Ilana (illi69)'s bookshelf: 20th-century en-US Sun, 30 Mar 2025 12:57:19 -0700 60 Ilana (illi69)'s bookshelf: 20th-century 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Angel 12422849 Angel, at any rate, is the story of such a monster. Angelica Deverell lives above her diligent, drab mother’s grocery shop in a dreary turn-of-the-century English neighborhood, but spends her days dreaming of handsome Paradise House, where her aunt is enthroned as a maid. But in Angel’s imagination, she is the mistress of the house, a realm of lavish opulence, of evening gowns and peacocks. Then she begins to write popular novels, and this fantasy becomes her life. And now that she has tasted success, Angel has no intention of letting anyone stand in her way—except, perhaps, herself.]]> 272 Elizabeth Taylor 1590174976 Ilana (illi69) 5
Though she lives above the grocery shop owned and operated by her mother, Angel likes to imagine herself living at the grand Paradise House and being waited upon by an army of hired help. Though she's never laid her eyes on the place, and doesn't ever wish to—at the risk ruining her perfect fantasy of it—the only real information she has about the great house is provided by her aunt Lottie, who has worked there as lady's maid for eighteen years, since "Madam" herself arrived there as a young bride.

When she finds out word is getting around that she is telling lies to her schoolmates when she shares her stories, Angel decides her school days are over and she resolves she will become a successful writer by hook or by crook, in spite of the many protestations and remonstrances from her mother and aunt, her aunt having paid for her private school so she could have better opportunities in life. But Angel will not budge from her decision, so aunt Lottie comes back with a job offer from the great house: a position as a lady's maid. Our heroine is outraged, and in characteristic fashion, thoroughly insults her aunt for making such a suggestion. Feigning sickness to buy herself time, Angel pens her first "masterwork", The Lady Irania, a real farce of a novel, florid and utterly lacking in sophistication, thought the story purports to be set among the highest strata of English society. Determined to find a publisher, she sends the manuscript around, undeterred by a string of rejections, until one publisher, Theo Gilbright of Gilbright & Brace, sees a potential moneymaker in what he believes could become a party conversation piece which might either face utter ridicule or become a runaway bestseller. His letter suggests a generous advance is in the offing and invites Angel to a meeting in London. The partners expect to meet a doddering old maid smelling of camphor, and are confronted instead with the humourless young girl, who categorically refuses to make any changes to her book, even though she has someone opening a bottle of champagne with a corkscrew as one of her glaring rookie mistakes in the manuscript. The gamble somehow pays off, and Angel does indeed becomes the fabulously wealthy author she knew she could be, which only encourages her to continue indulging her every whim and vanity.

This was my second novel by Elizabeth Taylor, and it made me want to get my hands on everything else she's ever written, although I'm assured by various readers that this novel is not typical of her work. All the same, this is a wickedly entertaining little book which I have no doubt I'll be reading again. My NYRB edition features an introduction by Hilary Mantel; I wisely kept it for the end which definitely helped to prolong the pleasure.

Want to read more of my writing?
Visit: TotallySurreal.com]]> 3.99 1957 Angel
author: Elizabeth Taylor
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1957
rating: 5
read at: 2012/07/01
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: literature, great-britain, 20th-century, women, nyrb, guardian-1000
review:
July 2012 (★★★★½)� I absolutely loved this novel about a character whom I couldn't help loving to hate almost from the first. Angel (for Angelica) Deverell has always lived in a fantasy world of her own devising, and while some would have called her a liar as a young girl, she would have retorted that she was simply imagining a better life for herself, and one well within her reach. In the earliest years of the 20th century, we find an adolescent Angel at fifteen being taken to task for using vocabulary in a composition which is seen as being much too sophisticated for her, and she is suspected of plagiarism.

Though she lives above the grocery shop owned and operated by her mother, Angel likes to imagine herself living at the grand Paradise House and being waited upon by an army of hired help. Though she's never laid her eyes on the place, and doesn't ever wish to—at the risk ruining her perfect fantasy of it—the only real information she has about the great house is provided by her aunt Lottie, who has worked there as lady's maid for eighteen years, since "Madam" herself arrived there as a young bride.

When she finds out word is getting around that she is telling lies to her schoolmates when she shares her stories, Angel decides her school days are over and she resolves she will become a successful writer by hook or by crook, in spite of the many protestations and remonstrances from her mother and aunt, her aunt having paid for her private school so she could have better opportunities in life. But Angel will not budge from her decision, so aunt Lottie comes back with a job offer from the great house: a position as a lady's maid. Our heroine is outraged, and in characteristic fashion, thoroughly insults her aunt for making such a suggestion. Feigning sickness to buy herself time, Angel pens her first "masterwork", The Lady Irania, a real farce of a novel, florid and utterly lacking in sophistication, thought the story purports to be set among the highest strata of English society. Determined to find a publisher, she sends the manuscript around, undeterred by a string of rejections, until one publisher, Theo Gilbright of Gilbright & Brace, sees a potential moneymaker in what he believes could become a party conversation piece which might either face utter ridicule or become a runaway bestseller. His letter suggests a generous advance is in the offing and invites Angel to a meeting in London. The partners expect to meet a doddering old maid smelling of camphor, and are confronted instead with the humourless young girl, who categorically refuses to make any changes to her book, even though she has someone opening a bottle of champagne with a corkscrew as one of her glaring rookie mistakes in the manuscript. The gamble somehow pays off, and Angel does indeed becomes the fabulously wealthy author she knew she could be, which only encourages her to continue indulging her every whim and vanity.

This was my second novel by Elizabeth Taylor, and it made me want to get my hands on everything else she's ever written, although I'm assured by various readers that this novel is not typical of her work. All the same, this is a wickedly entertaining little book which I have no doubt I'll be reading again. My NYRB edition features an introduction by Hilary Mantel; I wisely kept it for the end which definitely helped to prolong the pleasure.

Want to read more of my writing?
Visit: TotallySurreal.com
]]> Chess Story 59151
Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and their fortunes change. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig's story.

This new translation of Chess Story brings out the work's unusual mixture of high suspense and poignant reflection.]]> 104 Stefan Zweig 1590171691 Ilana (illi69) 5
I listened to a fantastic French translation narrated by French actor Édouard Baer (he is also a director, screenwriter, film producer and radio personality), which I highly recommend to those who understand French and enjoy the audiobook experience. I look forward to revisiting this splendid novel in whatever format possible. One of those books and authors that makes me wish I was fluent in German so I could read the original works and pick up on all the subtleties of language.

My blog: TotallySurreal.com]]> 4.31 1942 Chess Story
author: Stefan Zweig
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1942
rating: 5
read at: 2014/11/01
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: literature, 20th-century, favourite-books-ever, to-reread, nyrb, european-literature, currently-reading
review:
Read in November 2014. Among countless books I wish I'd had time and energy to review. The five star rating is my personal system for denoting books I want to return to as often as I can because they've left such a strong impression on me... spoken to my deepest values and concerns, in some way. Stephan Zweig... I have a spiritual connection to him, somehow. His sensibilities feel intimately familiar. I hate using that word "spiritual" because it's so overused, and all too often, by people who have no right to it. But his sensitivity and love of the better parts of humanity touches me deeply. This was Zweig's last book, which he sent to his publishers days before his and his wife's suicide in 1942. It's his only work in which he discussed the Nazis, and characteristically, he looks on the problem from a purely psychological point of view. In real life, the Nazis were in the midst of their murderous rampage and victory was not at all a certainty. All light must have seemed extinguished from the world. I can understand that discouragement, but I've learned there is always a candle burning somewhere, even in the darkest times.

I listened to a fantastic French translation narrated by French actor Édouard Baer (he is also a director, screenwriter, film producer and radio personality), which I highly recommend to those who understand French and enjoy the audiobook experience. I look forward to revisiting this splendid novel in whatever format possible. One of those books and authors that makes me wish I was fluent in German so I could read the original works and pick up on all the subtleties of language.

My blog: TotallySurreal.com
]]> Journalism 16691371 A first for the world's greatest cartoon reporter, a collection of journalism, including articles on the American military in Iraq that have never been published in the United States Over the past decade, Joe Sacco, "our moral draughtsman" (Christopher Hitchens), has increasingly turned to short-form comics journalism to report from the sidelines of wars around the world. Collected here for the first time, Sacco's darkly funny, revealing reportage confirms his standing as one of the foremost war correspondents working today.In "The Unwanted," Sacco chronicles the detention of Saharan refugees who have washed up on the shores of Malta; "Chechen War, Chechen Women" documents the trial without end of widows in the Caucasus; and "Kushinagar" goes deep into the lives of India's untouchables, who are hanging "onto the planet by their fingernails." Other pieces take Sacco to the smuggling tunnels of Gaza; the trial of Milan Kovacevic, Bosnian warlord, in The Hague; and the darkest chapter in recent American history, Abu Ghraib. And on a mission with American troops—pieces never published in the United States—he confronts the misery and absurdity of the war in Iraq.Among Sacco's most mature, accomplished work, Journalism demonstrates the power of our premier cartoonist to chronicle human experience with a force that often eludes other media.]]> 208 Joe Sacco 0224097326 Ilana (illi69) 4
My blog: TotallySurreal.com]]> 4.25 2011 Journalism
author: Joe Sacco
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/30
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: 20th-century, comics-bd, graphic-novel, history, journalism, library-book, nonfiction, politics, travel, war, readingslowly-over-time
review:
4.5. Not light reading by any means but very well executed drawings in a style all his own. Sacco takes a journalistic approach and delivers his visuals about war-torn countries and civilian victims of conflict in cartoon form based on photographs very much in a signature style that either appeals or repels. He includes himself in each story, relating his interactions with local men and women and families as he interviews locals surviving in terrible conditions created because of conflicts nobody can untangle anymore. Joe Sacco is a witness to sad parts of history and shows those who get literally crushed by stronger forces, made watchable because of his humorous drawings and sympathy for the downtrodden.

My blog: TotallySurreal.com
]]> The Garden Party 820187 215 Katherine Mansfield 0747519951 Ilana (illi69) 5 3.89 1921 The Garden Party
author: Katherine Mansfield
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1921
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/01
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: women, short-stories, classics, 20th-century, to-reread
review:

]]> A Rumpole Christmas 6468909
Rumpole and Father Christmas --
Rumpole's slimmed-down Christmas --
Rumpole and the boy --
Rumpole and the old familiar faces --
Rumpole and the Christmas break]]> 176 John Mortimer 0670021350 Ilana (illi69) 4 December 16, 2018
Just finished my second listen of this earlier this evening and really enjoyed it. I have no idea what it's like EYE-reading Rumpole, having only taken him in via audiobooks so far with narrators I've dearly enjoyed previously who make the experience a big part of the fun. Another part of the fun is that I only became aware of Rumpole via a book friend on another bookish platform called LibraryThing. Paul is originally from England but lives in Malaysia with his Malay wife and always mentions her as "SWMBO" and when asked, is happy to say it's an acronym meaning "She Who Must Be Obeyed" taken from this Rumpole series, which made me of course curious to discover the hapless barrister who talks of his wife thusly, and as I'm listening to these humorous short stories about court proceedings which always seem headed for disaster, and a marriage based on mere politeness at best, I always think of Paul fondly because he clearly loves his wife very much and has a wonderful dry British sense of humour of the kind I've always enjoyed. And as I'm not in touch with Paul very often, Rumpole is my way of wishing Paul well, even though he might not know it. All quite warm and fuzzy feelings centred around a rather grumpy but after all kind old geezer of an English barrister at the Old Bailey's court. Perhaps not to everyone's taste, but I'm definitely fond of the old codger and as I don't celebrate Christmas and this is a very sad season for me which too vividly reminds me of the distance I've had to put between family and myself, it's nice to have a tradition of sorts I can return to thanks to John Mortimer and his plonk drinking fat old boy. Paul was a good one to share a heartbreaking personal story or two with here and there too... which reminds me I should probably send him a note, as it's been a while.



This review is from December 2015, with a few recent edits. I'll be picking up this audiobook again this month to celebrate the seasonal spirit (snerk!). A Rumpole Christmas is quite short and very much bittersweet with an emphasis on the bitterness and very little sweetness please, just as I like it. lol

I'm a recent fan of "GRumpole", having just discovered him for myself a week ago, with the first book in the series, Rumpole of the Bailey, with Patrick Tull narrating on the version I listened to. I thought no one else could possibly do Rumpole quite as briliantly as Tull did, with his rumbly old mariner who'se possibly tippled heavily all his life kinda voice, but must say I enjoyed Bill Wallis's performance as the hapless yet sympathetic barrister tremendously as well.

Rumpole is no great fan of the Christmas season, which every year brings him a new tie from She Who Must Be Obeyed (aka his wife Hilda) and a yet another bottle of lavender water to said unbending and unappreciative wife, who drags him from one Christmas engagement he can little look forward to to yet another worse engagement, with the finale being a stay at a "health farm" where the best he can hope for finally takes place: a murder suspect to defend and to finally take him away from insipid health food and miserable company. A very entertaining holiday read that I'll be sure to return to regularly during the Christmas season, to take me away from all that tediously fake good cheer while I'm inevitably going through seasonal depression, just like most people who have health issues and or/no small children and/or no sane or welcoming families to celebrate with.

GRumpole to the rescue! 😁

Merged review:

December 16, 2018
Just finished my second listen of this earlier this evening and really enjoyed it. I have no idea what it's like EYE-reading Rumpole, having only taken him in via audiobooks so far with narrators I've dearly enjoyed previously who make the experience a big part of the fun. Another part of the fun is that I only became aware of Rumpole via a book friend on another bookish platform called LibraryThing. Paul is originally from England but lives in Malaysia with his Malay wife and always mentions her as "SWMBO" and when asked, is happy to say it's an acronym meaning "She Who Must Be Obeyed" taken from this Rumpole series, which made me of course curious to discover the hapless barrister who talks of his wife thusly, and as I'm listening to these humorous short stories about court proceedings which always seem headed for disaster, and a marriage based on mere politeness at best, I always think of Paul fondly because he clearly loves his wife very much and has a wonderful dry British sense of humour of the kind I've always enjoyed. And as I'm not in touch with Paul very often, Rumpole is my way of wishing Paul well, even though he might not know it. All quite warm and fuzzy feelings centred around a rather grumpy but after all kind old geezer of an English barrister at the Old Bailey's court. Perhaps not to everyone's taste, but I'm definitely fond of the old codger and as I don't celebrate Christmas and this is a very sad season for me which too vividly reminds me of the distance I've had to put between family and myself, it's nice to have a tradition of sorts I can return to thanks to John Mortimer and his plonk drinking fat old boy. Paul was a good one to share a heartbreaking personal story or two with here and there too... which reminds me I should probably send him a note, as it's been a while.



This review is from December 2015, with a few recent edits. I'll be picking up this audiobook again this month to celebrate the seasonal spirit (snerk!). A Rumpole Christmas is quite short and very much bittersweet with an emphasis on the bitterness and very little sweetness please, just as I like it. lol

I'm a recent fan of "GRumpole", having just discovered him for myself a week ago, with the first book in the series, Rumpole of the Bailey, with Patrick Tull narrating on the version I listened to. I thought no one else could possibly do Rumpole quite as briliantly as Tull did, with his rumbly old mariner who'se possibly tippled heavily all his life kinda voice, but must say I enjoyed Bill Wallis's performance as the hapless yet sympathetic barrister tremendously as well.

Rumpole is no great fan of the Christmas season, which every year brings him a new tie from She Who Must Be Obeyed (aka his wife Hilda) and a yet another bottle of lavender water to said unbending and unappreciative wife, who drags him from one Christmas engagement he can little look forward to to yet another worse engagement, with the finale being a stay at a "health farm" where the best he can hope for finally takes place: a murder suspect to defend and to finally take him away from insipid health food and miserable company. A very entertaining holiday read that I'll be sure to return to regularly during the Christmas season, to take me away from all that tediously fake good cheer while I'm inevitably going through seasonal depression, just like most people who have health issues and or/no small children and/or no sane or welcoming families to celebrate with.

GRumpole to the rescue!]]> 3.94 2009 A Rumpole Christmas
author: John Mortimer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2018/12/16
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: humour, great-britain, 20th-century, short-stories, mystery-thriller
review:
December 16, 2018
Just finished my second listen of this earlier this evening and really enjoyed it. I have no idea what it's like EYE-reading Rumpole, having only taken him in via audiobooks so far with narrators I've dearly enjoyed previously who make the experience a big part of the fun. Another part of the fun is that I only became aware of Rumpole via a book friend on another bookish platform called LibraryThing. Paul is originally from England but lives in Malaysia with his Malay wife and always mentions her as "SWMBO" and when asked, is happy to say it's an acronym meaning "She Who Must Be Obeyed" taken from this Rumpole series, which made me of course curious to discover the hapless barrister who talks of his wife thusly, and as I'm listening to these humorous short stories about court proceedings which always seem headed for disaster, and a marriage based on mere politeness at best, I always think of Paul fondly because he clearly loves his wife very much and has a wonderful dry British sense of humour of the kind I've always enjoyed. And as I'm not in touch with Paul very often, Rumpole is my way of wishing Paul well, even though he might not know it. All quite warm and fuzzy feelings centred around a rather grumpy but after all kind old geezer of an English barrister at the Old Bailey's court. Perhaps not to everyone's taste, but I'm definitely fond of the old codger and as I don't celebrate Christmas and this is a very sad season for me which too vividly reminds me of the distance I've had to put between family and myself, it's nice to have a tradition of sorts I can return to thanks to John Mortimer and his plonk drinking fat old boy. Paul was a good one to share a heartbreaking personal story or two with here and there too... which reminds me I should probably send him a note, as it's been a while.



This review is from December 2015, with a few recent edits. I'll be picking up this audiobook again this month to celebrate the seasonal spirit (snerk!). A Rumpole Christmas is quite short and very much bittersweet with an emphasis on the bitterness and very little sweetness please, just as I like it. lol

I'm a recent fan of "GRumpole", having just discovered him for myself a week ago, with the first book in the series, Rumpole of the Bailey, with Patrick Tull narrating on the version I listened to. I thought no one else could possibly do Rumpole quite as briliantly as Tull did, with his rumbly old mariner who'se possibly tippled heavily all his life kinda voice, but must say I enjoyed Bill Wallis's performance as the hapless yet sympathetic barrister tremendously as well.

Rumpole is no great fan of the Christmas season, which every year brings him a new tie from She Who Must Be Obeyed (aka his wife Hilda) and a yet another bottle of lavender water to said unbending and unappreciative wife, who drags him from one Christmas engagement he can little look forward to to yet another worse engagement, with the finale being a stay at a "health farm" where the best he can hope for finally takes place: a murder suspect to defend and to finally take him away from insipid health food and miserable company. A very entertaining holiday read that I'll be sure to return to regularly during the Christmas season, to take me away from all that tediously fake good cheer while I'm inevitably going through seasonal depression, just like most people who have health issues and or/no small children and/or no sane or welcoming families to celebrate with.

GRumpole to the rescue! 😁

Merged review:

December 16, 2018
Just finished my second listen of this earlier this evening and really enjoyed it. I have no idea what it's like EYE-reading Rumpole, having only taken him in via audiobooks so far with narrators I've dearly enjoyed previously who make the experience a big part of the fun. Another part of the fun is that I only became aware of Rumpole via a book friend on another bookish platform called LibraryThing. Paul is originally from England but lives in Malaysia with his Malay wife and always mentions her as "SWMBO" and when asked, is happy to say it's an acronym meaning "She Who Must Be Obeyed" taken from this Rumpole series, which made me of course curious to discover the hapless barrister who talks of his wife thusly, and as I'm listening to these humorous short stories about court proceedings which always seem headed for disaster, and a marriage based on mere politeness at best, I always think of Paul fondly because he clearly loves his wife very much and has a wonderful dry British sense of humour of the kind I've always enjoyed. And as I'm not in touch with Paul very often, Rumpole is my way of wishing Paul well, even though he might not know it. All quite warm and fuzzy feelings centred around a rather grumpy but after all kind old geezer of an English barrister at the Old Bailey's court. Perhaps not to everyone's taste, but I'm definitely fond of the old codger and as I don't celebrate Christmas and this is a very sad season for me which too vividly reminds me of the distance I've had to put between family and myself, it's nice to have a tradition of sorts I can return to thanks to John Mortimer and his plonk drinking fat old boy. Paul was a good one to share a heartbreaking personal story or two with here and there too... which reminds me I should probably send him a note, as it's been a while.



This review is from December 2015, with a few recent edits. I'll be picking up this audiobook again this month to celebrate the seasonal spirit (snerk!). A Rumpole Christmas is quite short and very much bittersweet with an emphasis on the bitterness and very little sweetness please, just as I like it. lol

I'm a recent fan of "GRumpole", having just discovered him for myself a week ago, with the first book in the series, Rumpole of the Bailey, with Patrick Tull narrating on the version I listened to. I thought no one else could possibly do Rumpole quite as briliantly as Tull did, with his rumbly old mariner who'se possibly tippled heavily all his life kinda voice, but must say I enjoyed Bill Wallis's performance as the hapless yet sympathetic barrister tremendously as well.

Rumpole is no great fan of the Christmas season, which every year brings him a new tie from She Who Must Be Obeyed (aka his wife Hilda) and a yet another bottle of lavender water to said unbending and unappreciative wife, who drags him from one Christmas engagement he can little look forward to to yet another worse engagement, with the finale being a stay at a "health farm" where the best he can hope for finally takes place: a murder suspect to defend and to finally take him away from insipid health food and miserable company. A very entertaining holiday read that I'll be sure to return to regularly during the Christmas season, to take me away from all that tediously fake good cheer while I'm inevitably going through seasonal depression, just like most people who have health issues and or/no small children and/or no sane or welcoming families to celebrate with.

GRumpole to the rescue!
]]> Hangsaman 18331534
The Sunday afternoon cocktail party, to which Arnold Waite has invited his literary friends and neighbors, serves to etch in the details of this family's life, and to draw Natalie into the vortex. The story concentrates on the next few critical months in Natalie's life, away at college, where each experience reproduces on a larger scale the crucial failure of her emotional life at home. With a mounting tension rising from character and situation as well as the particular magic of which Miss Jackson is master, the novel proceeds inexorably to the stinging melodrama of its conclusion. The bitter cruelty of the passage from adolescence to womanhood, of a sensitive and lonely girl caught in a world not of her own devising, is a theme well suited to Miss Jackson's brilliant talent.]]> 242 Shirley Jackson 1101616768 Ilana (illi69) 3 Edit: This was not a an actual review, but a very emotional and troubled response to what was an experience rather than a proper reading. I felt this book viscerally more than just read it. I wish I'd kept at distance from it so I could have appreciated it more. I've read a couple of reviews that made me appreciate it better, and I'm thankful for that. My perspective on it is definitely skewed, so you really shouldn't base your decision on it to decide whether you should read this novel or not.

I’ve just finished this book and find myself deeply disturbed by it. I’ve read quite a few of Shirley Jackson’s novels and stories by now and never been as spooked as I have been by this one. A young woman, still just a girl, with an overbearing detestable writer father who is determined to mold her in his image and who sends her (unprotesting) to the college of his choosing is how I would describe the story in one sentence. The rest you can get from the publishers blurb. From the first lines of the novel there are clear signs that Natalie doesn’t simply have an “overactive imagination�, but that she is probably experiencing schizophrenic dissociative episodes, with ongoing elaborate fantasies of having committed a horrible crime. With such a mentally damaging father and a mother who has escaped into the numbing effects of alcohol, our girl seems to be left without defenses and things can’t possibly go well for her from here, and of course, they don’t.

