tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-131157802024-03-08T02:10:17.405-07:00Angie's BlogJust a space for me to express myself and you to read. Feel free to leave a comment. Even if it isn't nice. Well, up to a point.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-62632913149081208802021-11-11T15:50:00.000-07:002021-11-11T15:50:23.421-07:00Home AgainSteve got off the train and set his bag down. After three years away, he somehow expected things to look different. But there was Pete Johnson still working at the station ticket booth, there was Old Man Schmidt lurching out of the bar to stagger home for dinner with his nervous little wife, there was the same smell from the stockyards just west of town.
<br><br>Then why did it seem different? Why did everything still look serene and sane? Looking to his right, he saw the Presbyterian church, the white paint newly touched up and gleaming in the sun, and suddenly flashed back to the bombed-out cathedral in Germany, the dead lying covered in dust and rubble while dressed in their Sunday best, the ancient roof a gaping hole, but the altar remaining, as if reassuring all that it was still there for them.
<br><br>Steve had been having these flashbacks ever since leaving Europe. On the long train journey from Halifax he couldn’t look out the window at the green fields without visualizing them covered with crosses, like the military cemeteries he had left many of his friends in over there. Now, he firmly put those thoughts out of his mind yet again and looked around to find someone to drive him to the farm.
<br><br>He stepped out onto Main Street and the first person he saw was his parents’ neighbor, Jim Gable, slowing down his truck to let someone cross. Jim glanced at him and his eyes widened in recognition. He pulled over and rolled down his window. “Well, if it isn’t Steve Hardy! Your folks said you were coming home soon! They’re gonna be soooo glad to see you!”
<br><br>Steve was overwhelmed by the effusive greeting, but fought back against the urge to repel it, telling himself that Jim was being sincere. “Hi, Jim. It’s nice to be back. Actually, I was wondering if you could give me a ride out there?”
<br><br>“That’d be no problem at all!” So off they went, Jim showing him everything that might be new since he’d been gone, Steve trying to show enthusiasm, until Jim finally figured out that Steve didn’t really want to talk. And there was Sylvia McDonald, pushing a baby pram down the sidewalk. They had been seeing each other before he left, and on his last night at home she sobbed into his shoulder that she would wait for him. Less than a year later, his parents had written to tell him that she’d married someone who had “gotten her into trouble.” She looked up and saw him, and her shamefaced expression as she lowered her head reminded him of women he’d seen in Belgium, being marched out of town for collaborating, with shaved heads and a jeering mob surrounding them, sometimes carrying a baby.
<br><br>When they arrived at the farm gate, Jim gazed at him and said softly, “I don’t know if you remember, I was at Passchendaele. I still dream about the things I saw there. But I just got on with it. It will get better.” Steve nodded, automatically exchanged some pleasantry and got out.
<br><br>He stood and stared around him, Jim’s truck enveloping him with dust as it departed. Everything was so quiet! A twitch of the kitchen curtain betrayed his mother’s presence – he knew she was probably standing there waiting as soon as she knew the train got in. Buttons, the border collie, came peeling out from the barn, silly grin on his face, panting his excitement, trying to herd him as he walked up the driveway. He was moving a little slower and his muzzle had some gray on it, but then Steve had irreversibly changed too. “Hey boy, I’ve missed you!” He got down on his knees and allowed himself to be slobbered on, embracing the dog as he stood up on his hind legs, tail wagging ecstatically.
<br><br>As Steve approached the house, his mother came out, wiping her hands on her apron, smiling as nervously as if he were a stranger. Her hands were trembling and she was weeping. Something about the look in her eyes made him think of the Dutch villagers sobbing with relief as their trucks drove through, their faces pale and hollow with hunger. She opened her arms, but something in him must have warned her away because she dropped them, just touching his elbow as they went into the house.
