Howling Frog Books

It's time for another Classics Spin, yippee!  If you're not familiar with it, head on over to their page for an explanation.   I'm really running into trouble these days, because if you don't count the two giant, slow books I already have going, I only have sixteen more titles on my CC list.  I'm supposed to read them all by next March, and I'm not at all sure that I'm going to manage it, but I'm going to give it a good try. As I've come to the end of the list, I've also had to trade out a few titles that weren't really working out, especially in the Latin American section, which I knew nothing about in the first place and don't know much more about now.  I think I have a slightly better handle on those now, though (actually I have a bunch of modern titles on my TBR, but what constitutes a classic is still tricky for me).  So here we go--the sixteen CC titles I haven't read yet, with four random selection repeated to make 20: ...

The Invisible Library , by Genevieve Cogman This was just a fun read!  I will admit that I'm a little jaded about modern YA fantasy, with endless variations on fairies (ahem, the Fae or some version thereof).  But I enjoyed this a lot and I actually plan to read the next book in the series .  Irene is a Librarian, which means she travels to alternate worlds, collecting important texts for the Invisible Library that archives...well, everything.  In this multiverse setup, the forces of Order and Chaos--with their respective representatives, the dragons and the Fae--are engaged in a tug-of-war for each individual world.   Irene's latest assignment is in a Europe that is heavily Fae-infected.  She is to take a unique version of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and she is given a new assistant, Kai, to train along the way.  But when they arrive, the book has already been stolen.  Irene and Kai have to solve a mystery, out-maneuver the Fae, and face dow...

The Clicking of Cuthbert, by P. G. Wodehouse I was at the library, and in the mood for some Wodehouse, but they didn't have all that much on the shelf.  The only thing I hadn't read already was The Clicking of Cuthbert , a collection of--of all things--golf stories.  I've never played real golf in my life, and this didn't seem all that promising, even when the stories were by Wodehouse, but I took it home to see.  And (cue Mikey eating Life cereal here)...I liked it! Most of the stories are narrated by the Oldest Member of the golf club, who comforts, entertains, and dispenses wisdom learned on the links.  There are romances, rivalries, melodrama, and preposterous situations.  My favorite was definitely the one about the avant-garde Russian novelist who comes to town and turns out to be a fanatical golf player, thus boosting the romantic career of Cuthbert Banks. Let me tell you one vairy funny story about putting. It was one day I play at Nijni-Novgoro...

King Stakh's Wild Hunt , by Uladzimir Karatkevich I have no real idea of where I heard of this title.  It's been on my wishlist for a while and when I went on an ILL binge, I included it.  My copy came all the way from Florida!  It's a really nice copy, too, a hardback printed in 2012 by Glagoslav , a publishing outfit that specializes in Slavic books. Uladzimir Karatkevich was a Belarussian author, a pretty famous one, and he published this novel in 1974.  It's supposed to be something of a modern classic, or so they say.  I liked it.  It's very Gothic!  Appropriate to the fall season, and it could have been an RIP title if I had joined RIP this year, which I forgot to do. Belaretsky is an ethnographer who travels around his beloved Belarus, collecting old folktales and songs.  Upon arrival in a remote country district, he meets a girl--Nadzeya Yanovsky, the last of her line, living in a near-derelict manor, who expects to die under the f...

The Shuttle , by Frances Hodgson Burnett  Somebody posted a really nice piece about this novel a few months ago, and I put it on my tablet to read later.  Once I got started, I hardly put it down.  I enjoyed it a lot!  This is a novel aimed at adults, not children, but you can see many of the same strains of thought as you find in The Secret Garden or Little Lord Fauntleroy.  It was written in 1907, and you can tell; it's very Edwardian in tone, especially in the description of Betty. This is the story of two sisters--the famous Vanderpoel sisters of New York, wealthy beyond imagining (think Vanderbilt).  Rosalie, small, affectionate, and not overly brainy, marries an English lord and sails away...and is cut off from her family.  Sir Nigel turns out to be debauched, penniless, and angry, and he wants control of his wife's money.  To get it, he manipulates and bullies Rosy, and makes her family believe that she does not desire visitors....