When she enters the all-girls college, predictably enough, she finds an even more hostile environment of cliques and hazings and not so subtle put-downs and she mostly isolates herself, and soon enough her flights of fancy take over and she become completely disconnected from reality with greater and greater frequency. This makes for some very interesting reading of the “Through the Looking Glass� variety and I have a strong intuition no author could come up with such original material without being cracked to begin with. That is probably one of the things that attracts me so much to dear Shirley, that I recognize the kindred spirit of one who uses those dark places to feed her creativity.

So far I’ve been rather amused by Jackson’s writings, even (and especially) the nastier bits have made me chuckle, but here were echoes of true and terrifying madness... because utterly beyond comprehension. Was her friend Tony for example, encountered towards the latter part of the story, and with whom she formed an obsessive, and possibility sapphic bond, actually real? I don’t know if this question has been raised before, but I felt like our Natalie was so confused and miserable by then that she may no longer have been able to tell truth from her own fiction any longer.

For my part, the only time I’ve ever felt quite this disturbed by a novel... I mean felt this particular register of disturbance, was when I read The Bell Jar at age sixteen or seventeen and was completely horrified to see a young woman just as, or possibly even more confused and crazy than me putting down her thoughts in book form. With Hangsaman, it felt like revisiting all those parts of a dreadfully painful, unmedicated adolescence and just how dangerous I felt I was to myself then... almost miraculously surviving those years against the odds, and how merciless the world was and continues to be to people who are as badly equipped to deal with the harsh realities of this world.

How to rate a book that ended up making me feel so wretched?! I found it brilliant and completely relatable for the most part, and then it took me to places I swore never to return to, for I vowed never to read The Bell Jar again for how lingering it’s oppressive effect proved to be for me, plunging me into a dark and lasting depression. This was a completely different story of course, but just as confusing somehow. Thank heavens I’ve gained much in maturity in the intervening three decades or so and have learned how to live and survive with the Black Dog, since he chooses to be in residence on a rather regular basis.

For anyone NOT suffering from an actual mental illness I suppose it might simply be an interesting and somewhat spooky ride into how scary the transition from childhood to womanhood can be. Once again, kudos to Shirley Jackson for never pulling any punches!]]> 3.72 1951 Hangsaman
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1951
rating: 3
read at: 2018/11/27
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: gothic-and-horror, women, library-book, ebook, psychology, mental-health-matters, 20th-century
review:
Edit: This was not a an actual review, but a very emotional and troubled response to what was an experience rather than a proper reading. I felt this book viscerally more than just read it. I wish I'd kept at distance from it so I could have appreciated it more. I've read a couple of reviews that made me appreciate it better, and I'm thankful for that. My perspective on it is definitely skewed, so you really shouldn't base your decision on it to decide whether you should read this novel or not.

I’ve just finished this book and find myself deeply disturbed by it. I’ve read quite a few of Shirley Jackson’s novels and stories by now and never been as spooked as I have been by this one. A young woman, still just a girl, with an overbearing detestable writer father who is determined to mold her in his image and who sends her (unprotesting) to the college of his choosing is how I would describe the story in one sentence. The rest you can get from the publishers blurb. From the first lines of the novel there are clear signs that Natalie doesn’t simply have an “overactive imagination�, but that she is probably experiencing schizophrenic dissociative episodes, with ongoing elaborate fantasies of having committed a horrible crime. With such a mentally damaging father and a mother who has escaped into the numbing effects of alcohol, our girl seems to be left without defenses and things can’t possibly go well for her from here, and of course, they don’t.

When she enters the all-girls college, predictably enough, she finds an even more hostile environment of cliques and hazings and not so subtle put-downs and she mostly isolates herself, and soon enough her flights of fancy take over and she become completely disconnected from reality with greater and greater frequency. This makes for some very interesting reading of the “Through the Looking Glass� variety and I have a strong intuition no author could come up with such original material without being cracked to begin with. That is probably one of the things that attracts me so much to dear Shirley, that I recognize the kindred spirit of one who uses those dark places to feed her creativity.

So far I’ve been rather amused by Jackson’s writings, even (and especially) the nastier bits have made me chuckle, but here were echoes of true and terrifying madness... because utterly beyond comprehension. Was her friend Tony for example, encountered towards the latter part of the story, and with whom she formed an obsessive, and possibility sapphic bond, actually real? I don’t know if this question has been raised before, but I felt like our Natalie was so confused and miserable by then that she may no longer have been able to tell truth from her own fiction any longer.

For my part, the only time I’ve ever felt quite this disturbed by a novel... I mean felt this particular register of disturbance, was when I read The Bell Jar at age sixteen or seventeen and was completely horrified to see a young woman just as, or possibly even more confused and crazy than me putting down her thoughts in book form. With Hangsaman, it felt like revisiting all those parts of a dreadfully painful, unmedicated adolescence and just how dangerous I felt I was to myself then... almost miraculously surviving those years against the odds, and how merciless the world was and continues to be to people who are as badly equipped to deal with the harsh realities of this world.

How to rate a book that ended up making me feel so wretched?! I found it brilliant and completely relatable for the most part, and then it took me to places I swore never to return to, for I vowed never to read The Bell Jar again for how lingering it’s oppressive effect proved to be for me, plunging me into a dark and lasting depression. This was a completely different story of course, but just as confusing somehow. Thank heavens I’ve gained much in maturity in the intervening three decades or so and have learned how to live and survive with the Black Dog, since he chooses to be in residence on a rather regular basis.

For anyone NOT suffering from an actual mental illness I suppose it might simply be an interesting and somewhat spooky ride into how scary the transition from childhood to womanhood can be. Once again, kudos to Shirley Jackson for never pulling any punches!
]]> <![CDATA[His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes #8)]]> 35497788
This collection of stories, published together for the first time in 1917, is an essential addition for collectors and fans of the escapades of Holmes and Watson, known and loved the world over.]]> 0 Arthur Conan Doyle Ilana (illi69) 4 3.90 1917 His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes #8)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1917
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/21
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: 19th-century, 20th-century, adventure, audiobooks, classic-mysteries, crime, favourite-authors, geeky, great-britain, mystery-thriller, series, short-stories, victorian
review:

]]> <![CDATA[La Prisonnière (À la recherche du temps perdu, #5)]]> 15705087 Marcel Proust 2878625293 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.00 1923 La Prisonnière (À la recherche du temps perdu, #5)
author: Marcel Proust
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1923
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves: to-read, classics, france, en-francais, series, 20th-century, literature, 1000-books-mustich
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Grave's a Fine and Private Place (Flavia de Luce, #9)]]> 35098071 The Seattle Times), Flavia de Luce, returns in a twisty new mystery novel from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley.]]> 384 Alan Bradley 0345540018 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.22 2018 The Grave's a Fine and Private Place (Flavia de Luce, #9)
author: Alan Bradley
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read, historical-fiction, series, young-adult, 20th-century, mystery-thriller
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #4)]]> 35050334
1. "Estrella de plata "
2. "El rostro amarillo"
3. "El oficinista del corredor de bolsa"
4. "La corbeta "Gloria Scott""
5. "El ritual de los Musgrave"
6. "Los hacendados de Reigate"
7. "La aventura del jorobado"
8. "El paciente interno"
9. "El intérprete griego"
10. "El tratado naval"
11. "El problema final"
]]> 9 Arthur Conan Doyle Ilana (illi69) 4 4.04 1893 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #4)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1893
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/03
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: 19th-century, 20th-century, audiobooks, classic-mysteries, classics, crime, favourite-authors, favourite-books-ever, geeky, great-britain, most-influential, mystery-thriller, series, short-stories, victorian
review:

]]> The Stone Angel 729251
As her story unfolds, we are drawn into her past. We meet Hagar as a young girl growing up in a black prairie town; as the wife of a virile but unsuccessful farmer with whom her marriage was stormy; as a mother who dominates her younger son; and, finally, as an old woman isolated by an uncompromising pride and by the stern virtues she has inherited from her pioneer ancestors.

Vivid, evocative, moving, The Stone Angel celebrates the triumph of the spirit, and reveals Margaret Laurence at the height of her powers as a writer of extraordinary craft and profound insight into the workings of the human heart.]]> 344 Margaret Laurence 0771047088 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.79 1964 The Stone Angel
author: Margaret Laurence
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1964
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves: 1930s, 1960s, 20th-century, canada, literature
review:

]]> False Dawn 51812932 Lewis Raycie is sent on a Grand Tour of Europe with instructions from his father to acquire a collection of accepted Art Works. His father's dream is to own a Raphael; instead, Lewis returns with a priceless collection of Renaissance masterpieces by Piero della Francesca and others of equal stature. They are, however, unknown in America.
His father is appalled and disinherits him. His family ridicules him. But it is only after Lewis dies that the magnificent collection gets the recognition it really deserves.

(P)2014 Audible, Inc.]]> Edith Wharton Ilana (illi69) 5 3.71 1924 False Dawn
author: Edith Wharton
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1924
rating: 5
read at: 2013/12/01
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: women, classics, literature, 20th-century, audiobooks
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal]]> 44788195
Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War.

Philby’s two closest friends in the intelligence world, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton, the CIA intelligence chief, thought they knew Philby better than anyone, and then discovered they had not known him at all. This is a story of intimate duplicity; of loyalty, trust and treachery, class and conscience; of an ideological battle waged by men with cut-glass accents and well-made suits in the comfortable clubs and restaurants of London and Washington; of male friendships forged, and then systematically betrayed.

With access to newly released MI5 files and previously unseen family papers, and with the cooperation of former officers of MI6 and the CIA, this definitive biography unlocks what is perhaps the last great secret of the Cold War.]]> 11 Ben Macintyre Ilana (illi69) 0 4.03 2014 A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
author: Ben Macintyre
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, history, biography-memoir, audiobooks, espionage, great-britain, 20th-century, russia, cold-war, war
review:

]]> The Age of Innocence 22926967
Listening 12 hours and 2 minutes]]> 12 Edith Wharton Ilana (illi69) 5
A wonderful look at New York's upper crust in the 1870s, whose lives revolved around being seen at the opera and inviting the right people to dinner parties. Wharton exposes a world she knew firsthand from the distance of the 1920s, and what she shows us is just how regulated life was among the elite—in a New York which was cosmopolitan, but prided itself on its rigid and old fashioned conventions. Because this is Wharton, we know this love story is not likely to end with a Happily Ever After, but along the way she touches on interesting themes and presents us with a fascinating cast of characters who may not be likeable, but don't lack for entertainment value. A story I will definitely revisit in future. This audiobook version was narrated to perfection by David Horovitch and is definitely recommended. —August 2012]]> 4.11 1920 The Age of Innocence
author: Edith Wharton
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1920
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: women, classics, literature, favourite-books-ever, 20th-century, to-reread, 1000-books-mustich, 1001-books, america, culture, favourite-authors, feminism, guardian-1000, portraits, psychology, sociology, tragedies, victorian, wicked-women, nyc, historical-fiction, romance
review:
Newland Archer, one of Old New York society's crowned princes (so to speak) is overjoyed about his recent engagement to the perfect May Welland. She too has a perfect pedigree, is a pretty young rose just starting to come into bloom, is innocent and beyond reproach in every way, well trained to be the ideal dutiful wife. But when he gets better acquainted with May's spirited and independent-minded cousin Ellen Olenska, just recently returned from Europe and scandalizing all New York with her revealing dresses and foreign manners of speech and behaviour, Newland is at first shocked and then completely taken over with passion. So much so that he is determined to drop May and marry the countess Olenska instead. What he conveniently forgets is that his desire to embrace a life of freedom and equality will not be tolerated by his peers.

A wonderful look at New York's upper crust in the 1870s, whose lives revolved around being seen at the opera and inviting the right people to dinner parties. Wharton exposes a world she knew firsthand from the distance of the 1920s, and what she shows us is just how regulated life was among the elite—in a New York which was cosmopolitan, but prided itself on its rigid and old fashioned conventions. Because this is Wharton, we know this love story is not likely to end with a Happily Ever After, but along the way she touches on interesting themes and presents us with a fascinating cast of characters who may not be likeable, but don't lack for entertainment value. A story I will definitely revisit in future. This audiobook version was narrated to perfection by David Horovitch and is definitely recommended. —August 2012
]]> Ordinary Grace 20695879 “That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.�

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family� which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother� he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.]]> 11 William Kent Krueger Ilana (illi69) 0 4.15 2013 Ordinary Grace
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: awards-prizes, library-book, audiobooks, young-adult, historical-fiction, america, mystery-thriller, crime, 1960s, 20th-century, dnf, no-thanks
review:
@ 57% dnf. Not finishing. Reads too much like religious fiction to me. Not to say Christian fiction. Not to say preachy. The story is good. But the rest puts me on edge. I like my spirituality unbiased by commonly held beliefs. I was raised as a free spirit wishing so much for this kind of normal North American WASP background, but I was never going to fit in no matter what. I enjoyed his latest book, but that was enough pious boy storytelling for the year. Last year. Following up with this, also last year as of now, (lol) was a miss. No rating. This isn’t a review. This is you peeking at Notes to myself on why I dnf’d a book I’d wanted to read and had been recommended forever.
]]> <![CDATA[I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories]]> 53122309 Esquire) with his debut novel, The Long Home, and his highly acclaimed follow-up, Provinces of Night. Like Faulkner's Mississippi and Cormac McCarthy's American West, Gay's Tennessee is redolent of broken souls. Mining that same fertile soil, his debut collection, I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, brings together thirteen stories charting the pathos of interior lives. Among the colorful people readers meet are: old man Meecham, who escapes from his nursing home only to find his son has rented their homestead to "white trash"; Quincy Nell Qualls, who not only falls in love with the town lothario but, pregnant, faces an inescapable end when he abandons her; Finis and Doneita Beasley, whose forty-year marriage is broken up by a dead dog; and Bobby Pettijohn -- awakened in the night by a search party after a body is discovered in his back woods.
William Gay expertly sets these conflicted characters against lush backcountry scenery and defies our moral logic as we grow to love them for the weight of their human errors.]]> William Gay Ilana (illi69) 0 4.33 2002 I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories
author: William Gay
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/08
shelves: to-read, 20th-century, america, americansouth, audiobooks, library-book, literature, short-stories, southerngothic
review:

]]> The Long Home 16370721 The Long Home, is also the story of Amber Rose, a beautiful young woman forced to live beneath that evil who recognizes even as a child that Nathan is her first and last chance at escape. And it is the story of William Tell Oliver, a solitary old man who watches the growing evil from the dark woods and adds to his own weathered guilt by failing to do anything about it. Set in rural Tennessee in the 1940s, The Long Home will bring to mind once again the greatest Southern novelists and will haunt the reader with its sense of solitude , longing, and the deliverance that is always just out of reach.]]> 9 William Gay 1449885861 Ilana (illi69) 4 3.75 1999 The Long Home
author: William Gay
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/20
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: 20th-century, america, americansouth, audiobooks, historical-fiction, library-book, southerngothic, 1940s, mystery-thriller, literature
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 16370325 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1449878636 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.93 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/19
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves: guardian-1000, literature, classics, russia, historical-fiction, 20th-century, library-book, 1000-books-mustich
review:

]]> Rebecca 23310834
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again....

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives - resenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling tale that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.

©2014 Daphne du Maurier (P)2014 Hachette Audio]]> 15 Daphne du Maurier 1478985038 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.09 1938 Rebecca
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/16
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves: historical-fiction, classics, mystery-thriller, women, 20th-century, guardian-1000, favourite-books-ever, favourite-historical-fiction
review:
From February 2012: The narrator, a young woman just barely out of school is working for a rich and unpleasant American woman as a companion, when she meets Maxim de Winter, a man twice her age and recently widowed who nevertheless courts her and asks her to marry him within a couple of weeks. Given the choice between following her employer to New York and spending her life on the renowned Manderley estate with this dashing older man, she opts for a quick marriage and honeymoon in Italy. When the newlywed couple arrive at Manderley and are greeted by the staff, the young woman is immediately made to feel ill at ease. Nothing in her background has prepared her to take charge of this kind of residence, something which the very scary housekeeper Mrs Danvers, who is devoted to the late Mrs De Winter, doesn't fail to make clear. In no time at all, our young woman is convinced she's made a mistake. Her husband seems to have little interest in her and she is convinced that his first wife Rebecca still has a hold on him and everyone else she's ever graced with her charms. Very little actually happens for at least the first half of this novel, but the tension could be cut with a knife, the Gothic atmosphere is brilliantly conveyed, and pretty soon it becomes impossible to know who should and shouldn't be trusted. The audio version is beautifully narrated by one of my all-time favourites, Anna Massey.
]]> The Queen's Gambit 55888740 15 Walter Tevis 1982597232 Ilana (illi69) 2 20th-century 3.94 1983 The Queen's Gambit
author: Walter Tevis
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1983
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves: 20th-century
review:

]]> The Great Alone 38395897
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America's last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents' passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights' lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt's fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in 18 hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: They are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska - a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night audiobook about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.]]> 15 Kristin Hannah Ilana (illi69) 3 4.28 2018 The Great Alone
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/18
date added: 2023/12/18
shelves: 1970s, 20th-century, america, audiobooks, historical-fiction, library-book, literature
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Doll: The Lost Short Stories]]> 10560393
Before she wrote Rebecca, the novel that would cement her reputation as a twentieth-century literary giant, a young Daphne du Maurier penned short fiction in which she explored the images, themes, and concerns that informed her later work. Originally published in periodicals during the early 1930s, many of these stories never found their way into print again . . . until now.

Tales of human frailty and obsession, and of romance gone tragically awry, the thirteen stories in The Doll showcase an exciting budding talent before she went on to write one of the most beloved novels of all time. In these pages, a waterlogged notebook washes ashore revealing a dark story of jealousy and obsession, a vicar coaches a young couple divided by class issues, and an older man falls perilously in love with a much younger woman—with each tale demonstrating du Maurier’s extraordinary storytelling gifts and her deep understanding of human nature.]]> 209 Daphne du Maurier 0062080342 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.66 1937 The Doll: The Lost Short Stories
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/21
date added: 2023/11/21
shelves: gothic-and-horror, short-stories, classics, 20th-century, audiobooks, great-britain
review:

]]> Giovanni's Room 17857279
©1956 James Baldwin (P)2013 AudioGO]]> 178 James Baldwin Ilana (illi69) 3 4.10 1956 Giovanni's Room
author: James Baldwin
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1956
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/18
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves: guardian-1000, 20th-century, african-american, audiobooks, france, lgb_etc, literature, short-fiction, 1950s
review:

]]> Ring Shout 50687822 In America, demons wear white hoods.

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?]]> 172 P. Djèlí Clark 1250767016 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.09 2020 Ring Shout
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves: 1920s, 20th-century, african-american, ebook, fantasy-sci-fi, library-book, literature, dnf, no-thanks
review:

]]> Bellwether 13484313
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennett O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions - with the unintended help of the errant, forgetful, and careless office assistant Flip.

LENGTH
6 hrs and 30 mins]]> 7 Connie Willis Ilana (illi69) 4 3.91 1996 Bellwether
author: Connie Willis
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/17
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves: audiobooks, fantasy-sci-fi, 20th-century, short-fiction
review:
Amazing that a book in which the main character is studying fads, published in 1997 can still feel relevant. Where did the fad for bobbed hair come from is what Sandra Fosters research centres around, but it was fun to get a smattering of information about fads throughout the ages. One thing Connie Willis got dead wrong is that aversion to smoking was a fad� lol.
]]> The Covenant of Water 63429926 From the New York Times–bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial new epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala and following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret.

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting for Stone. Published in 2009, Cutting for Stone became a literary phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Mother”—will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life. All of Verghese’s great gifts are on display in this new there are astonishing scenes of medical ingenuity, fantastic moments of humor, a surprising and deeply moving story, and characters imbued with the essence of life.

A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 775 Abraham Verghese Ilana (illi69) 4 4.58 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/15
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: 20th-century, ebook, family-saga, library-book
review:

]]> Bliss 10562168 70 Katherine Mansfield 0141196130 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.78 1918 Bliss
author: Katherine Mansfield
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1918
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/14
date added: 2023/11/14
shelves: 20th-century, antipodes, classics, literature, short-stories, women
review:

]]> The Night in Question 251374
In short, fiction of dazzling emotional range and absolute authority.]]> 206 Tobias Wolff 0679402187 Ilana (illi69) 3 4.18 1995 The Night in Question
author: Tobias Wolff
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/14
date added: 2023/11/14
shelves: 20th-century, audiobooks, literature, short-stories
review:

]]> Down to Bone 35919158 1 Tobias Wolff Ilana (illi69) 3 3.32 Down to Bone
author: Tobias Wolff
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.32
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/14
date added: 2023/11/14
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, literature, short-stories
review:

]]> Wakenhyrst 48659367
During a walk through the local church yard, Edmund spots an eye in the undergrowth. His terror is only briefly abated when he discovers its actually a painting, a 'doom', taken from the church. It's horrifying in its depiction of hell, and Edmund wants nothing more to do with it despite his historical significance. But the doom keeps returning to his mind. The stench of the Fen permeates the house, even with the windows closed. And when he lies awake at night, he hears a scratching sound � like claws on the wooden floor...

Wakenhyrst is a terrifying ghost story, an atmospheric slice of gothic, a brilliant exploration of the boundaries between the real and the supernatural, and a descent into the mind of a psychopath.]]> Michelle Paver Ilana (illi69) 5
January 2020: Loved it! The gothic atmosphere pervades every aspect of this story. From the house itself situated near a fen, or marsh area thousands of years old (the last fen to have survived draining in England, according to the story), where dark spirits are thought to roam, to the abusive authoritarian father figure who barely notices his progeny and insists on mounting his poor suffering wife daily despite her regularly birthing dead or dying babies, there is darkness aplenty here. Thought the telling of a woman's life history, we discover why her father murdered a man with a pickaxe in a seemingly sudden mad rage. Delightful! :-)]]> 3.81 2019 Wakenhyrst
author: Michelle Paver
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/13
date added: 2023/11/13
shelves: gothic-and-horror, 20th-century, audiobooks, historical-fiction
review:
November 13, 2023: Revisited this wonderful novel about a young girl who is observing her father’s descent into madness and murder at the beginning of the 20th century. Edmund Stearn, a tyrannical historian, husband and father, believes he is being pursued by a devil revealed to him in a “doom”—a medieval painting in his local church. Maud, as his helper and secretary, finds his hidden journals and reads about his so-called historical research as he becomes convinced he must fight with a devil. She is in love with one of the servants who introduces her to eel “babbing� (fishing) and her first kiss. The fen is one of Maud’s favourite places and she must find ways to prevent her father from draining it. He has reasons of his own to hate the marshes, but Maud is a nature lover and devises plans to thwart his plans. An engrossing novel I’ve now revisited twice on audiobook with the brilliant narration by Juanita McMahon.