<br><br>Of course, she had laid out a spread of homemade baked goods and coffee was immediately poured. They had no idea what to say to each other, so she prattled on about family news. “Your father would have been here, but he’s out on the north quarter, didn’t want to waste a good harvesting day you know.” As soon as he sat down, she started making supper, anything to avoid having to actually sit down with him, and then his father came in, and she seemed relieved to not have to carry the conversation herself. His dad grinned and slapped him on the back, and that was the extent of his greeting. Once dinner was over, Steve excused himself, saying he was tired and wanted to rest, and he went up to his old room.
<br><br>He lay on his bed with his eyes wide open yet unseeing; unpacking could wait. He could hear snatches of his parents’ conversation downstairs. “Do you think he’s all right? He’s acting strange. Maybe we should get Reverend MacNeill to talk to him.” This was the moment he had been waiting for ever since he was told he was being demobbed, so why couldn’t he be happy? At dinner he’d kept remembering the first time he had to shoot a German soldier. It was a fair-haired boy who looked younger than him; as his life ebbed away, he was staring up into the sky, murmuring, “Mutter.” Tonight that boy’s mother had an empty place at her table, while his parents had an empty shell at theirs.
<br><br>His dreams were as messed up as ever that night, except that this time he saw Sylvia in one of the Dutch villages, not happy to see him but lying on the ground dead, holding a fair-haired baby who was gazing accusingly at him. He awoke as suddenly as if he had been slapped, and went outside, sat on a stump and lit a cigarette. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the lamp go on in his parents’ bedroom, and knew someone was watching him, and he had to stop himself from becoming irritated. Buttons came shambling up to him and just sat, knowing that he needed looking after. Steve did not react, feeling faint irritation at this too, but after a few minutes Buttons lay down beside him and relaxed his body against Steve’s tense leg. Staring up at the unmoving stars, a soft late-summer breeze ruffling his hair back, he reached down and started stroking Buttons’ soft head, more for the dog’s sake than his own.
<br><br>After all those people died, after I can’t even sleep without nightmares, after I can’t talk to my own parents, why does this dog still want to have anything to do with me? Doesn’t he know I have a scorched scar where my heart should be?
<br><br>Suddenly the silent darkness was broken by an engine and lights. Panic’s icy grip tightened around Steve’s chest and he dived for cover under the old wagon. He cowered in the fetal position, hands covering his head, wanting to whimper but not daring to make a sound, until he realized it was just a car that had pulled into the yard. Peering out from under his hand, he saw that it was his sister who lived in the city; his parents would have told her he was coming home. All the lights in the house went on again. He couldn’t face yet another reunion, so he stayed under the wagon. Buttons crept up beside him and whined, licking his hand to reassure him.
<br><br>It was then, still in the fetal position, that he started to cry. What the hell am I doing? He cried for the Dutch, for the Belgians, for the Germans; he cried for his parents; he even cried for Sylvia.
<br><br>Soon all the lights were off again, except the one outside the door. They knew he would come back in the house when he was ready. He went back to bed and actually slept peacefully.
<br><br>In the morning he came down to breakfast. His parents and sister turned apprehensive faces towards him, not sure what to expect. He made himself hug each of them and asked his father what he would need help with that day. The relief he saw in all their faces made something break inside him again, but this time in a good way. Maybe he could really be himself again. Perhaps he could finally come home.
Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-53827940764820819922017-08-10T21:16:00.000-06:002017-08-10T21:17:00.656-06:00Wow, a long time!It's sure been a long time since I've updated this blog. I recently found my 100 top novels list in some paperwork that had to be hurriedly moved during a flood at work... bad excuse, I know.<br />
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A lot has happened in my life since I last updated. At the age of 53 I was forced to find a new career - I went back to school and took a Medical Office Assistant course. I've now completed the course work and practicum, and will be writing my final exam next week. In the meantime, I'm job hunting with a vengeance.<br />
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Wish me luck, please? <br />
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Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-26676069739438401542012-11-12T15:47:00.003-07:002021-11-11T15:32:36.279-07:00Metamorphosis 13 - James Joyce's UlyssesI'll tell you one thing right now, this is not an easy book to read. He shifts from straight narrative to fantasy to dry technical writing to stream of consciousness. And it's a thousand pages long, describing a day in the life of a man in Dublin in 1904. I have to admit, I passed over a lot of it because it was a library book and I only had it for so long, and some of it is just obscure, especially nearly a hundred years after it was written. Joyce enjoys making up words although they make perfect sense.<br />
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But there is true genius as well. Some of his turns of phrase are amazing, and hilarious. It was banned for obscenity in the US after it was first published as there are some explicit passages, although today's readers would barely bat an eye.<br />
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Read it if you enjoy a long novel, and I hope you enjoy getting to know Leopold and Molly as much as I did.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-76320599992442466722012-08-04T19:30:00.002-06:002021-11-11T15:31:24.991-07:00Metamorphosis 12 - The Tin DrumWow, i'm really getting behind! <i>The Tin Drum</i> by Gunter Grass was a pleasant surprise. Who knew that a novel beginning with a Polish peasant girl harvesting potatoes would turn out to be so engrossing...<br />
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In this partially autobiographical story, our protagonist Oskar is growing up during the war in a city which is on the border, geographically and politically, between Germany and Poland. He's not always a likable person, but in the end we are hoping for the best for him.<br />
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The edition I read was from a new translation... apparently when it was originally translated from German back in the 50s, they took out some of the more naughty bits, although what's been put back in is really pretty tame by today's standards.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-14993117585341715912012-05-07T14:46:00.002-06:002021-11-11T15:30:29.918-07:00Metamorphosis 11<i>Housekeeping</i> by Marilynne Robinson - kind of reminded me of some of the stories written by my cousin Merna Summers - a Canadian author you should definitely check out sometime. Two sisters growing up in a small town with eccentric relatives... it also reminded me of <i>The Quiet American</i> with its theme of loss, parting, giving up your old way of life.
Both books left me with the sense that I wanted to see what happened to those people after the book ended... sadly, I don't think either has a sequel. Or maybe it's just better that way. :-)Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-71921456365349013202012-05-07T14:43:00.001-06:002021-11-11T15:30:06.513-07:00Metamorphosis 10<i>The Quiet American</i> by Graham Greene was a bit of an odd book, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It takes place in Vietnam during the 1950s. The protagonist is a British journalist who is there to cover the war, which at that time is being fought by the French and the Communists. The Americans are still bystanders at that point, and the "quiet American" referred to in the title becomes the narrator's rival in many things and is an eerie foreshadowing of what we all know came later.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-33039871170552383592012-05-07T14:37:00.001-06:002021-11-11T15:29:42.068-07:00Wow, I need to catch up!OK, I've read quite a few books and again got sidetracked from my 100 must-read quest by other fiction. But I've found a new author I quite like. Louise Penny is a Canadian writer who has penned several Inspector Gamache mysteries... think of Agatha Christie transferred to a village in Quebec in modern times. Check it out!<br />
<br />Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-21397798666362371942011-11-06T19:05:00.002-07:002021-11-11T15:29:10.312-07:00Metamorphosis 9<i>Haroun and the Sea of Stories</i> is a whimsical little novel by Salman Rushdie. It reads rather like a children's book, but it also contains some clever satire that only older readers will get. There's a lot of commentary about censorship and propaganda, interesting in the light of his being condemned to death by Islam fanatics. I had never read anything else by him, and found it quite witty.<br />Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-35192882110749604472011-08-06T21:33:00.001-06:002021-11-11T15:28:00.569-07:00The Land of Painted CavesThis is the long-awaited latest in the Earth's Children series by Jean Auel. She has stated this will be the last one; she has also stated that she feels the story of Ayla isn't finished, and I personally thought the end of the book leaves way too many loose ends. I wouldn't at all be surprised to see more in this saga, maybe focusing on her daughter Jonayla.<br />
