Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

I don't normally clog up my blog with reviews for books that I don't like. I'd rather read & write about books that I love.
Not everyone can like all books in all genres. We all have differing opinions about favourites & duds.
It's okay not to like a book & not blog about it...and simply leave it to someone who does like it to blog about it.

But sometimes you come across a book that bugs you out of this good intention!

I've spent the past couple days trying to work out why this book annoyed me so much.

Obviously, at 46 years of age, I am not the target audience for Side Effects May Vary. I read a lot of YA, teen and junior fiction though for work. Some of it is not to my taste or standards, but I can usually see how the book's target audience would enjoy it.

Maybe I would have enjoyed this book when I was an angst-ridden, self-absorbed, romantic teenager, but I doubt it.
Alice is much more than an angsty, selfish, troubled teen. She's a manipulative bitch. She's cruel, mean and totally thoughtless. She uses love to hurt people, including herself, but barely learns any meaningful lessons along the way.

Anyone turning to this book hoping for another Fault in Our Stars (due to the cancer theme) will be seriously disappointed.

Perhaps this book was meant to funny in a dark, Stephen King/Carrie kind of way? Or perhaps it was making a statement about all the so called 'sick-lit' popping up since FIOS?

There is some swearing, mild sex scenes and mature themes.

Perhaps a fan of this book can give me some pointers on what I missed, because right now I will not be recommending this story to anyone!

Flambards by K M Peyton

I was hit by a wave of nostalgia today.

I needed something comforting and familiar to get me through the day.

A new edition of Flambards (Oxford Children's Classics) turned up at work this week & I remembered how much I loved this series when I was a teenager. So I hunted out my old copy from the bottom of the bookshelf hidden by packing boxes that have yet to be unpacked (the move was over 5 years ago, but that's another story!)

It's the classic story of an orphan (with an inheritance due on her 21st birthday), a mean, mercenary uncle, horses, two older male cousins and a kind stablehand!

It's set just prior to WW1 (although published in 1967). Like a lot of literature set in this era there is push-me, pull-me attitude towards the old ways (hunts, carriages, servants - think Downton Abbey) and the new ways (cars, flying machines and equality).

Flambards charmed me all over again today.
It's well written in the proper way books were 40 years ago.
It's tragic, dramatic & romantic. At the time it was also controversial (unmarried pregnant scullery maid, love across class divides & elopements).

Click here to read a recent interview with K.M Peyton about the controversy.

Other books in the series include The Edge of the Cloud (1969) & Flambards in Summer (1969). The Edge of the Cloud won the Carnegie Medal while the other two books were awarded commended runner-up status. In 1970 she also won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for the entire trilogy.

I was surprised to see that a 4th book, Flambards Divided, was written in 1981. Whether this is a pleasant surprise remains to be seen (& will, in part, depend on how quickly & easily I can hunt it down!)

Highly recommended for all lovers of romantic historical fiction 13+

Change Your Thinking by Sarah Edelman PhD

I first came across Sarah Edelman's Change Your Thinking ten years ago.

I was in my mid 30's and trying to come to terms with my adult life.

I'd tackled the issues of my childhood & and seeing my parents as fellow human beings on their own life journey doing the best they can.
I had settled into a satisfying, although very demanding, career.
I'd taken steps to ensure fiscal security - I minimised 'bad' debt, shored up my Super, took up insurance options, purchased a home.
I began to take better care of myself & I actively sought a happier work/life balance.

The thing that I felt eluded me though was good mental health and intimate relationships.

At the time, Sarah's book was instrumental in changing the way I viewed my life. Sarah actually helped me to change the way I thought about my life which resulted in some amazing transformations for me.

At the time, I was big on 'shoulds'.

"I should do this...."
"I should be more like that..."
"I have to go here, do that..."
"I shouldn't be in this situation..."

All these shoulds made me feel guilty when I didn't do them. They made me feel pressured to get them done and instead of feeling good if I did actually achieved one, I simply added more future shoulds to the list!
I was very hard on myself. I didn't really like myself and I felt totally unloveable.