January 2020: Loved it! The gothic atmosphere pervades every aspect of this story. From the house itself situated near a fen, or marsh area thousands of years old (the last fen to have survived draining in England, according to the story), where dark spirits are thought to roam, to the abusive authoritarian father figure who barely notices his progeny and insists on mounting his poor suffering wife daily despite her regularly birthing dead or dying babies, there is darkness aplenty here. Thought the telling of a woman's life history, we discover why her father murdered a man with a pickaxe in a seemingly sudden mad rage. Delightful! :-)
]]> Dark Matter 23298840 7 Michelle Paver Ilana (illi69) 4 3.99 2010 Dark Matter
author: Michelle Paver
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2023/11/08
shelves: 1930s, 20th-century, audiobooks, great-britain, historical-fiction
review:

]]> Le Petit Prince 191292 - S'il vous plaît... dessine-moi un mouton !
- Hein !
- Dessine-moi un mouton...
J'ai sauté sur mes pieds comme si j'avais été frappé par la foudre. J'ai bien frotté mes yeux. J'ai bien regardé. Et j'ai vu un petit bonhomme tout à fait extraordinaire qui me considérait gravement.]]> 104 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 2070408507 Ilana (illi69) 5
It's a simple story on the surface, to be sure, but also a very profound one, which teaches us that "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye."

Indeed.]]> 4.35 1943 Le Petit Prince
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1943
rating: 5
read at: 2014/06/01
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: classics, favourite-books-ever, guardian-1000, childrens, en-francais, 20th-century, adventure, fantasy, illustrated, literature, most-influential, philosophy
review:
This very famous and much beloved short novel is a firsthand account by a pilot stuck in the Sahara desert due to mechanical failure who meets the Little Prince—he apparently comes from another planet—when the little blonde-haired boy tells the pilot to "draw me a sheep!". There follows a discussion about the pilot's lack of drawing skills, of the Little Prince's relationship with the solitary rose that has grown on his tiny planet, where he needs to be ever-vigilant about baobabs taking root and potentially overtaking the tiny place, then of the boy's travels to other asteroids inhabited by adults who have strange priorities, to the little fox on planet earth who asks the Little Prince to tame him, because "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."

It's a simple story on the surface, to be sure, but also a very profound one, which teaches us that "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye."

Indeed.
]]> <![CDATA[Something Wicked This Way Comes]]> 34466883
For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.

Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes . Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon.]]> 337 Ray Bradbury 1501167715 Ilana (illi69) 0 3.85 1962 Something Wicked This Way Comes
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/18
shelves: to-read, fantasy-sci-fi, 20th-century, horror-in-october, horror
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928]]> 20821221 A magnificent new biography that revolutionizes our understanding of Stalin and his world

It has the quality of myth: A poor cobbler’s son, a seminarian from an oppressed outer province of the Russian empire, reinvents himself as a revolutionary and finds a leadership role within a small group of marginal zealots. When the old world is unexpectedly brought down in a total war, the band seizes control of the country, and the new regime it founds as the vanguard of a new world order is ruthlessly dominated from within by the former seminarian until he stands as the absolute ruler of a vast and terrible state apparatus, with dominion over Eurasia. But the largest country in the world is also a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. Shortly after seizing total power, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted: the root-and-branch uprooting and collectivization of agriculture and industry across the entire Soviet Union. To stand up to the capitalists he will force into being an industrialized, militarized, collectivized great power is an act of will. Millions will die, and many more will suffer, but Stalin will push through to the end against all resistance and doubts. Where did such power come from? We think we know the story well. Remarkably, Stephen Kotkin’s epic new biography shows us how much we still have to learn.

The product of a decade of scrupulous and intrepid research, Stalin contains a host of astonishing revelations. Kotkin gives an intimate first-ever view of the Bolshevik regime’s inner geography, bringing to the fore materials from Soviet military intelligence and the secret police. He details Stalin’s invention of a fabricated trial and mass executions as early as 1918, the technique he would later impose across the whole country. The book places Stalin’s momentous decision for collectivization more deeply than ever in the tragic history of imperial Russia. Above all, Kotkin offers a convincing portrait and explanation of Stalin’s monstrous power and of Russian power in the world. Stalin restores a sense of surprise to the way we think about the former Soviet Union, revolution, dictatorship, the twentieth century, and indeed the art of history itself.
]]> 976 Stephen Kotkin 1594203792 Ilana (illi69) 0 3.94 Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928
author: Stephen Kotkin
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves: to-read, history, nonfiction, pulitzers-and-finalist, 20th-century, politics, portraits, russia, ussr, biography-memoir
review:

]]> Fraud 393483
As Brookner reconstructs Anna's life and character through the eyes of her acquaintances, she gives us a witty yet ultimately devastating study of self-annihilating virtue while exposing the social, fiscal, and moral frauds that are the underpinnings of terrifying rectitude.]]> 224 Anita Brookner 0140176500 Ilana (illi69) 2 3.75 1992 Fraud
author: Anita Brookner
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1992
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/25
date added: 2023/09/25
shelves: 20th-century, women, great-britain, literature
review:

]]> A Dubious Legacy 886168 389 Mary Wesley 0552994952 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.62 1992 A Dubious Legacy
author: Mary Wesley
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/04
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves: 20th-century, women, great-britain, literature, audiobooks
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mightier Than the Sword (The Clifton Chronicles, #5)]]> 21853645
A bomb goes off, but how many passengers on the MV Buckingham have lost their lives? You will find out only if you read the opening chapter of Mightier than the Sword.
When Harry arrives in New York, his publisher Harold Guinzberg tells him he has been elected as the next president of English PEN, which will give him the opportunity to launch a campaign for the release of a fellow author, Anatoly Babakov, who is languishing in a Russian Gulag in Siberia. His crime, writing a book Uncle Joe, which gives an insight into what it was like to work for Josef Stalin. So determined is he to see Babakov released, Harry puts his own life in danger.

Emma Clifton, now Chairman of Barrington Shipping, is having to face the repercussions of the IRA bombing her ship.
Some board members feel she should resign while others, including Sebastian Clifton, newly elected to the board, are determined to see she remains as Chairman.

Giles Barrington is now a Minister of the Crown, and looks set for high office, but a trip to East Germany does not end as a diplomatic success, and once again Giles' political career is thrown off balance by none other than Major Alex Fisher. Fisher decides to stand against Giles at the forthcoming general election. But this time who wins?

Sebastian Clifton asks his girlfriend Samantha to marry him. She happily accepts, but then later changes her mind after she discovers what Seb has been up to behind her back.

The book ends with two court trials: one at the high court in London, a libel case pitting Emma Clifton against Lady Virginia Fenwick; while another, a show trial, takes place in Russia after Harry has been arrested as a spy. Thus continues book five of the Clifton Chronicles, Jeffrey Archer's most accomplished work to date, with all the trademark twists and turns that have made him one of the most successful authors in the world.

]]> 400 Jeffrey Archer 1250034515 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.09 2015 Mightier Than the Sword (The Clifton Chronicles, #5)
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/26
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, crime, family-saga, great-britain, historical-fiction, library-book, mystery-thriller, dnf
review:
I loved the first four books in this series but it’s been a while since I read the previous instalment, and 20% into the audiobook, simply lost the thread and it’s failing to hold my interest, so I will regretfully stop here and forget about completing the series. Too bad, but then again there’s no lack of options for other reads.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss]]> 7821828 The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet� in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only thing remaining of their vast empire was a collection of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox.

The renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal became the fifth generation to inherit this small and exquisite collection of netsuke. Entranced by their beauty and mystery, he determined to trace the story of his family through the story of the collection.

The netsuke—drunken monks, almost-ripe plums, snarling tigers—were gathered by Charles Ephrussi at the height of the Parisian rage for all things Japanese. Charles had shunned the place set aside for him in the family business to make a study of art, and of beautiful living. An early supporter of the Impressionists, he appears, oddly formal in a top hat, in Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. Marcel Proust studied Charles closely enough to use him as a model for the aesthete and lover Swann in Remembrance of Things Past.

Charles gave the carvings as a wedding gift to his cousin Viktor in Vienna; his children were allowed to play with one netsuke each while they watched their mother, the Baroness Emmy, dress for ball after ball. Her older daughter grew up to disdain fashionable society. Longing to write, she struck up a correspondence with Rilke, who encouraged her in her poetry.

The Anschluss changed their world beyond recognition. Ephrussi and his cosmopolitan family were imprisoned or scattered, and Hitler’s theorist on the “Jewish question� appropriated their magnificent palace on the Ringstrasse. A library of priceless books and a collection of Old Master paintings were confiscated by the Nazis. But the netsuke were smuggled away by a loyal maid, Anna, and hidden in her straw mattress. Years after the war, she would find a way to return them to the family she’d served even in their exile.

In The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal unfolds the story of a remarkable family and a tumultuous century. Sweeping yet intimate, it is a highly original meditation on art, history, and family, as elegant and precise as the netsuke themselves.

]]> 368 Edmund de Waal 0374105979 Ilana (illi69) 5
His tale is a sweeping saga, which starts in the 19th century with the magnetic Charles Ephrussi, the original collector of the netsukes, an art collector and patron who admired and promoted the impressionists when they were still considered as radicals. He purchased some 40 works by Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Pissarro, among others, and became part-owner and then editor and contributor to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, the most important art historical periodical in France. As such, he was a welcome guest at some of the most famous salons in Paris and is known to be one of the inspirations for the figure of Swann in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). He also appears in Le déjeuner des canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir as the figure seen from the back wearing a hat. But things abruptly changed with the Dreyfus affair in 1894, when the French took sides and anti-semitism became widespread. Suddenly, many old friends were lost and became sworn enemies.

De Waal continues the family history, following the path of the nestukes, who came into the hands of Charles's niece as a wedding present. Iggie's mother and the author's great grandmother was a great one for going to the opera and dinner parties wearing fashionable gorgeous dresses with perfectly matched hats and gloves, which her maid Anna always knew how to help her choose and bring off with the perfect piece of jewelry. As she dressed, the children were allowed to play on the yellow rug with the priceless collection of tiny netsuke she kept in the cabinet placed in her dressing room which uncle Charles had given her. The First World War had been hard enough to get through, but then the Nazis came into power and for all of them, the enchanted world at the Palais Ephrussi was shattered forever, as they were turned out of their living quarters and their possessions taken over by the Reich. The horrors of the holocaust forced them to flee in all directions.

I rarely cry when reading a book, but I cried when Anna, after the war is over, reveals to Elizabeth, the author's grandmother, how it is she managed to smuggle the netsuke figures one by one from under the Natzi's very noses in safekeeping as a valuable memento she could salvage for the family for which she had worked all her life.]]> 3.95 2010 The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss
author: Edmund de Waal
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2015/01/29
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: nonfiction, 20th-century, favourite-books-ever, biography-memoir, wwii, war, audiobooks, religion, culture
review:
From January 2015: Edmund de Waal inherited a priceless collection of 264 netsukes—japanese miniatures made from ivory depicting animals and scenes of everyday life—from his great uncle, Iggie. His great uncle told him how he had played with them as a child in his mother's dressing room with his siblings. The author decided to set aside his own work as a world-renowned potter and curator to travel to the places which would help him uncover the rich family history from which he descends, and of which the netsukes were the only memento of the dynasty which were the vastly wealthy Jewish Ephrussi family, rich grain merchants originally from Odessa who had become powerful bankers in Europe and who were peers to the Rothschild family, only to lose everything to the Nazis.

His tale is a sweeping saga, which starts in the 19th century with the magnetic Charles Ephrussi, the original collector of the netsukes, an art collector and patron who admired and promoted the impressionists when they were still considered as radicals. He purchased some 40 works by Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Pissarro, among others, and became part-owner and then editor and contributor to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, the most important art historical periodical in France. As such, he was a welcome guest at some of the most famous salons in Paris and is known to be one of the inspirations for the figure of Swann in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). He also appears in Le déjeuner des canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir as the figure seen from the back wearing a hat. But things abruptly changed with the Dreyfus affair in 1894, when the French took sides and anti-semitism became widespread. Suddenly, many old friends were lost and became sworn enemies.

De Waal continues the family history, following the path of the nestukes, who came into the hands of Charles's niece as a wedding present. Iggie's mother and the author's great grandmother was a great one for going to the opera and dinner parties wearing fashionable gorgeous dresses with perfectly matched hats and gloves, which her maid Anna always knew how to help her choose and bring off with the perfect piece of jewelry. As she dressed, the children were allowed to play on the yellow rug with the priceless collection of tiny netsuke she kept in the cabinet placed in her dressing room which uncle Charles had given her. The First World War had been hard enough to get through, but then the Nazis came into power and for all of them, the enchanted world at the Palais Ephrussi was shattered forever, as they were turned out of their living quarters and their possessions taken over by the Reich. The horrors of the holocaust forced them to flee in all directions.

I rarely cry when reading a book, but I cried when Anna, after the war is over, reveals to Elizabeth, the author's grandmother, how it is she managed to smuggle the netsuke figures one by one from under the Natzi's very noses in safekeeping as a valuable memento she could salvage for the family for which she had worked all her life.
]]> The Silence of the Lambs 17130715
Dr. Lecter is a former psychiatrist with a grisly history, unusual tastes, and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of "The Silence of the Lambs"—an ingenious, masterfully written book and an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.

Listening length: 10 hours and 43 minutes.]]> Thomas Harris Ilana (illi69) 2 4.34 1988 The Silence of the Lambs
author: Thomas Harris
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1988
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/25
date added: 2023/07/23
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, contemporary, mystery-thriller, crime
review:
From March 2021: Mostly found the whole thing completely ridiculous. I’m told the movie is amazing. I avoided watching anything about serial murderers but this is surely meant as a joke? Gave it 3 stars, demoting to 2. It was entertaining though my head hurts from rolling my eyes so far back my head so often. Sorry not sorry if you’re a fan. To each their own.
]]> Hons and Rebels 43401 The American Way of Death.

Hons and Rebels is the hugely entertaining tale of Mitford's upbringing, which was, as she dryly remarks, not exactly conventional. . . Debo spent silent hours in the chicken house learning to do an exact imitation of the look of pained concentration that comes over a hen's face when it is laying an egg. . . . Unity and I made up a complete language called Boudledidge, unintelligible to any but ourselves, in which we translated various dirty songs (for safe singing in front of the grown-ups). But Mitford found her family's world as smothering as it was singular and, determined to escape it, she eloped with Esmond Romilly, Churchill's nephew, to go fight in the Spanish Civil War. The ensuing scandal, in which a British destroyer was dispatched to recover the two truants, inspires some of Mitford's funniest, and most pointed, pages.
A family portrait, a tale of youthful folly and high-spirited adventure, a study in social history, a love story, Hons and Rebels is a delightful contribution to the autobiographer's art.]]> 284 Jessica Mitford 1590171101 Ilana (illi69) 4 4.14 1960 Hons and Rebels
author: Jessica Mitford
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1960
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/16
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: 1000-books-mustich, 20th-century, audiobooks, biography-memoir, great-britain, nonfiction, women
review:

]]> Among Others 12349140
Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science-fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled - and her twin sister dead.

Fleeing to her father, whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England - a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off.

Combining elements of autobiography with flights of imagination in the manner of novels like Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude, this is potentially a breakout book for an author whose genius has already been hailed by peers like Kelly Link, Sarah Weinman, and Ursula K. Le Guin.]]> 11 Jo Walton Ilana (illi69) 3 3.79 2011 Among Others
author: Jo Walton
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/06/04
shelves: 1000-books-mustich, fantasy-sci-fi, books-about-books, 20th-century, audiobooks
review:

]]> Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 529237 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a personal narrative. It highlights one year's explorations on foot in the author's own neighborhood, one year's assaults and curiosities. Here are both beauty and terror: the vision of a cedar tree charged with light, and the sight of a crippled moth crawling on the ground, his wings crumpled and glued to his back.

In the summer, Annie Dillard stalks muskrats in the creek and thinks about wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and examines it under a microscope on her kitchen table; she frightens frogs. She unties a snakeskin, witnesses a flood, and plays "King of the Meadow" with a field of grasshoppers. Throughout the year, she brings anecdotes and bizarre bits of information to bear on what she experiences.

"I am no scientist." she says of herself. "I am a wanderer with a background in theology and a penchant for quirky facts.

"As a thinker I keep discovering that beauty itself is as much a fact, and a mystery, as the most gruesome parasitic roundworm.. I consider nature's facts - its beautiful and grotesque forms and events - in terms of their import to thought and their impetus to the spirit. In nature I find grace tangled in a rapture with violence, I find an intricate landscape whose forms are fringed in death; I find mystery, newness, and a kind of exuberant, spendthrift energy."]]> 271 Annie Dillard 0061219800 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.25 1974 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
author: Annie Dillard
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/02
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, essays-lectures, biography-memoir, 20th-century, 1000-books-mustich, nature, pulitzers-and-finalist, environment
review:

]]> I Capture the Castle 20410659 12 Dodie Smith Ilana (illi69) 5
Nothing happens that is, until one day two men show up at the door unannounced, wanting to take a tour of the castle. We know things are going to change drastically with this new arrival, and they do. But while Cassandra struggles with new feelings—the novel threatened at that point, to my great annoyance, to become a teenage angst-ridden paean to unrequited love—there were plenty of surprises in store so that by the end I was very sorry to lose such a likeable narrator. Though it was written in the 1940s, this is a very modern romance that doesn't fall into clichés. I absolutely loved Jenny Agutter's narration on the audiobook version, so much so that I'll be seeking out other books read by her.]]> 3.89 1948 I Capture the Castle
author: Dodie Smith
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1948
rating: 5
read at: 2012/07/10
date added: 2023/06/01
shelves: 1000-books-mustich, romance, young-adult, audiobooks, 1930s, 20th-century, great-britain
review:
From July 2012: Seventeen year-old Cassandra Mortmaine keeps a journal in which she introduces us to her family, which has the privilege of living in a beautiful, albeit crumbling English castle. Her family are so poor none of them ever get enough to eat, they all wear tattered clothes and most of the furniture has long ago been sold off. Things haven't always been so dire, because once upon a time her father published a successful novel and they lived very comfortably, but many years have gone by since then and instead of working on a new project, he sits in his study obsessively reading mystery novels, insisting that he'll never write again. Their young stepmother Topaz makes a very meagre income as an artist's model, but that won't keep any of them fed and warm. Sister Rose is a rare beauty, and might have hopes of making a good marriage and pulling them all out of their misery, but of course there aren't any eligible men around, nor are there likely to be any in this small country town where nothing ever happens.

Nothing happens that is, until one day two men show up at the door unannounced, wanting to take a tour of the castle. We know things are going to change drastically with this new arrival, and they do. But while Cassandra struggles with new feelings—the novel threatened at that point, to my great annoyance, to become a teenage angst-ridden paean to unrequited love—there were plenty of surprises in store so that by the end I was very sorry to lose such a likeable narrator. Though it was written in the 1940s, this is a very modern romance that doesn't fall into clichés. I absolutely loved Jenny Agutter's narration on the audiobook version, so much so that I'll be seeking out other books read by her.
]]> Rumpole and the Golden Thread 43155594
Contents: Rumpole and the genuine article � Rumpole and the Golden Thread � Rumpole and the Old Boy Net � Rumpole and the female of the species � Rumpole and the sporting life � Rumpole and the last resort]]> John Mortimer Ilana (illi69) 3 3.80 1983 Rumpole and the Golden Thread
author: John Mortimer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/31
date added: 2023/05/31
shelves: humour, great-britain, 20th-century, short-stories, mystery-thriller, audiobooks, series
review:

]]> The Dictionary of Lost Words 54790816 In this remarkable debut based on actual events, as a team of male scholars compiles the first Oxford English Dictionary, one of their daughters decides to collect the "objectionable" words they omit.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the "Scriptorium," a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme's place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word "bondmaid" flutters to the floor. She rescues the slip, and when she learns that the word means slave-girl, she withholds it from the OED and begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.

As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women's and common folks' experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.

Set during the height of the women's suffrage movement with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men.

Based on actual events and combed from author Pip Williams's experience delving into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary, this highly original novel is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world.]]> 400 Pip Williams 1984820737 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.18 2020 The Dictionary of Lost Words
author: Pip Williams
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/24
date added: 2023/05/24
shelves: ebook, library-book, feminism, 20th-century, historical-fiction, language, 19th-century, books-about-books, great-britain
review:

]]> Rumpole At Christmas 10171282
'One of the great comic creations of modern times' Evening Standard 'There is a truth in Rumpole that is told with brilliance and grace' Daily Telegraph 'Rumpole remains and absolute delight' The Times Sir John Mortimer was a barrister, playwright and novelist. His fictional political trilogy of Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets has recently been republished in Penguin Classics, together with Clinging to the Wreckage and his play A Voyage round My Father. His most famous creation was the barrister Horace Rumpole, who featured in four novels and around eighty short stories. His books in Penguin The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole; The Collected Stories of Rumpole; The First Rumpole Omnibus; Rumpole and the Angel of Death; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders; Rumpole and the Primrose Path; Rumpole and the Reign of Terror; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Rumpole at Christmas; Rumpole Rests His Case; The Second Rumpole Omnibus; Forever Rumpole; In Other Words; Quite Honestly and Summer's Lease.]]> 152 John Mortimer 0141039779 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.02 2009 Rumpole At Christmas
author: John Mortimer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/20
shelves: 20th-century, great-britain, humour, series
review:

]]> Cutting for Stone 13324213
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.]]> 24 Abraham Verghese Ilana (illi69) 4
Set against the very unique background of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, and great political turmoil, which eventually forces Marion to leave his loved ones behind and flee for his life, the novel travels from Addis Ababa to New York and Boston and back again. While living in the States, our narrator becomes a surgeon and eventually meets his father, who has become a prominent figure in the medical establishment. Following an unexpected meeting with a woman from his past, Marion falls critically ill and his family will rally around him in a desperate effort to save his life.

While I was immediately and irresistibly pulled into the story and fell in love with the beautiful writing, I balked at the frequent graphic descriptions of medical conditions and procedures, though could well understand how a novel with medicine and surgery as one of its main themes must be so, and also came to see toward the end of the novel that these were essential in the telling of the story. I loved that the events were rooted in a solid historical, social and political context, and the perspective of a native Ethiopian describing both his own country and his perspective on life in America. I found the strong love and bond between the twins and their adoptive parents—who were both wonderfully well drawn and well-rounded characters—both moving and lovely to read about. The relationships seemed absolutely real, and were peppered with the kinds of unique moments a family shares and which could only be so well described by a very talented author. Surprisingly, the only character in the story that remained a mystery to me was that of Shiva, and while this was something I found fault with at first, thinking back on it, I came to understand that this was entirely in keeping with the mystery he constitutes even to his own twin, and made perfect sense when one considers all that he eventually comes to embody in this unforgettable novel. Definitely recommended. I listened to the audio version which is also excellently narrated by Sunil Malhotra.]]> 4.00 2009 Cutting for Stone
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2011/10/19
date added: 2023/05/19
shelves: audiobooks, 20th-century, 21st-century, africa, historical-fiction, literature, medicine
review:
From October 2011 (4.5 stars rounded down, favourites of 2011): From the distance of his fifty years, Marion Stone looks back on his personal history. First describing how his mother, a young nun and his surgeon father came to meet on an eventful boat voyage from to India to East Africa and how their unavowed love for each other led to the birth, seven years later in the 1950s, of identical twins, Marion and Shiva; an impossibly difficult delivery spelled doom for their mother and the disappearance of their father. Raised by two doctors who had been friends and co-workers of the biological parents, Marion goes on to describe growing up with a brother to whom he felt an almost spiritual connection, yet was as different in character as he was similar in appearance, and how a girl and a major breach of trust came to separate the two in their adolescence.