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But what did I think of the book? Well, I did enjoy it although I found parts of it kind of repetitive. The Mother's Song is a beautiful piece of poetry but I didn't need to read it ten times. And I do find it a bit annoying that Ayla and Jondalar seem to the the only people who can figure out how to tame horses and wolves, use horses to haul things, every other new advancement in human history, etc. The dust jacket promises that Ayla discovers a new piece of knowledge that is life-changing. Which it is, but I find it a bit hard to believe that nobody would have figured it out before.<br />
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However, as usual the descriptions of the painted caves (the famous ones in France that can still be seen to this day) are breathtaking. I find Auel's characters a bit one-dimensional but she's very good at bringing a scene to life so that I can almost see it in front of me.<br />
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If you've read all the others, you gotta read this one too. Even if you've never read any of the others, this one can stand on its own as she does explain certain things that happened in the past. It helped me too although I did read all the others, but it's been so long!<br />
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I hope Auel hasn't hung up the quill yet. I think she still has a lot of stories to tell.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-11559187235923199762011-07-15T22:36:00.002-06:002021-11-11T15:26:57.513-07:00Metamorphosis 8Got really sidetracked by some non-fiction books that weren't on the list, as well as <i>Richard III: The Maligned King</i> by an online acquaintance, Annette Carson. I haven't believed Richard was guilty of killing his nephews ever since reading Tey's <i>Daughter of Time</i> as a teenager. So this book didn't convince me of anything new, but I certainly learned some new things about Richard and his world courtesy of her thorough research.<br />
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Putting in some spaces now to go down to the next book, hope this looks half decent to everyone!<br />
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No, this is not a Chemistry textbook. <i>The Periodic Table</i> is an autobiographical narrative by noted chemist Primo Levi, who was also an Italian Jew who spent time in Auschwitz during the war. Each chapter, from his boyhood to middle age, takes the name of an element. Auschwitz is mentioned but his time there is apparently explored more deeply in some other book he wrote, which I may seek out at some point.<br />
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Far from being dry and humorless as you would expect, it's full of droll wit and observations about humanity. Apparently he won several awards for this book. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would from looking at the table of contents.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-27587153031899871292011-03-24T11:09:00.001-06:002021-11-11T15:26:00.001-07:00The SkystoneThis was a book borrowed from a friend - lucky it wasn't a purchase because once again I realized halfway through that I'd read it already at some point. But if you like historical fiction about Roman Britain (this book is actually the first of a series, and a precursor to the King Arthur story) you'll enjoy this one.<br />
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The only quibble I have? I find it a bit hard to believe that the Romans wouldn't have known what comets were (you'll see).Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-87863104798732092312011-03-07T14:25:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:25:36.754-07:00A Vengeful LongingBy R.N. Morris, a sequel to a previous book which I think I should now read.<br />
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This murder mystery takes place in tsarist St. Petersburg in the 1860s. There have been recent reforms but the country is still very much locked into class divisions and corruption. Our detective is Porfiry Petrovich, who was a character in Dostoyevski's <i>Crime and Punishment</i> (which I think awaits me on my list of 100 Must-Read Novels). In some ways he reminded me of D.S. Dalziel from Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series, though not quite as rude to his underlings.<br />
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It opens with the poisoning of a doctor's wife and son and of course other murders crop up which turn out to all be connected. A good read in my opinion.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-17815070559434748012011-03-07T14:18:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:25:10.013-07:00The NavigatorStill reading the books I bought at a used book sale in the fall before I get back to my 100 Must-Read Novels or whatever they're called.<br />
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A typical Clive Cussler novel, full of action in various exotic locales, spiced with historical connections. This one runs the gamut from the ancient Phoenicians to Thomas Jefferson. I found it quite entertaining although far-fetched in places, but we read these kind of books to escape from the ordinary, right?<br />
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I did enjoy the maniac who was obsessed with medieval jousting tournaments. My kind of bad guy!Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-65254219675464467912011-02-18T11:40:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:24:40.709-07:00SaturdayAnother Ian McEwan novel which I found at a used book sale. As the title implies, it follows the Saturday from waking to sleeping of a London neurosurgeon who expects it to be an ordinary day, and instead finds it to be life- and attitude-changing.<br />
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This is the third novel by McEwan that I have read, and I admire his gift for getting inside a person's head. He also finds a way to portray even a villain with some degree of sympathy, which is refreshing in these days of one-dimensional baddies in print and film.<br />
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He did a lot of collaboration with an actual neurosurgeon and I found the operating room narratives quite fascinating. They are detailed so others may wish to skip over them, but I enjoyed them.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-51673602670907862322011-02-18T11:36:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:24:14.151-07:00LifeI was expecting to get <i>Life</i> by Keith Richards for a Christmas present, and indeed my oldest son came through. I had heard a lot about it and was expecting a good read, and ended up really enjoying it. There was a ghost writer collaborating with him, but I'm pretty sure much of it is his own words; anyone who has read or heard an interview with Keith will agree that he's intelligent and articulate, and the writing probably just needed some polishing. And possibly some kick-starting.<br />
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We hear a lot about his childhood and the legendary early meetings with Mick Jagger, who grew up in the same suburb of London. We learn stuff about his family that I personally had never heard before. He is candid about his use of drugs, the feud with Brian Jones and the later feud with Jagger which appears to be continuing in the present.<br />
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I recommend it to any Stones or rock and roll fan.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-89488821883485970302011-01-14T15:40:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:23:39.911-07:00The Charlemagne PursuitI very much enjoyed this book by Steve Berry. I realized right away I had read another book with the same main characters but at least it wasn't the same book.<br />
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Our hero Cotton Malone becomes caught up in a search for some answers - what exactly happened to his father when he died on a highly classified Navy submarine mission to Antarctica in the early 1970s? Along the way we meet assorted assassins, ancient tales of Nazis and Charlemagne himself.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-14608526567754713912011-01-04T12:50:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:23:14.660-07:00Princes of IrelandThis was one I bought at a used book sale. As I started reading it I got the feeling I had read it before, which is quite possible as I enjoy Rutherfurd's books, so I think I may have taken it out from the library when it first came out. Or perhaps the early chapters were familiar because I've also been doing some reading about Druidic/Celtic mythology.<br />
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Anyway, in true Rutherfurd form it spans a time period from prehistoric times to the 1500s. Most of his others come right up to the present, so I assumed there was a sequel - and yes, apparently he has written another one called <i>Rebels of Ireland</i>. I'll have to check that one out too.<br />
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I do love a good historical yarn and his family sagas fit the bill for me! I enjoy reading about historical events and how they affect everyday people.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-44117313377054274782010-12-13T15:17:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:22:45.542-07:00The Tower, The Zoo and the TortoiseAfter the almost constant drama and "history-witnessing" events of <i>Fall of Giants,</i> it was refreshing to read this whimsical little book by Julia Stuart. The central characters are a Beefeater and his wife - you know, the guys who wear the red suits and guard (and live in, and act as tourist guides for) the Tower of London. The interplay between them and their neighbors/co-workers is hilarious at times, but there is solemnity too. An underlying theme is the mourning the couple are in for their only son who died at the age of 11.<br />
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But on the whole, it's quite an entertaining little book. It's great for a history nut like me, who can only imagine what it would be like to live in a place like that literally surrounded by it.<br />
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I've already taken it back to the library but I think the dust jacket notes said it's only Stuart's second novel; I look forward to seeing more from her.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-91505626418976220262010-12-13T15:07:00.001-07:002021-11-11T15:21:54.952-07:00Fall of GiantsWhen I saw that Ken Follett was coming out with a new book, I reserved it at the library right away.<br />
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In typical Follett fashion, the story takes place before, during and after World War I, on three different continents, involving several different families who all somehow become intertwined.<br />
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It is rather a gloomy book, but I guess it was a gloomy period of history. Even when the war ended there was still poverty and disruption, especially in the defeated countries. There is love and hope too though.<br />
