North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell

This is the third and final discussion post for the North & South readalong hosted by It's All About Books, Jenni Elyse & Kami's LIbrary Thoughts.

Discussion post two is here.

Discussion post one here.

I have been a little rebellious by not waiting to answer the questions posted by Suey, Kami & Jenni. However I write most of my big posts on the w/e & I didn't want to miss out on the mid-week catch-ups - it was hard enough getting the time zones right for twitter chats!

Happily my posts have covered many of the questions they posed, if in a roundabout fashion!

Let's see if I can wing it three times in a row.

Now that I've got to the end, I see North & South more as coming of age story about Margaret than a straight love story or even a story about the class divide in England.

Apparently Gaskell wanted to name the story after her heroine, Margaret Hale as she did for Mary Barton. But Charles Dickens insisted that she call it North and South. The story was serialised from September 1854 to January 1855 in Household Words (a journal edited by Dickens throughout the 1850's).
At the same time that Gaskell's story was being serialised, Dickens was also serialising Hard Times (also set in Manchester) in Household Words (thank you wikipedia).

Gaskell found the weekly installments required difficult to keep up with as well as being challenged by Dickens writing about the same topic at the same time and trying not to overlap on key points.

I've always found the serialised novel a curious concept.
It must completely mess with the editing & continuity process. I would have to assume that most writers would have the bulk of the story already written, although I've read previous accounts of journals being held up by authors trying to finish the final chapters in time.

By the end of North & South, Gaskell wrote that she would rather call her novel Death and Variations, because "there are five dead, each beautifully consistent with the personality of the individual" (The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell (2007) edited by Jill L Matus). Certainly, all the deaths provide key moments in Margaret's own personal development as they allow her to become emotionally, physically and finally, financially independent.

Later in 1855, the book was finally published in full with many changes to overcome the restrictions of the serialising process. This included editing, changing the ending, adding a preface, several new chapters, chapter headings and the epigraphs.

Although everything that occurs in North and South is part of the maturation of Margaret - from marriage proposals,
moving towns, deaths, money management & new friendships - it is a novel that discusses the class divide in England. A divide that exists also between men and women.

We see the competition between traditional and modern life; country life versus city; poverty and wealth; inherited family wealth and the self-made man.

Even at the end of the book, Gaskell is still highlighting the differences between the two.

"seeing the old south country-towns and hamlets sleeping in the warm light of the pure sun, which gave a yet ruddier colour to their tiled roofs, so different to the cold slates of the north. Brrods of pigeons hovered around these peaked quaint gables....There were few people about at the stations, it almost seemed as if they were too lazily content to wish to travel.

The hot air danced over the golden stillness of the land, farm after farm was left behind." (pg 467-8)

 "Meanwhile, at Milton the chimneys smoked, the ceaseless roar and mighty beat, and dizzying whirl of machinery, struggled and strove perpetually...in their endless labours...(and the) tireless endurance by the strong crowds, who, with sense and with purpose, were busy and restless in seeking after - What? 

every man's face was set in lines of eagerness or anxiety; news was sought for with fierce avidity; and men jostled each other aside in the Mart and in the Excahnge, as they did in life, in the deep selfishness of competition." (pg 508)

I cant help but think, by Gaskell's choice of language, that even though she admired and respected the changes happening in the North, her heart was in the South.

Thank you to Suey, Jenni & Elyse for hosting this wonderful readalong. I'm so glad that I finally read my first Gaskell & that I got to do so in such fine company.

The readalong has also helped to kick start my year of reading challenges as North & South (at 531 pgs) fulfills my TBR pile, Reading England (Lancashire) & Back to the Classics (chunkster) challenges. It is also another book off my Classics Club list.

I hope to watch the miniseries of North and South soon, although I'm not quite sure how I'm going to fit that into my current schedule!
For now I'll leave you all with a  little curious titbit - the actor who played Mr Hale in the 2004 series, Tim Pigott-Smith, played Frederick in the 1975 series.

2015 - Challenges - Will I? Or Won't I?

I may have over-commited myself when planning my 2014 reading challenges!

I very nearly threw my hands up in despair last week when I started spotting 2015 challenges. I was adamant - NO! Not again.