Changing the way I thought about myself and changing the way I lived my life didn't just happen thanks to one reading of this book.
It was a gradual process.
Other significant events along the way also pushed me to the next level of personal understanding & development.
But Change Your Thinking played a significant role.

It allowed me to view these other significant events as positive events...even the not so good ones. It gave me the tools to practice more flexible thinking. It helped me to see the things I could change as opposed to getting stuck on the things I couldn't. It taught me about acceptance. It taught me about letting go.

I was delighted last year to learn that Sarah does regular courses of her Change Your Thinking program through the Sydney Uni Centre for Continuing Education.

I felt it was time to refresh & consolidate my understanding of her key concepts.

The latest edition of her book now includes a section on mindfulness and meditation. She uses these two processes to enhance flexible thinking.

The interesting thing for me as I did Sarah's course, was seeing just how much growth I have achieved over the past ten years. And how many of her thinking tools I now use on a regularly basis as a matter of habit.

I have found both Sarah's book and her course to be invaluable personal development tools.
They're easy to understand and mostly easy to implement.
The hard part is maintaining them!

The Apple Tart of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

You know how it is when you read a really, really good book?

You love it soooo much, that you want everyone you know to read it & love it too.

But you don't want to give away too much of the storyline, because you want everyone to discover it with the same fresh innocence as yourself.

Therefore, I'm only going to tell you that this wonderful, gut-wrenching, beautiful story is about apple tarts and hope.
It is about Meg and Oscar.
It's also about truth and lies, friendship and bullying, manipulation and trust.

It has been a very long time since a book had my gut all twisted up with anguish and anger. It has been a very long time since a book has made me want to scream out at the characters "Watch Out! Beware!", to scream out the secret, to reveal the dastardly deed, to save them!

The saving grace that makes all this despair worthwhile is Fitzgerald's upholding of Kate DiCamillo's belief that all writers for children are ultimately, duty-bound to finish with hope.

The Apple Tart of Hope deals with some tough issues (depression, suicide & emotionally manipulative bullying) but it does so in a gentle, insightful way.
I will be recommending it to 13+ readers simply because of these mature issues.
Very mature 11+ readers who love their books to have an emotional roller-coaster edge could manage this though.

I love a book that makes me feel so deeply & care so much about the characters. I love being dragged through an emotional wringer. I also enjoy coming out the other side with a smile on my face.
I always have & I always will.

This is one of those books.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

I didn't know.

I've been reading and thoroughly enjoying the story of Sarah Grimké  and Handful by Sue Monk Kidd.

The Invention of Wings is a wonderfully complex, nuanced, character driven story that takes you straight into the heart of the deep South in the early 1800's.

Given the Classics Club event for this month (Feminism in literature) I was also taking note of all the issues that crop up for Sarah throughout the book.

I haven't finished yet, but I had some quiet time this afternoon & thought I would get a few ideas together for a review.

Imagine my surprise when I googled the book image and up popped a photo of the real Sarah Grinké!

No wonder the characters feel so real!

Sarah was born Nov 26 1792 in South Carolina. She was the 8th of 14 children.

Angelina was born Feb 20 1805 - the youngest of the tribe. Together these 2 amazing women were known as The Grinké Sisters - early abolitionists & feminists.

Both women became heavily involved with the Quaker movement after the death of their father in 1819. Sarah tried to become a minister until she realised that the church was something she agreed with in theory only.

Sarah & Angelina were the first female public speakers in the US. They started off with parlour room meetings for women only. These meetings grew in size. Men starting creeping in to listen. Mixed meetings were organised and by 1837 both sisters were involved in the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in New York.

Their early talks focused on abolitionist themes, but gradually their talks included more & more on the rights of women. They both felt that women's rights were just as important as the fight to end slavery. But many abolitionists opposed these discussions about women's rights as being 'too extreme'!

As a result, they both endured increasing levels of personal abuse & criticism. Their meetings and debates were considered 'unseemly' and 'unwomanly'. They were accused of being spinsters parading themselves in front of men, looking for husbands.

In 1836 Sarah published An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States. The following year she wrote Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women.