The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years , by Chingiz Aitmatov Trains in these parts went from East to West, and from West to East . . . On either side of the railway lines lay the great wide spaces of the desert — Sary-Ozeki, the Middle lands of the yellow steppes. In these parts any distance was measured in relation to the railway, as if from the Greenwich meridian . . . And the trains went from East to West, and from West to East . . .  This is the recurring refrain in this novel about the Kazakh steppe.  Yedigei has worked at the desolate railroad station for over 20 years, and his best friend Kazangap has just died.  Yedigei is in charge of the funeral, and he insists that it be done properly and that Kazangap be buried at the traditional graveyard.  A few tractors set out on the trip, and Yedigei leads the way on his giant camel, Burannyi Karanar.  As he travels, he remembers his life--how he got to the station and what...

Hey everyone, I've really missed being here lately!  I have a pile of books to review, but my arms are giving me trouble again and so I might go back to dictating posts again for a bit.  Which I find really difficult.  Anyway, I've also been in a frenzy of preparation for... Banned Books Week , which starts Sunday, September 25 and goes through October 1.  I never really talk about it here much--it's a work thing and doesn't seem to get to the blog.  I've been collecting news stories, ordering bookmarks and making buttons (well, actually the student workers make the buttons!), and all sorts of things.  We usually have a writing contest, and this year the ALA came out with some fun writing prompts (and other good stuff), so we're using those to change things up from the questions we've used for two years. Are you planning anything for Banned Books Week?  Have any books picked out?  (This year's hot title: the Bible.  It's #6!)  I hop...

Gentian Hill, by Elizabeth Goudge A while back I bought a couple of Elizabeth Goudge novels and this one has been waiting for quite a time.  It turned out to be a lovely read--as I would expect!  It's a historical fiction novel set during the Napoleonic wars, and some of it is based on actual events in the neighborhood of Torquay. Anthony O'Connell is a very young midshipman in the Royal Navy, but he is on a bad ship, and after a particularly brutal punishment, he deserts to wander the countryside near Torquay--and changes his name to Zachary.  Stella Sprigg is a little farm girl and an orphan; as an infant, she survived an explosion onboard a ship in harbor that killed her mother, and her origins are unknown.  When she meets Zachary and feeds him, they become the best of friends.  Zachary finds shelter with the local doctor and healing for his troubles, and finds work on Stella's farm. Eventually Zachary has to face his worst fears and go back to the Nav...

No cover image, but this is a good representation Strongholds , by L. M. Boston I've already talked quite a bit about my thing for L. M. Boston and our visit to her home during our UK trip, so let's consider that part as read (follow links for info!) and get right to the bit where I got a copy of one of Boston's lesser-known works through ILL.  Strongholds is a novel for adults and was published in 1969.  It has also appeared under the title Persephone --that's the protagonist's name, though she usually goes by Persie or Zephy.  The short version: this would make a great selection for Persephone Books to publish.  I think they should, and I emailed them to suggest it, though obviously it will never happen.  But it should!  It's a lovely novel, kind of odd, and it's just about been forgotten. Persie is a country girl, illegitimate and quite poor, and at fifteen she is perfectly happy as long as she can be outside and work on the local farm....

Reading Rambo has been meaning to host a readalong of Mikhail Bulgakov's bizarre novel for at least a year, I'm pretty sure.  Now, the moment has arrived!  It's the Master and Margareadalong in October , and you should join me.  Reading Rambo usually does a bunch of gifs in her posts, and encourages everyone else to as well, but I am no good at that so I abstain--though I do have fun reading them! I have read M&M twice before; my old copy, which I'm very fond of, is the translatio n by Glenny, but I j ust got the Pevear/ Volokhonsky edition from my brother, and I'm looking forward to seeing what a different edition is like.   Schedule: October 3rd: Chapters 1-8 October 10th: Chapters 9-16 October 17th: Chapters 17-22 October 24th: Chapters 23-26 October 31st: Chapters 27 to end So what are you waiting for?  The devil is coming to Moscow, and the party will start with or without you.  Everybody's coming, leave your body at the door! ...