Set against the very unique background of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, and great political turmoil, which eventually forces Marion to leave his loved ones behind and flee for his life, the novel travels from Addis Ababa to New York and Boston and back again. While living in the States, our narrator becomes a surgeon and eventually meets his father, who has become a prominent figure in the medical establishment. Following an unexpected meeting with a woman from his past, Marion falls critically ill and his family will rally around him in a desperate effort to save his life.

While I was immediately and irresistibly pulled into the story and fell in love with the beautiful writing, I balked at the frequent graphic descriptions of medical conditions and procedures, though could well understand how a novel with medicine and surgery as one of its main themes must be so, and also came to see toward the end of the novel that these were essential in the telling of the story. I loved that the events were rooted in a solid historical, social and political context, and the perspective of a native Ethiopian describing both his own country and his perspective on life in America. I found the strong love and bond between the twins and their adoptive parents—who were both wonderfully well drawn and well-rounded characters—both moving and lovely to read about. The relationships seemed absolutely real, and were peppered with the kinds of unique moments a family shares and which could only be so well described by a very talented author. Surprisingly, the only character in the story that remained a mystery to me was that of Shiva, and while this was something I found fault with at first, thinking back on it, I came to understand that this was entirely in keeping with the mystery he constitutes even to his own twin, and made perfect sense when one considers all that he eventually comes to embody in this unforgettable novel. Definitely recommended. I listened to the audio version which is also excellently narrated by Sunil Malhotra.
]]> <![CDATA[The Roommate (Cormac Reilly, #0.7)]]> 54379579 Listening Length: 2 hours and 23 minutes

This audio novella is a stand-alone prequel to the Cormac Reilly series.

Twenty-two-year-old Niamh Turley thought she had problems dealing with the obnoxious principal of the school she’s teaching in as well as the anxious parents of her little charges, but when she wakes one morning to a missing roommate and a garda knocking on her door, her life spirals out of control fast...]]> 3 Dervla McTiernan Ilana (illi69) 4 3.52 2020 The Roommate (Cormac Reilly, #0.7)
author: Dervla McTiernan
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/18
date added: 2023/04/25
shelves: 20th-century, audiobooks, crime, ireland, mystery-thriller, series, short-fiction
review:

]]> The Unnamable 78457
The Unnamable is a 1953 novel by Samuel Beckett. It is the third and final entry in Beckett's "Trilogy" of novels, which begins with Molloy followed by Malone Dies. It was originally published in French as L'Innommable and later translated by the author into English. Grove Press published the English edition in 1958.]]> 186 Samuel Beckett 039417030X Ilana (illi69) 0 4.03 1953 The Unnamable
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1953
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/10
shelves: to-read, 20th-century, classics, literature
review:

]]> Love 52230012 The Immortal Hour, Catherine, a widow in her forties, encounters the handsome young Christopher, and their unlikely romance scandalizes their friends and families.]]> Elizabeth von Arnim Ilana (illi69) 3 3.44 1925 Love
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1925
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/18
date added: 2023/02/18
shelves: classics, wishlist, 20th-century, audiobooks, great-britain
review:

]]> The Shadow of the Sun 9541 325 Ryszard Kapuściński 0679779078 Ilana (illi69) 3 4.40 1998 The Shadow of the Sun
author: Ryszard Kapuściński
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/22
date added: 2022/09/24
shelves: nonfiction, travel, history, africa, 20th-century, politics, sociology, literature
review:

]]> Why Orwell Matters 30551
Whether thinking about empires or dictators, race or class, nationalism or popular culture, Orwell's moral outlook remains indispensable in a world that has undergone vast changes in the fifty years since his death. Combining the best of Hitchens's polemical punch and intellectual elegance in a tightly woven and subtle argument, this book addresses not only why Orwell matters today, but how he will continue to matter in a future, uncertain world.

Christopher Hitchens, one of the most incisive minds of our own age, meets Orwell on the page in this provocative encounter of wit, contention and moral truth.]]> 211 Christopher Hitchens 0465030505 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.95 2002 Why Orwell Matters
author: Christopher Hitchens
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/22
date added: 2022/09/22
shelves: biography-memoir, books-about-books, essays-lectures, favourite-authors, great-thinkers, literary-criticism, literature, nonfiction, philosophy, politics, writing, 20th-century
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Metamorphosis and Other Stories]]> 1677233
This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes "Metamorphosis", his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; "Meditation", a collection of his earlier studies; "The Judgement", written in a single night of frenzied creativity; "The Stoker", the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, and "The Aeroplanes at Brescia", Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought.]]> 299 Franz Kafka 0143105248 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.03 1915 Metamorphosis and Other Stories
author: Franz Kafka
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/24
shelves: to-revisit, 20th-century, classics, short-stories, literature, european-literature, philosophy
review:

]]> The Black Prince 52893227
His failure and its aftermath lead to a violent climax; and to a coda which casts a shifting perspective on all that has gone before.]]> Iris Murdoch Ilana (illi69) 3 3.71 1973 The Black Prince
author: Iris Murdoch
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1973
rating: 3
read at: 2022/03/21
date added: 2022/03/21
shelves: 20th-century, literature, women, audiobooks, great-britain
review:

]]> Migraine 66720
“So erudite, so gracefully written, that even those people fortunate enough never to have had a migraine in their lives should find it equally compelling.� —The New York Times

The many manifestations of migraine can vary dramatically from one patient to another, even within the same patient at different times. Among the most compelling and perplexing of these symptoms are the strange visual hallucinations and distortions of space, time, and body image which migraineurs sometimes experience. Portrayals of these uncanny states have found their way into many works of art, from the heavenly visions of Hildegard von Bingen to Alice in Wonderland. Dr. Oliver Sacks argues that migraine cannot be understood simply as an illness, but must be viewed as a complex condition with a unique role to play in each individual's life.]]> 338 Oliver Sacks 037570406X Ilana (illi69) 0 3.79 1970 Migraine
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/03
shelves: 20th-century, audiobooks, great-thinkers, health, mental-health-matters, most-influential, neuroscience, nonfiction, psychology, science, to-read
review:

]]> Fahrenheit 451 13370085
Fahrenheit 451 envisages a dystopian future in which the job of firemen is to seek out books, and burn them. Montag is a fireman who enjoys his job, wearing ‘the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.� He agrees with his boss who tells him how much happier people are now, watching endless television at high volume, than when they read books and thought for themselves. Then one night, Montag meets a young girl with ‘unconventional� habits � walking at night, collecting butterflies and tasting rain. Something about the girl forces Montag to look at his world differently: children in cars running down pedestrians for fun, his wife overdosing regularly on sleeping pills, and his neighbour proud that her children would ‘just as soon kick as kiss me�. Montag realises that ‘we have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing.� Such subversive thoughts will lead Montag to rebel � and rebellion has terrible consequences.

Bradbury’s bleak admonitory vision is not of a tyrannical government, but of people who did this to themselves. His fictional dystopia began with a wave of political correctness that censored and silenced uncomfortable opinions; then interactive, reality TV swamped critical thought; and finally, each individual’s ‘right� to the pursuit of happiness removed any sense of responsibility and even emotion itself. Over 60 years on, the fears raised by Fahrenheit 451 have not lessened. Yet at the book’s heart is a profound optimism: books are symbolic of humankind’s capacity for reflection and understanding, which can save us from our equally powerful capacity for self-destruction. This edition includes a new introduction by science-fiction writer Michael Moorcock and a series of astonishingly life-like illustrations by Sam Weber, which perfectly capture the novel’s haunting atmosphere.]]> 176 Ray Bradbury Ilana (illi69) 4 4.06 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2015/10/01
date added: 2021/05/18
shelves: classics, fantasy-sci-fi, literature, 20th-century, guardian-1000, folio-society, 1000-books-mustich
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark]]> 17349
Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.]]> 459 Carl Sagan 0345409469 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.28 1995 The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
author: Carl Sagan
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/15
shelves: to-read, audiobooks, classics, nonfiction, religion, philosophy, psychology, history, science, 20th-century
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice]]> 55885408
Among his many books, perhaps none have sparked more outrage than'THE MISSIONARY POSITION', Christopher Hitchens's meticulous study of the life and deeds of Mother Teresa. A Nobel Peace Prize recipient beatified by the Catholic Church in 2003, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was celebrated by heads of state and adored by millions for her work on behalf of the poor. In his measured critique, Hitchens asks only that Mother Teresa's reputation be judged by her actions - not the other way around.

With characteristic élan and rhetorical dexterity, Hitchens eviscerates the fawning cult of Teresa, recasting the Albanian missionary as a spurious, despotic, and megalomaniacal operative of the wealthy who long opposed measures to end poverty, and fraternized, for financial gain, with tyrants and white-collar criminals throughout the world.




RUNNING TIME => 2hrs. and 11mins.

©1995 Christopher Hitchens (P)2012 Hachette Audio]]> 3 Christopher Hitchens Ilana (illi69) 5 3.85 1995 The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
author: Christopher Hitchens
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/20
date added: 2021/05/10
shelves: nonfiction, audiobooks, religion, essays-lectures, journalism, politics, history, india, biography-memoir, 20th-century, cults
review:
Definitely need to write a review for this very important book. Read it please.
]]> <![CDATA[Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West]]> 23848139
In Putin’s People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putin’s Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russia’s economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe. The result is a chilling and revelatory exposé of the KGB’s revanche―a story that begins in the murk of the Soviet collapse, when networks of operatives were able to siphon billions of dollars out of state enterprises and move their spoils into the West. Putin and his allies subsequently completed the agenda, reasserting Russian power while taking control of the economy for themselves, suppressing independent voices, and launching covert influence operations abroad.

Ranging from Moscow and London to Switzerland and Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach―and assembling a colorful cast of characters to match�Putin’s People is the definitive account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.]]> 640 Catherine Belton 0374238715 Ilana (illi69) 4 4.17 2020 Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
author: Catherine Belton
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/20
date added: 2021/05/09
shelves: 20th-century, 21st-century, audiobooks, biography-memoir, contemporary, crime, history, journalism, library-book, nonfiction, politics, portraits, russia
review:
Everyone needs to read this. Explains so much about why things are so terrifying nowadays. Terrorists taking over everywhere.
]]> <![CDATA[Cilka's Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #2)]]> 45033931 The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the author tells the story, based on a true one, of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again.

Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labor camp on charges of having helped the Nazis--with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive. Once at the Vorkuta gulag in Sibera, where she is to serve her 15-year sentence, Cilka uses her wits, charm, and beauty to survive.]]> 352 Heather Morris 1250265703 Ilana (illi69) 1
Just no. I cannot respect a woman who thinks so little of the consequences of her actions. Of putting out a bestseller that is so crass and serves to lower, individual reader by reader, society's threshold of what is acceptable in dismissing true agonizing pain of the worst kind imaginable. Heather Morris is a parasite. No less. Infecting people with prettified versions of horror death camps. Bravo.

If you enjoyed it and are annoyed at me for showing such contempt and anger toward this popular writer, or I should say Pop Romance hack writer (which I will not apologize for saying any time soon, nor minimize in condemnation), or if, worse, you feel guilty because you enjoyed the story and thought it was a great book and gave a glowing review even if the writing was shit... Well that's fine. You should. I do. I feel guilty that I wasn't able to help prevent more hatred in the world. Either way. You need to know the truth. These books are full of lies and half remembered truths. Which often amounts to the same thing in the hands of a writer with an agenda. Like making money and becoming famous with all the perks that bestows.

***

This book is on the no-thanks shelf because...
Considering how offensive I found The Tattooist of Auschwitz (my review starts with "I am disgusted. And angry. And extremely upset." /review/show...) it's a pretty safe bet that I won't be spending time or energy on this one, other than this well-deserved rant. No second chances. She really pissed me off THAT much. You don't take a people's history that isn't your own and make it bestseller romance fodder, and then get second chances. Not with me you don't. Why? Because I have principles, and I adhere to them. Just, NO. Heather Morris' name is dirt to me. My ancestors who were murdered at extermination camps in Poland, and possibly at Auschwitz-Birkenau, are already rolling in their nonexistent graves from the first book she had the gall to infect the world with. *Ptew ptew ptew*

You don’t have to take my word for what a sham this supposed true story in this second holocaust novel is (yet again). She has no qualms about hurting people in the process either, when profits for a bestselling book are in the offings:

The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum isn't a big fan either (-will post link but just google it-), but they can't use language like I do and say this woman is crass and low. And pretending she gives a shit. And twisting stories into things that are not real. An Individual's actual painful story of mental & physical torture, starvation, and a death dealt out in by a place filled with men on a power trip displaying the worst contempt a person could ever imagine. And what does she do with them. I'll tell you what she does, yes, I'll actually say she Whitewashes them. Conlonises and commodifies sadism, and torture, making it seem all softly lit by narc love bullshit. For profit. #HowToSurviveNarcAbuse]]> 4.38 2019 Cilka's Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #2)
author: Heather Morris
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2021/04/24
shelves: no-thanks, 20th-century, fantasy, historical-fiction, hollywood, retelling, series, tragedies, women, wwii, young-adult
review:
March 13/2020 update: No. This is Holocaust porn. This woman has NO right writing these books and ENTERTAINING readers on top of the bodies of millions of Jews and anyone else who didn't fit the desired Arian mold of being white and christian and heterosexual or at least married, and following the will of der Fürer.

Just no. I cannot respect a woman who thinks so little of the consequences of her actions. Of putting out a bestseller that is so crass and serves to lower, individual reader by reader, society's threshold of what is acceptable in dismissing true agonizing pain of the worst kind imaginable. Heather Morris is a parasite. No less. Infecting people with prettified versions of horror death camps. Bravo.

If you enjoyed it and are annoyed at me for showing such contempt and anger toward this popular writer, or I should say Pop Romance hack writer (which I will not apologize for saying any time soon, nor minimize in condemnation), or if, worse, you feel guilty because you enjoyed the story and thought it was a great book and gave a glowing review even if the writing was shit... Well that's fine. You should. I do. I feel guilty that I wasn't able to help prevent more hatred in the world. Either way. You need to know the truth. These books are full of lies and half remembered truths. Which often amounts to the same thing in the hands of a writer with an agenda. Like making money and becoming famous with all the perks that bestows.

***

This book is on the no-thanks shelf because...
Considering how offensive I found The Tattooist of Auschwitz (my review starts with "I am disgusted. And angry. And extremely upset." /review/show...) it's a pretty safe bet that I won't be spending time or energy on this one, other than this well-deserved rant. No second chances. She really pissed me off THAT much. You don't take a people's history that isn't your own and make it bestseller romance fodder, and then get second chances. Not with me you don't. Why? Because I have principles, and I adhere to them. Just, NO. Heather Morris' name is dirt to me. My ancestors who were murdered at extermination camps in Poland, and possibly at Auschwitz-Birkenau, are already rolling in their nonexistent graves from the first book she had the gall to infect the world with. *Ptew ptew ptew*

You don’t have to take my word for what a sham this supposed true story in this second holocaust novel is (yet again). She has no qualms about hurting people in the process either, when profits for a bestselling book are in the offings:

The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum isn't a big fan either (-will post link but just google it-), but they can't use language like I do and say this woman is crass and low. And pretending she gives a shit. And twisting stories into things that are not real. An Individual's actual painful story of mental & physical torture, starvation, and a death dealt out in by a place filled with men on a power trip displaying the worst contempt a person could ever imagine. And what does she do with them. I'll tell you what she does, yes, I'll actually say she Whitewashes them. Conlonises and commodifies sadism, and torture, making it seem all softly lit by narc love bullshit. For profit. #HowToSurviveNarcAbuse
]]> Utopia Avenue 52403014 Top of the Pops and the cusp of chart success, to glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome and a fateful American fortnight in the autumn of 1968.

David Mitchell's new novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue; of riots in the streets and revolutions in the head; of drugs, thugs, madness, love, sex, death, art; of the families we choose and the ones we don't; of fame's Faustian pact and stardom's wobbly ladder. Can we change the world in turbulent times, or does the world change us? Utopia means 'nowhere' but could a shinier world be within grasp, if only we had a map?]]> 36 David Mitchell 1101923210 Ilana (illi69) 0
Edit: well... maybe. lol
I got shit on my mind. ]]> 3.62 2020 Utopia Avenue
author: David Mitchell
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/04
date added: 2021/04/23
shelves: music, literature, library-book, audiobooks, historical-fiction, 1960s, 20th-century, 21st-century, great-britain
review:
Coming soon.

Edit: well... maybe. lol
I got shit on my mind.
]]> The Chrysalids 10295023 ‘The warning: WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT! faced me as I went in, but it was much too familiar to stir a thought�

Published in 1955, The Chrysalids is set in an imagined future that has uncomfortable similarities with a repressive past. Following a catastrophe known as the ‘Tribulation�, the farming community of Waknuk is ruled by puritan fundamentalists who see any deviation from the norm as the ‘devil’s work�. The narrator David is terrified that his unusual ability, telepathy, will make him an outcast in his own community. Wyndham brilliantly uses this concept to comment on past, present and future: New World Puritans in the cultural hysteria of the Salem-witch trials; the McCarthy persecutions of the 1950s, and the all-pervasive threat of nuclear war.

John Wyndham (1903�1969) created some of the most intriguing and intelligent science fiction of the 20th century. His gripping stories show ordinary, sometimes heroic characters reacting to unsettling or disastrous events that call into question the very nature of human society. With Wyndham’s writing, science fiction becomes an instrument to force us to look at our own world with fresh eyes and to examine our comfortable assumptions, from human superiority to the permanence of civilisation. These Folio editions feature superb illustrations by Patrick Leger and each novel is separately introduced by science-fiction writer Adam Roberts, who praises Wyndham’s narratives as ‘some of the most cunningly wound-up, potently memorable fictions of the century�. [From the general description of this particular set]]]> 196 John Wyndham Ilana (illi69) 4
Written in the 1950s, we are given to understand they are living like early colonizers in a post-nuclear world where nature continually offers strange mutations, and nightmarish, unnameable things lurk in the Fringes. Somehow still terribly relevant, and more so than ever in this Trumpian dystopic reality show we are all presently living, because isn’t MAGA all about returning to the values of the postwar era? Which makes me think the return of some form of McCarthyism can’t be too far away... ]]> 4.25 1955 The Chrysalids
author: John Wyndham
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at: 2018/10/06
date added: 2021/04/19
shelves: fantasy-sci-fi, classics, folio-society, 20th-century, great-britain
review:
I lost a lot of sleep because of this book. Simply couldn’t put it down. A puritanical society where any deviation from strict codes of what constitutes normality and thus “godliness� and which destroys everything deemed “deviant� in which a boy born with all the right numbers of fingers and toes and all outward appearances seems perfectly acceptable, but with a terrible secret to hide: the gift and curse of telepathy which he shares with a small group of other children, which they must hide at all cost.

Written in the 1950s, we are given to understand they are living like early colonizers in a post-nuclear world where nature continually offers strange mutations, and nightmarish, unnameable things lurk in the Fringes. Somehow still terribly relevant, and more so than ever in this Trumpian dystopic reality show we are all presently living, because isn’t MAGA all about returning to the values of the postwar era? Which makes me think the return of some form of McCarthyism can’t be too far away...
]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence, #1)]]> 28932224
The Great War is over and jobs are scarce. Tommy Beresford and Prudence "Tuppence" Cowley, who were friends before the war, run into each other in London and discover they are both equally short of money and opportunities. On a whim, they decide to start a business, advertising themselves as "The Young Adventurers."

Their first job leads them into a series of increasingly dangerous situations involving international spies, a society beauty, a Russian count, the wreck of the Lusitania, an amnesia patient, an American millionaire, and a fiendishly clever arch-criminal known only as "Mr. Brown."

By the time the dust settles, all the puzzle pieces have been fitted together—and the young couple have realized their feelings for each other and have become engaged.]]> Agatha Christie Ilana (illi69) 3 3.67 1922 The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence, #1)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1922
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/06
date added: 2021/04/06
shelves: mystery-thriller, women, classics, series, golden-age-mystery, 20th-century
review:

]]> Zorrie 55975435 “It was Indiana, it was the dirt she had bloomed up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, how she thought, what she knew.�

As a girl, Zorrie Underwood's modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material.

But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun.

Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt's extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout.]]> 176 Laird Hunt 1635575370 Ilana (illi69) 5 4.03 2021 Zorrie
author: Laird Hunt
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/06
date added: 2021/04/06
shelves: historical-fiction, america, ebook, literature, library-book, 1930s, 20th-century, short-fiction
review:
What a beautiful writer Laird Hunt is. Must get my hands on everything he’s published so far.
]]> The Little House 153540 The Little House, a poignant story of a cute country cottage that becomes engulfed by the city that grows up around it. The house has an expressive face of windows and doors, and even the feelings of a person, so she’s sad when she’s surrounded by the dirty, noisy city’s hustle and bustle: “She missed the field of daisies / and the apple trees dancing in the moonlight.� Fortunately, there’s a happy ending, as the house is taken back to the country where she belongs.]]> 40 Virginia Lee Burton 0395181569 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.29 1942 The Little House
author: Virginia Lee Burton
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/02
shelves: to-read, classics, childrens, illustrated, 20th-century, historical-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Be Careful What You Wish For (The Clifton Chronicles, #4)]]> 21527075
Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer's Be Careful What You Wish For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno?
When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, the egregious Major Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner, the MV Buckingham.

Back in London, Harry and Emma's adopted daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with a fellow student, Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Priscilla Bingham, Jessica's future mother-in-law, has a visit from an old friend, Lady Virginia Fenwick, who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice.

Then, without warning, Cedric Hardcastle, a bluff Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons. This causes an upheaval that none of them could have anticipated, and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle's first decision is who to support to become the next chairman of the board: Emma Clifton or Major Alex Fisher? And with that decision, the story takes yet another twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Be Careful What You Wish For showcases the master storyteller's talent as never before � when the Clifton and Barrington families march forward into the sixties, in this epic tale of love, revenge, ambition and betrayal.

]]> 12 Jeffrey Archer Ilana (illi69) 3 3.97 2014 Be Careful What You Wish For (The Clifton Chronicles, #4)
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/30
date added: 2021/03/30
shelves: 1950s, 20th-century, america, audiobooks, crime, family-saga, great-britain, historical-fiction, library-book, series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pollyanna: The Glad Book (Pollyanna #1)]]> 15995195 185 Eleanor H. Porter Ilana (illi69) 4
Trigger warning: abuse

I'm due for a reread because age 9 was a charmed time for me, before I was faced with the brutality of men who take children for their own pleasures and lost many of my naive illusions and trust in people, and men especially. I am finding ways to cope with trauma and revisiting early "coding" as I think of it, is proving helpful, as is "reclaiming" the young girl I was, who was... overall a really good kid and much less cynical about life and this world, albeit already all too clear-sighted.]]> 4.07 1913 Pollyanna: The Glad Book (Pollyanna #1)
author: Eleanor H. Porter
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1913
rating: 4
read at: 1978/01/01
date added: 2021/03/17
shelves: classics, childrens, america, 20th-century, 1910s
review:
Read in 1978, age 9. I hadn't read Anne of Green Gables then. Another reviewer I follow read this to her daughter & they couldn't help comparing the two, as this book was released after AoGG. I remember recognising a lot about myself in Pollyanna at that age. I was raised by hippyish parents and my father has always been an optimist despite everything. He was a dedicated yogi at the time, and it's safe to say my tendency to find silver linings in everything was probably encouraged by him.