But then I spotted Behold the Stars British Reading Challenge & Adam's TBR Challenge...and I started wondering....

Did I really do so badly with my 2014 challenges?
And even if I did, does it matter?

Thanks to all those challenges I met some fabulous new bloggers & read lots of great reviews for books I'd like to read one day.

Only one way to find....

To summarise:

My ability to keep my challenge page up to date & link appropriate reviews fell down about August. But with a bit of double-checking and cross-referencing I discovered...

Eclectic Reader Challenge - not as eclectic as I thought I was.
The bulk of my reading in 2014 was either 'award-winning', 'cosy-crime' or 'published this year'. I only read some Gothic books thanks to the Angela Carter Reading Week in June.

Around the World Challenge - success!
I planned to read 4 countries, but managed to read 8 (Australia, England, USA, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands, France, India - & half a Russian!) Which makes me a 'casual tourist'.

Adam's TBR Challenge - I only read 4 of my nominated TBR list, although I actually read somewhere between 12-15 books from off my TBR pile anyway!

What's in a Name? Of the 5 categories I only fulfilled one. Although I fulfilled that one, over and over and over again! Who knew that I enjoyed reading books with people's first names in them so much?

Back to the Classics - of the 6 categories - I read more than one book from 5 of them. Even though I read a few war books this year, they were not classics alas.

History Reading Challenge - thanks to Aus-Reading Month & Non-Fiction November I finally finished a book on the Eureka Stockade to fulfill one read in this challenge.

Chunkster Reading Challenge - I read at least 4 chunksters this year - yay me!

Michael's Literary Exploration Challenge - I failed miserably at maintaining a goodreads page, but I did read out of 23 of the 36 categories in the Insane Challenge.

New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge - X

Books on France - big tick - at least 7 books completed.

Foodies Challenge - one book completed - review still to come.

Colour Coded Reading Challenge - 2 books

The Classics Club - 11 more books ticked off my list.

Lessons learnt?

I read classics, I read contemporary. I read historical fiction & non-fiction. I read translations and love books set in other countries. I love joining in readalongs & reading weeks. I read a LOT of Australian books.

So I guess that means I'm in!
In for another year of reading challenges, readalongs and reading weeks - although tailored towards my preferred reading genres and styles.

Behold the Stars: Reading England Challenge

Cambridgeshire - Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf (20th century)

Cheshire - Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Cornwall - Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (reread) & Basil by Wilkie Collins (person's name)

Cumbra - Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (woman author)

Derbyshire - Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

Devon - The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (novella)

Gloucestershire - Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee (non-fiction)

Hampshire - Watership Down by Richard Adams (reread) (children's)

Kent - Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens & Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

Lancashire - Mary Barton (19th century) and North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell (chunkster)

London - Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, The Diary of a Nobody by George & Wheedon Grossmith (humorous),  Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, Night and Day by Virginia Woolf & The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

All of these books are currently (languishing) on my shelves (or in the piles hidden behind my bedroom mirror!) Most of them are also on my Classics Club list.

The list (currently) consists of 16 books which means that I can also officially join in Adam's TBR Pile Challenge of 12 books from my TBR pile.

Karen's Back to the Classics is also (mostly) covered by the books above (notes in blue).
For the rest - a forgotten classic is Stoner by John Williams, a translation is The Dream by Emile Zola & a play is Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler (Australian).

On my left sidebar Plethora of Books has not only conceived a project after my own heart, but she has also designed the most exquisite badge ever.
I re-read at least one Austen every year, so it will be a pleasure to join in as time permits with this one.

Lois at You, Me and a Cup of Tea is also hosting a Birthday Reading Challenge. The idea is simply to read a book by an author who has a birthday during each month. Each month she will post a list of possible authors and a review link for that month. Could be fun.

I also plan to join the Australian Women Writers Challenge when they post their 2015 sign up as my reading & reviewing this year proved to be predominately Australian women writers.

Are you joining in any reading challenges in 2015?

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

I've read so many varied reviews of Olive Kitteridge over the years, that I knew that this was probably going to be a 'love it or hate it' kind of book.

Given my enjoyment of Strout's The Burgess Boys, I was expecting to love it.

