Review 2526: The Inconvenient Indian

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For some reason when I bought this book, I thought it was fiction. It’s not, nor is it a history of the relationship between native peoples and the various entities that have ruled Canada and the United States. (King repeatedly calls these two countries North America. He doesn’t deal with the inequities and atrocities of Mexico, which of course is also in North America and probably has committed plenty.) It is a series of chapters on such topics as residential schools, government attempts at assimilation and allotment, treaties that have been ignored, and inequities under law.

Thomas King is a writer, speaker, and activist who is part Cherokee. Born in California, he is now a citizen of Canada and has won, among other awards, the Order of Canada.

His writing style is acerbically funny and more personal than you’d expect. He reminds me of Bill Bryson with more sarcasm.

This book is an eye opener for anyone who thinks that our native populations are no longer oppressed. It didn’t make me cry like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee did when I read it years ago, but it gave me a lot to think about. King’s main message is that all government programs for our natives amount to land grabs.

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Review 2525: The Camomile

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As Simon Thomas points out in the Afterword, The Camomile is a novel that “sets out to be distinct from the ‘marriage plot’.” This although its heroine, who says she strains for Reality, thinks sometimes that marriage is a way to achieve it.

That heroine is Ellen Carstairs, who has just returned to Glasgow after four years in Germany studying music. She knows herself not to be a prodigy, but she begins giving music lessons to contribute to the household, that of her religious Aunt Henry and her brother Ronald, an architecture student.

Apparently, Ellen’s mother wasted a lot of money publishing her writings, to the point where it seems to be considered a mental disease, so Aunt Henry dreads the possibility that Ellen may be writing. Yet, that’s exactly what she begins doing. She gets herself a room where she can practice the piano undisturbed, but she also spends a lot of time at a library, where she meets an impoverished scholar she calls Don John, who helps her with her writing.

The novel, which is related in letters to her friend Ruby and in diary entries, deals with fairly innocuous social engagements, but Ellen spends a lot of time pondering ideas and trying to understand people’s relationships with each other. First, there is the marriage of Laura, one of Ellen’s friends, who doesn’t seem to love her fiancé at all, while being determined that people think she does. Ellen herself doesn’t mind not being married but on the other hand seems to accept that it is a goal of a kind, a way to achieve Reality.

Ellen pretty much dissects every idea she comes across, and after a while, I felt it was too much, especially after she herself (spoiler!) becomes engaged. However, over all I found the novel engaging with Ellen a lively heroine.

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Review 2524: I Capture the Castle

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It was with delight that I noticed I Capture the Castle would help me with my Century of Books project, because I liked it so much when I read it years ago. It had an ending that was completely different from what I remembered, though, my memory having possibly been polluted by seeing a couple of TV versions of it.

Cassandra lives with her family in a house attached to a ruined castle. The house, which was purchased during the heights of her father’s success as a writer, is now woefully decrepit. Her father has not produced anything since his initial success, and the money ran out long ago. Now their clothes are shabby, and they can barely afford to eat. Rent hasn’t been paid for months, and they’ve sold all the good furniture.

There is exciting news, though. Their landlord having died, new occupants of the estate, which includes their home, have arrived. They are American brothers, Simon and Neil Cotton.

The brothers arrive when Cassandra is taking a bath in the kitchen. She keeps quiet and they go away, but they return so she has to announce herself. They take her for a child. Her sister Rose, who is beautiful, decides that she will marry Simon, the heir, no matter what, even though she hates his beard.

Cassandra likes both men at first but then overhears them talking about Rose, who has been behaving affectedly. With a little advice, Rose begins to act naturally, though, and soon she has accomplished her goal. She is engaged to Simon, although Neil seems to hate her. The only trouble is, Cassandra is in love with Simon.

This sounds like a straight love story, but it isn’t. There are lots of terrifically eccentric characters and subplots to go with them. There is the issue of whether their father will write again. And will Topaz, their stepmother, who sees herself as an artist’s muse, leave him for someone who is working? What can Cassandra do about Stephen Colley, a devastatingly handsome young man who lives with and basically supports the family and copies out poems to give to her?

This novel is charming. Its narrator mixes wit with naiveté and wisdom, and the novel is written in a sprightly, entertaining manner. It’s a lovely light read.

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Review 2523: The Bee Sting

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The Barnes family is having a difficult time. On the surface is a monetary issue because in the downturn no one is buying cars from the family dealership. But actually, each family member has been making poor choices.