Our Town, by Thornton Wilder The introduction to Our Town says that a lot of students read, or see, the play when they're younger--in junior high--and they tend to think it's schmaltzy.  I was lucky, I guess; I've never seen or read Our Town at all, and so only got to read it as an adult.  It made me think of that song from Fiddler on the Roof , "Sunrise, Sunset."  When I was a kid I thought that was the dumbest, sappiest song on earth.  Now I cry every time I hear it, because some things you only get when you've been around for a little while. Our Town is a simple, stripped-down play, set in a small town in around 1900.  The three acts take place years apart.  A narrator comments on events, pointing out the daily routines in the background, and the events going on all the time.  Emily, who emerges as the main character, appears as a child, a teen, and a young bride.  In the third act, she has died, and she meets all the other dead folks i...

Brat Farrar, by Josephine Tey After the UK trip, I went looking for my copy of The Daughter of Time to give to my kid, who was curious about the Richard III question.  I couldn't find it, but I did find Brat Farrar , so I decided to read that myself.  Tey wrote unusual mysteries--not the usual kind of formula--and they're good to revisit.  This one is odd in that we know from the first that there's an impersonation going on...so what is the mystery? Brat Farrar is going to pose as the long-lost (thought dead) Patrick, heir to the Ashby estate.  He's well-coached, he looks just right, and he's going to arrive just as Patrick's twin, Simon, is about to come of age.  Brat immediately feels at home with the Ashbys--in fact, he feels that he's doing this for Patrick in a way.  As he becomes ever more comfortable in his new role, he also starts to suspect that Patrick did not commit suicide eight years ago.  One of the neat things about this story...

My Apprenticeship , by Maxim Gorky To round out my month or so of Slavic reading--well, who's to say I'm done yet?--I've been reading the second volume of Gorky's autobiography.  I covered the first volume, My Childhood , back in January, and the third is on my TBR pile.  Let us also recall that Gorky's real name was Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, but he used his father's first name and Gorky, 'bitter,' for writing.  He was a major Soviet writer, so there are a bazillion things named after him.  There is a lot I don't understand yet about his character, so I need to do a lot more reading. This book picks up right where Childhood left off, at age eleven when his grandfather throws him out to earn his own living.  Little Maxim goes through a whole series of jobs--a shoe store, cabin boy on a river barge, apprentice to an architect (where he mostly sweeps floors), an ikon workshop, and more.  Sometimes he goes home to his grandparents.  Life is always ...

Doctor Who: City of Death , by Douglas Adams and James Goss Oh, this was so much fun.  This is a novel version of one of the most famous Doctor Who stories from the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker, my favorite).  The episode was originally written by Douglas Adams, and then turned into a novel by Goss.  Since Adams wrote in a good bit of description as well as the dialogue, it keeps that Adams flavor, so that's fun. The Doctor and Romana are running around Paris, having a holiday, but they notice bizarre cracks in time.  Pretty soon they're in the middle of a mess involving a time machine, the Mona Lisa, and the last of the Jagaroth--who has no intention of staying the last of the Jagaroth, so all of Earth and history is in peril. It's a fun read, and since I'd never seen the City of Death episodes, we're now watching them.  So far the TV is more like the novel than I expected!  Plus John Cleese is in it, and so is that guy who choose poorly in Indiana Jones...

Dream Angus, by Alexander McCall Smith When I read Baba Yaga Laid an Egg last month, I found out that it was part of this "Myths" series.  Then I was at the library and happened to pass the McCall Smith shelf in fiction, and I remembered that he'd written one too, so I looked for it, and there it was-- Dream Angus .  McCall Smith explains that Dream Angus is Celtic deity, a very old one, and he is the god of love and youth and beauty, giving dreams of a person's true love and making people fall in love with each other. This very short book--it's not exactly a novel--tells the Celtic myth story of Dream Angus, son of the Dagda and a river nymph, interspersed with parallel Angus stories set in the current day, or in the fairly recent past.  There's a newlywed couple on a ferry, a boy whose beloved older brother is going to leave home, a woman who left her husband when she discovered his affair, another woman whose brother solves--sort of--a problem with he...