a skillfully crafted study of freedom. As he traces the fortunes of Edward Driffield and his extraordinary wife Rosie, one of the most delightful heroines of twentieth-century literature. Maugham's sardonic wit and lyrical warmth expertly combine in this accomplished and unforgettable novel.

 

Review: This is going to be quite a short review (hurrah I hear you cry ) The fact being that I liked the story .. it was interesting and well written .. but I didn't love it. I didn't find it a page turner and as a result the book spent more time on the bedside table than it did in my hands. One of the reasons for this I think was that I didn't much care for central character and narrator William Ashenden. William has been asked, by the writer Edward Driffield's second wife, to write a biography of her recently deceased husband .. and this starts him off reminiscing about his younger days when he was intimate with Edward and his first wife Rosie. I did like Rosie Driffield and thought the story improved immeasurably whenever she was in it but alas she disappeared for chunks at a time and the story lost it's fizz for me. I can see that it was quite daring for it's time (published 1930) and it has an interesting subtext in that the characters of Edward Driffield and fellow writer Alroy Kear are said to be (unflatteringly) based on Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole (though Maugham says not) but I didn't find it as wickedly satirical, sardonically witty or lyrically warm as the blurb suggested. I think both Waugh and Mitford do it better .. or at least going on this story. I bought a rather large collection of Maugham's books but I don't, as yet, see it as too much of a problem. Though this is in the 1001 it might not be the one I'd like best. I'm probably being a bit mean because it wasn't at all bad and it gave me plenty of things to smile over but I need something to shake, rattle and roll me at the moment and this didn't. Possibly I've read it at the wrong time .. it came to hand too conveniently and I really should have thought harder about my next book choice.

 

It's bad enough that it wasn't about ale but not to be about cake either .. shocking!

 

7/10

[poppyshake]

Great review, Poppyshake. Sounds like they definitely wouldn't let me stay there though (and I'm not so sure now that I would want to - apart from the cockroaches, there's a hierarchy among the residents - that's not for me).

Thanks Kylie I don't think there'd be a problem there with hierarchy now that Sylvia is running things and perhaps it's less lousy too

I recently 'liked' Shakespeare & Co on Facebook and now I see their updates and am continually jealous of the various things they have going on there.

Me too .. doesn't it all look fantastic? I wonder if they'll have any stuff going on when I'm there .. I'll have to see if I can find out.

Good review Poppy, sounds great

Thank you very much VF

[poppyshake]

I bought my first book in ages today .. just a secondhand book from a charity shop but even so I didn't intend it .. they sell secondhand furniture and I was looking for a bookshelf but there, amongst their books (I just glanced at them on the off chance you understand), was a great big housebrick called .. Sylvia Plath Letters Home .. and it was just £1. Oh happy day!

[chesilbeach]

I'm just popping in to say that I've just written my review of The Children's Book and had a search for your review as I remember you saying you'd read it. I know it was in your 2010 reading list, but thought I would mention it here to save resurrecting an old thread. We had very similar views in the end! I too felt there was too much actual history, and it took me out of the story of the characters. That's summed up a huge review I've written over in my own reading thread, but wanted to say, it seems we are of one mind on this one!

 

Well done on your charity shop find - what a bargain!

[Ruth]

Great review of Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs, Poppy I have this book on my shelf and it stares at me reproachfully (I swear it does), when I walk past it, because it's really been there too long. Literally left on the shelf!! Looking forward to reading it now

[poppyshake]

I'm just popping in to say that I've just written my review of The Children's Book and had a search for your review as I remember you saying you'd read it. I know it was in your 2010 reading list, but thought I would mention it here to save resurrecting an old thread. We had very similar views in the end! I too felt there was too much actual history, and it took me out of the story of the characters. That's summed up a huge review I've written over in my own reading thread, but wanted to say, it seems we are of one mind on this one!