Here was another story with all my favourite themes - belonging, yearning vs reality, hope vs reality, desire vs reality, truth and lies.

But in all the reviews I've read, no-one had ever told me that Olive Kitteridge could basically be read as a collection of short stories!

Each chapter is a snapshot in time for the people of Crosby, Maine.

Some of the chapters focus specifically on Olive or her husband, Henry.

But the bulk of the chapters follow the other inhabitants of small town Crosby as they go about their daily lives.
These lives intersect with Olive & Henry in various ways. They provide multiple viewpoints and assessments of Olive's character. Many of these views are not very positive.

And it is easy to see why.

Olive is one of those frustrating characters who has very little awareness of how her behaviour & words impact on others. She is completely bewildered by the loss of friends and the alienation of her only son. The only person who patiently stands by her side, constantly seeing the best in her, is gentle, loyal, optimistic Henry.

Olive Kitteridge is a force to be reckoned with. We all know a version of Olive.
Strout's genius is making Olive such a sympathetic, understandable character.

The writing is sublime, the pacing is subtle and the characterisations are observant & elegant. It's a simply told story full of the complexities & nuances of human nature.

I loved it.

(Olive also fulfills about 5 reading challenges for me.)

Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber - the rest!

For Angela Carter Week I've been reading my way through her short story collection, The Bloody Chamber.

I've already reviewed the title story, The Bloody Chamber and the three cat stories. This post is dedicated to the remaining stories in the collection.

The Erl-King was an unusual story based on a German folk story that I was totally unfamiliar with.

Traditionally, the erlking is the king of the fairies or elves, a mischievous, possibly dangerous being responsible for trapping humans to satisfy his desire, jealousy or lust for revenge.

It is also the title of a well-known poem by Goethe that ends with these chilling lines...

                           "Dear father, oh father, he seizes my arm!

The Erlking, father, has done me harm.

The father shudders, he darts through the wild;

With agony fill him the groans of his child.
He reached his farm with fear and dread;
The infant son in his arms was dead.

The Erl-King by Chloe North

I'm not quite sure what I made of Carter's version though!

There are references to Little Red Riding Hood,

"There are some eyes can eat you."

but this young woman is not an innocent child setting off into the woods, like Little Red Riding Hood.

This is a young woman battling with her competing impulses for independence and domesticity. This is a search for identity,

"It is easy to lose yourself in these woods."

"The two notes of the song of a bird rose on the still air, as if my girlish and delicious loneliness had been made into a sound."

"I know it is only because he is kind to me that I do not fall further."

"His touch both consoles and devastates me."

And in this case, her identity and quest for independence is strongest, and the Erl-King is murdered so she can be free.

The Snow Child is the shortest story in the collection and probably the darkest and most disturbing.

The original tale is also a dark one about wish fulfillment, trust, fidelity, jealousy and revenge.

Carter does all this, but also adds a Sleeping Beauty element

"So the girl picks a rose; pricks her finger on the thorns; bleeds; screams; falls."

& an unpleasant incest scene. This Snow-Child is nothing but a figment of the male imagination.

From Stranger Than Kindness

The Lady of the House of Love completes the three odd, disturbing, unrelated stories in the middle of the collection.

This time Carter has combined aspects of Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk with vampire mythology to create another heroine trapped by her destiny,

"Can a bird sing only the song it knows or can it learn a new song?"

Our hero is rational behaviour personified. 

She is compelled to destroy the man who can save her; he is saved by his innocence and untapped sexuality...only to head off to the trenches of WW1 France.

The final three stories are wolf stories that reference Little Red Riding Hood.

The Werewolf is short and too the point. A tale of competing females; this Little Red Riding Hood is strong and knowing, 

"The child had a scabby coat of sheepskin to keep out the cold, she knew the forest too well to fear it but she must always be on her guard."

And, once again, murder is the only way to secure her independent future,

"Now the child lived in her grandmother's house; she prospered."

The Company of Wolves follows a similar line to The Tiger's Bride where we see the young girl bare all; shed her clothes, to become one with the werewolf,

"The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody's meat."

It would seem that by accepting and embracing our 'beastly' natures, we can find true love and live out our true-to-self lives.

Gina Litherland

Finally, Wolf-Alice falls into the child raised in the wild scenario. 