Angelina wrote An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South in 1836. In 1838 she also published a series of letters in response to Catharine Beecher's An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism with Reference to the Duty of American Females.

I'm about halfway through The Invention of Wings.
The first half has been a fascinating coming of age story for both Sarah and her personal slave, Handful.

But Sarah has just accompanied her dying father to Philadelphia & we're about to embark on the above journey as told through Sue Monk Kidd's eyes.

I can't wait.

The Invention Of Wings fulfills my Published in 2014 category for the Eclectic Readers Challenge.

The Odyssey and the Female Voice

I had been rereading The Odyssey for the latest Classics Club spin, when I came across the article below by Mary Beard (thanks to Lee Anne at Lily Oak Books).

I had had no idea who she was, but by coincidence, the night before I had been reading my copy of The Quarterly Essay #50 from June last year titled Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and Misogyny by Anna Goldsworthy.

In her article, Goldsworthy mentioned some of the very personal abuse that Beard had endured in the public arena over the last year in the UK.  

I was naturally curious when her name crossed my path again the very next day.

This is what Mary Beard had to say on the public voice of women.

"I want to start very near the beginning of the tradition of Western literature, and its first recorded example of a man telling a woman to ‘shut up’; telling her that her voice was not to be heard in public. I’m thinking of a moment immortalised at the start of the Odyssey.  

The process starts in the first book with Penelope coming down from her private quarters into the great hall, to find a bard performing to throngs of her suitors; he’s singing about the difficulties the Greek heroes are having in reaching home. She isn’t amused, and in front of everyone she asks him to choose another, happier number. At which point young Telemachus intervenes: ‘Mother,’ he says, ‘go back up into your quarters, and take up your own work, the loom and the distaff … speech will be the business of men, all men, and of me most of all; for mine is the power in this household.’ And off she goes, back upstairs.

But it’s a nice demonstration that right where written evidence for Western culture starts, women’s voices are not being heard in the public sphere; more than that, as Homer has it, an integral part of growing up, as a man, is learning to take control of public utterance and to silence the female of the species. The actual words Telemachus uses are significant too. When he says ‘speech’ is ‘men’s business’, the word is muthos – not in the sense that it has come down to us of ‘myth’. In Homeric Greek it signals authoritative public speech (not the kind of chatting, prattling or gossip that anyone – women included, or especially women – could do).

There were too many connections and coincidences crossing my path...I had to explore.

After reading the article through, I decided to hunt down some of the various translations of The Odyssey to see how this particular section of the story was treated by different translators at different times. (Check out this website for some other comparisons).


George Chapman 1616

Go you then in, and take your work in hand, Your web, and distaff; and your maids command To ply their fit work. Words to men are due, And those reproving counsels you pursue, And most to me of all men, since I bear The rule of all things that are managed here.

Alexander Pope 1726

Your widow'd hours, apart, with female toil And various labours of the loom beguile; There rule, from palace-cares remote and free; That care to man belongs, and most to me.

 Samuel Butler 1898

Go, then, within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties, your loom, your distaff, and the ordering of your servants; for is man's matter, and mine above all others- for it is I who am master here.

AT Murray 1919

Nay, go to thy chamber, and busy thyself with thine own tasks, the loom and the distaff, and bid thy handmaids ply their tasks; but shall be for men, for all, but most of all for me; since mine is the authority in the house.”

TE Lawrence 1932

Wherefore I bid you get back to your part of the house, and be busied in your proper sphere, with the loom and the spindle, and in overseeing your maids at these, their tasks. Speech shall be the men's care: and principally my care: for mine is the mastery in this house."

WHD Rouse 1937

Nay, go to thy chamber, and busy thyself
with thine own tasks, the loom and the distaft and
bid thy handmaids ply their tasks; but speech shall
be for men, for all, but most of all for me; since
mine is the authority in the house.

EV Rieu 1946

So go to your quarters now and attend to your own work, the loom and the spindle, and tell the servants to get on with theirs.Talking must be the men's concern, and mine in particular; for I am master in this house.

