Review 2680: Fenwomen

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Fenwomen is the very first book printed by Virago, an ethnographic study of women living in a remote village in the English fens in the 1970s. By interviewing women of all ages and situations, Mary Chamberlain, now Emeritus Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University, recorded memories of conditions for women as far back as the late 19th century.

The timing of this book isn’t a coincidence, because it came about along with a new movement toward women’s liberation when some colleges and universities were beginning to set up departments in women’s studies. In fact, I found the updated Introduction, written in 2010, just as interesting as the book itself. It tells the story of the original reception of the book and how some journalists and critics so misrepresented its contents that it broke the trust Chamberlain had gained with the inhabitants of the village. I assume the men did this because they felt threatened by the idea of a feminist study.

The work explores women’s lives—their work, religion, entertainments, family life, and so on—in this isolated village, very primitive living conditions in the past, limited work opportunities, isolation from transportation, etc. It’s not a very long book, and my Full Circle Editions edition ends with about 20 beautiful photographs of the area and people by Justin Partyka.

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Review 2679: Heaven, My Home

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I’m really liking the Highway 59 series by Attica Locke. I think the mysteries are fully imagined, and black Texas Ranger Darren Mathews is interesting and appealing. I have a few problems with some ongoing issues, but I’ll talk about them later.

Nine-year-old Levi King has gone missing, and his father Bill King, a racist and murderer, has written from prison asking for help finding him. Darren’s boss needs him to help out, as there is hope that King can offer insight on other cases.

Levi lives with his mother Marnie, sister, and Aryan Brotherhood wannabe Gil Thomason, Marnie’s boyfriend, in Hopetown on the edge of Caddo Lake, a huge lake that used to be a major transportation route down to Louisiana. Hopetown is barely a crossroads, a trailer park full of racist trailer trash, and closer to the lake, the much nicer homes of the original black and indigenous settlers.

The reactions of some of the people involved to the disappearance are strange. Levi’s mother and sister are clearly upset, but no one else, including Levi’s wealthy grandmother, Rosemary King, seems to be worried. Darren hears that Levi had been harassing the black and Caddo indigenous population, and when he visits Leroy Page, he learns the old black man owns all of the property and hasn’t tossed out the trailer park residents because the lease with Marnie’s recently deceased father, Leroy’s friend, is not up for a year. Leroy isn’t very cooperative, but Darren is disturbed to learn from his best friend Greg, a federal agent, that Leroy Page’s harassment by Levi is being turned around as a motive for murder, especially because Leroy was the last to see Levi. In fact, the Feds want to show the new Trump administration that they are as ready to prosecute black people as white, so they are pushing hard even though there is no proof that Levi is dead.

Darren thinks there is something else going on here, but he has several personal problems in addition to hostility from the local authorities and the federal goals.

The only things I don’t like about this series are the ongoing plot that has Darren suppressing evidence to protect an old family friend and his drinking, which is such a cliché. He is on the wagon and repairing his marriage at the beginning of the novel, but things go south pretty fast (although his wife’s professional goals for him do not match his own, so I don’t prophecy success at that).

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Review 2678: The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography

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Although I’ve read more than one biography of Jane Austen, this graphic biography contained insights I hadn’t read before. That’s probably not surprising, since Janine Barchas is an internationally renowned Austen scholar.

Using information from letters and quotations from Austen’s novels, this graphic biography follows Austen from 1796 until her death. In brighter colors, it contains a few scenes from her novels as in Austen’s imagination and some “Easter eggs’ of scenes from movies. I caught a couple of obvious ones, but I’m sure there were more.

The illustrations are in a naïve, slightly ugly style, but the characters are clearly identifiable, which isn’t always the case in graphic books.

I found this work entertaining and informative. It contains a “glossary” that provides more information for the interested.

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Review 2677: The Frozen People

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I really enjoyed Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series and have liked her Brighton and Harbinder Kauer books well enough, so I was interested in her new series. However, my interest dropped precipitously when on about page 3, I found it involved time travel.

Ali Dawson is a member of a cold case team dealing with top-secret experimental technology—time travel. She is preparing to travel back to 1850 London as part of an investigation requested by Isaac Templeton, a member of Parliament. He wants the team to try to clear the name of his ancestor, Cain Templeton, who was rumored to have murdered three women and belonged to a club the admission to which supposedly involved a dead body.

By coincidence, perhaps, Isaac is the boss of Ali’s son Finn.

Ali travels to 1850 in time to find Cain Templeton standing over the body of a dead woman in the rooming house he owns. He says he did not kill the girl but thinks an artist named Thomas Creek did. Ali is only supposed to be gone an hour, but when she returns to her pickup point, she isn’t picked up. She’s stuck in 1850.

Already I was having problems with this story. What kind of investigation is Ali supposed to conduct with a one-hour time limit? It’s a ridiculous idea.

With Finn having no word from Ali, he begins trying to find her. He discovers that Ali is on a mission originated by his boss and has an argument with him about it. The next day, Isaac is dead and Finn, who spent the evening drinking with Ali’s boss Geoff and the night passed out, is suspected of his murder. Ali returns from several days in 1850 to find him in trouble.

Besides the issue I mentioned, I had several more issues with this book by this time:

  • That the garbled explanation of time travel makes no sense
  • That Cain Templeton would invite Ali, a supposed respectable widow in 1850, to dine at his house alone
  • That Ali, supposedly tutored in Victorian habits and manners, would think it was okay to accept and assume his servants were her chaperones
  • That a winter day in 1850 London would have light skies instead of smoke-filled ones
  • That the British government would fund this project
  • That it would be thought acceptable to take a personal investigation on

The series is clearly set up to continue a plot line involving Thomas Creek and Cain Templeton. My disbelief having refused to suspend, I won’t be following it.

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WWW Wednesday!

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It’s the first Wednesday of the month, so it’s time for WWW Wednesday, an idea I borrowed from David Chazan, The Chocolate Lady, who borrowed it from someone else. For this feature, I report

  • What I am reading now
  • What I just finished reading
  • What I intend to read next

This is something you can participate in, too, if you want, by leaving comments about what you’ve been reading or plan to read.

What I am reading now

I am reading The Town House by Norah Lofts. It’s the first book in Lofts’ Suffolk Trilogy. It begins in the 14th century with a serf escaping serfdom, much like Cathedral of the Sea. I looked for a book by Lofts after finishing her book Lady Living Alone, which I really enjoyed.

What I just finished reading

I just finished reading Beggar’s Choice by Patricia Wentworth. Although I had difficulty getting started because it was so obvious that someone was trying to frame the oblivious main character, it turned out to be a pretty good read.

What I will read next

I guess I’m on a roll with classic novels, because the book I will probably read next is Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth. I think I bought this book to read for the Christmas season and apparently forgot to do that!

Review 2676: The Portuguese Escape

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Having accidentally plunged into the middle of the Julia Probyn series by Ann Bridge, I already knew some of the plot points of this book from reading a later one. So far, I find the two non-series books by her that I read first to be better than these Cold War thrillers.

This book begins with the British authorities in Lisbon being concerned with the release of Countess Hetta Páloczy from Communist Hungary. The countess was only ten years old when her father had to flee Hungary with the advent of the Russians. Hetta, suffering from scarlet fever, had to be left in her convent school, and her father tried for the rest of his life to get her out of Hungary. Now she is being released to her mother.

And my first question is, why would they make a person leaving the Eastern Bloc travel across Europe to Lisbon to be received? Surely, at least one person would have got on the train with her as soon as they crossed the Iron Curtain.

Anyway, once the convents were disbanded, Hetta stayed with one of the nuns, who became housekeeper to a theologian, Father Antal Horvath. At least, Hetta was doing the work, because the nun was so incompetent.

At the beginning of the novel, the situation is being discussed by Richard Atherley, the First Secretary at the British Embassy and Townsend Waller, who is in the same position with the U. S. Embassy. Both of them also discuss the girl’s mother, whose biggest concern seems to be not the arrival of her long-lost daughter but getting an invitation to an upcoming royal wedding.

Hetta turns out to have a good but rigid sense of values and doesn’t get along with her mother at all. However, others are much taken with her, including both First Secretaries and Julia Probyn, a reporter in town to cover the royal wedding.

Soon, though, another Hungarian arrives, this one an agent being brought West with information about conditions in the East. It happens to be Hetta’s beloved former employer, Dr. Antal Horvath. Hetta is asked to identify him at the airport to make sure he is legit. Horvath is in danger, because the Communists want him back, and so is Hetta, because she knows where he is. Julia helps them by arranging with her former employer, the Duke of Ericeira, for him to stay there.

From this rather slow start-up, the book eventually becomes about protecting Father Antal, rescuing Hetta from the Communists, and a budding love affair between Hetta and Richard Atherley. It’s a little slow moving for a thriller, and I was especially astonished when Bridge began describing the scenery while several of the protagonists were chasing after Hetty, who has been kidnapped. I found both girls’ various suitors to be a little tedious, but Hetty is very likable, and some of the secondary characters, including the Duke, his daughter, her nanny, and Julia’s old friend Mrs. Hathaway, are delightful.

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Review 2675: Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

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I bought this book a couple of years ago in Ashland while attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and it has taken this long to come to the top of my pile.

This is an unusual book. It’s not exactly a memoir, although it certainly recounts some of Dench’s memories. It is rather a series of interviews with her friend, director Brendan O’Hea. O’Hea explains in the Introduction that it was intended as a series of interviews with Dench about Shakespeare roles for the archives of Shakespeare’s Globe. He had no idea they might be of general interest until friends made comments and expressed curiosity.

The book is divided by play, more or less in chronological order of her career except when she repeated a role or took on a different part in the same play. The interviews discuss the plays in depth but only from the point of view of the role, so that entire plot points are not covered if they didn’t involve that character.

Dench shows her love of Shakespeare clearly in this book. Anyone who loves Shakespeare or is interested in acting will get a lot from it. And Dench’s personality shows through strongly, particularly her sense of humor. She also mentions the names of many of the actors and directors she worked with and tells a lot of stories.

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2026 Classics Club Questionnaire Answers (at least to some)

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On January 1, the Classics Club posted a questionnaire for members. I decided to answer the questions, and here are my answers. As a moderator, I hope that some of you will choose to answer at least some of the questions.

Cover for The Long Ships
  1. When did you join The Classics Club? How many titles have you read for the club so far? Share a link to your latest classics club list. I joined the Classics Club on February 14, 2014, and have finished two lists. I have read 142 books for the Classics Club. I became a moderator about 2020 or so. Seems like I have been doing it longer. Here’s my current list: Classics Club – What? Me Read?
  2. What classic are you planning to read next? Why? Is there a book first published in 1926 that you plan to read this year? I think my next classic will be The Little Dinner by Christine Terhune Herrick from 1892. It’s not on my list. I don’t really pay much attention ahead of time to the dates of publication except for the Year Club hosted by Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings.
  3. Best book you’ve read so far with the club? Why? The best book I’ve read from my current list is The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher about the whole of a woman’s life up to early middle age and her efforts during World War I. It would be difficult to pick a favorite book from all my lists. I have great re-reads, like Bleak House by Charles Dickens, and new discoveries, like Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant.
  4. Classic author who has the most works on your club list? Or, classic author you’ve read the most works by? I haven’t repeated authors on my lists a lot, although there are certain ones for whom I’m trying to put a book on each list: E. Nesbit, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Alexandre Dumas, Rafael Sabatini, and Margaret Oliphant. This is because I own their complete works in eBook form.
  5. If you could explore one author’s literary career from first publication to last — meaning you have never read this author and want to explore him or her by reading what s/he wrote in order of publication — who would you explore? Obviously this should be an author you haven’t yet read, since you can’t do this experiment on an author you’re already familiar with.  Or, which author’s work you are familiar with might it have been fun to approach this way? Maybe Joseph Conrad. I read two or three books by him long ago, but I’ve been thinking of looking back at his work. I can’t think of anyone offhand who I haven’t read at all and would like to explore from the beginning.
  6. First classic you ever read? I don’t know what my first classic was. My parents bought me books all the time. The first one I remember reading is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, but I may have read Little Women or The Secret Garden first. And I had fairy tales before that.
  7. Favorite children’s classic? My favorite children’s classic is The Secret Garden.
  8. Which classic is your most memorable classic to date? Why? I guess I just love Bleak House. It is so complex and interesting.
  9. Least favorite classic? Why? From my lists, the only one I couldn’t finish was Don Quixote. Not my kind of humor.
  10. Favourite movie or TV adaption of a classic? My favorite movie of a classic. Boy, there are so many good Jane Austen adaptations and the Kenneth Branaugh Shakespeare movies. I think it has to be the Hitchcock adaptation of Rebecca.
  11. Favorite biography about a classic author you’ve read, or the biography of a classic author you most want to read, if any? Although I have read many really good biographies of classic authors, I’ll pick Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley, because she has such a light, humorous touch. However, The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin was a real game-changer for the Dickens world.
  12. Favourite classic author in translation? Do you have a favorite classics translator? What do you look for in a classics translation? My favorite book in translation that I’ve read for Classics Club is The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson, translated by Barrows Mussey. It captured the light humor perfectly.
  13. Do you have a favorite classic poet/poem, playwright/play? Why do you love it? I don’t really have a favorite classic play that I can think of, and I hardly read any poetry. Well, maybe some play by Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Ernest or An Ideal Husband.
  14. Which classic character most reminds you of yourself? Which classic character do you most wish you could be like? I don’t think about characters reminding me of myself or of wanting to be like them.
  15. What is the oldest classic you have read or plan to read? Why? The oldest classic I’ve read for Classics Club is The Aeneid by Virgil.
  16. If a sudden announcement was made that 500 more pages had been discovered after the original “THE END” on a classic title you read and loved, which title would you be happiest to see continued? I don’t know about this one.
  17. Favorite edition (or series) of a classic you own, or wished you owned, if any? I have some nice Folio editions of many classics, but I don’t tend to compare editions unless I get what seems to be a really bad translation. Although I would like some books to continue, the author has carefully planned where they will end, so maybe I would only say that about an unfinished book, like The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
  18. Do you reread classics? Why, or why not? Yes, I often reread classics that I loved or ones that I can’t remember very well, and I sometimes reread books I haven’t read for a long time to see if I like them better the second time.
  19. Has there been a classic title you simply could not finish? I couldn’t finish the second book of Don Quixote, because it just seemed like more of the first book.
  20. Has there been a classic title you expected to dislike and ended up loving? I don’t think I usually start in with the expectation that I’m going to hate a book, although for some of my prize projects, I go in that way for a few of the authors, but they are new books, not classics.
  21. List five fellow Classic Clubbers whose blogs you frequent. What makes you love their blogs? I follow FictionFan, She Reads Novels, Stuck in a Book (who isn’t a CC member but reads lots of classic novels), This Reading Life, and Literary Excursions, because they all write interesting reviews and I pay attention to their recommendations.
  22. If you’ve ever participated in a readalong on a classic, tell us about the experience. If you’ve participated in more than one, what’s the very best experience? the best title you’ve completed? a fond memory? a good friend made? I participated in last year’s Jane Austen event for Classics Club, if that was a Read-Along.
  23. If you could appeal for a readalong with others for any classic title, which title would you name? Why? I’d have to think about that some more.
  24. What are you favourite bits about being a part of The Classics Club? I like interacting with the members and working on the blog.
  25. What would like to see more of (or less of) on The Classics Club? That’s for others to tell us moderators.
  26. Question you wish was on this questionnaire? (Ask and answer it!) Hmmm.

Review 2674: Long Island

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Long Island is Colm Tóibín’s sequel to Brooklyn. Twenty years have passed, and Eilis is the mother of two nearly grown children, Rosella and Larry.

A man comes to the door one morning and tells Eilis that her husband Tony has made his wife pregnant. He tells her that he won’t have the child in his house, and when it is born, he’s bringing it to her. When Eilis talks to Tony, she says she won’t have the baby in her house. No one consults her, but she learns that her mother-in-law plans to raise the child. Eilis doesn’t want this either, because she lives in a small cul-de-sac next to the homes of her in-laws. For the last 20 years, everything has been about Tony’s Italian family, and no one has shown any curiosity about Ireland at all.

Eilis decides to fly to Ireland to see her mother and decide what to do. Her children will follow in a few weeks.

To understand what happens in Ireland, it helps to know how Brooklyn ended, so if you haven’t read it and plan to, you might want to stop here.

Twenty years before, Eilis flew back to Ireland for her sister’s funeral and stayed for the summer. She had already married Tony, but for some reason that I can’t remember, they kept it a secret. In Ireland, which Eilis didn’t want to leave in the first place, she met Jim Farrell. He was close to asking her to marry him when she fled back to New York.

Jim has remained single, but lately he has been seeing Nancy Sheridan, Eilis’s best friend, and they have decided to get married, but they are keeping it a secret until after her daughter Miriam’s wedding. Eilis returns confused about what to do about the situation at home. She wants to talk to Jim, but sees no way to do it for a while. She knows nothing about Nancy. When she finally sees Jim, the spark is still there.

I was a little frustrated with these people and their secrets, which cause all the problems. There’s Tony’s secret and the fact that he won’t discuss it with Eilis but figures the situation out with his family instead, showing just how much of an outsider Eilis is. There’s Eilis and Tony’s original secret marriage, which created the situation with Jim. Then there’s the secret engagement.

If you like your stories all settled and wrapped up in a bow, this may not be the book for you. I can handle some ambiguity, though, so I liked it very much, although maybe not as much as I liked Brooklyn.

Just as a side point, Tóibín throws in an appearance by Nora Webster from a prior book, a character I understand is based on his own mother.

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Review 2673: Saint Peter’s Fair

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Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you all the best in 2026!

Saint Peter’s Fair is the fourth book in Ellis Peters’ Cadfael series. Only a year has elapsed since the beginning of the series, so it is the summer of 1139. The town of Shrewsbury is preparing for a big event, St. Peter’s Fair, that draws merchants from all over England and parts of Europe.

The proceeds of the fees for the fair traditionally go to the monastery. But this year a group of guild members appeal to the new abbot, Radulfus, that the abbey withhold a percentage of the fees to give to the town, which is still badly damaged from the siege by King Stephen the year before. Abbot Radulfus, who is worried about infringing on the abbey’s rights, declines.

Later, the guild members’ sons, led by Philip Corviser, ask the merchants if they will withhold a portion of the fees to give to the town. Of course, they decline. Philip approaches the wealthiest merchant to make a point and gets bashed on the head by accident. The boys riot and throw goods into the water. Thomas of Bristol’s beautiful young niece, Emma, almost gets knocked into the water, but she is rescued by the handsome young noble, Ivo Corbière.

That night, Thomas does not return from setting up his booth. Emma goes to the undersheriff, Cadfael’s friend Hugh Beringer, because she is alarmed. Thomas is found dead in the river, stripped bare.

Since Philip Corviser went out and got drunk after the tiff with Thomas, he can’t account for his time. So, the sheriff arrests him. But it’s not too much longer before another merchant, a glover, is found murdered in his booth.

Abbot Radulfus has asked Cadfael to report back to him on the situation, but of course Cadfael takes a more active part.

Recently another blogger told me that she had quit reading the Cadfael series because it got so involved with the political situation. But so far that hasn’t bothered me, although sometimes I don’t like it when mysteries become more to do with espionage. Again, I was fairly certain of the murderer from the start, and I was right, but I’m finding the history and the characters interesting.

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