Carter explores what it means to be human - frailty, flaws and all. 

Alice is raised by a pack of wolves, 

"Nothing about her is human except that she is not a wolf; it is as if the fur she thought she wore had melted into her skin and become part of it, although it does not exist. Like the wild beasts, she lives without a future."

The Duke is "damned" - half man, half beast, he

 "haunts the graveyard; he believes himself to be both less and more than a man, as if his obscene difference were a sign of grace. During the day, he sleeps. His mirror faithfully reflects his bed but never the meagre shape within the disordered covers."

Wolf-Alice becomes more human, but retains enough beastliness to save the Duke so that

"at last as vivid as real life itself, as if brought into being by her soft, moist, gentle tongue, finally, the face of the Duke."

Thank you for coming on this epic, bloody journey with me. 

Angela Carter gets under your skin; she disturbs your senses and she oozes semi-colons like blood on the snow!

Thank goodness I found an old forgotten copy of Burning Your Boats on the bottom of a TBR pile concealed behind a cheval mirror (I kid you not! How Carteresque!)

Hopefully I will fit in a few more short stories before the 15th.

In the meantime...

This post counts as one of my TBR Pile Reading Challenge and Eclectic Reader (Gothic) books.

Happy Black Friday!

Happy Full Moon!

Superstitions collide as three independent variables - moon phase, weekday & day of the month - come together. 

The next full moon, black Friday wont occur again until 2049.

Howl, hibernate and stay safe!

Angela Carter - the cat stories.

The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tiger's Bride are the next two tales in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber anthology. These two are based on the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast.

I was a little let down, but only a little, after the heady, gothic delights of The Bloody Chamber. They seemed less dangerous and therefore, somehow, less delicious.

Beauty and the Beast is a traditional tale that asks questions about our humanity. What are the signs of civilisation? Morality? Good manners?

Mr Lyon is very courteous and generous - providing food, shelter & help to Beauty's father in an Alice in Wonderland (eat me, drink me) kind of way.

When the father steals the white rose and tries to justify his behaviour, it is the Beast who seems more honorable, in my favourite passage of this story...

"There is always a dignity about great bulk, an assertiveness, a quality of being more there than most of us are. The being who now confronted Beauty's father seemed to him, in his confusion, vaster than the house he owned, ponderous yet swift, and the moonlight glittered on his great, mazy head of hair, on the eyes green as agate, on the golden hairs of the great paws that grasped his shoulders so that their claws pierced the sheepskin as he shook him like an angry child shakes a doll."

Ultimately, of course, Mr Lyon, the Beast was rescued or transformed by Beauty, which sounds quite traditional and uncontroversial.
It's not until we read its companion story The Tiger's Bride, where it is Beauty transformed or rescued by the Beast, that we see the trademark Carter twist.

The Tiger's Bride is a darker, crueler tale.
The father is a selfish gambler who loses Beauty in a card game.
But the Beast is also more beastly and inhuman in his own right.

"I never saw a man so big look so two-dimensional."

"only from a distance would you think The Beast not much different from any other man, although he wears a mask with a man's face painted most beautifully on it."

"He wears a wig too, false hair tied at the nape with a bow....And gloves of blond kid that are yet so huge and clumsy they do not seem to cover hands."

"He is a carnival figure made of papier mäché and crëpe hair."

"he has such a growling impediment in his speech that only his valet, who understands him, can interpret for him."

Carter plays with the idea of baring oneself - one's skin, one's heart, one's soul - until, finally, the Beast is unmasked and Beauty is uncloaked. She feels 'flayed', 'stripped' and 'peeled'.

"'He will lick the skin off me!'"

leaving behind  "a nascent patina of shining hairs...my beautiful fur."

Rather satisfying, I have to say!

Puss-in-Boots follows the traditional tale of success and survival of a very cheeky and worldly ginger cat.

Carter's version is a naughty delight from start to finish.

The story is told from Puss' point of view, with saucy humour and savoir faire. Below are two of my favourite quotes to show you how much fun Carter has with the language in this tale...

"I observe with my own eyes the lovely lady's lubbery husband hump off on his horse like a sack of potatoes to rake in his dues."