Well done for getting through it Claire .. not that I didn't like it .. I did but it was a trial at times and, like you, I felt there was a smaller, much more readable, book trying to get out. Her writing does impress though .. I have Possession and keep meaning to read it .. if only I could be as disciplined as you

Great review of Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs, Poppy I have this book on my shelf and it stares at me reproachfully (I swear it does), when I walk past it, because it's really been there too long. Literally left on the shelf!! Looking forward to reading it now

Thanks Ruth it had been on my shelf for a while too .. I hope you like it as much as I did .. or more

Haha .. I have lots of books that grumble at me when I go past ... Carter Beats the Devil is practically mutinous

[chesilbeach]

Well done for getting through it Claire .. not that I didn't like it .. I did but it was a trial at times and, like you, I felt there was a smaller, much more readable, book trying to get out. Her writing does impress though .. I have Possession and keep meaning to read it .. if only I could be as disciplined as you

That's exactly the point I was trying to make in my review, you've just put if far more succinctly than I managed!

[poppyshake]

That's exactly the point I was trying to make in my review, you've just put if far more succinctly than I managed!

Not at all. Your review bought memories of the book flooding back ... you summed it up .. good and bad .. perfectly

[poppyshake]

Literary Toast Quotations (Part One)

 

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to find a toast quotation in a book .. I would even go so far as to say a toast quotation can elevate a book from a 6 say to a 9 (which gives you some idea of how reliable my reviews are ) Here is where I'm going to endeavour to keep track of them (I'm pretty certain that it won't include much, if any, plot spoiling because toast is very non-threatening .. it's very sort of background .. it's not key. If it was poisoned toast say it might be key .. but I'll be careful to put spoiler tags on should that happen .. but then now I've told you that you'll know .. oh dear On reflection, it would have to be an evil plotline that allowed poisoned toast to feature and I don't read evil books so I think we're safe there.

 

I will try to (w)rack? my brains to think of past toast quotations (because I did used to keep a note of them .. alas .. where though?) but I'll start with my absolute favourite .. so far anyway.

 

Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame: 'When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one's ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries. (Personally, I don't think this could ever be bettered, but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong.)

 

Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne: He could spell his own name WOL, and he could spell Tuesday so that you knew it wasn't Wednesday but his spelling goes all to pieces over delicate words like measles and buttered toast'. (Hmm not impressed ... but then, whatever he says, he can't spell his own name so no surprise really. As long as he can MAKE toast though it's not too much of a failing .. I wouldn't be asking him to write my letters for me though .. not if he can't spell toast .. they'd make no sense at all.)

 

Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford: 'I say Fanny's food! Toast at every meal! Not Yorkshire pudding! Why can't we live with Fanny always - the heaven of it here! Why can't I be you?' (I'm very much in agreement here though, I have to say, that I wouldn't mind Yorkshire pudding turning up at every meal .. well maybe not every meal .. breakfast would be disagreeable and that's where toast wins out .. there's never a bad time to eat it!)

 

Mockingbird - Walter Tevis: 'I'm sorry, sir, but the Super Shef machine is not working properly today. We have Syn-eggs and monkey bacon and Golden Brown Toast' (I didn't capitalise it .. Walter did .. and that elevates him in my opinion ) .. it continues ... 'For a moment the man looked as though he would scream. But instead he reached into his breast pocket, took out a little silver pill holder, and swallowed three sopors. After a moment his face became serene again and he ordered toast'. (now this is very odd ... I would need sedating if toast WASN'T on the menu but perhaps that's just me and anyway I'm very relieved to find that, whatever else happens, toast is still very much a feature in the future .. there may be laser guns but there will still be toast .. that's a comfort isn't it?)

 

How To Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran: 'So when women fret over what to wear in the morning, it's not because we want to be an international style icon. We're not trying to be Victoria Beckham - not least because there's a gigantic pile of toast downstairs with our name on it, and we've cracked a smile in the last fortnight'. (gigantic pile of toast )

 

Lady Into Fox - David Garnett: 'When she was dressed he carried her downstairs and they had their breakfast together, she sitting up to table with him, drinking her saucer of tea, and taking her food from his fingers, or at any rate being fed by him. She was still fond of the same food that she had been used to before her transformation, a lightly boiled egg or slice of ham, a piece of buttered toast or two, with a little quince and apple jam'. (So you see, if you turn into a fox all is not lost .. you can still enjoy toast.)

Edited November 9, 2012 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

You've just reminded me that I was watching a show about Stephen Fry's favourite gadgets last night, and I thought of you when the toaster appeared on the list. It wasn't in the #1 spot I'm afraid, but it's there nevertheless.

 

I don't think I knew you had read Mockingbird! Did you only read it recently?