Trigger warning: abuse

I'm due for a reread because age 9 was a charmed time for me, before I was faced with the brutality of men who take children for their own pleasures and lost many of my naive illusions and trust in people, and men especially. I am finding ways to cope with trauma and revisiting early "coding" as I think of it, is proving helpful, as is "reclaiming" the young girl I was, who was... overall a really good kid and much less cynical about life and this world, albeit already all too clear-sighted.
]]> <![CDATA[Best Kept Secret (The Clifton Chronicles, #3)]]> 29167305
1945, London. The vote in the House of Lords as to who should inherit the Barrington family fortune has ended in a tie. The Lord Chancellor's deciding vote will cast a long shadow on the lives of Harry Clifton and Giles Barrington. Harry returns to America to promote his latest novel, while his beloved Emma goes in search of the little girl who was found abandoned in her father's office on the night he was killed. When the general election is called, Giles Barrington has to defend his seat in the House of Commons and is horrified to discover who the Conservatives select to stand against him. But it is Sebastian Clifton, Harry and Emma's son, who ultimately influences his uncle's fate.

In 1957, Sebastian wins a scholarship to Cambridge, and a new generation of the Clifton family marches onto the page. But after Sebastian is expelled from school, he unwittingly becomes caught up in an international art fraud involving a Rodin statue that is worth far more than the sum it raises at auction. Does he become a millionaire? Does he go to Cambridge? Is his life in danger? Best Kept Secret, the third volume in Jeffrey Archer's bestselling series, will answer all these questions but, once again, pose so many more.]]> 11 Jeffrey Archer 1427234159 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.73 2013 Best Kept Secret (The Clifton Chronicles, #3)
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/12
date added: 2021/03/12
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, classic-mysteries, crime, great-britain, historical-fiction, history, library-book, mystery-thriller, politics, portraits, poverty, series, war, western-society, wwii, family-saga
review:

]]> The Sins of the Father 14331494 Only Time Will Tell, Jeffrey Archer picks up the sweeping story of the Clifton Chronicles�.

Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy. But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat, drowning almost the entire crew. An American cruise liner, the SS Kansas Star, rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and the third officer, an American named Tom Bradshaw. When Bradshaw dies in the night, Harry seizes on the chance to escape his tangled past and assumes his identity.

But on landing in America, he quickly learns the mistake he has made, when he discovers what is awaiting Bradshaw in New York. Without any way of proving his true identity, Harry Clifton is now chained to a past that could be far worse than the one he had hoped to escape.]]> 8 Jeffrey Archer 1427227489 Ilana (illi69) 4 3.94 2012 The Sins of the Father
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/09
date added: 2021/03/09
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, great-britain, historical-fiction, library-book, romance, series
review:
Ended on a CLIFF-hanger. Had to get the next one immediately. Our library is well stocked. Alleluia!
]]> Robin 40517888 From New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff, comes the definitive audiobook biography of Robin Williams - a compelling portrait of one of America's most beloved and misunderstood entertainers.

From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations - all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed.

But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams's comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, where he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation to bring to life a wide range of characters. And in Good Will Hunting he gave an intense and controlled performance that revealed the true range of his talent.

Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression - topics he discussed openly while performing and during interviews - and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a man whose work touched so many lives.]]> Dave Itzkoff Ilana (illi69) 3
I tend to be critical of biographies of famous people because I’m rarely interested in having a comprehensive list of their professional accomplishments, which can be found online with one search. As an artist born from creative, highly intelligent people who also carry genes for mental illness and neurodivergence, I was much more interested in reading about him from those points of view.

For instance, I started getting truly interested in this book when Itzkoff described the making of the cinematic adaptation of Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings. Sacks described Williams as a person with talents that went beyond amazing mimicry or high intellect, as he was able to recreate a persona and seemingly riff endlessly while adding his own deep empathy and understanding of human nature.

In all fairness to the author, this book probably satisfies most of William’s fans, as a well-rounded description of the man, his background, achievements and struggles both as an extremely talented public person and very private individual also devoted his family. I’m not a fan of anyone and haven’t seen all, or even most of Williams’s movies and shows, but like many people, felt a profound affection for him and could relate to the complexity of his psyche.

I sincerely hope the author doesn’t read my comments because they aren’t fair to him, but are a reflection of my personal interests, and a pipe dream besides: the book that could never be published on Robin Williams would’ve been written by Oliver Sacks, who happens to be among my favourite people and authors, ever.

My rating reflects the fact I wasn’t very interested in the content about his performances, so by no means reflects the quality of the writing (excellent) or observational skills of the author (impeccable).]]> 4.18 2018 Robin
author: Dave Itzkoff
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/09
date added: 2021/03/09
shelves: biography-memoir, nonfiction, mental-health-matters, 20th-century, 21st-century
review:
I understand why this book was written the way it was. As the first official biography on Robin Williams, and as biographies do in general, it was necessary to give all the details about his career, how he came by his special talents, his rise to fame, etc. And then, when exploring the subject of someone as complex as Williams was, there’s a lot that can’t be included so as not to overwhelm the average reader.

I tend to be critical of biographies of famous people because I’m rarely interested in having a comprehensive list of their professional accomplishments, which can be found online with one search. As an artist born from creative, highly intelligent people who also carry genes for mental illness and neurodivergence, I was much more interested in reading about him from those points of view.

For instance, I started getting truly interested in this book when Itzkoff described the making of the cinematic adaptation of Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings. Sacks described Williams as a person with talents that went beyond amazing mimicry or high intellect, as he was able to recreate a persona and seemingly riff endlessly while adding his own deep empathy and understanding of human nature.

In all fairness to the author, this book probably satisfies most of William’s fans, as a well-rounded description of the man, his background, achievements and struggles both as an extremely talented public person and very private individual also devoted his family. I’m not a fan of anyone and haven’t seen all, or even most of Williams’s movies and shows, but like many people, felt a profound affection for him and could relate to the complexity of his psyche.

I sincerely hope the author doesn’t read my comments because they aren’t fair to him, but are a reflection of my personal interests, and a pipe dream besides: the book that could never be published on Robin Williams would’ve been written by Oliver Sacks, who happens to be among my favourite people and authors, ever.

My rating reflects the fact I wasn’t very interested in the content about his performances, so by no means reflects the quality of the writing (excellent) or observational skills of the author (impeccable).
]]> <![CDATA[To Build a Fire and Other Stories]]> 11426981 To Build a Fire and Other Stories includes an Introduction, Biographical Note, and Afterword by David Lubar. In these collected stories of man against the wilderness, London lays claim to the title of greatest outdoor adventure writer of all time.

Contents:

- To build a fire
- Love of life
- Chinago
- Told in the drooling ward
- The Mexican
- War
- South of the slot
- Water baby
- All Gold Canyon
- Koolau the leper
- Apostate
- Mauki
- An Odyssey of the north
- A piece of steak
- Strength of the strong
- Red one
- Wit or Porportuk
- God of his fathers
- In a far country
- To the man on trail
- White silence
- League of the old men
- Wisdom of the trail
- Batard

5 hr., 42 min.]]> 6 Jack London 1452622574 Ilana (illi69) 4
One story pits and aging boxer whose body is showing the wear & tear of life as a prize fighter. He’s hungering for a piece of steak to give him stamina in a contest against a younger version of himself.

I only don’t give the full 5 stars because those help me locate my all time favourites for rereading. a couple of stories were variations on the similar theme, and while interesting as cues into London’s process, failed to grab me.

An excellent collection overall with a title story that stands on its own.]]> 3.57 1908 To Build a Fire and Other Stories
author: Jack London
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1908
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/19
date added: 2021/02/19
shelves: 19th-century, 20th-century, adventure, animals, audiobooks, dogs, favourite-authors, library-book, literature, nature, short-stories
review:
To Build a Fire was absolutely gripping. In fact, I was completely absorbed with most of these stories in the collection. London’s love of nature & understanding about animal nature, which by the way, is another way to say human nature, speaks to me. Humans like to separate themselves from the animal realm and claim greater knowledge and wisdom but that is a limited and small-minded way of seeing the world. We are so much more. And so much less. I can see why London would appeal to children with these life & death adventures in the wild.

One story pits and aging boxer whose body is showing the wear & tear of life as a prize fighter. He’s hungering for a piece of steak to give him stamina in a contest against a younger version of himself.

I only don’t give the full 5 stars because those help me locate my all time favourites for rereading. a couple of stories were variations on the similar theme, and while interesting as cues into London’s process, failed to grab me.

An excellent collection overall with a title story that stands on its own.
]]> <![CDATA[Only Time Will Tell (The Clifton Chronicles, #1)]]> 27417998 Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes Only Time Will Tell, the first in an ambitious new series that tells the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph.

The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the words "I was told that my father was killed in the war." A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle, who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard once he's left school. But then an unexpected gift wins him a scholarship to an exclusive boys' school, and his life is never the same.

As he enters into adulthood, Harry finally learns how his father really died, but the awful truth only leads him to a question: was he even his father? Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who spent his whole life on the docks, or the firstborn son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line?

This introductory novel in Archer's ambitious series The Clifton Chronicles includes a cast of colorful characters and takes us from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take up a place at Oxford or join the navy and go to war with Hitler's Germany.

From the docks of working-class England to the bustling streets of 1940 New York City, Only Time Will Tell takes listeners on a journey through to future volumes, which will bring to life 100 years of recent history to reveal a family story that neither the listener nor Harry Clifton himself could ever have imagined.

Listening Length: 12 hours and 41 minutes]]> 13 Jeffrey Archer Ilana (illi69) 4 4.00 2011 Only Time Will Tell (The Clifton Chronicles, #1)
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/10
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves: audiobooks, library-book, series, mystery-thriller, historical-fiction, 20th-century
review:

]]> Me 44670690
In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, which is also the subject of the upcoming film Rocketman. The result is Me - the joyously funny, honest and moving story of the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time.

Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three, he was on his first tour of America, facing an astonished audience in his tight silver hotpants, bare legs and a T-shirt with ROCK AND ROLL emblazoned across it in sequins. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again.

His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade.

In Me Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, by a living legend.]]> 10 Elton John Ilana (illi69) 2
His fame grew & grew; tabloid stories about is he or is he not bisexual, or is he gay; notorious drug & alcohol abuse; close friendships with Gianni Versace and Lady Di, both ending tragically. Even I tuned in for her funerals & his performance of a rewritten “Candle In The Wind� in her honour, at which I shed a tear. I was a twelve year old still starry-eyed girl when her royal wedding was celebrated with all that pompous circumstance, and her horrific death was shocking to everyone.

I cannot decide whether the title of this autobiography, “Me� is an exercise in humility or complete narcissism. I suspect he couldn’t either, so left it for the rest of the world to figure out. In his one and only autobiography, Elton John gives a linear narrative of his life, from growing up as Reginald Kenneth Dwight, a boy obsessed with music raised by parents who were ill-suited for each other and constantly fighting, a father with whom the only common ground was football which became a lifelong passion for the singer. He describes being naive and unsophisticated as a young man, who had no sexual curiosity or drive, until he suddenly found his libido at 21.

Finding his footing as a performer, he eventually changed his name, became a flamboyant artist and dresser, and a wildly promiscuous coke & booze fiend. He spells out that he had no wish to gloss over any of those “ugly� bits in telling of his life story, partly because he eventually found himself at a self-described revolting low which he knew he had to recover from, or die. That, and also because he was aiming for authenticity in his life as man now more than 30 years free of substance abuse.

Having found sobriety after incredible excesses which he talks about without glossing over embarrassing details � in a way I recognize, because so freeing in their revelation, as someone who doesn't hide from my mistakes and great failings either�, he’s been dedicated to helping many others in need of rehabilitation. Well known figures, a few he named (Eminem stuck in my mind) and people whose privacy he is safeguarding. One of his most laudable contributions has been to his AIDS foundation, which he started after the death of some of his closest friends. Notably Freddy Mercury, who could have been saved in the year following his passing with life extending drug treatments.

Much of the book is dedicated to his musical career, his relationships with songwriters and musicians, his album recordings and singles, his countless years on the road touring the world, details about meeting and working with other superstars. He discusses his “five big loves� (according to this article ) including Linda Woodrow, the woman he was engaged to marry, but especially David Furnish, his longtime partner whom he married in 2014. Then, fatherhood coming in his 60s and how a gay couple managed to achieve such a thing (hint: lots of money, surrogacy), waxes lyrical about the transformative powers of parenthood, etc.

Ok. Fine. Here’s the thing: I don’t care about famous people. I’m curious about their lives because they get to mix with all sorts of people and have influenced pop culture and mark eras and are part of the zeitgeist and so on. On the whole, they’re rarely people I would want to spend any time with, given the opportunity. The massive egos, the insecurity stoking those egos, and the narcissism needed to achieve that level of fame tend to make for unpleasant & often abusive individuals. Not always. However, Elton John doesn't seem to be an exception. By and large, megastars tend to be narcissistic users (redundant but making a point). He speaks about this aspect of himself too. Elton John has done a lot of therapy to overcome his addictions and rein in his mercurial temperament, but self-awareness doesn’t change anything much when a strong temper refuses to be tamed.

I’m put off by his superficiality which he expresses with a garish facade I find unpleasant and vulgar. His obsession with Versace’s bold, in your face regalia, the kinds of clothes only worn by a certain of people who expects to be the centre of attention at all times, is excessively annoying to me. Case in point: Versace is quoted as saying "I don't believe in good taste,". It was said "Armani dresses the wife, Versace dresses the mistress." As it happens, the only designer piece I own is an Armani dress, because I love beautiful & elegant design and abhor bad taste and men who take on mistresses dolled up like expensive whores (we’re supposed to call them “sex workers in 2021 because “sex work is valid & empowering�).

Towards the end, he describes how fulfilling he finds his role as a parent, but you somehow don’t hear much about the children. There was a boy in an orphanage who initially sparked that burning desire to becomes father. But what I gleaned was that his primary goal was fulfilling HIS need when the urge for family struck him as a sexagenarian. True enough, his partner had wanted children too and all parents follow their own needs & biological imperative for having children, but it seemed all of a piece with a pattern of egoism which I doesn’t translate into actual love. That is my subjective perception as the daughter of a narcissistic parent who put her needs above mine & told me she wanted a baby and an ally all in one.

Finally, what tilted the balance to a negative rating and overall impression was a not an inconsequential detail. Not all famous people choose to read the audiobook edition of their autobiographies. We are led to believe these are their own words, when most turn to professional authors who don’t receive credit & remain in the shadows. Narrating the opening and closing chapters exclusively while leaving the rest to a professional narrator wouldn't be unusual. But this book is titled Me , and in it, there are a lot of words and sentences and paragraphs and whole chapters to convince us/himself that since his sobriety, he became a much simpler, humbler version of Elton John, the Superstar. He wants to convince us fatherhood has made him a simpler man who enjoys being a parent able to go to a Pizza Express with his kids and be treated like an ordinary person; to talk with moms at school events about things having nothing to do with his music, such as school uniforms. All that just made me shake my head and say, Okay, sure thing Reggie, gotcha.

Originally gave this three stars because it was full of interesting tidbits, but I think I’ll downgrade to 2.5 � “Good in parts but...� Ultimately, I can’t stand the guy. The very least he could’ve done is narrated his own fuxking book.]]> 4.43 2019 Me
author: Elton John
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2019/11/26
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: 20th-century, 21st-century, audiobooks, biography-memoir, culture, library-book, music, lgb_etc
review:
Admittedly, I’m not the ideal reader for this book. I like a few songs of Elton John’s, have childhood memories of him in the 70s as an outrageous performer dressed in garish clothes & accessories who played surprisingly mellow piano tunes for all that. That’s was pretty much the only impression he’d left me with since.

His fame grew & grew; tabloid stories about is he or is he not bisexual, or is he gay; notorious drug & alcohol abuse; close friendships with Gianni Versace and Lady Di, both ending tragically. Even I tuned in for her funerals & his performance of a rewritten “Candle In The Wind� in her honour, at which I shed a tear. I was a twelve year old still starry-eyed girl when her royal wedding was celebrated with all that pompous circumstance, and her horrific death was shocking to everyone.

I cannot decide whether the title of this autobiography, “Me� is an exercise in humility or complete narcissism. I suspect he couldn’t either, so left it for the rest of the world to figure out. In his one and only autobiography, Elton John gives a linear narrative of his life, from growing up as Reginald Kenneth Dwight, a boy obsessed with music raised by parents who were ill-suited for each other and constantly fighting, a father with whom the only common ground was football which became a lifelong passion for the singer. He describes being naive and unsophisticated as a young man, who had no sexual curiosity or drive, until he suddenly found his libido at 21.

Finding his footing as a performer, he eventually changed his name, became a flamboyant artist and dresser, and a wildly promiscuous coke & booze fiend. He spells out that he had no wish to gloss over any of those “ugly� bits in telling of his life story, partly because he eventually found himself at a self-described revolting low which he knew he had to recover from, or die. That, and also because he was aiming for authenticity in his life as man now more than 30 years free of substance abuse.

Having found sobriety after incredible excesses which he talks about without glossing over embarrassing details � in a way I recognize, because so freeing in their revelation, as someone who doesn't hide from my mistakes and great failings either�, he’s been dedicated to helping many others in need of rehabilitation. Well known figures, a few he named (Eminem stuck in my mind) and people whose privacy he is safeguarding. One of his most laudable contributions has been to his AIDS foundation, which he started after the death of some of his closest friends. Notably Freddy Mercury, who could have been saved in the year following his passing with life extending drug treatments.

Much of the book is dedicated to his musical career, his relationships with songwriters and musicians, his album recordings and singles, his countless years on the road touring the world, details about meeting and working with other superstars. He discusses his “five big loves� (according to this article ) including Linda Woodrow, the woman he was engaged to marry, but especially David Furnish, his longtime partner whom he married in 2014. Then, fatherhood coming in his 60s and how a gay couple managed to achieve such a thing (hint: lots of money, surrogacy), waxes lyrical about the transformative powers of parenthood, etc.

Ok. Fine. Here’s the thing: I don’t care about famous people. I’m curious about their lives because they get to mix with all sorts of people and have influenced pop culture and mark eras and are part of the zeitgeist and so on. On the whole, they’re rarely people I would want to spend any time with, given the opportunity. The massive egos, the insecurity stoking those egos, and the narcissism needed to achieve that level of fame tend to make for unpleasant & often abusive individuals. Not always. However, Elton John doesn't seem to be an exception. By and large, megastars tend to be narcissistic users (redundant but making a point). He speaks about this aspect of himself too. Elton John has done a lot of therapy to overcome his addictions and rein in his mercurial temperament, but self-awareness doesn’t change anything much when a strong temper refuses to be tamed.

I’m put off by his superficiality which he expresses with a garish facade I find unpleasant and vulgar. His obsession with Versace’s bold, in your face regalia, the kinds of clothes only worn by a certain of people who expects to be the centre of attention at all times, is excessively annoying to me. Case in point: Versace is quoted as saying "I don't believe in good taste,". It was said "Armani dresses the wife, Versace dresses the mistress." As it happens, the only designer piece I own is an Armani dress, because I love beautiful & elegant design and abhor bad taste and men who take on mistresses dolled up like expensive whores (we’re supposed to call them “sex workers in 2021 because “sex work is valid & empowering�).

Towards the end, he describes how fulfilling he finds his role as a parent, but you somehow don’t hear much about the children. There was a boy in an orphanage who initially sparked that burning desire to becomes father. But what I gleaned was that his primary goal was fulfilling HIS need when the urge for family struck him as a sexagenarian. True enough, his partner had wanted children too and all parents follow their own needs & biological imperative for having children, but it seemed all of a piece with a pattern of egoism which I doesn’t translate into actual love. That is my subjective perception as the daughter of a narcissistic parent who put her needs above mine & told me she wanted a baby and an ally all in one.

Finally, what tilted the balance to a negative rating and overall impression was a not an inconsequential detail. Not all famous people choose to read the audiobook edition of their autobiographies. We are led to believe these are their own words, when most turn to professional authors who don’t receive credit & remain in the shadows. Narrating the opening and closing chapters exclusively while leaving the rest to a professional narrator wouldn't be unusual. But this book is titled Me , and in it, there are a lot of words and sentences and paragraphs and whole chapters to convince us/himself that since his sobriety, he became a much simpler, humbler version of Elton John, the Superstar. He wants to convince us fatherhood has made him a simpler man who enjoys being a parent able to go to a Pizza Express with his kids and be treated like an ordinary person; to talk with moms at school events about things having nothing to do with his music, such as school uniforms. All that just made me shake my head and say, Okay, sure thing Reggie, gotcha.

Originally gave this three stars because it was full of interesting tidbits, but I think I’ll downgrade to 2.5 � “Good in parts but...� Ultimately, I can’t stand the guy. The very least he could’ve done is narrated his own fuxking book.
]]> The Writing Life 17406824
In these short essays, Annie Dillard—the author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and An American Childhood—illuminates the dedication, absurdity, and daring that characterize the existence of a writer. A moving account of Dillard’s own experiences while writing her works, The Writing Life offers deep insight into one of the most mysterious professions.]]> 3 Annie Dillard Ilana (illi69) 3
I also picked up the audiobook with a narrator who seemed all wrong for it. She sounded too young and too... more like someone who might read fantasy or science fiction or crime fiction.

I picked it up because it’s short, because sometimes I fall into the trap of wanting to stay on top of my reading numbers, mostly because there’s so many books I want to read and there’s only so much time, as we know. Social media is taking up too much of it.

I should probably mention the writing was of course excellent, but what Dillard stresses throughout, is that writing is a miserable, demanding and unrewarding craft while a writer actually sits down to do the work. She talked about this is many ways. Not what I expected from a book on the subject, but honest, sure enough.]]> 3.51 1989 The Writing Life
author: Annie Dillard
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/21
date added: 2021/02/02
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, biography-memoir, books-about-books, creativity, culture, essays-lectures, literary-criticism, nonfiction, short-stories, women, writing
review:
I did several things wrong as a reader with this book. I picked this one up before reading anything else by Annie Dillard, when I had intended to start with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but that one’s in hardback format and reading actual books these days is... doesn’t happen much. Must fix that.

I also picked up the audiobook with a narrator who seemed all wrong for it. She sounded too young and too... more like someone who might read fantasy or science fiction or crime fiction.

I picked it up because it’s short, because sometimes I fall into the trap of wanting to stay on top of my reading numbers, mostly because there’s so many books I want to read and there’s only so much time, as we know. Social media is taking up too much of it.