"they strip each other bare in a twinkling and she falls back on the bed, shows him the target, he displays the dart, scores an instant bullseye. Bravo!"

Carter explores her usual themes of morality and feminism. Adultery, trickery and murder have to be done to achieve this happy ever after. And the happy ending clearly provides all parties with choices in a very un-fairy tale like way...

"So may all your wives, if you need them, be rich and pretty; and all your husbands, if you want them, be young and virile; and all your cats as wily, perspicacious and resourceful as: 

PUSS-IN-BOOTS."

What's not to love?

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

The Bloody Chamber is the main story in Angela Carter's short story collection, of the same name, first published in 1979.

It turned out to be a tremendous way for me to start off Angela Carter Week. The general consensus seems to be that it is one of her most perfectly constructed tales. Full of evocative language, saucy details, oodles of allusions and symbols and a lovely feminist twist.

The Bloody Chamber is an intense, dark, luscious, stirring, eerie tale in the style of Perrault's fairytale, Bluebeard, that explores the nature of curiosity & destiny.

We are constantly & beautifully reminded of these two themes,

In the train en route to the castle 

"Our destination, my destiny."

In the castle library

"The picture had a caption: 'Reproof of curiosity.'"

Upon receiving the keys to the castle

"I lay in our wide bed accompanied by, a sleepless companion, my dark newborn curiosity."

On being discovered

"I had played a game in which every move was governed by a destiny as oppressive and omnipotent as himself, since that destiny was himself; and I had lost."

Fairy tales traditionally require the maiden in distress to be rescued by their father, brother or lover.
But from the very beginning of The Bloody Chamber we know there are no brothers and no father. The lover who presents himself half way through is young and blind.

Will she be a victim or a heroine?

How will she escape her destiny? 

Her acceptance also seems her doom:

"I knew no good Breton earth would cover me, like a last, faithful lover; I had another fate."

That is until her wild haired, horse riding, service revolver toting mother bursts through the castle gates and she discovers that 

"her future looks quite different now that she has escaped from the old story and is learning to sing a new song." 

(from Helen Simpson's Introduction 2006).

I thoroughly enjoyed this old tale retold with a modern sensibility & I hope the rest of the collection lives up to my raised expectations.

Angela Carter Week 8 - 15th June 2014

Well, this is a lovely little find.

Caroline @Beauty Is A Sleeping Cat and Delia @Postcards From Asia are co-hosting an Angela Carter month on their blogs.

I have a copy of The Bloody Chamber which I've been meaning to read for simply ages.
(Actually, I started reading it years ago but for some reason I didn't finish it.)

It will also fit nicely into my TBR Reading Challenge & Gothic Fiction selection for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

It's time.

What will you be reading this during Angela Carter Week?

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb

I can't believe I've let this gem of a book languish on my TBR pile for two years.

Parisians is a wonderfully rich, engaging, engrossing stroll through the lesser known stories that populate the history of Paris.

I say stroll deliberately.
Robb has chosen stories that highlight the streets and buildings of Paris.

We see a young Napoleon visiting Paris on family business, strolling around the Palais-Royal and losing his virginity.

We see Charles-Axel Guillaumot and his work (obsession) with the Catacombs - the map of under Paris was more complete & accurate than the one above ground at that time!

We see Marie-Antoinette wandering around lost, trying to find the rendezvous point for their infamous near-escape from Paris.

We see the real life story behind Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo.

And we see Madame Zola view Paris from atop the brand new Eiffel Tower & learn of her husband's affair.

Each story is a snapshot. A fleshed out, personal glimpse into one small section of a life, a street, a house, a quartier. Robb's storytelling abilities brings each vignette to life - full of the complexities, uncertainties & messiness of real life.

The only problem I have with the book is the double page map at the beginning - it's too small to read the names of the streets and building properly! (And I have the original HB from 2010, not the smaller PB that came out later).

I like to know which area of Paris each chapter is set in. I want my fingers to stroll down the streets and around the buildings along with all the people who populate this book.

I started this book a few days ago in anticipation.

I have been counting down to Zoladdiction hosted by Fanda @Classiclit!

I was very tempted to start one of my books, but decided to do some 'setting the scene' reading instead.

When I discovered that one of the chapters in Parisians was 'Madame Zola', I knew I had found the book to tide me over and get me in the mood.

My knowledge & understanding of Zola is limited to the few introductory bio's in the the few Zola books I have on hand.

I know that he was born April 2, 1840 & given the moniker Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola! I know that he wrote the Rougon-Macquart series of books as well as the famous J'accuse letter in defence of Alfred Dreyfus.

He married Alexandrine, but had an affair and 2 children with Jeanne. In one bio I read I was informed that Alexandrine forgave him his indiscretions and helped to raise the 2 children.

Which made the final paragraph of Parisians: Madame Zola even more interesting.

Robb finished this chapter with an excerpt of a letter from Alexandrine to Jeanne after Émile's death...

The demonstrations of homage to our dear great hero were truly magnificent. The future bodes well for the father of our dear children. One day, they will want to find out all they can about the labours to which he devoted his life before it was cut short. I hope they will understand that by the manner in which they comport themselves they will help to preserve the glory of the name Zola. You will be there to direct them and to teach them many things - unfortunately far fewer than I might have taught them, for you did not know him as well as I, who lived at his side for thirty-eight years. 

His violent death has struck us both a cruel blow, and in our suffering, the affection of his children has been a great happiness to me. I feel as though their affection comes from him, and this makes me cherish them even more than I would have thought possible.

Ouch! That bitch-slap still reverberates 112 years later!

On that note...which Zola to get stuck into?

I have pb copies of Nana, The Ladies' Delight (Au Bonheur des Dames) and The Dream. I also have Germinal on my epad partially read (I dislike reading the screen which is the only reason I haven't finished it.

Any suggestions?
Parisians also counts as a book from my TBR pile, Around the World & Books on France Reading Challenges.

Elegy For Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear

I'm a little in love with the amazing Maisie Dobbs.

She's smart, thoughtful & reserved. She's a flawed character with a tragic past. She's strong, determined and above all, honest.
Integrity, honour and justice are traits that she tries to live by and work with.

Which can be challenging when you're a private investigator asked to check into the suspicious death of a childhood chum.

Each of Maisie's cases reveals a little more about her past and how this impacts on the way she manages her life and relationships now.

Elegy For Eddie  - book 9 in the series - is no different.

Maisie's war time experiences have had a huge impact on her. Her psychological training not only coming in handy to solve the crime, but to give her insight into her own actions and behaviours.

Part of the pleasure within this series, is the setting - between wars London.
This book is full of visits to Covent Garden in all its working class grittiness. Tea shops, costermongers, stables, factories, fog and the River Thames all feature regularly.

Having visited Covent Garden in more modern times it's hard to imagine the smells, the noise & the potential dangers that inhabited this area in times gone by. Winspear helps to bring it to life though thanks to the memories and stories told to her by her father.

Maisie Dobbs is a totally charming series. Easy to read, with no blood and gore or forensic science in sight!

I would happily recommend these books to young teen readers (as well as the usual adult target audience) who enjoy historical fiction wrapped up in gentle crime.

Elegy for Eddie counts as another book read from my TBR pile, Around the World challenge,  Eclectic Reader challenge (cosy crime) and for the What's in a Name Reading Challenge.

My Royal Story: Elizabeth by Kathryn Lasky

I wish these books had been around when I was a younger reader.

They tick all my historical fiction/fictionalised history boxes beautifully.

Elizabeth: A Tudor Princess's Diary 1544 is my first dip into The Royal Story series and I can't recommend them highly enough for young lovers of history.

It's an easy to read diary format full of interesting facts about the time.

But the main purpose of a diary is self-reflection and emotions.

We see inside Elizabeth's heart - her complicated feelings for her father and mother, the difficult relationships with her siblings, her affection for young Dudley and her ladies.

We get glimpses of her steely character, her bravery and famous independence.

Kathryn Lasky has also written a Royal Story about Mary Queen of Scots and Marie Antoinette.

Perfect for mature 10+ readers.

Elizabeth also fulfills the criteria for my TBR Pile Challenge and What's in a Name Challenge.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I've read The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns by John Green previously and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. So I was expecting quite a lot from An Abundance of Katherines.