Robert Fagles 1996

So, mother,
go back to your quarters. Tend to your tasks,
the distaff and the loom, and keep the women
working hard as well. As for giving orders,
men will see to that, but I most of all:
I hold the reins of power in this house.

DW Myatt

You should go to your chambers to manage your own work Of weaving and spinning, and also command your attendants To occupy themselves with their work. That mythos is of interest to all men -

And to me most of all because the dignity of this family now depends upon me.
I was curious to see that two of the more recent translations have moved away from using 'speech', 'talking' or 'words' when translating the word muthos.

Wikipedia has μῦθος (•muthos)
something said: word, speech, conversation

1. public speech
2. (mostly in plural) talk, conversation
3. advice, counsel, command, order, promise
4. the subject of a speech or talk
5. a resolve, purpose, design, plan
6. saying, proverb
7. the talk of men, rumor, report, message
I feel that this says all sorts of interesting things about books in translation & changing times. When reading in translation, we read a book quite different from what the author intended, but also different to previous translations. A translation reflects as much of the translator (& the times he or she lives in) as of the original author to the reader.

Surely, in modern times, though, women's voices are now being heard loud and clear and equally? Surely, we are no longer being told to go back to our quarters and be quiet and let the men do the real business of discussing the important stuff?

Not so, according to Goldsworthy.

She quotes the VIDA:Women in Literary Arts statistics that highlight the "damning" discrepancy in books reviewed by women and men. 

These statistics have provoked a great deal of commentary, including the suggestion that women - by writing about "smaller" topics such as friendship, motherhood and domesticity - ghettoise themselves from a male readership. Similar criticisms have rarely been made about the male writer, lovingly documenting his midlife crisis. The assumption is that women, as the more accommodating sex, are better prepared to read across gender." 

(Please click on the link above to view the stats & graphs yourself. The London Review of Books was particularly depressing.)

Finally, it would seem that it all still comes back to Virginia Woolf and having a room of one's own.
Carrie Tiffany, the winner of the inaugural Stella Prize for women, said in her acceptance speech last year,

To write - to take the work of reading and writing seriously - you must spend a great deal of time alone in a room....For women to spend time alone in a room, to look rather than be looked at, means rejecting some of this pressure. It means doing something with your mind rather than your body."

The story continues....

Press Here by Hervé Tullet

This little gem of a book has been out for a couple of years now, but I love reading Press Here with small groups of 3-5 yr olds any chance I get.

It's a book that invites interaction, amazes & amuses and leaves you wanting to do it all over again!

The idea is simple.

A yellow button sits in the middle of the page and asks you to press it.

You do.

You turn the page...and ta-da!
Another yellow dot has appeared!

Press the button again...and yet another yellow dot appears!

Imagine would could happen if you rub the yellow spot or shake the book or clap your hands or blow as hard as you can!

Anything is possible and wonder is guaranteed.

Pure delight is just one (yellow) button away.

The Chronicle Press webpage also has links for an app, youtube trailers and activity sheets.

Feminist Literature

This month The Classics Club is challenging us with the topic 'feminist literature'. 

So far not a lot of literature has been discussed, but a lot of commentary has already popped up about the word 'feminism'. 

I find it curious that this one little word can create such passionate feelings from men and women. Why is this so?

I would go so far as to suggest that since this one little word still creates such strong feelings in men & women that there are still a lot of unresolved issues around this topic. 

Strong feelings come about because men and women feel threatened, fearful or anxious. 
Strong feelings indicate an underlying, long-term and very personal problem for both men and women.

Why is this one little word such a threat? Why are feminists ridiculed, attacked & feared by so many? Why is feminism becoming a dirty word in some circles? 

I have seen posts and reviews and commentaries that spend time on defining the word, providing an historical overview or sharing a personal experience with feminism. 
It's easy to see defensiveness in each response - including my own response to their writings! 

What is going on here?

Why are men and women so afraid of this word?

Given that today is International Women's Day, I thought I'd enter the fray!

So, feminist literature...where to start?

The very first thing I thought of in relation to women in literature and feminism was the lovely Anne Eliot.

In Persuasion,  Jane Austen gives Anne Elliot some wonderful lines.