I should probably mention the writing was of course excellent, but what Dillard stresses throughout, is that writing is a miserable, demanding and unrewarding craft while a writer actually sits down to do the work. She talked about this is many ways. Not what I expected from a book on the subject, but honest, sure enough.
]]> <![CDATA[So Much Blood (Charles Paris #2)]]> 2121919 Edinburgh and the Festival are both background and foreground with Charles, flitting between a re-visualized Midsummer Night's Dream, a mixed-media satire, a late-night revue, and his own one-man show on Thomas Hood—and with a fading pop star as the first victim, a bomb scare in Holyrood Palace, and a suicide leap from the top of the Rock. Charles copes splendidly with the Festival, with his affair with the girl with the navy eyes, and with a most complex murder investigation.

]]> 196 Simon Brett 0595003605 Ilana (illi69) 3 3.57 1976 So Much Blood (Charles Paris #2)
author: Simon Brett
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/01
date added: 2021/02/01
shelves: 20th-century, audiobooks, entertainment, fantasy, great-britain, humour, mystery-thriller
review:

]]> The Lonely Hearts Hotel 34848293 The Night Circus, a spellbinding story about two gifted orphans in love with each other since they can remember whose childhood talents allow them to rewrite their future.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with the power of legend. An unparalleled tale of charismatic pianos, invisible dance partners, radicalized chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians, brooding clowns, and an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. In a landscape like this, it takes great creative gifts to thwart one's origins. It might also take true love.

Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1910. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen.

Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city's underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes after years of searching and desperate poverty the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they'll go to extreme lengths to make them come true. Soon, Rose, Pierrot and their troupe of clowns and chorus girls have hit New York, commanding the stage as well as the alleys, and neither the theater nor the underworld will ever look the same.

With her musical language and extravagantly realized world, Heather O'Neill enchants us with a novel so magical there is no escaping its spell.]]> 12 Heather O'Neill 1443454958 Ilana (illi69) 4
I wrote the following comment as I was nearing the end: “I’ve read a couple of novels by this author & was sure I’d enjoy this one, but initially found it jarring. The combination of her contemporary writing while describing an orphanage run by nuns in 1920s Montreal felt wrong. Then I became engaged in the paths of the main characters navigating the underworld of prohibition-era Montreal where there was plenty of booze, & diversions to entertain American visitors.�

This was a mistake on my part. I have not read Heather O'Neill's novels before, though Lullabies has been in my possession for a very long time now. I'm terrible with names and confused her with another Canadian author. I was evidently not familiar with O'Neill's writing style until now, and she completely won me over. I found the main character of Rose interesting. Having suffered incredible abuse by a particularly vengeful nun in the orphanage in which she spent her early life, she became hugely interested in sex and the underground criminal life. I found parallels between Rose and my teenage self, who also considered a life of crime and debauchery as an appealing option. I enjoyed having a close brush with dangerous people, at that time, being attracted by the dark side. Some people manage to pull themselves out again, and many do not. Either way, it leaves emotional scars. I read a quote recently, saying something along the lines of “It's not that people aren't able to foresee the consequences of their actions, it's that they aren't able to imagine just how much those choices will impact the rest of their lives�. This is true about everyone, but especially about young people. When we're young we can't imagine getting older or having to live with some of our terrible choices taken along the way.

Rose is a woman who had very few options in the early 20th century because her sex doomed her to a life as either a housewife or a prostitute. Being an orphan at that time carried a terrible stigma, and they were somehow perceived as being worthless because of their lack of family connections and the assumption their mothers had sinned. Many women saw a life of prostitution as having the advantage of offering more flexibility and freedom. Many women who chose this path were strong and had huge ambitions which they weren't allowed to realise, as is the case of Rose. But Rose had a personality of her own which was unbound by expectations of how a woman should act. With her immense talent, intelligence and ambitions, she became entrapped by the lure of money for the power if afforded her, and the luxuries she had developed a taste fo. She saw no other choice than to try to dominate men on their own turf to secure her independence. ]]> 3.59 2017 The Lonely Hearts Hotel
author: Heather O'Neill
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/30
date added: 2021/01/30
shelves: historical-fiction, literature, canada, montreal, 20th-century, 1930s, prohibition, great-depression, crime, audiobooks, library-book
review:
Loved it. 4.5 stars rounded down as I reserve 5 stars for all-time favourites.

I wrote the following comment as I was nearing the end: “I’ve read a couple of novels by this author & was sure I’d enjoy this one, but initially found it jarring. The combination of her contemporary writing while describing an orphanage run by nuns in 1920s Montreal felt wrong. Then I became engaged in the paths of the main characters navigating the underworld of prohibition-era Montreal where there was plenty of booze, & diversions to entertain American visitors.�

This was a mistake on my part. I have not read Heather O'Neill's novels before, though Lullabies has been in my possession for a very long time now. I'm terrible with names and confused her with another Canadian author. I was evidently not familiar with O'Neill's writing style until now, and she completely won me over. I found the main character of Rose interesting. Having suffered incredible abuse by a particularly vengeful nun in the orphanage in which she spent her early life, she became hugely interested in sex and the underground criminal life. I found parallels between Rose and my teenage self, who also considered a life of crime and debauchery as an appealing option. I enjoyed having a close brush with dangerous people, at that time, being attracted by the dark side. Some people manage to pull themselves out again, and many do not. Either way, it leaves emotional scars. I read a quote recently, saying something along the lines of “It's not that people aren't able to foresee the consequences of their actions, it's that they aren't able to imagine just how much those choices will impact the rest of their lives�. This is true about everyone, but especially about young people. When we're young we can't imagine getting older or having to live with some of our terrible choices taken along the way.

Rose is a woman who had very few options in the early 20th century because her sex doomed her to a life as either a housewife or a prostitute. Being an orphan at that time carried a terrible stigma, and they were somehow perceived as being worthless because of their lack of family connections and the assumption their mothers had sinned. Many women saw a life of prostitution as having the advantage of offering more flexibility and freedom. Many women who chose this path were strong and had huge ambitions which they weren't allowed to realise, as is the case of Rose. But Rose had a personality of her own which was unbound by expectations of how a woman should act. With her immense talent, intelligence and ambitions, she became entrapped by the lure of money for the power if afforded her, and the luxuries she had developed a taste fo. She saw no other choice than to try to dominate men on their own turf to secure her independence.
]]> Slouching Towards Bethlehem 16162480
This is Joan Didion's first work of nonfiction, offering an incisive look at the mood of 1960s America and providing an essential portrait of the Californian counterculture. She explores the influences of John Wayne and Howard Hughes, and offers ruminations on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room. Taking its title from W.B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming", the essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem all reflect, in one way or another, that "the center cannot hold."]]> Joan Didion Ilana (illi69) 4 3.73 1968 Slouching Towards Bethlehem
author: Joan Didion
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2018/06/01
date added: 2021/01/29
shelves: essays-lectures, nonfiction, 20th-century, women, audiobooks
review:

]]> Heart of a Dog 25495382
Wild, uproarious and deliriously comic, Bulgakov's short novel is at once a comment on the problems of 1920s Russia and a lasting satire on human nature.]]> Mikhail Bulgakov Ilana (illi69) 4
But one day he is thrown onto an operating table and submitted to a gruesome experiment. The gentleman is a renowned doctor and scientist experimenting on giving “vitality� to rich old men who have lost their sexual vigour. A complicated procedure follows, where the dogs pituitary gland is replaced with that of a freshly deceased criminal. Within days, the dog gradually physically morphs into a man, albeit a very ugly one with the manners of a street hound. He begins uttering unusual sounds and even laughs, then begins speaking using coarse & obscene language. The professor and his assistant are stunned and disbelieving of the transformation occurring, having thought they would only give the dog enhanced sexual prowess. The dog-man eventually demands to be treated and recognized as fully human, even seeking and being given a position within a housing committee. As expected, everything goes terribly wrong and the dog-man causes so much trouble the doctor decides to reverse the procedure again to regain control of his life, damaged career and reputation.

I had done no previous research or reading about this novel which was banned from publication until the 1980s, after the fall of the communist regime. A GR member I follow explains in the following excellent review (/review/show...) the character of the doctor is based on (from Wikipedia:) Serge Abrahamovitch Voronoff 1866 � 1951) a French surgeon of Russian extraction who gained fame for his technique of grafting monkey testicle tissue on to the testicles of men for purportedly therapeutic purposes while working in France in the 1920s and 1930s. The technique brought him a great deal of money, although he was already independently wealthy. As his work fell out of favour, he went from being highly respected to a subject of ridicule. Other doctors, and the public at large, quickly distanced themselves from Voronoff, pretending they had never had any interest in the grafting techniques. By the time of his death in 1951 at the age of 85, few newspapers noted his passing, and those that did acted as if Voronoff had always been ridiculed for his beliefs.

Bulgakov was himself a doctor and obviously delights in telling his version of these grotesque scientific “advances� while also thoroughly ridiculing the Soviet experiment, which was based on utopian ideals of common goals and freedom from overlords. But in the character of the dog, he represents the average Russian has not changed his nature because a new thought system has gained supremacy and despite being given the abilities of a human, still follows his base natural instincts.

I picked up this book specifically today after Joe Biden cemented gender ideology into American law, enabling anyone to live in the gender they believe themselves to be. Any man can now declare himself to be a woman (and vice versa) and the rest of society must now accept that a person’s feelings trumps material reality. Male offenders are now able to declare themselves to be female and be housed in women’s prisons, males are housed in rape shelters, male criminals are declaring themselves to be the opposite gender and being treated with leniency by the courts as they are deemed to be oppressed and especially vulnerable members of society. Males can in fact declare themselves into all spaces formerly reserved for women, including women’s sports, which has already proven to be a marked disadvantage to females who are not physically equipped with the muscle mass, bone density and sheer strength males who’ve gone through puberty possess.

Women who dare speak up about the fact that some male individuals are bound to take advantage of the situation, human nature being what it is, find themselves banned from social media sites, lose their jobs or tenure as professors and are submitted to death and rape threats, without any consequences whatsoever. J.K. Rowling was subjected to this treatment last year when she spoke up in defense of women and was widely condemned by the media and public personalities for being a bigot. She was able to withstand the criticism because of her well established social position, financial resources, and lawyers to defend her from libel, which is obviously not the case for the average person.

As I mentioned, I went into this book without any background information, but the parallels to our current times, when science is put to use by treating people with cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and experimental surgeries for so-called sex change operations (the case of Jazz Jennings of reality tv fame being particularly disturbing). There are also experiments to find viable ways to implant uteruses into male bodies so they can eventually have the full experience of womanhood and escape “dysphoria� by giving birth and breastfeeding their babies.

In the same way all Russian society was suddenly transformed following the revolution and dissent was clamped down, we are now expected on a global scale to follow new science & directive on what humans are, with so-called discoveries demonstrating human sexuality isn’t binary and much more complex than preciously understood, so that a person’s sex is now a matter of a person’s sense of self and nothing to do with chromosomes (despite the fact human remains many thousands of years old can be instantly identified as one of two sexes). We are now compelled to use certain language (pronouns, anyone) and abandon age-old traditions and must abide by a new moral code, which somehow makes room for porn and sex work, but clamps down on “kink-shaming�.

These are very troubling times. I find it hugely ironic that in turning to a Soviet dissidents author for comfort I quite accidentally found so many parallels in a story literally set a century ago.

***

Don’t like my review because I say what I think and mean what I say? I do not care. If you must “call me out� for being a so-called “bigot�, expect to be ridiculed. I’ve dealt with harassment and abuse my whole life and do not take to it kindly. “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others�. That was George Orwell, kids. He knew a thing or two.]]> 3.56 1925 Heart of a Dog
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/22
date added: 2021/01/24
shelves: 1920s, 20th-century, animals, audiobooks, communism, humour, literature, politics, russia, science, dogs
review:
A homeless and recently abused dog narrator describes his struggles to find food in the Soviet capital and we are quickly apprised of the food shortages & absurd, ineffective policies to feed the people. A gentleman sees the dog, takes a liking to him and decides to adopt him, taking him to his comfortable sprawling seven-room apartment (at a time when several families were being crammed into formerly posh dwellings). The gentleman proceeds to feed the dog so well, our canine is certain he’s found a saving angel.

But one day he is thrown onto an operating table and submitted to a gruesome experiment. The gentleman is a renowned doctor and scientist experimenting on giving “vitality� to rich old men who have lost their sexual vigour. A complicated procedure follows, where the dogs pituitary gland is replaced with that of a freshly deceased criminal. Within days, the dog gradually physically morphs into a man, albeit a very ugly one with the manners of a street hound. He begins uttering unusual sounds and even laughs, then begins speaking using coarse & obscene language. The professor and his assistant are stunned and disbelieving of the transformation occurring, having thought they would only give the dog enhanced sexual prowess. The dog-man eventually demands to be treated and recognized as fully human, even seeking and being given a position within a housing committee. As expected, everything goes terribly wrong and the dog-man causes so much trouble the doctor decides to reverse the procedure again to regain control of his life, damaged career and reputation.

I had done no previous research or reading about this novel which was banned from publication until the 1980s, after the fall of the communist regime. A GR member I follow explains in the following excellent review (/review/show...) the character of the doctor is based on (from Wikipedia:) Serge Abrahamovitch Voronoff 1866 � 1951) a French surgeon of Russian extraction who gained fame for his technique of grafting monkey testicle tissue on to the testicles of men for purportedly therapeutic purposes while working in France in the 1920s and 1930s. The technique brought him a great deal of money, although he was already independently wealthy. As his work fell out of favour, he went from being highly respected to a subject of ridicule. Other doctors, and the public at large, quickly distanced themselves from Voronoff, pretending they had never had any interest in the grafting techniques. By the time of his death in 1951 at the age of 85, few newspapers noted his passing, and those that did acted as if Voronoff had always been ridiculed for his beliefs.

Bulgakov was himself a doctor and obviously delights in telling his version of these grotesque scientific “advances� while also thoroughly ridiculing the Soviet experiment, which was based on utopian ideals of common goals and freedom from overlords. But in the character of the dog, he represents the average Russian has not changed his nature because a new thought system has gained supremacy and despite being given the abilities of a human, still follows his base natural instincts.

I picked up this book specifically today after Joe Biden cemented gender ideology into American law, enabling anyone to live in the gender they believe themselves to be. Any man can now declare himself to be a woman (and vice versa) and the rest of society must now accept that a person’s feelings trumps material reality. Male offenders are now able to declare themselves to be female and be housed in women’s prisons, males are housed in rape shelters, male criminals are declaring themselves to be the opposite gender and being treated with leniency by the courts as they are deemed to be oppressed and especially vulnerable members of society. Males can in fact declare themselves into all spaces formerly reserved for women, including women’s sports, which has already proven to be a marked disadvantage to females who are not physically equipped with the muscle mass, bone density and sheer strength males who’ve gone through puberty possess.

Women who dare speak up about the fact that some male individuals are bound to take advantage of the situation, human nature being what it is, find themselves banned from social media sites, lose their jobs or tenure as professors and are submitted to death and rape threats, without any consequences whatsoever. J.K. Rowling was subjected to this treatment last year when she spoke up in defense of women and was widely condemned by the media and public personalities for being a bigot. She was able to withstand the criticism because of her well established social position, financial resources, and lawyers to defend her from libel, which is obviously not the case for the average person.

As I mentioned, I went into this book without any background information, but the parallels to our current times, when science is put to use by treating people with cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and experimental surgeries for so-called sex change operations (the case of Jazz Jennings of reality tv fame being particularly disturbing). There are also experiments to find viable ways to implant uteruses into male bodies so they can eventually have the full experience of womanhood and escape “dysphoria� by giving birth and breastfeeding their babies.

In the same way all Russian society was suddenly transformed following the revolution and dissent was clamped down, we are now expected on a global scale to follow new science & directive on what humans are, with so-called discoveries demonstrating human sexuality isn’t binary and much more complex than preciously understood, so that a person’s sex is now a matter of a person’s sense of self and nothing to do with chromosomes (despite the fact human remains many thousands of years old can be instantly identified as one of two sexes). We are now compelled to use certain language (pronouns, anyone) and abandon age-old traditions and must abide by a new moral code, which somehow makes room for porn and sex work, but clamps down on “kink-shaming�.

These are very troubling times. I find it hugely ironic that in turning to a Soviet dissidents author for comfort I quite accidentally found so many parallels in a story literally set a century ago.

***

Don’t like my review because I say what I think and mean what I say? I do not care. If you must “call me out� for being a so-called “bigot�, expect to be ridiculed. I’ve dealt with harassment and abuse my whole life and do not take to it kindly. “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others�. That was George Orwell, kids. He knew a thing or two.
]]> <![CDATA[Four Past Midnight: The Sun Dog]]> 3365119
5 Audio CDs / 6 Hours 15 mins

~]]> 7 Stephen King 159887750X Ilana (illi69) 5 3.68 1990 Four Past Midnight: The Sun Dog
author: Stephen King
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/11
date added: 2021/01/23
shelves: 20th-century, audiobooks, horror, horror-in-october, library-book, short-stories, animals, dogs, mystery-thriller, fantasy
review:
This Story was a great finale to “Four Past Midnight�, which includes three other stand alone novellas that had horror and a thread of madness as the only common themes I could discern, but then I am NOT and never was good at drawing those kinds of comparisons. This story is about a Polaroid camera which is apparently inhabited by the spirit of a dog-like creature from another dimension so that when Kevin gets the Sun model he’s been wanting and waiting for he’s thrilled with his fifteenth birthday present, until he takes his first trial shot and aims it at his parents and sister. He is completely perplexed about the result and shoots a whole pack of film to find out the camera only takes pictures of a very ugly and dangerous looking dog as it is slowly moving. Things go from being perplexing to terrifying during the following days as the polaroids shots emerge while Kevin tries to figure out what is going on and they all witness the shots showing the aggressive dog approaching the camera with a menacing snarl. This is when Kevin recognizes the dog is wearing an ugly string tie his great aunt has just gifted him and he becomes convinced the dog is out to kill him. There’s an old character who is less than honest who takes advantage of the whole situation and brings along a cast of wonderful characters. There is a spectacular and satisfying gore fest scene towards the end. And they lived happily ever after. Ha! I wonder if he wrote the sequel?The more I read Stephen King, the more I read Stephen King.
]]> Timbuktu 449
Cover photograph by Ann Giordano]]> 181 Paul Auster 0312263996 Ilana (illi69) 0 3.73 1999 Timbuktu
author: Paul Auster
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/23
shelves: to-read, literature, america, 20th-century, animals, dogs, contemporary
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Travels with Charley: In Search of America]]> 5306 A quest across America, from the northernmost tip of Maine to California’s Monterey Peninsula

To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.

With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.]]> 214 John Steinbeck 0142000701 Ilana (illi69) 4 Read in 2012 � 4.5 stars. Favourites. Have acquired several editions for multiple rereads. ]]> 4.07 1961 Travels with Charley: In Search of America
author: John Steinbeck
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at: 2012/11/01
date added: 2021/01/23
shelves: classics, travel, nonfiction, biography-memoir, 20th-century, america, animals, dogs
review:
Read in 2012 � 4.5 stars. Favourites. Have acquired several editions for multiple rereads.
]]> Lettre d'une inconnue 42200113
Léa Drucker met toute sa sensibilité dans une incarnation parfaite de l� inconnue.

Préface écrite et lue par Elsa Zylberstein.

Origine : ]]> Stefan Zweig 2356411860 Ilana (illi69) 4 A famous author receives long a letter from a woman, in which she proceeds to describe the full extent of the passion she has felt for him since she was a young girl. She claims these are her final words before dying. The deep pathos of the situation is impossible to resist, as is the narrative, in which the woman describes the extent to which her obsession for this man has shaped her entire life. Very moving.]]> 4.17 1922 Lettre d'une inconnue
author: Stefan Zweig
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2012/04/01
date added: 2021/01/20
shelves: literature, european-literature, 20th-century, epistolary-letters
review:
★★★★½ � Favourites of 2012
A famous author receives long a letter from a woman, in which she proceeds to describe the full extent of the passion she has felt for him since she was a young girl. She claims these are her final words before dying. The deep pathos of the situation is impossible to resist, as is the narrative, in which the woman describes the extent to which her obsession for this man has shaped her entire life. Very moving.
]]> Vi 43618008 Si l'on traduit littéralement, je suis « Précieuse minuscule microscopique ».
Comme dans la plupart des cas au Vietnam, je n'ai pas su être à l'image de mon nom. Souvent, les filles qui s'appellent « Blanche » ou « Neige » ont le teint très foncé, et les garçons nommés « Puissance » ou « Fort » craignent les grandes épreuves.
Quant à moi, je grandissais sans cesse, dépassant de loin la moyenne et, du même élan, me projetant en dehors des normes.

Filesize: 87.9 MB
Duration: 03:04:07]]> Kim Thúy 1894986288 Ilana (illi69) 4 3.57 2016 Vi
author: Kim Thúy
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/19
date added: 2021/01/19
shelves: en-francais, canada, 20th-century, asia, audiobooks, awards-prizes, communism, historical-fiction, history, library-book, literature, politics, short-fiction, vietnam, women
review:

]]> A Severed Head 52388982
Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion. How will he survive it?]]> Iris Murdoch Ilana (illi69) 5 Currently editing the review with additional observations from my second reading, this December 2020.

From June 2012 � Martin is quite pleased with his situation: a beautiful wife, Antonia, whom he adores and a much younger mistress, Georgie, to keep things that much more interesting and make him feel like a "real" man. But when his wife announces that she's leaving him for her psychoanalyst, Palmer Anderson, who also happens to be Martin's friend, his perfect world suddenly collapses. Only things are about to get messier and messier, because both Antonia and Palmer fully intend to keep Martin in their lives, whether he likes it or not, and it soon becomes quite clear that Martin is probably the least deviant individual in what turns out to be a very amusing comedy of the absurd. I’ll definitely be reading more of Murdoch's work, something I look forward to with relish. The cherry on the sundae was the audiobook narrated by the superb Derek Jacobi, whose voices & delivery I've come to enjoy in their own right over the years.

[Have read a couple more Murdoch novels since then and am a confirmed fan]]]> 3.83 1961 A Severed Head
author: Iris Murdoch
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1961
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/24
date added: 2020/12/25
shelves: literature, 20th-century, women, favourite-books-ever, psychology, audiobooks, great-britain, humour
review:
Currently editing the review with additional observations from my second reading, this December 2020.

From June 2012 � Martin is quite pleased with his situation: a beautiful wife, Antonia, whom he adores and a much younger mistress, Georgie, to keep things that much more interesting and make him feel like a "real" man. But when his wife announces that she's leaving him for her psychoanalyst, Palmer Anderson, who also happens to be Martin's friend, his perfect world suddenly collapses. Only things are about to get messier and messier, because both Antonia and Palmer fully intend to keep Martin in their lives, whether he likes it or not, and it soon becomes quite clear that Martin is probably the least deviant individual in what turns out to be a very amusing comedy of the absurd. I’ll definitely be reading more of Murdoch's work, something I look forward to with relish. The cherry on the sundae was the audiobook narrated by the superb Derek Jacobi, whose voices & delivery I've come to enjoy in their own right over the years.

[Have read a couple more Murdoch novels since then and am a confirmed fan]
]]> The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter 13618819 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.