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Over and over again the theme recurs about how "upper class" men were automatically given leadership in the army, with sometimes not so spectacular results. One can see how World War I was the catalyst for the end of some of the European autocracies.<br />
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It's the first of a trilogy; I intend to read the others, whenever they come out some years down the road.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-79338838090989751872010-11-11T11:54:00.002-07:002021-11-11T15:19:09.134-07:00Another potboiler!Just finished <i>The Red Queen</i> by Philippa Gregory. Yes, I know she plays fast and loose with the facts sometimes - even she admits that a lot of her books are "what if?" scenarios - and she paints a very bleak picture of how greedy and ambitious humans can be. But you can't deny her books are entertaining, and I had this one on reserve at my library as soon as I heard it was coming out!<br />
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Any student of the Tudor period knows the bare facts of how Henry VII, the founder of the dynasty, came to be. His father was Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, son of Katherine of Valois (widow of Henry V) by her second union with Welsh nobleman Owen Tudor, and thus half-brother of Henry VI, although with no claim to the throne. His mother was Margaret Beaufort, a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt by his last marriage to Katherine Swynford, whose descendants were legitimized by special decree, but barred from inheriting the throne since John and Katherine's children were born before they were married. So she was fairly closely related to the king, but theoretically had no claim to the throne either.<br />
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But the bare facts aren't always the most interesting ones. Marriages were made for dynastic reasons back then; obviously it was thought Edmund and Margaret would be a "good match" without any consideration given to their feelings about the matter, but that's how it was if you were royalty or nobility. In Gregory's book, the marriage between 25-year-old Edmund and 12-year-old Margaret is a grim, joyless affair. They have little in common, and the sex is a painful nightly duty to conceive an heir. I read another book about Margaret a few years ago, the name of which escapes me, which has them fall madly in love with each other and Margaret absolutely crushed when Edmund died a few months before their son was born.<br />
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History doesn't tell us how they felt about each other; I'd be willing to bet the truth is somewhere in between.<br />
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Anyway, their son Henry Tudor, who under any other circumstances would have been an obscure nobleman enjoying a close kinship to the king without any claim himself, became an important little boy as the Wars of the Roses dragged on and his distant cousins all killed each other. He ended up being the Lancastrian heir to the throne. It is known that his mother Margaret was remarried to a couple of Yorkist noblemen, but of course her efforts were all aimed at putting her son on the throne. We know that she had a secret correspondence with Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of Edward IV, about Henry marrying their daughter Elizabeth. Of course as we all know, this is eventually what happened, uniting the two lines of the rival descendants of Edward III and putting an end to the Wars of the Roses, other than a few fitful rebellions which were swiftly put down.<br />
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How far did Margaret go beyond that, though? Gregory has her ordering the deaths of the Princes of the Tower, although it appears someone else beat her to the punch... their fate is one of the great unsolved mysteries of history, and the debate rages on to this day over who was actually responsible, or even what actually happened. Although Margaret was definitely one of the people with the most to gain from their deaths, she was so devoutly religious that she had calluses on her knees from kneeling and praying so much, so I really can't see her ordering the murder of two children... but of course I wasn't there so I can't say.<br />
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This is incredibly nerdy but one thing I find odd too is how Margaret supported the Lancastrian cause, yet if you look at genealogy she was actually more closely related to Edward IV than to Henry VI, although of course her first husband was his half-brother. People forget that Edward IV's maternal grandmother was also a Beaufort, a daughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. Edward IV was descended from three sons of Edward III, Henry VI and Margaret Beaufort from only one, as far as I can remember. Medieval royal and noble genealogy can be breathtakingly complicated and you can go blind studying all the intermingled lines, but that's just my observation.<br />
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Anyway, I enjoyed this book.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-46075148872049588592010-10-25T12:10:00.001-06:002021-11-11T15:38:55.273-07:00Metamorphosis 7<i>American Pastoral</i> by Philip Roth is one of those books that has you on the edge of your seat wondering what is going to happen next, yet you are uneasy about what might happen.<br />
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The title refers to the American suburban dream... a wealthy family man who appears to have everything but whose life is shattered, first by the ugly side of the 1960s impacting his home, then by betrayals of others close to him. I better not say any more!<br />