I was, therefore, disappointed when it didn't 'grab' me straight off.

I found Colin annoying more than endearing and the dialogue with his friend, Hassan seemed forced rather than funny. And I can't begin to tell you how much I hated their use of the word 'fug'.


I almost gave up.

But then on pg 119 Lindsay asks the boys, "Hey, why the fuck do you and Hassan say fug all the time?"

And it turns out that they had a very good reason - I just wish the revelation hadn't come past the halfway mark!

This is not as good as Green's other books, but it still has lots of great things to say about relationships, life viewed through teen eyes and growing up.

Perhaps it's having a child prodigy as your lead?

Not many readers can identify with that. And it certainly takes a long time to warm to Colin.

Whereas, Green's other books have likeable protagonists that could be anyone, anywhere.

An Abundance of Katherines contains swearing, sexual references and one sex scene. It also contains maths equations, footnotes & an appendix!

It also counts as a book for my TBR Pile Challenge, Eclectic Reader Challenge, Literary Explorations Reading Challenge & What's In A Name Challenge.

2014 Challenges

It's that time of year - when the New Year challenge call goes out to those of us in blogger land.

Will we, or won't we join up? How many challenges? Will I keep to my plan? Or is simply something else to fail at?

So far I've avoided yearly challenges in my 5 years of blogging.
I love a read-along or a special event, like Austen in August or Pym reading week.

I adore The Classics Club with it's five year, open-ended plan to read 50 classics (or in my case 75). It's something I would have done anyway, but the CC actually gives me a purpose and reason  for those times I might feel a little unmotivated.

Given how much I've enjoyed the CC, I decided it was time to join in a few of the 2014 challenges on offer that might help me stay focused and give me a structure to fall back on.

Firstly, Adam @Roof Beam Reader is hosting The Official 2014 TBR Pile Challenge. His challenge is simple and goes like this...

This  challenge was started after I realized I had such an issue buying books but never reading them (not because I don’t read – but because I have such a book buying problem!). So, year after year, books would sit on my shelf, untouched, and I would end up reading newer ones first. I realized I was missing out on a lot of great books because I let them sit there gathering dust instead of reading them as I bought them.

The Goal: To finally read 12 books from your “to be read” pile (within 12 months).

Obviously, to anyone who has seen the pile of unread books by my bed, this challenge and I are a match made in heaven.

But because I like to make simple things difficult, I've decided to combine more than one challenge!

Onto Shelley Rae @Book'd Out and her Eclectic Reader Challenge. 

The idea is to read 12 books, one from each category listed below. I figured I had enough books in my TBR pile to cover the first 11 categories easily!

*  You can read your chosen titles in any order, at any pace, just complete the challenge by December 31st 2014 to be eligible for the prize drawing.

Categories

1. Award Winning  - The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (New Zealand)
2. True Crime (Non Fiction) 

3. Romantic Comedy 

4. Alternate History Fiction 

5. Graphic Novel 

6. Cosy Mystery Fiction 

7. Gothic Fiction 

8. War/Military Fiction 

9. Anthology 

10. Medical Thriller Fiction 

11. Travel (Non Fiction) 

12. Published in 2014 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

But to make life REALLY interesting, I discovered that Shannon @Giraffe Days is hosting an Around the World Challenge for 2014.

The idea is to read books set in "a specific country or region with a noticeable attention to location of environment."

She has allowed for different participation levels by creating 4 levels - the happy camper (min of 2 books), the wayfarer (min of 4 books), casual tourist (min of 6 books) & the seasoned traveller (12 book challenge).

The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata (Japan)
Parisians by Graham Robb (France)
The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee (India)

The list below makes me a Wayfarer, but I'm sure I will read more books from around the world as the year progresses.

My list is beginning to look a little something like this...

1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Award Winning, TBR & North America)

2. Jerilderee Letter by Ned Kelly (True Crime, TBR & Australia)

3. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (Rom Com & TBR)

4. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (Alt History & TBR)

5. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (Graphic Novel & TBR)

6. Maisie Dobbs: Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear (Cosy Mystery, TBR & Britain)

7. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (Gothic, TBR & Classics Club)

8. Parade's End by Ford Maddox Ford (War, TBR & Classics Club)

9. The Philosophy of Food edited by David Kaplan (Anthology, TBR)

10. Next by Michael Crichton (this is the tricky one - Medical Thriller - my least favourite genre! This book is officially on Mr Books TBR pile and not mine, but it's in the house, unread by me, and as close as I'll  probably get !)