The novel starts with Cass, the oldest child, who in the beginning is in the final year of school before starting university. She has long been best friends with Elaine, on whom she has a crush, but there are indications that Elaine is not as good a friend to her. Elaine gets interested in boys, and the two girls begin drinking at bars every night instead of studying for their leaving exams. Suddenly, Cass is sure she’s flunked her exams. If that’s not enough, she learns that her mother, Imelda, was engaged to her father’s brother and married her father soon after his brother was killed in an accident. The timing shows that her mother was pregnant for the wedding, so whose daughter is she?

The next section is about PJ, Cass’s preteen brother. He is disturbed because his parents seem to be always arguing since the business got into trouble, with his mother blaming his father. His friends have been dropping him, and a bully tells him his father ripped off his mother, so he owes him €163. PJ tries to collect the money while his attempts to talk about it to his family members are cut off by their preoccupations with their own problems.

Next is Imelda’s turn, in an unpunctuated section. Now that her husband, Dickie, is having financial problems, she begins to dwell on the past. Dickie’s brother Frank had been a golden boy—rich, handsome, good at sports, and charismatic—liked by everyone. But Imelda, although she comes from an impoverished, abusive background, didn’t love his money. She was madly in love with him. This section is more revealing about the circumstances that led to her wedding with Dickie. Now, she is furious, blaming Dickie’s poor salesmanship for their problems.

Finally, there is Dickie’s point of view. A family story that he went to Trinity only to be hit by a car on the first day and return home turns out to be completely fictitious. He had been a serious scholar and was happy in his university life. But then he was called home by his brother’s death. Now after acting the upstanding citizen for nearly 20 years, he begins to make some serious missteps.

Each section reveals more about the family secrets and the problems ensuing from this misguided marriage. This doesn’t necessarily sound like gripping material, but it really is. I was fascinated immediately. And the last 50 or so pages are unexpectedly suspenseful. Finally, the ending blew my mind. Not everyone will like it, but to me it is a great book.

I read this for my Booker Prize project.

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Review 2522: Broken

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A women is walking around a lake on a freezing day. Suddenly, she is knocked down, her head forced into the mud.

Officer Lena Adams is investigating a report of a suicide at the lake. The police have found a pair of shoes on the shore and a note that says, “I want it over.” Eventually, they pull up the body of a woman who has been weighed down with cement bricks and chains.

Her ID says she is Allison Spooner, a student at the nearby campus. The death is possibly a suicide, but she was stabbed in the back of the neck, which would almost be impossible to do to yourself.

With an officer dispatched to the girl’s home, Lena and her boss, Frank Wallace, go there to continue the investigation. Lena can tell that Frank has been drinking, and when the police find a young man in the garage listed as Allison’s address, the situation is bungled, resulting in the stabbing of Brad, a young officer, and injuries to both Lena and Frank.

Dr. Sara Linton now enters the story. She has returned home for Thanksgiving for the first time since her husband Jeffrey’s death. She blames Lena, who was Jeffrey’s partner, for the death. The first evening, Frank calls to ask her to come to the jail because Tommy Braham has been arrested for murder and he is hysterical. Sara vaguely remembers Tommy as a cheerful boy of limited intelligence, but this is oddly the second call she has received about Tommy. When she gets to the jail, she finds Tommy is dead, having cut his wrists using a pen refill cartridge.

Will Trent has had his holiday leave canceled so that he can investigate the custody death. He finds a sullen crew of small-town police who are not at all cooperative. Lena has wanted to admit to the mistakes she made at both the arrest and custody sites, but she has been threatened by Frank to follow the story he’s made up.

Very quickly Will finds problems with the small-town team’s theory of the crime. They think Tommy killed Allison in her garage apartment and took her to the lake, but Will quickly finds the crime scene at the lake and also discovers that Tommy was in his own home when they arrested him.

I can see where the relationship is going between Will and Sara, and I’m not that happy about it. Sara was apparently a major figure in a previous series by Slaughter, and Slaughter has brought her into this series. Perhaps it’s because I like Angie, Will’s long-time love, from the TV series. I don’t see her as the negative figure Slaughter seems to be making her. Same with Lena, since I don’t know what she did in the previous series.

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Review 2521: The Winter Spirits

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I had hoped this book would arrive early enough before Christmas to fit it into my December schedule. It did not. However, early January is almost as good. For this book, because it includes stories from so many well-known current authors, I thought I’d give a little synopsis of each story.