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The characters are sympathetically drawn, yet we aren't allowed to be blind to their flaws. I enjoyed it and recommend it.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-76014772183989839832010-09-21T11:17:00.002-06:002021-11-11T15:36:06.600-07:00Metamorphosis 6<i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i> by Gabriel Garcia Marquez was next on the list. It was written in the 1960s and some have hailed it as one of the most influential novels of the 20th century. Apparently it is a microcosm of Colombian history. Although I'm not intimately acquainted with that subject I was able to see the parallels to colonial history in general - the first settlers living in isolation, the advent of technology with all the good and bad aspects, revolution.<br />
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It's a saga of a family that actually spans about 200 years and several generations, although it's hard to tell since some of the characters live to be over 150 years old. I enjoy "family saga novels" but this one was a bit harder to get through than some, not only because it's a bit bizarre but also because so many of the male characters have the same names. I found myself constantly referring to the family tree in the front of the book.<br />
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It is a good story though - the archetypes of the characterizations ring true. The translation from the Spanish is well done and reads smoothly.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-70708505201985567242010-08-26T10:04:00.001-06:002021-11-11T15:38:23.943-07:00Next P.D. JamesMy other flea market purchase was <i>A Taste for Death.</i> Once I started reading, I realized I saw it years ago on PBS <i>Mystery.</i> But that was all right - it was long enough ago that I didn't remember who the killer was!<br />
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Vintage P.D. James. Rich bored dilettantes, resentful servants, nosy church ladies, with an anarchist or two thrown into the mix to keep it interesting. This book was from 1986 so some of it still seems quaint to us, but her writing is fresh anyway.<br />
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I recommend it. Now I am back to the hundred must-read novels... will update when I am done the newest one.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-50691093911047642042010-07-21T19:29:00.002-06:002021-11-11T15:37:44.422-07:002 in 1 (catching up)So I read <i>Solar</i> by Ian McEwan. After reading <i>Atonement</i> I discovered he had a new novel coming out, and immediately reserved it at my local public library. It took over two months to get it, but it was worth the wait. It is a very different novel; the ending doesn't really resolve much and the protagonist is someone you're really not meant to like but you end up feeling a grudging sympathy for him at some points.<br />
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Michael Beard is a Nobel-winning physicist whose best years are behind him and whose private life is incredibly complicated and ego incredibly large. This leads to some hilarious passages. In one, he is forced to pee outside during a Spitsbergen winter - as one reviewer said, I defy any male to read this without shuddering.<br />
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And I read <i>The Black Tower,</i> one of the P.D. James paperbacks I bought from a flea market. It's an early Adam Dalgleish novel, from 1975; I was amused to see that as far back as that he was already thinking about hanging up the holster, as he so often is in the later books. These early P.D. James books remind me somewhat of an Agatha Christie novel; I mean, TYPEWRITER evidence? They seem quaint yet not outdated; the story and characters are still fresh. In this one, Dalgleish receives a letter inviting him to visit an old family friend who he hasn't seen in years. On arrival, he finds his friend has died in circumstances that, of course, aren't as straightforward as they appear.<br />
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The usual twists and surprises occur... don't want to give them away.Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13115780.post-9692041777755627152010-06-09T23:12:00.001-06:002021-11-11T15:35:20.918-07:00Metamorphosis 5Next up was <i>Austerlitz</i> by W.G. Sebald. A very different novel; almost entirely a monologue told to an unknown listener. Yet not boring at all... and even though translated from its original German it doesn't read awkwardly as many translations do. Austerlitz is a middle-aged man who was evacuated to England from Czechoslovakia as a child in the summer of 1939... as he gets older he feels the need to find out why. The novel tells the story of his own journey of self-discovery. But those are just the bare bones... Sebald is a master of observation, of things and emotions.<br />
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The one strange thing is that it's not divided into chapters. Even paragraphs can go on for pages and pages. So it's not really suited for reading in "chunks" as I tend to do. Reading on my lunch hour at work, I would reluctantly have to close the book right in the middle of an especially lush passage. But it's a haunting story and touched a chord in me.<br />
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I will now take a short break from the "Top 100 Must Read Novels" as I purchased a couple of P.D. James paperbacks from a flea market so I feel obligated to read them. However if, as has happened to me before, I get a few pages in and realize I've already read them, I'll be on to the next one on the "must read" list.<br />
Angie T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08912321270660384345noreply@blogger.com0