Performed by Cherry Jones

Listening Length: 12 hr., 28 min.]]> 13 Carson McCullers 0060782625 Ilana (illi69) 0 “People felt themselves watching him even before they knew that there was anything different about him. His eyes made a person think that he heard things that no one else had ever heard, that he knew things no one had ever guessed before. He did not seem quite human.�

“She wished there was some place where she could go to hum it out loud. Some kind of music was too private to sing in a house crammed full of people. It was funny, too, how lonesome a person could be in a crowded house.�

I first discovered this novel around 1990-91. I was 19 or 20 and I had been reading lots of feminist literature. I’d read Herland and The Handmaid’s Tale and A Room of One’s Own among others for a feminist literature college course the year or so previously and had recently completed Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe for my own reading pleasure. I barely knew who I was, finding men falling far short of my emotional needs, but mostly feeling like a freak, a feeling that had been with me all my life and that I’ve since learned is by no means a feeling exclusive to me, and certainly prevalent among young people questioning their sexual identity. I was a decade away from learning I was bipolar, though it was called manic-depressive illness at the time. I just knew I'd always been incredibly moody & melancholy (“mercurial� is most often used to describe my type of personality) and was pretty much a loner and rarely felt a part of anything, howevermuch I tried to be.

You could say I was relatively well-read at that age, since reading had always been my primary activity, but I don't believe I'd read Southern Gothic writers yet, and certainly nothing by such a young female writer before either (McCullers was 23 at the time this novel was published. TWENTY THREE!!! which was just a few years older than I was then.) I'm giving lots of context, because this book is all about context for me... the impact it had on me is ALL ABOUT CONTEXT. This book simply bowled me over. I remember being completely fascinated with Carson McCullers’s writing, with how she observed and described her characters, with how strange they were, like circus freaks, and yet how TOUCHING her story was. So strange and yet so relatable. I was devastated by this book, and at the same time it gave me hope. I finally knew for sure that I wasn't alone in my loneliness and my freakiness. It confirmed I was a freak for sure. It confirmed there were many of us out there. It confirmed to me maybe I could achieve something before I got too old (i.e. past 30). (I was wrong on that score).

In truth, all I could remember of the story itself years later were mostly vague impressions, but what stayed with me vividly were the awe and reverence I felt. Firstly, for what I recognized as a brilliant and original masterpiece, and secondly, for what I knew instinctively was an author who understood what it was to be a freak too, and who somehow made it all just... a part of life. And because of that, it had stayed with me for over 25 years as a shining memory and I've often listed it among my all-time favourites.

I can't describe the disappointment I felt when, listening to the audiobook version for my second reading in 2014—which was perfectly well narrated by Cherry Jones, I hasten to add—I found it slow going and rather dull, even too didactic in parts, and worse still, I failed to find all the beauty and poetry I'd seen in this novel the first time around. But I need to describe the story a little bit for those who aren't familiar with this book. It takes place in a "large" town—all things being relative—in the Deep South (pop. 30,000). The opening pages focus on the intense relationship between two deaf-mute male friends who live together, John Singer and Spiros Antonopoulous. When Spiros starts to behave more and more strangely and erratically, repeatedly getting in trouble with the law, he is eventually committed to an insane asylum, forcing John Singer to move from their shared home into a local rooming house.

John Singer somehow becomes a magnet to some of the locals, who, largely aided by his muteness, can see in him whatever they wish to see, and consider him their best friend, jealously guarding their relationship with him from anyone else. From there, the novel describes the events in the lives of four of John Singer's acquaintances. There is Mick Kelly, a fourteen year-old tomboy, the daughter of the impoverished owners of the rooming house who has a passion for music, discovers Mozart and Beethoven almost by accident, and dreams of composing music and having a piano of her own one day. There is Jake Blount, a hard drinker, drifter, and labour agitator regarded by most as a Communist. Biff Brannon is the owner of the New York Café where most of the characters in the story go to have drinks and meals, and he seems to have a soft-spot for people who find nothing but trouble. Finally there is Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, a black physician who despises all whites, and who worked hard to have a proper education, and raised his children to have high values and ideals, only to be bitterly disappointed in their obstinacy to remain "like their own people" in their mannerism, speech and deeds.

As I was writing this, I couldn't help but wonder why I wasn't more moved by this novel on second reading, because it has so very much going for it, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a great piece of literature. But somehow the magic wasn't there. I sought to find out why. There is the fact that I've read quite a bit since I was 19, I've read other Southern Gothic authors, but also about Communism and Communist agitators specifically, so that, that aspect of the book took on much more significance. I found the parts spoken by Jake Blount bolder and much more pronounced in the audio format. I'd read John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle in the last couple of years and, shortly before this reread, Richard Wright's Native Son which is basically a Communist Manifesto. The social-political aspects of the novel which now to took much more importance than they had when I was still a young woman took away from my enjoyment of the purely poetic and affective human contact elements of the story that had originally struck me most, because I recognized those as being more relevant somehow. But then maybe I'd have been better off finding my paperback copy and reading it at my own pace, savouring the sentences and emphasizing those of my own choosing instead of the narrator's, so I could enjoy those aspects of the novel that spoke most to my humanity. Then again it could just have been a question of bad timing, so maybe reading it at some other more propitious time will prove more satisfying. Only one way to find out... From 2014—Revised February 2019]]> 3.61 1940 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
author: Carson McCullers
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1940
rating: 0
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2020/12/24
shelves: classics, 20th-century, women, feminism, literature, audiobooks, america, americansouth, southerngothic, most-influential
review:
“People felt themselves watching him even before they knew that there was anything different about him. His eyes made a person think that he heard things that no one else had ever heard, that he knew things no one had ever guessed before. He did not seem quite human.�

“She wished there was some place where she could go to hum it out loud. Some kind of music was too private to sing in a house crammed full of people. It was funny, too, how lonesome a person could be in a crowded house.�


I first discovered this novel around 1990-91. I was 19 or 20 and I had been reading lots of feminist literature. I’d read Herland and The Handmaid’s Tale and A Room of One’s Own among others for a feminist literature college course the year or so previously and had recently completed Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe for my own reading pleasure. I barely knew who I was, finding men falling far short of my emotional needs, but mostly feeling like a freak, a feeling that had been with me all my life and that I’ve since learned is by no means a feeling exclusive to me, and certainly prevalent among young people questioning their sexual identity. I was a decade away from learning I was bipolar, though it was called manic-depressive illness at the time. I just knew I'd always been incredibly moody & melancholy (“mercurial� is most often used to describe my type of personality) and was pretty much a loner and rarely felt a part of anything, howevermuch I tried to be.

You could say I was relatively well-read at that age, since reading had always been my primary activity, but I don't believe I'd read Southern Gothic writers yet, and certainly nothing by such a young female writer before either (McCullers was 23 at the time this novel was published. TWENTY THREE!!! which was just a few years older than I was then.) I'm giving lots of context, because this book is all about context for me... the impact it had on me is ALL ABOUT CONTEXT. This book simply bowled me over. I remember being completely fascinated with Carson McCullers’s writing, with how she observed and described her characters, with how strange they were, like circus freaks, and yet how TOUCHING her story was. So strange and yet so relatable. I was devastated by this book, and at the same time it gave me hope. I finally knew for sure that I wasn't alone in my loneliness and my freakiness. It confirmed I was a freak for sure. It confirmed there were many of us out there. It confirmed to me maybe I could achieve something before I got too old (i.e. past 30). (I was wrong on that score).

In truth, all I could remember of the story itself years later were mostly vague impressions, but what stayed with me vividly were the awe and reverence I felt. Firstly, for what I recognized as a brilliant and original masterpiece, and secondly, for what I knew instinctively was an author who understood what it was to be a freak too, and who somehow made it all just... a part of life. And because of that, it had stayed with me for over 25 years as a shining memory and I've often listed it among my all-time favourites.

I can't describe the disappointment I felt when, listening to the audiobook version for my second reading in 2014—which was perfectly well narrated by Cherry Jones, I hasten to add—I found it slow going and rather dull, even too didactic in parts, and worse still, I failed to find all the beauty and poetry I'd seen in this novel the first time around. But I need to describe the story a little bit for those who aren't familiar with this book. It takes place in a "large" town—all things being relative—in the Deep South (pop. 30,000). The opening pages focus on the intense relationship between two deaf-mute male friends who live together, John Singer and Spiros Antonopoulous. When Spiros starts to behave more and more strangely and erratically, repeatedly getting in trouble with the law, he is eventually committed to an insane asylum, forcing John Singer to move from their shared home into a local rooming house.

John Singer somehow becomes a magnet to some of the locals, who, largely aided by his muteness, can see in him whatever they wish to see, and consider him their best friend, jealously guarding their relationship with him from anyone else. From there, the novel describes the events in the lives of four of John Singer's acquaintances. There is Mick Kelly, a fourteen year-old tomboy, the daughter of the impoverished owners of the rooming house who has a passion for music, discovers Mozart and Beethoven almost by accident, and dreams of composing music and having a piano of her own one day. There is Jake Blount, a hard drinker, drifter, and labour agitator regarded by most as a Communist. Biff Brannon is the owner of the New York Café where most of the characters in the story go to have drinks and meals, and he seems to have a soft-spot for people who find nothing but trouble. Finally there is Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, a black physician who despises all whites, and who worked hard to have a proper education, and raised his children to have high values and ideals, only to be bitterly disappointed in their obstinacy to remain "like their own people" in their mannerism, speech and deeds.

As I was writing this, I couldn't help but wonder why I wasn't more moved by this novel on second reading, because it has so very much going for it, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a great piece of literature. But somehow the magic wasn't there. I sought to find out why. There is the fact that I've read quite a bit since I was 19, I've read other Southern Gothic authors, but also about Communism and Communist agitators specifically, so that, that aspect of the book took on much more significance. I found the parts spoken by Jake Blount bolder and much more pronounced in the audio format. I'd read John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle in the last couple of years and, shortly before this reread, Richard Wright's Native Son which is basically a Communist Manifesto. The social-political aspects of the novel which now to took much more importance than they had when I was still a young woman took away from my enjoyment of the purely poetic and affective human contact elements of the story that had originally struck me most, because I recognized those as being more relevant somehow. But then maybe I'd have been better off finding my paperback copy and reading it at my own pace, savouring the sentences and emphasizing those of my own choosing instead of the narrator's, so I could enjoy those aspects of the novel that spoke most to my humanity. Then again it could just have been a question of bad timing, so maybe reading it at some other more propitious time will prove more satisfying. Only one way to find out... From 2014—Revised February 2019
]]> Cathedral 6521466 214 Raymond Carver 0099530333 Ilana (illi69) 4
Not all the stories in this collection involve booze, but miscommunication is a major theme and they are overall rather bleak and depressing, so I took my time reading them bit by bit, not wanting to be dragged down with despair. The title story Cathedral illustrates this perfectly. The narrators wife announces an old blind friend is coming over for a visit after losing his wife to cancer. She and this friend have had a regular correspondence over many years and exchanged many intimate details about their inner lives and their marriages. As for the narrator, he can barely think of a blind person as a fully realized human being and seems to think their lack of sight means they aren’t able to enjoy life. It is soon revealed that while most people are able to look, few take the time to actually see.

With his simple pared down language, Carver invites us to look beyond the surface and to find true meaning. I think that’s what he’s doing in any case. I’ll need to read more articles analyzing his work maybe. But then again, sometimes I think it’s okay to just intuit things without seeking to understand them logically either. Our inner eye sees so much more than we allow for after all.]]> 4.10 1983 Cathedral
author: Raymond Carver
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/01
date added: 2020/12/10
shelves: 20th-century, america, literature, readingslowly-over-time, short-stories
review:
My first book by Raymond Carver. I admire everything he manages to pack into each story but have always had trouble picking up on symbolism and reading into deeper meanings than what I feel intuitively and have difficulty verbalizing. One recurring theme is the difficulty we have communicating with one another and with understanding ourselves. This is borne out with repeated references to heavy drinkers and alcoholism; how so many people choose this easy escape in a glass to deal with inconvenient feelings and situations.

Not all the stories in this collection involve booze, but miscommunication is a major theme and they are overall rather bleak and depressing, so I took my time reading them bit by bit, not wanting to be dragged down with despair. The title story Cathedral illustrates this perfectly. The narrators wife announces an old blind friend is coming over for a visit after losing his wife to cancer. She and this friend have had a regular correspondence over many years and exchanged many intimate details about their inner lives and their marriages. As for the narrator, he can barely think of a blind person as a fully realized human being and seems to think their lack of sight means they aren’t able to enjoy life. It is soon revealed that while most people are able to look, few take the time to actually see.

With his simple pared down language, Carver invites us to look beyond the surface and to find true meaning. I think that’s what he’s doing in any case. I’ll need to read more articles analyzing his work maybe. But then again, sometimes I think it’s okay to just intuit things without seeking to understand them logically either. Our inner eye sees so much more than we allow for after all.
]]> All Passion Spent 43809044
First published in 1931, Vita Sackville-West's masterpiece is the fictional companion to her great friend Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.]]> Vita Sackville-West Ilana (illi69) 5 “On the contrary," said Lady Slane, "that is another thing about which I've made up my mind. You see, Carrie, I am going to become completely self-indulgent. I am going to wallow in old age. No grandchildren. They are too young. Not one of them has reached forty-five. No great grandchildren either; that would be worse.  I want no strenuous young people, who are not content with doing a thing, but must needs know why they do it. And I don’t want them bringing their children to see me, for it would only remind me of the terrible  effort the poor creatures will have to make before they reach the end of their lives in safety. I prefer to forget about them. I want no one about me except those who are nearer to their death than to their birth.

These things—the straw, the ivy frond, the spider—had had the house all to themselves for many days. They had paid no rent, yet they had made free with the floor, the window, and the walls, during a light and volatile existence. That was the kind of companionship that Lady Slane wanted; she had had enough of bustle, and of competition, and of one set of ambitions writhing to circumvent another. She wanted to merge with the things that drifted into an empty house, though unlike the spider she would weave no webs. She would be content to stir with the breeze and grow green in the light of the sun, and to drift down the passage of years, until death pushed her gently out and shut the door behind her.�

When Lady Slane’s husband passes away, well into his 90s, her six patronising and self-important children and their spouses decide she must spend the rest of her life dividing her time between each couple, living in their homes and contributing to the expenses in a manner which will be amply profitable to them, while presenting this to her as being in the interest of maintaining her correct place in society. But 88 year-old Deborah, Lady Slane, who has always effaced herself behind her husband, a former Viceroy of India and a member of the House of Lords, has always dreamed of becoming an artist, and decides otherwise; she will move into her own house in Hampstead, thank you very much, and furthermore, she will only invite elderly people like herself who have similar priorities and share her views on life. Now that she is closer than ever to dying, she wants nothing to do with the constant striving and ambitions of the young. Having installed herself in her new home, she makes a very good friend of the cottage’s owner, the elderly and very thoughtful Mr Bucktrout, who sets about renovating and redecorating the house at his own expense so she can live in greater comfort. Then a vague acquaintance, a man from her distant past in India, Mr FitzGeorge, who has become a millionaire and an eccentric, renown for his collection of fine art, reintroduces himself into her life. He has always been in love with the once beautiful Lady Slane, and they form a special kind of friendship which will influence the rest of her ladyship’s few remaining years.

Vita Sackville-West, among her many passionate love affairs, was very famously a lover and companion to Virginia Woolf. Here she borrows a theme which the two women and their friends no doubt often discussed together, and explores how a woman who has money at her disposal, and access to more than a mere Room of Her Own, might choose to live out her final years, when she has the wherewithal and mental fortitude to free herself of social constraints imposed on her by her own familial obligations—the most binding of all.

The back story about the close friendship between these two authors was far from my mind when I chose to read this book, so it turned out to be a very timely read so shortly after revisiting Woolf’s A Room of One's Own in September of 2012. I loved and took comfort in these reflections on old age, and how one might eventually look back on life from the distance of a great many decades, having acquired completely different priorities from those of earlier years. I also found it strange and intriguing that these reflections resonated perfectly with my own at that stage in my life, albeit my then 93-year old friend Liselotte considered me to be a mere young girl, when I was still in my early 40s, and as all things are relative, I suppose she was right.

I found this review again on LibraryThing, surprised I hadn't posted it here yet, but then seeing it needed some editing, and decided to revise it a little before publishing it here on ŷ. What led me to it in the first place is when I noticed today I'd failed to catalogue a green Virago edition of this book I'd purchased in 2017 from a UK seller. Failing to catalogue a book can have serious consequences for me, such as purchasing more copies of similar editions (unbearable drama!). When I already have the title in other edition, which really is an inexcusable waste of time and money and space. I thumbed through it to check on the quotes from the book I had only transcribed from the audio version previously, which of course had many small mistakes, mostly do do with punctuation, but also a word contraction or two, which I attribute to the wonderful interpretation of Dame Wendy Hiller for the audiobook. I reflected that this novel has gained further relevance to me in these six or seven years later, as I was rereading passages from the book. Most people my age are still running around, overachieving as a part of their daily routine, but my lifestyle is one of a disabled pensioner because of lifelong health problems which grew in intensity and made me unable to have a normal life anymore, whatever that is anyway. I've had to make my own choices and surmount many people's expectations—people in my own family especially, had to disappoint them to put my priorities and my wellbeing first, without consulting anyone once I knew what their own ideas on the matter were, just as Lady Slane does in the novel. And just as my beloved Liselotte did, in her own way, may she rest in peace now. In that way, the novel is ageless, and Lady Slane is ageless. She lives the life that any woman should be able to live. She lives a life of her own choosing. I suppose this is a book to grow old and comfortable with, a literary equivalent to Lady Slane's house in Hampstead which is always being improved upon and gets prettier and cozier over time. Though of course life is full of surprises. Some are good, some are not. Some just are.

I look forward to reading All Passion Spent again very soon.

The title of the novel comes from the last line of John Milton’s Samson Agonistes, a portion of which Sackville-West used as the book’s epigraph:

324. From 'Samson Agonistes

ALL is best, though we oft doubt,
What th' unsearchable dispose
Of highest wisdom brings about,
And ever best found in the close.
Oft he seems to hide his face,
But unexpectedly returns
And to his faithful Champion hath in place
Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns
And all that band them to resist
His uncontroulable intent.
His servants he with new acquist
Of true experience from this great event
With peace and consolation hath dismist,
And calm of mind all passion spent.
]]> 5.00 1931 All Passion Spent
author: Vita Sackville-West
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1931
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/12/07
shelves: women, classics, great-britain, favourite-books-ever, feminism, 20th-century, literature, to-reread, 1000-books-mustich, aging, most-influential, wicked-women
review:
“On the contrary," said Lady Slane, "that is another thing about which I've made up my mind. You see, Carrie, I am going to become completely self-indulgent. I am going to wallow in old age. No grandchildren. They are too young. Not one of them has reached forty-five. No great grandchildren either; that would be worse.  I want no strenuous young people, who are not content with doing a thing, but must needs know why they do it. And I don’t want them bringing their children to see me, for it would only remind me of the terrible  effort the poor creatures will have to make before they reach the end of their lives in safety. I prefer to forget about them. I want no one about me except those who are nearer to their death than to their birth.

These things—the straw, the ivy frond, the spider—had had the house all to themselves for many days. They had paid no rent, yet they had made free with the floor, the window, and the walls, during a light and volatile existence. That was the kind of companionship that Lady Slane wanted; she had had enough of bustle, and of competition, and of one set of ambitions writhing to circumvent another. She wanted to merge with the things that drifted into an empty house, though unlike the spider she would weave no webs. She would be content to stir with the breeze and grow green in the light of the sun, and to drift down the passage of years, until death pushed her gently out and shut the door behind her.�


When Lady Slane’s husband passes away, well into his 90s, her six patronising and self-important children and their spouses decide she must spend the rest of her life dividing her time between each couple, living in their homes and contributing to the expenses in a manner which will be amply profitable to them, while presenting this to her as being in the interest of maintaining her correct place in society. But 88 year-old Deborah, Lady Slane, who has always effaced herself behind her husband, a former Viceroy of India and a member of the House of Lords, has always dreamed of becoming an artist, and decides otherwise; she will move into her own house in Hampstead, thank you very much, and furthermore, she will only invite elderly people like herself who have similar priorities and share her views on life. Now that she is closer than ever to dying, she wants nothing to do with the constant striving and ambitions of the young. Having installed herself in her new home, she makes a very good friend of the cottage’s owner, the elderly and very thoughtful Mr Bucktrout, who sets about renovating and redecorating the house at his own expense so she can live in greater comfort. Then a vague acquaintance, a man from her distant past in India, Mr FitzGeorge, who has become a millionaire and an eccentric, renown for his collection of fine art, reintroduces himself into her life. He has always been in love with the once beautiful Lady Slane, and they form a special kind of friendship which will influence the rest of her ladyship’s few remaining years.

Vita Sackville-West, among her many passionate love affairs, was very famously a lover and companion to Virginia Woolf. Here she borrows a theme which the two women and their friends no doubt often discussed together, and explores how a woman who has money at her disposal, and access to more than a mere Room of Her Own, might choose to live out her final years, when she has the wherewithal and mental fortitude to free herself of social constraints imposed on her by her own familial obligations—the most binding of all.

The back story about the close friendship between these two authors was far from my mind when I chose to read this book, so it turned out to be a very timely read so shortly after revisiting Woolf’s A Room of One's Own in September of 2012. I loved and took comfort in these reflections on old age, and how one might eventually look back on life from the distance of a great many decades, having acquired completely different priorities from those of earlier years. I also found it strange and intriguing that these reflections resonated perfectly with my own at that stage in my life, albeit my then 93-year old friend Liselotte considered me to be a mere young girl, when I was still in my early 40s, and as all things are relative, I suppose she was right.

I found this review again on LibraryThing, surprised I hadn't posted it here yet, but then seeing it needed some editing, and decided to revise it a little before publishing it here on ŷ. What led me to it in the first place is when I noticed today I'd failed to catalogue a green Virago edition of this book I'd purchased in 2017 from a UK seller. Failing to catalogue a book can have serious consequences for me, such as purchasing more copies of similar editions (unbearable drama!). When I already have the title in other edition, which really is an inexcusable waste of time and money and space. I thumbed through it to check on the quotes from the book I had only transcribed from the audio version previously, which of course had many small mistakes, mostly do do with punctuation, but also a word contraction or two, which I attribute to the wonderful interpretation of Dame Wendy Hiller for the audiobook. I reflected that this novel has gained further relevance to me in these six or seven years later, as I was rereading passages from the book. Most people my age are still running around, overachieving as a part of their daily routine, but my lifestyle is one of a disabled pensioner because of lifelong health problems which grew in intensity and made me unable to have a normal life anymore, whatever that is anyway. I've had to make my own choices and surmount many people's expectations—people in my own family especially, had to disappoint them to put my priorities and my wellbeing first, without consulting anyone once I knew what their own ideas on the matter were, just as Lady Slane does in the novel. And just as my beloved Liselotte did, in her own way, may she rest in peace now. In that way, the novel is ageless, and Lady Slane is ageless. She lives the life that any woman should be able to live. She lives a life of her own choosing. I suppose this is a book to grow old and comfortable with, a literary equivalent to Lady Slane's house in Hampstead which is always being improved upon and gets prettier and cozier over time. Though of course life is full of surprises. Some are good, some are not. Some just are.

I look forward to reading All Passion Spent again very soon.

The title of the novel comes from the last line of John Milton’s Samson Agonistes, a portion of which Sackville-West used as the book’s epigraph:

324. From 'Samson Agonistes

ALL is best, though we oft doubt,
What th' unsearchable dispose
Of highest wisdom brings about,
And ever best found in the close.
Oft he seems to hide his face,
But unexpectedly returns
And to his faithful Champion hath in place
Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns
And all that band them to resist
His uncontroulable intent.
His servants he with new acquist
Of true experience from this great event
With peace and consolation hath dismist,
And calm of mind all passion spent.

]]> The Light Between Oceans 36103980
Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,� and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.]]> 11 M.L. Stedman 1470321580 Ilana (illi69) 0 3.71 2012 The Light Between Oceans
author: M.L. Stedman
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/20
shelves: 1920s, 20th-century, audiobooks, historical-fiction, library-book, literature, to-read
review:

]]> Essays 54595330 George Orwell's collected nonfiction, written in the clear-eyed and uncompromising style that earned him a critical following

One of the most thought-provoking and vivid essayists of the twentieth century, George Orwell fought the injustices of his time with singular vigor through pen and paper. In this selection of essays, he ranges from reflections on his boyhood schooling and the profession of writing to his views on the Spanish Civil War and British imperialism. The pieces collected here include the relatively unfamiliar and the more celebrated, making it an ideal compilation for both new and dedicated readers of Orwell's work.]]> 26 George Orwell 1094061581 Ilana (illi69) 0 4.20 1941 Essays
author: George Orwell
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/19
shelves: to-read, wishlist, library-book, nonfiction, essays-lectures, 20th-century
review:

]]> The Running Man 28112600
It was the ultimate death game in a nightmare future America. The year is 2025 and reality TV has grown to the point where people are willing to wager their lives for a chance at a billion-dollar jackpot. Ben Richards is desperate—he needs money to treat his daughter’s illness. His last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man where the goal is to avoid capture by Hunters who are employed to kill him. Surviving this month-long chase is another issue when everyone else on the planet is watching—and willing to turn him in for the reward.

Each night all Americans tune in to watch. So far, the record for survival is only eight days. Can Ben Richards beat the brutal odds, beat the rigged game, beat the entire savage system? He’s betting his life that he can�

With an introduction by Stephen King on “The Importance of Being Bachman,� The Running Man is a terrifying novel about the eternal fight of good versus evil.]]> 8 Richard Bachman 1508217351 Ilana (illi69) 4 3.60 1982 The Running Man
author: Richard Bachman
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/03
date added: 2020/11/03
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, contemporary, horror, horror-in-october, library-book, mystery-thriller, dystopia, sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change]]> 36072 372 Stephen R. Covey 0743269519 Ilana (illi69) 1
The formula of self-help books drives me bonkers. Cheap graphics in printed form. The seemingly obligatory repeating & circling over the same notions infuriates me. I usually get it the first time and lose energy with each repetition.

Beyond that I have trouble compartmentalising on certain levels & Coveys male-centric approach makes it impossible for me to apply. I received a 7 Habits seminar as an executive art director around 2003-06. Filled with great ideas for people in demanding positions especially. I can’t begin to apply any of it.

Fitting in the big pieces first makes perfect logical sense to my autism-influenced mind. But I’m emotionally unstable & unable to apply basic principles despite many efforts. I think of this video of a kid elephant stuck in a ditch and making huge efforts to climb up the muddy wall and I cry at seeing him struggling so hard.

An aunt twice as large as him (her? Can’t recall) who’s been waiting to see if he could manage it gets into the ditch in one step and merely gives him a gentle shove up the bank and he liberates himself. I won’t attach it. You can find it. If not, let me know in the comments and I’ll add the link here.

This approach to self-organisation helped a lot of people who claim his methods worked for them. T7HoHEP became a bestselling bible at the time. I wonder what the #wokerati would make of it now they’re all grown up adults (sometimes passing, not always)?]]> 4.16 1989 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
author: Stephen R. Covey
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1989
rating: 1
read at: 1997/01/01
date added: 2020/10/16
shelves: 20th-century, nonfiction, essays-lectures, hated-it, dnf
review:
Read in 1997. One star because it informed me on the notion of Paradigms, also known as worldview, or mind construct, or personal experience. A great key to understanding... well, everything.

The formula of self-help books drives me bonkers. Cheap graphics in printed form. The seemingly obligatory repeating & circling over the same notions infuriates me. I usually get it the first time and lose energy with each repetition.

Beyond that I have trouble compartmentalising on certain levels & Coveys male-centric approach makes it impossible for me to apply. I received a 7 Habits seminar as an executive art director around 2003-06. Filled with great ideas for people in demanding positions especially. I can’t begin to apply any of it.

Fitting in the big pieces first makes perfect logical sense to my autism-influenced mind. But I’m emotionally unstable & unable to apply basic principles despite many efforts. I think of this video of a kid elephant stuck in a ditch and making huge efforts to climb up the muddy wall and I cry at seeing him struggling so hard.

An aunt twice as large as him (her? Can’t recall) who’s been waiting to see if he could manage it gets into the ditch in one step and merely gives him a gentle shove up the bank and he liberates himself. I won’t attach it. You can find it. If not, let me know in the comments and I’ll add the link here.

This approach to self-organisation helped a lot of people who claim his methods worked for them. T7HoHEP became a bestselling bible at the time. I wonder what the #wokerati would make of it now they’re all grown up adults (sometimes passing, not always)?
]]> Little Big Man 36273482 As a Cheyenne, Crabb feasted on dog, loved four wives, and saw his people butchered by horse-soldiers commanded by Custer. As a white man, he helped hunt the buffalo into extinction, tangled with Wyatt Earp, cheated Wild Bill Hickok--and lived through the showdown that followed. He also survivied the Battle of Little Bighorn, where he fought side by side with Custer himself--even though he'd sworn to kill him.

The basis of a popular film, LITTLE BIG MAN, was hailed by "The Nation" as a "seminal event...the most significant cultural and literary trend of the [1960's]."

Listening Length: 20 hours and 31 minutes

]]> Thomas Berger Ilana (illi69) 0 4.30 1964 Little Big Man
author: Thomas Berger
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/15
shelves: to-read, literature, library-book, western, america, historical-fiction, adventure, classics, 20th-century
review:

]]> To Fear a Painted Devil 2997250 0 Ruth Rendell 0745143555 Ilana (illi69) 3 From January 2012 � Tamsin and Patrick Selby have an unhappy marriage. Tamsin is a beautiful young woman just on the verge of turning 27. Her husband, who also happens to be her first cousin, is very controlling, down to dictating what kind of clothes his wife should wear (plain in subdued colours), whether she should wear makeup (she shouldn't) and how she is to keep the house (immaculate). They live in a beautiful house in the fictional housing development of Linchester, Nottinghamshire. Tamsin has invited their neighbours to a get-together she's organized for her birthday. Patrick is rude to her and the guests throughout, and when he gets repeatedly stung by several wasps, no one is much chagrinned by his plight, nor when he is found dead the next day. The local doctor doesn't believe in foul play until some persistent gossiping leads him to further investigations to find out if there's any truth to claims that beautiful Tamsin had something to do with Patrick's death. There's an interesting sub-plot having to do with a painting of John the Baptist's head on a bloody platter. Good enough story, but none of the characters made much of an impression on me.]]> 3.00 1965 To Fear a Painted Devil
author: Ruth Rendell
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1965
rating: 3
read at: 2012/01/01
date added: 2020/09/16
shelves: 20th-century, crime, great-britain, mystery-thriller, audiobooks
review:
From January 2012 � Tamsin and Patrick Selby have an unhappy marriage. Tamsin is a beautiful young woman just on the verge of turning 27. Her husband, who also happens to be her first cousin, is very controlling, down to dictating what kind of clothes his wife should wear (plain in subdued colours), whether she should wear makeup (she shouldn't) and how she is to keep the house (immaculate). They live in a beautiful house in the fictional housing development of Linchester, Nottinghamshire. Tamsin has invited their neighbours to a get-together she's organized for her birthday. Patrick is rude to her and the guests throughout, and when he gets repeatedly stung by several wasps, no one is much chagrinned by his plight, nor when he is found dead the next day. The local doctor doesn't believe in foul play until some persistent gossiping leads him to further investigations to find out if there's any truth to claims that beautiful Tamsin had something to do with Patrick's death. There's an interesting sub-plot having to do with a painting of John the Baptist's head on a bloody platter. Good enough story, but none of the characters made much of an impression on me.
]]> Asta's Book 25936929 Barbara Vine Ilana (illi69) 3 From September 2012 � It is 1905 and Asta Westerby and her husband Rasmus have just moved to England from Denmark with their two boys. A third child on the way, and Asta dearly hopes for a girl. Asta tells her story through a series of journals, in which she writes sporadically about various events, describing her family life; her marriage, her children, her maid, which make up her whole universe. Asta has an independent spirit and isn't necessarily cut out to be a wife and mother, but she accepts her lot because other alternatives don't seem appealing or feasible.

But this is only part of the stor; other part takes place in a contemporary setting, sometime in the 90s, when this book was published. Asta's granddaughter Ann has come into her inheritance now that her aunt Swanny has passed away. Swanny was Asta's favourite child and having discovered her mother's journals after her passing, decided to have them translated and published with tremendous success. Now Ann is responsible for the manuscripts and intends to continue publishing additional volumes. But there are various mysteries to be found, in what have become historical artifacts. Swanny was never able to learn the truth about her true identity after receiving an anonymous letter telling her she was not in fact Asta's child, something which Asta herself refused to confirm on way or another. Is the answer to be found in one of the volumes? But there are also mentions about a horrible crime which was a sensation in it's time, with Alfred Roper accused of murdering his wife and the disappearance of their young toddler Lizzie. Was Swanny that Roper child? And if not, what happened to Lizzie? These are questions which Ann and a friend producing a movie about the murder mystery are out to solve.

The premise of this novel seemed interesting, but I found the story confusing, with two seemingly completely separate stories and families that had nothing in common somehow connected in a way which is only revealed at the very end. It might benefit from a second reading. Then again, perhaps my mind is too muddled to understand a plot which doesn't follow a familiar narrative style. I also kept wondering why Asta's journals had become such hugely successful books, as they didn't make for gripping reading on their own. Don't let my confused ramblings about this book influence you though, it seems to have met with a lot of appreciation with other readers.]]> 4.09 1993 Asta's Book
author: Barbara Vine
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2012/09/01
date added: 2020/09/16
shelves: crime, mystery-thriller, audiobooks, great-britain, 20th-century
review:
From September 2012 � It is 1905 and Asta Westerby and her husband Rasmus have just moved to England from Denmark with their two boys. A third child on the way, and Asta dearly hopes for a girl. Asta tells her story through a series of journals, in which she writes sporadically about various events, describing her family life; her marriage, her children, her maid, which make up her whole universe. Asta has an independent spirit and isn't necessarily cut out to be a wife and mother, but she accepts her lot because other alternatives don't seem appealing or feasible.

But this is only part of the stor; other part takes place in a contemporary setting, sometime in the 90s, when this book was published. Asta's granddaughter Ann has come into her inheritance now that her aunt Swanny has passed away. Swanny was Asta's favourite child and having discovered her mother's journals after her passing, decided to have them translated and published with tremendous success. Now Ann is responsible for the manuscripts and intends to continue publishing additional volumes. But there are various mysteries to be found, in what have become historical artifacts. Swanny was never able to learn the truth about her true identity after receiving an anonymous letter telling her she was not in fact Asta's child, something which Asta herself refused to confirm on way or another. Is the answer to be found in one of the volumes? But there are also mentions about a horrible crime which was a sensation in it's time, with Alfred Roper accused of murdering his wife and the disappearance of their young toddler Lizzie. Was Swanny that Roper child? And if not, what happened to Lizzie? These are questions which Ann and a friend producing a movie about the murder mystery are out to solve.

The premise of this novel seemed interesting, but I found the story confusing, with two seemingly completely separate stories and families that had nothing in common somehow connected in a way which is only revealed at the very end. It might benefit from a second reading. Then again, perhaps my mind is too muddled to understand a plot which doesn't follow a familiar narrative style. I also kept wondering why Asta's journals had become such hugely successful books, as they didn't make for gripping reading on their own. Don't let my confused ramblings about this book influence you though, it seems to have met with a lot of appreciation with other readers.
]]> <![CDATA[The Crossing (The Border Trilogy, #2)]]> 37839892
Having trapped a she-wolf he would restore to the mountains of Mexico, he is long gone and returns to find everything he left behind transformed utterly in his absence. Except his kid brother, Boyd, with whom he strikes out yet again to reclaim what is theirs - thus crossing into "that antique gaze from whence there could be no way back forever."

What they find instead, is an extraordinary panoply of fiestas and circuses, dogs, horses and hawks, pilgrims and revolutionaries, grand haciendas and forlorn cantinas, bandits, gypsies and roving tribes, a young girl alone on the road, a mystery in the mountain wilds, and a myth in the making.

And in this wider world they fight a war as rageful as the one neither, in the end, will join up for back home. One brother finds his destiny, while the other arrives only at his fate.

An essential novel by any measure, and the transfixing middle passage of Cormac McCarthy's ongoing trilogy, The Crossing is luminous and appalling, a book that touches, stops,and starts the heart and mind at once.]]> Cormac McCarthy Ilana (illi69) 4 3.92 1994 The Crossing (The Border Trilogy, #2)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/02
date added: 2020/09/02
shelves: 20th-century, america, americansouth, audiobooks, historical-fiction, library-book, literature, series, western, adventure
review:
So very sad & depressing. And poetic too. And philosophical... about God and our place in “his� plan. I’m not a believer, but interesting nonetheless.
]]> East of Eden 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 Ilana (illi69) 4 4.41 1952 East of Eden
author: John Steinbeck
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/08/30
shelves: historical-fiction, classics, 20th-century, literature, guardian-1000, western
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire #1)]]> 42738042 13 Craig Johnson Ilana (illi69) 4 4.02 2004 The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire #1)
author: Craig Johnson
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/25
date added: 2020/08/30
shelves: 20th-century, america, audiobooks, crime, library-book, mystery-thriller, series, western
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Night Tiger: Library Edition]]> 43210833
Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother's Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for.

Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master's dying wish: that Ren find the man's finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master's soul will wander the earth forever. As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths wracks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren's increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.

Yangsze Choo's The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive audiobook is the intimate coming of age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.



Audiobook length: 14H 8M]]> 0 Yangsze Choo 125023851X Ilana (illi69) 3 3.63 2019 The Night Tiger: Library Edition
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/08/28
date added: 2020/08/28
shelves: 1930s, 20th-century, asia, audiobooks, historical-fiction, literature
review:
I liked this story about a dancing girl, or “hostess� and an orphaned little boy working for a surgeon and how their paths intersect, but not wowed by it either. I’m not sure the magic realism worked for me, though I’m often willing enough to go along with it. Maybe it’s just me not feeling the magic right now. 3.5 stars rounded down, but I definitely recommend it as very good historical fiction. The author narrates the audiobook and does a great job.
]]> The Pull of the Stars 54836724 Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love, by the bestselling author of The Wonder and ROOM.

In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders—Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.

In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.

In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds. 

Duration: 09:08:56]]> 10 Emma Donoghue 1443463264 Ilana (illi69) 0 3.94 2020 The Pull of the Stars
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2020/08/23
date added: 2020/08/25
shelves: 1910s, 20th-century, audiobooks, epidemics, feminism, health, historical-fiction, ireland, literature, medicine, women
review:
Well, that was a DNF. I don’t know what I was thinking picking up a book set in a maternity ward to begin with. Never mind the pandemic element. I used to get sick to my stomach having to sit a my lunch hour with a bunch of female coworkers talking about pregnancy, delivery & babies—ended up eating at my desk for peace of mind. The writing & characters seemed really interesting, but I’m done with self-torture when I can avoid it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You]]> 9949772 Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., is a world-renowned psychologist and speaker. The Highly Sensitive Person is an indepth look at characteristics that define sensitivity. Through self-assessment tests and techniques, Aron shows listeners how to identify their own personality traits. This exceptional book can lead to remarkable results for many who suffer from constant stress and anxiety.

]]> 0 Elaine N. Aron 1436125006 Ilana (illi69) 5
I've rated it the full 5-stars, which is something I do very rarely because of how impactful this read was for me, and not so much because I think it's perfect, because it isn't. Essentially, I hit all the markers that describe an HSP as described in this book and after looking up a few resources online, which puts me pretty much at the top of that scale. And so much about my life makes sense now.

As it is now understood, HSP is a genetic trait which only affects approximately 20% of the world's population. They are the artists, the writers, the philosophers, the therapists and advisors. She even refers to HSP historically as the "king's advisors" class of people, who are deep thinkers and think through ramification, unlike the warrior and conqueror types who make a move first and deal with the consequences later (if at all). The author talks quite a lot about how much our early life experiences affect our ability to function later in life, and emphasizes that children who've been subjected to lots of instability are usually likely to become depressive in adulthood because of the negative overstimulation received. So much else about what describes an HSP describes me, and so much of the feedback I've received since my earliest memories. "You're oversensitive" "You think too much" "You take things too seriously" "You're too serious" "You're a loner" "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" "Lighten up" "You're no fun" "I don't hear that / smell that / see that / feel that" "stop dwelling on this", etc. and on and on. This label encompasses my physical and mental issues, such as difficult digestive system, difficulty wearing fabrics that chafe me and make me unable to think of anything else, migraines which have now become constant, my clinical depression, and even what I took to be manic states. As Elaine Aron explains, many HSP's have a heightened spiritual dimension and are prone to experiencing sights and sounds and deep emotional experiences not accessible to the majority, and this is often misunderstood as overactive imagination or even delusional.

After reading this, I feel like I need to have a different kind of talk with both my therapist AND psychiatrist and bring up this aspect of myself that I've always taken for granted, but never understood to be central to my personality and how I perceive the world, interpersonal relationships, work relationships, political and social events, my deep intuition and knowledge world events, sometimes before they've taken place.

I'm even questioning my bipolar diagnosis, which explains a lot of my former behaviours, but doesn't seem to fit so well now I'm only taking high doses of antidepressants and no mood stabilizers at all, which should have normally sent me into at least one serious manic episode, but never has. Even what I understand to be "hypomania" might actually be due to related issues, such as lack of sleep and proper nutrition, but the increased brain activity which I've long thought of as being an incredible, almost a superpower, is likely not at all pathological, as it is interpreted with bipolar patients.

Where I found the book less appealing is in a section on social interactions. Perhaps this is more indicative of the times during which this book was published (mid-90s) than of the author's views herself, but I have no way of knowing that. She repeatedly advises to prepare ahead and rehearse conversations, from coffee break chit-chat to public speeches, which is something I've never felt the need or the inclination to do, finding that shooting from the hip, while it does lead to plenty of awkward moments, is also a much more authentic way of expressing myself.

Overall, this book has helped me see understand that the way I've been almost jokingly describing myself, as an overstrung violin, and as "the canary in the coal mine" are actually very apt descriptions and not pathologies, but a personality type which is often misunderstood and comes with the territory when one is a deeply feeling, gifted artist. I do wish I'd read this sooner, but perhaps this was exactly the right time for this book to come into my life, and I'm very grateful I followed my intuition and decided this book needed my attention right now.

There are loads of resources on HSPs online nowadays. Here's a video from a psychologist:
"How to Know if You re A Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)" she explains how the various aspects of being an HSP strengths and not flaws or anything to be ashamed of. It may help you self-diagnose or someone close to you: ]]> 3.81 1996 The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
author: Elaine N. Aron
name: Ilana (illi69)
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/24
date added: 2020/08/24
shelves: 20th-century, audiobooks, health, library-book, mental-health-matters, nonfiction, psychology
review:
Every time I've heard "Highly Sensitive Person" in the past (up until just a couple of days ago), I'd think "yes, that definitely describes me". I took it so much for granted, considering all my senses are overactive and I need to self-isolate most of the time to avoid overstimulation, that is seemed like something I didn't need to look further into, since the expression itself seemed to describe me perfectly. Now, I wish I'd read this book 25 years ago when it was first released.

I've rated it the full 5-stars, which is something I do very rarely because of how impactful this read was for me, and not so much because I think it's perfect, because it isn't. Essentially, I hit all the markers that describe an HSP as described in this book and after looking up a few resources online, which puts me pretty much at the top of that scale. And so much about my life makes sense now.

As it is now understood, HSP is a genetic trait which only affects approximately 20% of the world's population. They are the artists, the writers, the philosophers, the therapists and advisors. She even refers to HSP historically as the "king's advisors" class of people, who are deep thinkers and think through ramification, unlike the warrior and conqueror types who make a move first and deal with the consequences later (if at all). The author talks quite a lot about how much our early life experiences affect our ability to function later in life, and emphasizes that children who've been subjected to lots of instability are usually likely to become depressive in adulthood because of the negative overstimulation received. So much else about what describes an HSP describes me, and so much of the feedback I've received since my earliest memories. "You're oversensitive" "You think too much" "You take things too seriously" "You're too serious" "You're a loner" "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" "Lighten up" "You're no fun" "I don't hear that / smell that / see that / feel that" "stop dwelling on this", etc. and on and on. This label encompasses my physical and mental issues, such as difficult digestive system, difficulty wearing fabrics that chafe me and make me unable to think of anything else, migraines which have now become constant, my clinical depression, and even what I took to be manic states. As Elaine Aron explains, many HSP's have a heightened spiritual dimension and are prone to experiencing sights and sounds and deep emotional experiences not accessible to the majority, and this is often misunderstood as overactive imagination or even delusional.

After reading this, I feel like I need to have a different kind of talk with both my therapist AND psychiatrist and bring up this aspect of myself that I've always taken for granted, but never understood to be central to my personality and how I perceive the world, interpersonal relationships, work relationships, political and social events, my deep intuition and knowledge world events, sometimes before they've taken place.

I'm even questioning my bipolar diagnosis, which explains a lot of my former behaviours, but doesn't seem to fit so well now I'm only taking high doses of antidepressants and no mood stabilizers at all, which should have normally sent me into at least one serious manic episode, but never has. Even what I understand to be "hypomania" might actually be due to related issues, such as lack of sleep and proper nutrition, but the increased brain activity which I've long thought of as being an incredible, almost a superpower, is likely not at all pathological, as it is interpreted with bipolar patients.

Where I found the book less appealing is in a section on social interactions. Perhaps this is more indicative of the times during which this book was published (mid-90s) than of the author's views herself, but I have no way of knowing that. She repeatedly advises to prepare ahead and rehearse conversations, from coffee break chit-chat to public speeches, which is something I've never felt the need or the inclination to do, finding that shooting from the hip, while it does lead to plenty of awkward moments, is also a much more authentic way of expressing myself.

Overall, this book has helped me see understand that the way I've been almost jokingly describing myself, as an overstrung violin, and as "the canary in the coal mine" are actually very apt descriptions and not pathologies, but a personality type which is often misunderstood and comes with the territory when one is a deeply feeling, gifted artist. I do wish I'd read this sooner, but perhaps this was exactly the right time for this book to come into my life, and I'm very grateful I followed my intuition and decided this book needed my attention right now.

There are loads of resources on HSPs online nowadays. Here's a video from a psychologist:
"How to Know if You re A Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)" she explains how the various aspects of being an HSP strengths and not flaws or anything to be ashamed of. It may help you self-diagnose or someone close to you:
]]>