“Host” by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Young Mary and her brother Abel have been moved out of the workhouse to Jacob’s Island to fend for themselves in Victorian London. Mr. and Mrs. Griffith have lost their daughter and have spent all their money on a spiritualist to contact her. Now she says there’s a way to bring their daughter back, but they need a host her same age.

“Inferno” by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

In 18th century Italy Jasper travels to a villa in the middle of a lake to flee his deceased wife’s brothers—out to punish him for how he treated her. He’s planning to meet friends there, but they are nowhere to be seen. Soon, he finds out why.

“The Old Play” by Andrew Michael Hurley

Morgan returns to an old theater every year to play the Beggar in the Old Play. It is a family tradition, but since WW II the Committee has changed the play to make it more “authentic.” This year, last-minute changes affect Morgan.

“A Double Thread” by Imogen Hermes Gowar

When a 19th century society woman takes refuge with her aunt in Penzance while her husband is on trial for burning one of his factories, her maid leaves. Her aunt recommends Nora Landry, a shy woman with no experience but a notable needlewoman. Although Nora is making her a beautiful dress, the woman treats her shamefully over a small incident and there is a death. But that’s not the end of it.

“The Salt Miracles” by Natasha Pulley

Flint goes to the island of St. Hilda because he’s heard that some pilgrims have disappeared. When he gets there, he learns of miracles among the pilgrims followed by disappearances, and he actually witnesses some. Could he really be glimpsing a man with antlers?

“Banished” by Elizabeth Macneal

An 18th century ghost whisperer arrives at the home of Lord Grange to help get rid of the ghost of his wife. Lord Grange says she is maniacal and vengeful, and she certainly seems to be so. But is there a reason for that? This story is the author’s fancy based on actual events.

“The Gargoyle” by Bridget Collins

At her publisher’s demand, a writer goes to a small town to work on her novels. Although her cottage is comfortable, she hears weird scrabbling noises at night. Soon, she gets unanticipated help with her draft.

“The Master of the House” by Stuart Turton

At the turn of the century, Henry Carrow is a widower left with his young son, Thomas, in whom he is not much interested. Thomas seems to be becoming rebellious, and he tells his father that the Master of the House is going to take him at midnight on Christmas Eve unless he intervenes. But of course Henry thinks he is fantasizing.

“Ada Lark” by Jess Kidd

Ada Lark is a small girl who works for the medium Madam Bellerose. To do her work, she must be shut into the base of the medium’s table, her arms raised above her head to operate the various mechanisms. Madam Bellerose can punish her by closing the lattice, thus cutting off her air. One day an old pal approaches Madam Bellerose with a scheme. If she can convince the bereaved Lady Bentham that her dead child wants her to marry him, he’ll give her enough money to live in comfort. But what will it mean for Ada if Madam Bellerose retires?

“Jenkin” by Catriona Ward

Maggie and Vera are orphaned young women circa 1950. Maggie wants the two of them to move to New York and learn to be secretaries, but Vera doesn’t want to go. Maggie hides the secret of Jenkin, a creature that appears to her whenever she lies, and she has several secrets, some of which come out when Vera is invited to stay with their aunt in Maine.

“Widow’s Walk” by Susan Stokes-Chapman

In the 18th century, Honoria is a renowned fan maker. Her husband has disappeared and the rumor is that he ran off with another woman. The Christmas ball is approaching, and Honoria is personally making a special fan for Amelia Whiting, a young woman she knew to be her husband’s lover. It is supposed to be made of ivory, but Honoria has found a good substitute.

“Carol of the Bells and Chains” by Laura Purcell

Abigail is the governess of three bratty and spoiled and one good child, who is unnoticed by her parents. After one especially frustrating afternoon, she tells the children the old folktale of Krampus.

_________________________

This is a rather mediocre collection of stories, most of which seem to be trying too hard to be Gothic. I only really liked Jess Kidd’s and Elizabeth Macneal’s stories. Many of the stories were predictable while others were too unlikely. None of them sent a chill down my spine.

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My End-of-Year Report

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I saw a post from Helen of She Reads Novels about her historical fiction reading goals, and that made me decide to write an end-of-year report about my reading, starting this year. I am pulling most of the data from StoryGraph, which I switched over to from Goodreads this last year.