11. Thin Paths by Julia Blackburn (Travel, TBR & Italy)

12. TBA in 2014!

Adam wisely suggested having a couple of back up titles in case one or two of the above turn out to be duds or not do-able. 

1. The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov (War, TBR, Russia & Classics Club)

2. Sherlock Holmes (Cosy Mystery, TBR, Britain)

3. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Award Winning, TBR, France)

4. Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk (Award, TBR, Turkey)

All the books in the challenges below are also titles from my TBR piles! I'm hoping to really put a dint in it this year (as long as I resist the urge to keep adding to it!!)

What's in a Name? is being hosted by The Worm Hole.

The idea is to read a book that fits into the categories creatively designed by the host.

This year, the categories are (with some of my possibilities in brackets):

1.  A Reference to Time (11/22/63, Parade's End and Next)

2.  A Position of Royalty (Winter King, The Sun King, Children of the King)

3.  A Number Written in Letters (Ninety-Three, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness)

4.  A Forename or Names (Olive Kitteridge, An Abundance of Katherines, Elizabeth: My Royal Story, Eugenie Grandet, Villette, Nana & Maisie Dobbs: Elegy For Eddie)

5.  A Type or Element of Weather (Cold Spring Harbor, Summer Lies, Winter Journal)

Karen at Books and Chocolate is now hosting Back to the Classics.

Books must be at least 50 years old and fit the categories below:

1. A 20th Century Classic ( To the Lighthouse, Olive Kitteridge )
2. A 19th Century Classic (The Jerilderee Letters, Eugenie Grandet, Sherlock Holmes, No Name)
3. A Classic by a Woman Author (Villette)
4. A Classic in Translation  If English is not your primary language, then books originally published in English are acceptable.  You could also read the book in its original language if you are willing and able to do so. (something by Dostoyevski, Balzac (Eugenie Grandet) Proust, Emilé Zola (Nana) or Mikhail Bulgakov)
5. A Wartime Classic  2014 will be the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.  Any book relating to a war is fine -- WWI, WWII, the French Revolution, the War of the Worlds -- your choice. (Parade's End, Ninety-Three, Regeneration)
6. A Classic by an Author Who Is New To You This can be any author whose works you have not read before.  It doesn't necessarily have to be an author you've never heard of.  (The Chateau by William Maxwell, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath)

There are a number of other 2014 challenges around that my reading list above (& remaining TBR piles around the house) could also apply to. 

Such as:

Fanda @Classiclit who is hosting the History Reading Challenge (London by Peter Ackroyd, Culture & Imperialism by Edward W Said, The Boy: A Holocaust Story by Dan Porat, 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski, Marie Curie).

Michael +Literary Exploration who is hosting his annual Literary Exploration Challenge (it should be easy for me to complete the easy challenge, but a little more effort will be required to get through the next two levels - Click here for my Goodreads page for this challenge.

Joy's Book Blog and her New Years Resolution Reading Challenge (maybe I will finally tackle my 2013 What Colour is Your Parachute? book)

There's always the Chunkster Reading Challenge (The Luminaries, The Brothers Karamazov, No Name by Wilkie Collins, A Place of Greater Safety, Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee, The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee) 

Words and Peace's Books on France Reading Challenge (Father Gariot, Eugenie Grandet, The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, Paris at the End of the World, The Chateau, Chronicles of Old Paris, The Flaneur, The Devil's Pool, Indiana, The Reef, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Louise de la Valliere, Swann's Way, Parisians by Graham Robb).

The Foodie's Read (The Omnivore's Dilemma, Cooked & Season to Taste) 

Or the Colour Coded Reading Challenge (The White Earth, Olive Kitteridge, The Colour Purple, The Red Necklace, The Silver Blade, The Blue Castle) to keep me going!

Am I crazy? Have I been too ambitious? Or will it be a fun way to get through some of the books on my TBR pile in 2014?

Wish me luck !