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies 

instead of rational creatures. None of us want

 to be in calm waters all our lives.” 

And my personal favourite - when Anne is deep in literary discussions with Captain Harville ....

“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say 

upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. 

But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men."

"Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, 

no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us 

in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much 

higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. 

I will not allow books to prove anything.” 

My next stream of thoughts turned to Virginia Woolf and her little book - A Room of One's Own. The book developed from a talk she gave about women and fiction in 1928.

A lot of her thinking reflected mine as I tried to work out what The Classics Club means by 'feminist literature'. 

Does it mean...

"women and what they are like; or it might mean women 

and the fiction that they write; or it might mean women 

and the fiction that is written about them; 

or it might mean that somehow all three are inextricably mixed together."

Certainly, Woolf firmly believed that for women to write, and to write well, they needed "money & a room of her own". 
She goes on to clarify that writing requires time and space to think, reflect and write in peace, away from the demands of family life and strife. It is very hard to find time to write when one is pregnant every eighteen months! In fact, it is no coincidence that the women writers up to Woolf's time were usually unmarried and childless.

Woolf also acknowledges the passion surrounding this topic

"when a subject is highly controversial - 

and any question about sex is that - 

one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show 

how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold."

One of the arguments often used back then is that women's bodies are designed differently and therefore, naturally not able to cope with the world of men. Even Woolf played with this idea when she said,

"Moreover, in a hundred years...women will have ceased to be the protected sex. 

Logically they will take part in all activities and exertions 

that were once denied them....All assumptions founded on the facts 

observed when women were the protected sex will have disappeared - 

as, for example, that women...live longer....

Remove that protection, expose them to the same exertions and activities...

and will not women die off so much younger, so much quicker."

I wish I could go back and reassure Virginia that women can and do cope with the modern world. That women still live longer than most men. That many women are perfectly capable of protecting themselves and able to live responsible, rational lives.

Although, this issue around protection reminds me of a conversation with my brother-in-law a number of years ago. One night he was walking home from a function - it was about 9pm. It was a regular street in a regular city. The night was dark but the path was occasionally lit up by street lights, house lights and passing cars. 

He became aware of a young women walking ahead of him. She, obviously, also became aware of him as she quickened her steps, clutched her bag tightly to her body and moved to the opposite footpath. 

My brother-in-law was initially upset that this unknown woman assessed him as being a danger to her. He wouldn't hurt a fly! But as he continued home, he realised that the young woman didn't know that about him. All she knew was that there were male footsteps approaching from behind on a darkened street.

She felt fear but moved to protect herself as quickly as possible. She, no doubt, got home safely - just with a heart beating faster than usual and a bigger sigh of relief than usual. I've had similar experiences; I know that feeling. I also know there are women who don't get that lovely feeling of being home safe and sound when they walk in their own front doors. For some women home is no protection.

It is difficult to write when one feels unsafe all the time.

I am one of the fortunate ones. I received an excellent education. I was encouraged by my parents to go to uni, travel the world, be financially independent and personally responsible. I was encouraged to be loving and compassionate but to stand up for myself. I was made to do housework, but I also learnt how to change a tyre & check the oil and water on my first car. 

I can paint a house from top to bottom, hang a picture, mow the lawn and complete a complex cross-stitch design! Mr Books can iron his own shirts, cook a delicious meal, vacuum our home more thoroughly than I would ever dream is possible and create the most complex visual/audio system for our loungeroom!

However I will leave the final words for this piece to dear Virginia...

"So long as you write what you wish to write, 

that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages 

or only for a few hours, nobody can say.

I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel 

and to idle, to contemplate the future 

or the past of the world, to dream over books 

and loiter at street corners and let the line of of thought 

dip deep into the stream."

We've almost made it Virginia, almost!

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

Published in 1981, Magorian's Goodnight Mister Tom is now considered a modern day classic. So much so that Puffin is now including it in their Puffin Modern Classics range.

I was already in highschool (and reading more grown-up books like Flowers in the Attic!) when this book came out, so I missed all the hype surrounding it's early days.

It won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and commended by the Carnegie Medal as being the best English language book published in the UK.

Goodnight Mister Tom has since been made into a musical and a TV series.

The story of William Beech, London evacuee, living with a grumpy old man during the early days of WWII is incredibly moving and satisfying.

So many stories from this period focus on the unhappy times that many of the London kids experienced in the countryside.
Magorian took the opposite view with William.

He is an abused child who finally experiences friendship, joy and love whilst living with Mister Tom.

Magorian draws her characters so sweetly that the growth in trust & understanding between them is believable, heart-breaking and ultimately, heart-warming. She chooses an understated way of telling her story, so that you never feel manipulated into an emotional response.

Goodnight Mister Tom is a touching, moving story that would appeal to 10+ mature readers who love historical fiction and a well-told 'real' story.

Zoladdiction 2014

Zoladdiction is hosted by Fanda at Fanda Classiclit.

During the month of April (Zola's birthday month) Fanda encourages us to read and review Zola's novels.

I have Germinal half read on my epad (I dislike reading on a screen which is the only reason it is taking so long).

I have Nana on my Classics Club list & I have a copy of The Ladies' Delight (Au Bonheur des Dames) on my TBR pile (translated by Robin Buss).

That should be plenty to get on with on!

I know very little about Zola or his particular period of French literature, so I'm looking forward to learning a lot more. Are there any recommended translators or preferred editions?

The introduction to The Ladies promises me that

"Zola was really an emotional writer with rare gifts for evoking vast crowd scenes and for giving life to such great symbols of modern civilization as factories and mines. When not overloaded with detail, his work has tragic grandeur, but he is also capable of a coarse 'Cockney' type humour."

There seems to be a lot of Zola love out there in blogger land. Have you tried to read Zola? Do you have a favourite Zola? Or an interesting Zola story? 

If you answered 'yes' to any of those questions then Zoladdiction could be just the thing for you!

Happy reading.

What Is Your Favourite Classic Period

The Classics Club hosts a monthly meme question.

This month the question comes from Dale and is "What is your favourite classic period and why?"

It's hard for me to pin down a favourite period as I've been known to become obsessed about quite a few literary periods over the years!

I've had Russian obsessions, flings with the French (esp Revolutionary France) and a re-occurring love affair with the 1920's jazz age & art deco. I've been tempted by the Ancient Greeks, mesmerised by turn of the century New York and comforted by the 1800's family saga. I'm forever obsessed with Holocaust & slavery literature (& many other war classics) as I try to understand man's inhumanity to man.

I have several authors I fall back on in times of need - Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, Edith Wharton, Harper Lee & John Wyndham, Charlotte Bronte to name a few.

There are oodles of authors that I remember fondly & hope to read again or read more of their works soon - Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, John Galsworthy, George Sand, Boris Pasternak, Barbara Pym, Richard Yates, Henry James, F Scott Fitzgerald, Evelyn Waugh, Thomas Hardy, E.M. Forster, Emile Zola, Charles Dickens, Nancy Mitford, A.S. Byatt, Salman Rushdie, Alice Walker & Wallace Stegner.

I'd love to explore more Australian classics and I love to revisit childhood classics.

But one favourite period??

By pure force of numbers the winner of the favourite label would have to be 1800's England.

I've read and re-read so many authors from this period that I feel right at home in austere drawing rooms, horse drawn carriages & crinoline petticoats!

There is a familiarity in the lives of the characters. I can see the connections from them to me. Their world is threaded to mine by a series of historical leaps. I can imagine myself in their lives. I can feel myself embedded in the story in a way that is not so easy with other periods of time.

The other classical periods fascinate me because of their distance and exoticness.
Their differences are intriguing and alien and unknown. I strive to understand. I am curious, bewildered and amazed. I love the challenges and the new understandings and the leaps of faith required in these others periods.

But after travelling far and wide there is nothing more comforting than finally sleeping in your own bed & eating a home cooked meal!

I am at home in the 1800's. I return there for comfort & ease. When my mind is too busy, my heart too full & my soul needs soothing I return to the tried and true.

Do you have a favourite period of literature that you feel at home in?