First, I set a goal of reading 160 books this year, and I read 156. I felt especially slowed down over Christmas time because of everything going on. Some of my comparative stats this year were interesting, especially this one:

You can see that in general I read shorter books this year than I usually do, 50% being less than 300 pages and only 5% being more than 500 pages. I think that was because I was trying to achieve some goals under tight deadlines, but I also read quite a few novellas for Novellas in November this year. And toward the end of the year, I put my books for A Century of Books project in order by the shortest first, so that I could finish as many as possible (although not very many were short)! Sneaky, huh?

For fiction vs. nonfiction, I am still doing lamentably little in the nonfiction area. However, I read 1% more nonfiction this year than in previous years, so I guess Nonfiction November is having an impact. Let’s see if I do better this coming year.

Here are the genres I’ve read this year with the number of books for each:

  • Historical fiction: 47
  • Literary fiction: 43
  • Mysteries: 39
  • Classics: 37
  • Crime: 26
  • History: 10
  • Thriller: 10
  • LBGTQIA+: 8
  • Biography: 7
  • Contemporary: 7

These are Storygraph’s categories. I’m not sure, for example, how Crime and Mystery are differentiated or whether they overlap. Obviously, some categories must overlap, because these numbers add up to more books than I read. Also, I’m fairly sure I read one or two nonfiction books that don’t fit easily into either biography or history, so I’m not sure how they have categorized them.

StoryGraph also provided me with a list of writers I read most this year vs. for all time. I’m not showing this list because the most books I read this year of any one writer is four. However, I will say that the only writer who appears on both lists (this year vs. all time) is Georgette Heyer, and that the only man who appears on either list is, of all people, Fyodor Dostoevsky. (But that’s only two books.) However, if I switch this graph to show the repeat authors for last year, I get two more male writers for 2023, John Dickson Carr and Martin Edwards (four books by each!).

As usual, my top ten list for the year will appear on my blogging day closest to my blog anniversary. This year, it will be Friday, January 24. For a few months, at any rate, I am going to be blogging on Fridays again until I catch up a little closer with my reading.

Review 2520: Hunting the Falcon

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I have read quite a bit about the Tudors, fiction and nonfiction. This book deals especially with the relationship between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, although it starts earlier in their lives.

A strong theme in the book is Anne’s formative time spent at the court of France. There she witnessed a different kind of court than that in England, one in which powerful women discussed politics and were forces behind the throne and in which court was gay and flirtatious. As queen and as a woman who had worked in tandem with Henry on their cause for six years before marriage, she tried to create that sort of court.

In addition, her leanings toward France helped incline Henry toward an alliance with Francis of France, despite a long history of enmity between the two countries, rather than one with Charles, the Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife Katherine’s nephew. Francis had his own agenda, though, that did not always match Henry’s.

All-in-all, the book paints Anne in a more positive light than I’ve seen, emphasizing her true piety and her generosity to the poor. However, she also clearly got caught up in her own power and was sometimes rapacious and unforgiving.

Recent programs about the Tudors are notoriously inaccurate, but we are sometimes affected nonetheless. Used to thinking of Jane Parker, wife of Anne’s brother George, as someone who betrayed her, I now find she was one of the people who had the nerve to speak up for her.

Biographers and historians can err by including too much information on a subject. Although this book was written for a general audience in an entertaining style, it occasionally has that fault, for example, describing every detail of Anne’s coronation, including her outfits and the themes of the spectacles presented. However, in general, I found it interesting and illuminating.

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WWW Wednesday!

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Happy New Year!

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.

What I Am Reading Now

I actually haven’t started this book as of this writing, but I’m drafting this a day ahead of time, so by the time you read this, it will be what I am reading now. The book is The Temptations of Big Bear by Rudy Wiebe. I believe that someone recommended it this year, so I put it in my pile and then found it would fill a hole in my A Century of Books project. It’s called “an epic of the Canadian West.” Should be interesting.

What I Just Finished Reading

As of this writing, I’m cheating, because I have a page and a half of this book to go, but I will have finished it within a few minutes. It is Island by Alastair MacLeod. I guess I’m on a Canadian kick.

I think I keep reading about Alistair MacLeod on Naomi’s site, Consumed by Ink. MacLeod is considered a master of the short story. This book is collection of all his stories, 14 of them, most of them set on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. He also wrote one novel, which I will be looking for. It also qualifies for A Century of Books.

What I Will Read Next

Next, I am reading another book that qualifies for my A Century of Books project. It is a book I loved when I was younger, so I’m curious if I will love it now. It’s How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn.