Poppy's Paperbacks 2011

[poppyshake]

Aww, you are just the sweetest thing, Poppyshake. So is Alan, from comments you've made. You'll get through this undoubtedly and one day soon it'll just be a bad memory.

No way! You're definitely a rock. I like your positive attitude.

Thanks Kylie .. we are trying to buoy each other up .. one of the more bizarre ways is sporadically bursting into song and giving full (hideous) voice to 'Living on a Prayer' by Bon Jovi ... we always start with ... 'we've got to hold on to what we've got ...' and we go right through to the chorus which, in our hands, is unbelievably bad but it makes us laugh and we somehow feel better. My mum sent a giant bag of M&M's today for cheering up purposes

[poppyshake]

I'm doing a different booklist to you Poppyshake but have answered with PG Wodehouse (particularly the Jeeves and Wooster series) for a book that makes me happy. I'm also a great fan of Bill Bryson, he is side-splittingly funny.

Sorry to read your hubby has been made redundant and hope everything works out real soon

Thanks Poppy I'm sure things will work out fine, our two brains almost make one good one .. so I'm confident

 

I love Wodehouse, nobody else's books make me smile as much as his do and I agree with you that the Jeeves and Wooster books are his best .. I have such a soft spot for Bertie even though he is a bit of a silly billy. Bill's books are great too, I love his sense of humour.

[poppy]

I love Wodehouse, nobody else's books make me smile as much as his do and I agree with you that the Jeeves and Wooster books are his best .. I have such a soft spot for Bertie even though he is a bit of a silly billy.

I love Bertie too, I always think he is so put upon and used by his friends and relatives (Aunt Agatha and Aunt Dahlia!) but he never gets nasty and still helps out with their problems. He is almost unfailingly cheerful. I feel he is sorely under-appreciated

[poppyshake]

I love Bertie too, I always think he is so put upon and used by his friends and relatives (Aunt Agatha and Aunt Dahlia!) but he never gets nasty and still helps out with their problems. He is almost unfailingly cheerful. I feel he is sorely under-appreciated

I love the formidable aunt's .. it makes me almost wish I had some, my aunt's are all easy going and fairly laid back .. they never make demands on me or summon me to visit and they definitely don't (as far as is known) conduct human sacrifices by the light of the full moon .. I almost feel I'm missing out I'd love Bertie to be my cousin or brother even though I expect, at times, he'd infuriate the life out of me ... but, for the most part, he'd cheer me up no end.

[poppyshake]

Both these next two books had the same effect on me, I liked them and enjoyed reading them but my cup didn't runneth over.

 

 

Hotel Du Lac - Anita Brookner

 

Waterstones Synopisis: Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating spinsterhood is renewed...This book is the winner of the Booker Prize in 1984.

 

Review: This is a quiet sort of a book, nothing much happens, it's just a day to day recounting of Edith's stay at the Hotel du Lac. Edith is a novelist and she has gone to the Hotel du Lac to escape a rather embarrassing and messy situation at home, a situation that is relayed to us in snatches throughout the book. At first she only casually observes the other guests but bit by bit they begin to intrigue her and she starts to interact with them. Among the guests is Mr Neville who offers Edith the sort of marriage that most women would run a mile from (the 'we don't love each other but we do like each other, and if you put on an appearance of being the perfect wife, and turn a blind eye to my dalliances, then I'm prepared to do the same for you' type of marriage) but Edith is tempted as the last thing she wants to become is an old maid and in any case, wouldn't this sort of marriage be more comfortable and less exhausting? The book is only short and although not exactly riveting, Edith does get under your skin and you do find yourself caring about what becomes of her. There are some well depicted secondary characters, I liked Mrs Pusey and her daughter Jennifer - a couple of snobby shopaholics who, to all intents and purposes, are attractive, young and devoted to each other but on closer acquaintance are not perhaps as young, or as devoted, as first appears but I was unsure about Mr Neville, he seemed a bit cardboard and I couldn't quite believe in him. It's humorous, not in a side splitting way but in a smiling often way and it's beautifully written too but a little patchy, on the whole I loved the writing but there were bits where I drifted.

 

8/10

 

 

The Hand that First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell

 

Waterstones Synopsis: When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of motherhood with sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don't tally with his parents' version of events. As Ted begins to search for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could ever have expected.

 

Review: I thought this one started better than it ended but nevertheless it was an enjoyable and absorbing read. I have no idea why but I find I'm struggling with contemporary stories at the moment, especially those true to life, I'm finding it a struggle to keep interested. This story is split into separate chapters, alternately focusing on Lexie and Innes in the 1950's and Elina and Ted in the present day (I was excited frankie that Elina was Finnish but, alas, she may as well of been from Timbuktu for all it told me about Finland .. there were just one or two slight references.) You know that eventually the two worlds are going to collide and, unusually, I worked it out well in advance, which put a bit of a damper on the reveal. Rather like the last book there were times when I couldn't put this book down and times when I was bored and wanting it to finish. I was more drawn to the story of Lexie than of Elina (which is always the problem with multiple storylines, there is always one story that you prefer and it makes the other storyline/s irksome) but I suspect that was more to do with the 1950's setting because I didn't particularly like her or anyone else for that matter. It sounds as if I'm being ultra critical and I'm not meaning to be because I suspect this is probably one of the better contemporary stories out there. It starts with 'Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head tossing impatience, that something is about to happen' and I was hoping it would continue in the same vein which it did, but not consistantly. The characters must have got under my skin because I found myself wanting to give them all a good kick in the pants at various times but, for all that, I still felt intrigued enough by them to want to know how their stories played out.

 

8/10

[poppyshake]

 

O Beloved Kids : Rudyard Kipling's Letters to his Children

 

Amazon's Synopsis: From 1906 to 1915, Rudyard Kipling wrote a series of letters to his children, his "dear people" as he called them. For Josephine, his daughter, who died at the age of six, the grief of whose loss almost stopped him from continuing with the stories; for his son John, who would become a young officer and be lost in the trenches of World War I (Kipling could not forgive himself for having pushed the lad into the service); and for his second daughter, Elsie, who would marry but had no children of her own.Displaying the same verve and wit as the "Just So Stories", the letters are peppered with many impromptu pen and ink sketches, stories and poems, as well as brilliantly graphic descriptions of travel in Europe, Egypt and Canada. Perhaps most moving are the letters between father and son written by Kipling to his son John, who was to be killed in 1915, just a few weeks before his eighteenth birthday.

 

Review: Rudyard corresponds with his children exactly as you would expect, it's a bit like reading his 'Just So Stories' .. they're humorous, sometimes moralistic and occasionally dictatorial. You can't help thinking that Elsie (or Bird) got the best of it, being a girl, not much was expected of her and although she features much less in this book than John does (for the simple reason that Bird was more often at home) when she is sent letters it's usually because she's off skiing or on a jaunt. It's Rudyard's letters to John that the book is mainly concerned with. Whilst John is off boarding at school, Rudyard sends him news from home .. including little humorous stories with sketches to match but often there's a little lecture included (this is when Rudyard puts on what he calls his 'Mr Campbell' persona) and John is urged to study harder and basically buck up and be a good chap. At first I was inclined to be a bit resentful on John's behalf but then I realised that Rudyard only wanted him to be the best that he could be and instill some decent manners into him. These lectures apart, Rudyard writes to his son very much as you would to a friend, treating him almost as an equal (though at the same time despairing of his spelling.) Until I read the foreward (which I never do until the end) Rudyard's allusions to John avoiding 'beastliness' completely washed over me .. I thought he was alluding to the sort of beastliness that went on sometimes at Malory Towers (you know, someone cheating in exams, or stealing someone's pocket money) but apparently he was alluding to homosexuality. Well, again, I guess he was only trying to steer him in, what he thought was, the right direction given the times he was writing in. There's also a few unpalatable racial terms such as you might read, in Mark Twain's work of the same era.

 

Rudyard was a great patriot and believed fervently in men doing their duty, he wrote pamphlets and made speeches promoting recruitment. As John approached seventeen he was instrumental in pulling strings to get him a commission in the Irish Guards (John had been rejected already by both navy and army, due to his chronic short sightedness) with devastating results. John was killed in the Battle of Loos, during torrential rain, on his first day of combat. His body was never recovered and Rudyard was broken hearted ... 'he did not need the many gloating letters he received holding him accountable for his son's death to consider the possibility of his personal guilt.' In the last part of the book we are able to read John's letters home .. which always start 'Dear old man' or 'Dear old things' and this touch makes the book all the more affecting. Although I'm sure that Rudyard did continue to write to Bird after John's death, John's last letter home, written the evening before his death, is the last letter in the book. He ends it with ... 'You have no idea what enormous issues depend on the next few days. This will be my last letter most likely for some time as we won't get any time for writing this next week, but I will try and send Field post cards. Well so long old dears, Dear love John.' Rudyard wrote an epitaph for John a couple of years later which said .. 'If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.'

I was all the more ridiculously affected by having Daniel Radcliffe in mind whilst reading about John, Daniel played the part of John in the drama 'My Boy Jack' which was on TV a couple of years ago.

 

The letters are full of fun and, though they are at times a little censorious, it's clear that they were written by someone who loved his children deeply and wanted only the best for them.

[Janet]

Great review, Poppy. I like the sound of this. I was going to ask if you'd seen My Boy Jack. I have it on DVD - it's so powerful and makes me cry every time! David Haig, who wrote the screenplay and played Rudyard in the film is a very underrated actor!

 

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”

Not this tide.

“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

 

“Has any one else had word of him?”

Not this tide.

For what is sunk will hardly swim,

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

 

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”

None this tide,

Nor any tide,

Except he did not shame his kind —

Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

 

Then hold your head up all the more,

This tide,

And every tide;

Because he was the son you bore,

And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ld69y_g28o

 

Brilliant.

[poppyshake]

Oh Janet .. that's set me off Yes I love David Haig and thought he was wonderful in the part (and the screenplay was fantastic.) You don't see him often enough. I saw him once in a very controversial drama by Alan Bennett (one from the second series of 'Talking Heads') .. David played a paedophile .. which must be one of the most unsympathetic roles ever, and yet, even though I was horrified, I was also moved .... it was a most extraordinary performance (and a monologue so no help from other actors) It takes a brave actor to carry that off.

[poppyshake]

A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

Amazon's Synopsis:Hemingway's memories of his life as an unknown writer living in Paris in the 1920s are deeply personal, warmly affectionate and full of wit. Looking back not only at his own much younger self, but also at the other writers who shared Paris with him - literary 'stars' like James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein - he recalls the time when, poor, happy and writing in cafes, he discovered his vocation.

Review: 'If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.'
It's a good idea to read this in conjunction with Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas as it focuses on the same place and time and is written in a very similar spare style (and you get to read Ernest's version of their friendship and subsequent fall out,) so much so that it made me wonder how much influence Gertrude had had on Hemingway's subsequent writings. This is Hemingway's reflections on life in Paris in the 1920's, sunny, youthful days spent writing, drinking and arguing in the cafe's. It's about fishing and horse racing, his friendships with other writers particularly Scott Fitzgerald, and his relationship with his wife Hadley which begins sweetly but ends rather sadly.

There's no great insights into Hemingway here but, just like Gertrudes book, it's an evocative snapshot of the age. Food and drink feature heavily ... a struggling writer/artist could still eat and drink relatively handsomely in Paris and it makes you long for lazy, warm, summer days spent dipping bread into good olive oil. The book is full of comedic anecdotes, especially about his time spent with Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and Ford Madox Ford ... and you can't help but laugh at these perfectly intelligent, well read men, squabbling like toddlers and trying to score points. There was an innocence and a hopefulness to it all though and you can see why Hemingway is so wistful about it, it seemed a golden time. I didn't quite believe all he said and was inclined to take his assertions with a pinch of salt. He has a habit of painting himself as more sinned against than sinning, but he becomes more honest when he reflects on his marriage to Hadley .. though nothing is gone through in detail, like Gertrude, he gives you just enough to make you curious.

There's a new 'restored edition' which I'd like to read in the future.

8/10

Edited January 15, 2014 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

Ooh, this book is going straight onto my wishlist! I'm really interested in the Parisian literary scene around that period; particularly Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co bookshop (does she get a mention?) I already have one book about her shop, and there is a volume of her letters that is on my wishlist.

[poppyshake]

Ooh, this book is going straight onto my wishlist! I'm really interested in the Parisian literary scene around that period; particularly Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co bookshop (does she get a mention?) I already have one book about her shop, and there is a volume of her letters that is on my wishlist.

Yes, 'Shakespeare & Co' get's it's own (small .. but then they're all small) chapter and Sylvia is talked about throughout the book, Hemingway has nothing but praise for her. I'd like to read more about her too so thanks for pointing out that she has a book of letters Kylie

[poppyshake]

 

Virginia Woolf - Quentin Bell

 

Amazon Synopsis: As the nephew of Virginia Woolf, Quentin Bell enjoyed an initimacy with his subject granted to few biographers. Originally published in two volumes in 1972, his acclaimed biography describes Virginia Woolf's family and childhood; her earliest writings; the formation of the Bloomsbury Group and her marriage to Leonard Woolf. Compelling, moving and entertaining, Quentin Bell's biography was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize. It is a fitting tribute to a remarkable and complex woman, one of the greatest writers of the century.

 

Review: I was so thrilled when I found this biography of Virginia in a local junk shop that I didn't study it properly. I was more than half way through reading it (and I was thinking .. 'he's going to have to cover an awful lot of ground in the second half') when my suspicions were aroused and I took a good look at the cover ... nothing was printed on the front bar the title and the author but on the spine the dreaded words 1882-1912 appeared, meaning that this was the first book of a two volume publication .. oh fiddlesticks!!

 

It's really frustrating because the chances of me getting the second volume to match are slim, I will either have to buy the two volume set (just to read the second volume) or the more modern one volume publication .. unless I am lucky enough to find the second book when I go book rummaging in the future. It's all the more annoying because I enjoyed it so much and was looking forward to reading about her at her most interesting (I.e. her writing years.)

 

Anyhow, back to the book itself, Quentin .. who is Virginia's nephew .. writes with great frankness and wit. It's clear he knows his subject well and you feel as if you are getting an insiders view. He says, in the foreword, that Leonard persuaded him to attempt this biography and that in itself gives you confidence that he must have been deemed worthy of the job. He doesn't treat his subject with kid gloves though, the portrait he paints of Virginia is an honest one, she could be difficult, temperamental and snobbish but she was also shy, sensitive and incredibly loyal. His account of her childhood is fascinating, she was a natural storyteller ('words, when they came, were to be then, and the rest of her life, her chosen weapons',) and also a natural clown earning herself the lifelong nickname of 'goat' but her life was peppered with tragedies, insecurities and ill health which all had their adverse effect. One of her greatest good fortunes, I think, was marrying Leonard .. up until then the only man she could ever see herself marrying was Lytton Strachey and that, I imagine, would have been disastrous (not least because he was gay) but Leonard seemed the perfect mate for her (if any man could be.) This first volume leaves off just as Virginia, after much soul searching, has agreed to accept him, Quentin calls it the wisest decision of her life (though whether it was Leonard's is up for debate .. that is I'm debating it .. I'm not quoting the author here.)

 

I found the book really readable, Quentin has an engaging, confidential style that makes this biography more than just a recounting of people, dates and places. There's no doubt that it's a fascinating time in history and Virginia along with her family and friends must be among the most fascinating people of the age. They lived pretty unconventional lives and were deemed quite shocking, though it all seems quite tame to begin with .. mere tales of unchaperoned girls who refuse to dress for dinner. As the decade progressed though their behaviour grew more licentious and there are tales of Virginia swimming naked with Rupert Brooke and Vanessa having sex in public (though Quentin regards this as unlikely .. but then, he would .. it's his mother!) But it's not all scandal, it focuses every bit as much on Virginia's mind and imagination (which was 'furnished with an accelerator and no brakes') and her constant struggle against mental illness. There are some great recollections and anecdotes such as this exchange which took place in a lodging house in Cornwall (and credit must go to Quentin here who has furnished the tale with his own words.)

 

'What's the pudding?' asked Virginia.

'Mount St Michael's Pudding, Miss.'

Virginia's imagination took fire; she saw how it would be and seeing could not but describe her vision. Her exact words are lost; but there was something about a soaring convexity of chocolate surmounted by a castle of dazzling sugar, battlemented, crenellated, machicolated, crowned with banners of crystallized angelica and at it's feet a turbulent ocean of lucent jelly, flecked with creamy foam and graced by heaven knows what sweetmeats fashioned to resemble vessels, mermaids, dolphins, nereids .... For Virginia's relations the chief interest in listening to this inventory lay in the face of the serving girl, who stood amazed by Virginia's eloquence and appalled by the knowledge that she would, in a few minutes, produce a steamed pudding, not unlike a sandcastle in shape and texture, parsimoniously adorned with a dab of strawberry jam.

 

I couldn't find a large enough picture of the book front but there were plenty of pictures of the painting which adorns the cover which is by Roger Fry so I used one of those instead. Even though I only read the one volume, I felt I understood her more and it made me feel bold enough to walk straight to the bookshelf and pluck down 'To the Lighthouse' and begin upon it before I became rational again.

 

9/10

Edited September 4, 2012 by poppyshake

[willoyd]

Very interesting review - thank you Poppy. I've just finished Hermione Lee's biography, and found VW to be absolutely fascinating: so many myths and stories surround her, one or two of which, I gather, originate with Quentin Bell's biography. The Cambridge Intro to VW reckons that the biogs by Bell, Lee and Julia Briggs are the most important ones to read, so I hope to get hold of a copy soon, especially given your review. All three take different approaches, not least in the organisation of their books (Bell almost completely chronological, Lee by topic, and Briggs related to her writing). I can thoroughly recommend the Lee version - one of the best biographies I've ever read, if not THE best: really brings VW to life (her handling of VW's suicide is superb), whilst retaining sufficient objectivity. Like you, I promptly reached for To The Lighthouse - my first ever reading, and was completely blown away.

 

If you go onto Abebooks, you'll find loads of volume 2s for sale (I put in the author - Woolf, and the book title as Mrs Woolf), starting at 62p plus postage. Hope you're successful at finding the second volume.

[Kylie]

Yes, 'Shakespeare & Co' get's it's own (small .. but then they're all small) chapter and Sylvia is talked about throughout the book, Hemingway has nothing but praise for her. I'd like to read more about her too so thanks for pointing out that she has a book of letters Kylie

 

I had meant to come back and let you know the exact titles of the books, but I saw on the Goodreads updates that you have found them for yourself. The paperback edition of Sylvia's letters is being released later this year.

[poppyshake]

Very interesting review - thank you Poppy. I've just finished Hermione Lee's biography, and found VW to be absolutely fascinating: so many myths and stories surround her, one or two of which, I gather, originate with Quentin Bell's biography. The Cambridge Intro to VW reckons that the biogs by Bell, Lee and Julia Briggs are the most important ones to read, so I hope to get hold of a copy soon, especially given your review. All three take different approaches, not least in the organisation of their books (Bell almost completely chronological, Lee by topic, and Briggs related to her writing). I can thoroughly recommend the Lee version - one of the best biographies I've ever read, if not THE best: really brings VW to life (her handling of VW's suicide is superb), whilst retaining sufficient objectivity. Like you, I promptly reached for To The Lighthouse - my first ever reading, and was completely blown away.

 

If you go onto Abebooks, you'll find loads of volume 2s for sale (I put in the author - Woolf, and the book title as Mrs Woolf), starting at 62p plus postage. Hope you're successful at finding the second volume.

Bless you for looking that up for me willoyd, I've never been to Abebooks website before .. it's a revelation (not to say a temptation ) .. I'll definitely order the second volume from them. I've heard such great things already about Hermione Lee's biography and your recommendation seals it, I've put it on my Amazon wishlist and if I'm a good girl for the rest of the year then one of my family will put it in my Christmas stocking with any luck. I loved 'To the Lighthouse' .. it was exactly what I expected it to be ... my mind was in a whirl from all the imagery. I am late with my review of it but I always drag my feet when it comes to reviewing books I love ... how to do them justice? .. that's the thing.

 

I had meant to come back and let you know the exact titles of the books, but I saw on the Goodreads updates that you have found them for yourself. The paperback edition of Sylvia's letters is being released later this year.

You know what it's like Kylie, you only have to read a couple of sentences about certain people, dates and places to know when a subject is right up your alley. I love the sound of the letters, she led such an interesting life. Thanks for letting me know about the paperback edition ... I'll hang on for it, though I love the cover for the hardback .. hope it stays the same

[poppyshake]

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray

Waterstones Synopsis: 'Skippy and Ruprecht are having a doughnut-eating race one evening when Skippy turns purple and falls off his chair'. And so begins this epic, tragic, comic, brilliant novel set in and around Dublin's Seabrook College for Boys. Principally concerning the lives, loves, mistakes and triumphs of overweight maths-whiz Ruprecht Van Doren and his roommate Daniel 'Skippy' Juster, it features a frisbee-throwing siren called Lori, the joys (and horrors) of first love, the use and blatant misuse of prescription drugs, Carl (the official school psychopath), and various attempts to unravel string theory ...while at the same time exploring the very deepest mysteries of the human heart.

Review: A very emotional read and an unexpectedly sad one because somehow I was expecting it to be a light hearted book and though it is hilarious it's also quite melancholy and unsettling.

The story revolves around a bunch of boys boarding at Seabrook College, a catholic school in Dublin .. in particular fourteen year old Daniel Juster or 'Skippy' as he is called (and yes, he is named after the kangaroo.) Well, Skippy dies, the title tells us that and the story actually starts with his death during a doughnut eating competition with best pal Ruprecht but it would seem that, despite appearances, Skippy hasn't choked on one too many doughnut's, in fact on closer inspection, he hasn't even touched them but he has scrawled a dying message in the jam .. so what was wrong with Skippy? The story then zooms back a few weeks and we rejoin Skippy during that last term as he heads towards his fateful last day and then we continue on to see the effect his death has on those around him.

Now this is not Hogwarts, this is a far more realistic tale of boys boarding so be prepared for raging hormones, lewd talk, substance abuse, bullying, jealousy, violence, sex addiction and everything in between (including string theory!) The story is not just about the boys though, it also focuses on the teachers of Seabrook, in particular the history teacher Howard 'the Coward' Fallon .. a man struggling in both his school life and private life .. and the girls at nearby St Brigid's convent, especially the girl that captures Skippy's heart ... Lori.

It really is a stunning book, multi layered and always interesting. It's not for the easily shocked because it's fairly raw in places and harrowing and there is a fair bit of graphic content but it doesn't feel gratuitous .. it feels real and honest. The school is being run by acting principal Greg 'the Automater' Costigan, a layman (the principal Father Furlong is in hospital recovering from a heart attack) and his ruthless ambition and forward thinking make him appear both tyrannical and corrupt .. his value's are all target driven and market led but like a lot of literary monsters he provides most of the comedy. The rest of the teachers are a mixed bunch, some of them, like Howard, hope to make a difference and are well meaning but some are sadistic and .. well, let's just say that it's a catholic school with catholic priests teaching .. you can probably guess where he goes with that.

It's a big doorstep of a book (unless you read it in the three chunk edition) and very ambitious but I didn't find it a trudge, it's a real page turner. It's a coming of age story and you do feel that at it's roots it's fairly close to the truth which is a terrifying thought. There's a large cast of characters but it's the boys that steal your heart .. especially Skippy, a boy whose life is spiralling out of control to the apparent obliviousness of everyone around him.

The book also inspired me to start reading Robert Graves's book 'Goodbye to all That' (books leading to books again.) I already had it on the shelf but my interest was piqued when Howard used the book in his classes about WWI.

9/10

Edited November 17, 2013 by poppyshake

[chaliepud]

A great review Poppy (as always). The book isn't at all what I assumed it would be like, Iay put it on my wish list after all, though I'm not great with swearing and violence in novels..

[poppyshake]

Thanks chaliepud it is quite crude in places though and the language is a bit ripe, try and have a flick through it in the bookshop and see if any words jump out and offend .. I would hate it if you were upset by anything I'd recommended

[Kylie]

Hi Poppyshake! I just found out that there are a batch of new Vintage editions of Nancy Mitford's works being released (or they may have already been released over there). There is Frederick the Great, Madame De Pompadour, The Sun King and Voltaire in Love. They all look lovely.

[vodkafan]

Skippy Dies sounds interesting Poppy I will put that on my wishlist thanks.

[poppyshake]

Hi Poppyshake! I just found out that there are a batch of new Vintage editions of Nancy Mitford's works being released (or they may have already been released over there). There is Frederick the Great, Madame De Pompadour, The Sun King and Voltaire in Love. They all look lovely.

Thanks for letting me know Kylie .. oh my, they look gorgeous ... I am definitely putting them on my list.

Skippy Dies sounds interesting Poppy I will put that on my wishlist thanks.

You're welcome VF .. hope you find it as readable as I did.

[frankie]

1. Virginia Woolf : A Biography by Quentin Bell - now you can never have too many books on Virginia, she's fascinating, and this one is by her nephew so high hopes.

 

She might be fascinating, I won't argue against that, but personally I find her very intimidating, way too intellectual for me, and all that. Any thoughts on that? I mean, I don't want you to now tell me that I'm smart enough to read her, I mean that is she approachable? Oh you know what I mean And yes this is not written by her, because it's about her, but I just have this fear of anything that's to do with Virginia Woolf. Which reminds me that there's a play called Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on the Rory reading challenge. I guess the playwright didn't know about me, otherwise he would've felt it unnecessary to write a play about it. He could've just looked me up and say 'oh her. '

 

 

 

Thanks Kylie, I really did love it and Sydney. I was amazed when I read it, because I thought I knew the story well, that I hadn't realised that Madame Defarge was knitting a register, I thought her knitting was just a kind of smokescreen to make her seem occupied and disinterested (I suspected she wasn't knitting hats .. there can't have been much call for them in Paris at that time ) Now I've laughed, and I feel bad because it must have been the most horrendous time and though, some of them may have had it coming as they say, it all got so very inhumane and barbaric that any original sense of justice got swallowed up.

 

I don't think I got it either, when I read the book, but our English professor talked about it quite excessively, so now it's one of the few things I do remember about the book I mean I remember the main plot, but there's so much more to the story. All the history parts etc.

 

 

 

14.Funniest book:

Other books that make me lol are [...], Dan Rhode's Gold (I still laugh when I think of the pub landlord who thought it would bring the customers in if he was rude to them .. give the pub a bit of edge ... get it a cult following ... and getting it all horrendously wrong )

 

That was really funny! The kind of humour that I like and that was a huge part of the attraction of the book! Need to re-read, most definitely.

 

there's no way that we won't get through this and we've done all our wallowing now ... we're not hippo's fgs ... positive thoughts .. that's what's needed.

 

 

I was trying to fathom what 'hippo's figs' were, then I re read what you had written!

 

I still can't figure out what poppyshake meant. Initially I read the phrase 'hippo's fgs' wrong, I though poppyshake was talking about hippo fags, and I was like... let them be fags, what's fun in life if one can't enjoy themselves in the company of others, no matter if they're the 'right' gender'...

 

And poppyshake, I was really sorry to hear about the news with Alan! You'll cope though. Like someone (sorry, can't remember who) said, this can be taken as an opportunity to assess one's life and what they want to do with the rest of their life. I'm sure something will come up soon, you guys just hang in there

 

 

Ooh, this book is going straight onto my wishlist! I'm really interested in the Parisian literary scene around that period; particularly Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co bookshop (does she get a mention?) I already have one book about her shop, and there is a volume of her letters that is on my wishlist.

 

 

Yes, 'Shakespeare & Co' get's it's own (small .. but then they're all small) chapter and Sylvia is talked about throughout the book, Hemingway has nothing but praise for her. I'd like to read more about her too so thanks for pointing out that she has a book of letters Kylie

 

It's so funny you should mention this book, and you poppyshake to have just read it, I borrowed it from the library just one week ago, I thought I'd just get a Hemingway book, but it was one that was autobiographical, and happened to be one that on some of my reading challenges! I'm so happy that Shakespeare & Co was mentioned, I love it how all these people were connected and liked each other. Like Kylie said, she has a book of letters, which is on my wishlist, but Kylie also talked about a memoirs kind of book about setting up the shop that is Shakespeare & Co, by the same name, and I just wanted to underline that, because your reply to Kylie made me think that you might've missed it. Just wanted to make sure

 

 

 

[frankie]

The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison

Review: This book was slightly easier to read than 'Beloved', easier in writing style (though still beautifully poetical and mystical) but not easier in subject matter because it's every bit as harrowing.

 

Uh oh... I've only read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (I've already commented the book on your thread before but noticed this new thing that bothered me and wanted to ask) and I thought it wasn't the easiest read. Not because of the harrowing subject matter, but I remember me sometimes being confused by stuff. It was ages ago since I read it so I might remember it all wrong. However, the thing that makes me wonder: Is Beloved a tough read? I have it on TBR pile.

 

 

Going on my wishlist!

 

 

The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas - Gertrude Stein

 

Review: This one made my head ache, despite the blurb explaining all to me I really couldn't get the concept for ages. Eventually the penny dropped and I understood (eureka .. what's next .. Proust??) The books title is 'The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas' but it's not about Alice, it's told from the viewpoint of Alice, but it's not by her either. It's a biography about Gertrude Stein written by her as if it's Alice (her friend and companion) talking .. oh my, my head hurts again thinking about it. This is a clever concept because of course you can get away with saying all sorts about how amazingly brilliant you are (as in 'The three geniuses of whom I wish to speak are Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and Alfred Whitehead') and it looks for all the world as if someone else is saying it about you (though Gertrude does come clean in the last sentence.) Anybody who was anybody in Paris (or abroad) always wanted to be introduced to Gertrude, she drew artistic people to her like moths to flames.

 

That is so funny And definitely brilliant. Can't wait to read it

 

 

 

 

 

The Brontës Went to Woolworths - Rachel Ferguson

 

This is also going on my wishlist!

 

 

The Journals of Sylvia Plath - Edited by Ted Hughes and Frances McCullough

Review: Firstly, thank you frankie for bookswapping this with me .. I adored it. This book made me ashamed of my own pathetic adolescent scribblings in the same way that Anne Frank's diary made me throw all my childhood diaries away .. they didn't actually tell me anything, it was just a list of what I wore and what I ate and who I fancied and who said what to whom .. terrible. Sylvia doesn't just write an account of her day to day life, she pours out all of her thoughts and feelings into her journals and reading them is like reading her very troubled, unquiet, but oh so vivid and vital mind.

 

 

.. it makes you long to know more and, of course, I want to read the edition that was not edited by Ted now (because the omissions here can frustrate a bit) but also I'd like to read his letters to see if they can provide balance.

 

 

 

 

You're welcome, although I feel bad about sending you the book, I just knew it that you would eventually want to have the unabridged version and I felt like I was committing a fellony by sending you the abridged one Although I did tell you that it is the version that Ted's been editing and well... raping.

 

I know what you mean about one's own diaries seeming so childlike, compared to anything that Plath writes. I haven't even read her journals myself yet, but I've read a biography about her (wholeheartedly recommend it, it's by Ronald Hayman, sorry if I've already recommended it!) and have read a poem or two and I just know that her journal will make me want to burn my own diaries in shame! But even then, her passion and way with words is something that makes one want to do better. It doesn't leave one fully crippled, swearing to lay off all the pens and Word documents. She's an inspiration.

[frankie]

I'm now regretting reading your reading blog, I feel like I'm adding books to my wishlist by the minute!! Flush: A Biography by Virginia Woolf is definitely going on my wishlist. It's got all the right components: it's about a dog, and an author, and it's written by an author. What's not to like?! And I'm not letting the fact that it's written by Woolf intimidate me.

 

Poppyshake, you should seriously consider some kind of a career in the literary scene. Your reviews are such gems!

 

A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

 

You have now made me regret borrowing the book from the library, I want to own it!

 

 

 

Virginia Woolf - Quentin Bell

Review: I was so thrilled when I found this biography of Virginia in a local junk shop that I didn't study it properly. I was more than half way through reading it (and I was thinking .. 'he's going to have to cover an awful lot of ground in the second half') when my suspicions were aroused and I took a good look at the cover ... nothing was printed on the front bar the title and the author but on the spine the dreaded words 1882-1912 appeared, meaning that this was the first book of a two volume publication .. oh fiddlesticks!!

 

I hate it when that happens!! However, this one might go on my wishlist... see what you've done? I'm now adding Virginia Woolf -related books on my wishlist.

 

 

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray

 

I'm really happy that you enjoyed this one, it's been on my wishlist ever since I picked up the book in a shop in Australia. It was only $4, but because it was a really heavy books and I already had a bookcase full of books, trying to desperately fit under 10 kilos, I had to leave it there in the shop and promise myself I'd buy it when I got back to Finland. I think the name Skippy drew me to the book, I initially thought it was an Australian read, kangaroos and such, you see But I have this thing about stories set in schools and boarding schools etc, so can't skip this one. Hehe, 'skip this one'. See what I did?

 

Seriously speaking. You read the kinds of books I want to read, and what I should read, and hope to read, etc etc. If I was a new member on the forum, and didn't really know where to start with books, I'd just come and see this thread on a daily basis and buy all the books you've reviewed and praised. I wouldn't have to do anything else.

[poppyshake]

I'm now regretting reading your reading blog, I feel like I'm adding books to my wishlist by the minute!! Flush: A Biography by Virginia Woolf is definitely going on my wishlist. It's got all the right components: it's about a dog, and an author, and it's written by an author. What's not to like?! And I'm not letting the fact that it's written by Woolf intimidate me.

I'm sure you'll love it Frankie, it's an adorable little story and not typical of Woolf's writing at all ... it's almost like she's saying 'I'm going to let you off a bit here and just give you a proper little story that won't tie your head in a knot' I've since read 'To the Lighthouse' and I loved it, but it was a bit like being in the middle of a tornado, at times there was calm and I understood everything and at others I was clinging on by the tips of my fingers, whilst random words and sentences flashed past me. It was exhilarating though.

Poppyshake, you should seriously consider some kind of a career in the literary scene. Your reviews are such gems!

Bless you, you are sweet to say so sometimes I think I could do something like that and then I remember that most of the time, my brain resembles mashed potato and I can't remember the book I read the week before.

You have now made me regret borrowing the book from the library, I want to own it!

I love books about that particular time, and memoirs by writers are particularly fascinating. I want to be them! Life is so unfair .. why am I not sitting in Paris cafe's discussing Hemingway and Fitzgerald?

I hate it when that happens!! However, this one might go on my wishlist... see what you've done? I'm now adding Virginia Woolf -related books on my wishlist.

You and me both! She has become quite an obsession with me and so has Sylvia Plath, I am on the lookout for books to do with or by either. And I notice that you need no help from me to buy Virginia related books as you've just bought one by Lytton Strachey .. the man she almost married!! I haven't yet dipped into any books by any of the other members of the Bloomsbury group .. except for some letters by Leonard but I know it's just a question of time. Much is made in Virginia's biographies about the genius of Lytton .. it'll be good to hear what you make of his book on Queen Vic.

I'm really happy that you enjoyed this one, it's been on my wishlist ever since I picked up the book in a shop in Australia. It was only $4, but because it was a really heavy books and I already had a bookcase full of books, trying to desperately fit under 10 kilos, I had to leave it there in the shop and promise myself I'd buy it when I got back to Finland. I think the name Skippy drew me to the book, I initially thought it was an Australian read, kangaroos and such, you see But I have this thing about stories set in schools and boarding schools etc, so can't skip this one. Hehe, 'skip this one'. See what I did?

... hehe .. good pun! I think you'll enjoy it Frankie, not only the boarding school side of things but also because it explores things like depression, teenage angst, eating disorders and that kind of thing and I know that's something you also have an interest in. I for all the world thought it was going to be a book about a kangaroo .. but I was only disappointed for about five seconds.

 

Seriously speaking. You read the kinds of books I want to read, and what I should read, and hope to read, etc etc. If I was a new member on the forum, and didn't really know where to start with books, I'd just come and see this thread on a daily basis and buy all the books you've reviewed and praised. I wouldn't have to do anything else.

Thank you so much it makes me very happy to think that you think so. I however, would tell them to turn straight around and go and see what you and Kylie are reading ... they could have no better example.