What Should I Read?

In addition to the books that we read as a group, we undoubtedly occasionally pick up a book that we think is worth recommending to our fellow readers. By way of a comment, let us know if you are reading (or have read) a book that you think is worth our consideration. We won't discuss this book, but it is a good chance to become acquainted with different books.

Poor Anne.....

I read The Kingmaker’s Daughter  with my Nook in one hand and my Ipad in my other so that I could have a quick and direct line to Wikipedia. I have never spent so much time looking up the history of people to see if what I was reading was true.

I found The Kingmaker’s Daughter” to be a compelling and very readable book about a relatively unknown character in British history. We have all heard of Richard III, if only from the Shakespeare play, but little is apparently actually known about Anne and her sister Isabel. Because of this, it must have been fun for author Philippa Gregory to fill in the blanks.

I think that Gregory portrayed Anne as a young and impressionable girl who was starved for love and willing to do whatever her father told her to do because she thought it would be best for her country, and because she so wanted him to love her. I never felt as though she had a strong desire to be queen to fulfill her own ambitions, but only to do what was best for her country.

Poor Anne had very little going for her in the way of relationships. In her ever changing world, she was uncertain who to trust and who to fear. And frankly, throughout the book, I wasn’t always certain who was the good guy and who was the bad guy as it seemed to keep changing.

So, then I would again reach for my Ipad and try to find what historians said, and frankly, it seems as though Gregory took a lot of liberty in how she portrayed everyone. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. As a fiction writer, Gregory undoubtedly went for drama and excitement. I just had to keep reminding myself that what I was reading was not necessarily the truth.

Poor Anne had what seems to be a totally one-sided relationship with her father, a terribly confusing relationship with her sister, and virtually no relationship with her mother (who I found to be despicable).  History supports the idea that her father was an ambitious man who would do anything he could to be in power.

I never quite knew how to feel about Isabel. She too was a pawn in her father’s ambitious plans, and the scene in which she gives birth to the baby at sea is horrifying. She seemed to be the only one (at least prior to marrying Richard) who gave a hoot about Anne, though it often seemed to only be when it was in her best interest. I wonder how the book would have read had Isabel been the narrator. I don’t think she had the same feeling for her father as did Anne. I think Isabel was much more realistic.

By the way, history tells us that Edward the King was actually a very good ruler overall. And while Elizabeth is presented as a fairly vile witch-like character, history doesn’t necessarily support that portrayal. But the number of children is accurate. My, didn’t she just seem to crank them out?

I found Richard to be a very interesting character. In this book, he is portrayed as a decent man who loved Anne. Other portrayals are obviously different (e.g. Shakespeare’s Richard III). I kept waiting for him to become evil. Even his relationship with the princess was presented (at least by Richard to Anne) as necessary in order to save England. Well, Anne bought it anyway. I am interested to know how the rest of you felt about Richard, and whether you bought his love for her (at least in this novel).

It was sad that Anne couldn’t have more children.

I really liked this book. I read all of Gregory’s stories about Henry VIII and all of his wives, and then got a bit burnt out. But I think I want to read the Cousins series. Apparently Gregory deals at least a little bit with the mysterious boys in the tower in the next novel. In my journal, I gave this book an 8.

What did you all think?

New Attitude

Ethereal Reader Book Club began in October 2009 from an idea hatched by my sister Jen and me. We are both voracious readers, were dissatisfied with our existing book clubs, and needed an outlet to talk about books we read.

We started out as a small group that consisted mainly of my sisters, with some other family members thrown in. Over time, we have added a few new members. The idea always was that participation was voluntary and there was no pressure. If a member wanted to participate fully by voting on books, reading the chosen book, and posting comments about the book, then that was awesome. However, if a member only wanted to read some of the books, and maybe didn’t want to participate at all via comments, or only wanted to find out the names of some new and interesting books, or only wanted to participate some of the time, that was all okay.

In the beginning, we had a pretty good discussion about books. We would comment back and forth, at least to a certain degree, which is what my sister and I had envisioned. Over time, however, participation changed. Fewer people read the books, and fewer still participated. And the discussion became more like book reports.

And we all remember what it felt like in high school when you had to write a book report. So it’s no wonder that participation dwindled.

As we talked to members to see why they couldn’t or wouldn’t participate, we found out that some people felt they just didn’t have time to read a book in the time we allotted. Others felt that the books we chose were too dark and they didn’t want to waste valuable reading time with a dark book. Still others just hated the part about commenting.

So, being very open-minded (but also stubborn enough to not throw in the towel) , we decided to go back to the drawing board and see if we could shake things up a bit. After all, there is still a core group of about five that participate fully, and we would like to continue to talk books with them (and add to that group if possible).

Action plan:

We have come up with a list of six books that we are going to read over the next 12 months. The list, which admittedly was compiled by a small group, consists of a variety of books:  a nonfiction, a couple of novels, a mystery, a couple of classics. Yes, taking away the voting part makes this a dictatorship/book club, but we were getting fewer and fewer voters, and last time my sisters and I chose the book as no one else voted. Our thought is that this way participants can look ahead and decide which of the books interests them. Since one of the chief complaints was that members didn’t have enough time to read as they were busy with family activities, work, etc., we feel knowing the books and the dates 12 months in advance will allow everyone time to read the books they actually want to read.

Knowing the books ahead of time will also allow us to tell our friends who may want to participate in the discussion for just a certain book. I really believe the more people that participate in Ethereal Reader, the better the discussion.

And, as for discussion, we would really like to encourage a return to not just commenting, but reacting to others’ comments. In fact, after the initial review, don’t feel like you need to write a dissertation about the book (unless you feel so inclined). Our plan was always that participants would react to the initial review, adding thoughts of their own. We would like to make this as interactive as is possible in this format.

Here is the list of books, along with the dates of reading and discussion:

The Kingmaker’s Daughter, by Philippa Gregory

                Read from April 1 through May 25; discussion May 25 through June 1

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, by Matthew Goodman

                Read from June 2 to July 27; discussion July 27 to August 3

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini

                Read from August 4 to September 28; discussion September 28 to October 5

My Antonia, by Willa Cather

                Read from October 6 through November 16 (shorter reading time because it is a shorter book); discussion November 16 to November 23

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

                Read from November 24 through December 28, discussion December 28 to January 4

Damage Control, by J.A. Jance

                Read from January 5 through February 22; discussion February 23 to March 1

I will send a reminder email as we start each book. I will be interested in hearing how you all feel about knowing the books in advance. And, as usual, if you have any ideas on how to make our discussions better, or anything else, let me know. Also, if you have any trouble making your comments, let me know that as well and we can coach you. Worse case scenario, I can post your comment for you.

One last thought, some time ago Margaret had suggested that we have a section where we talk about other books we are reading/have read. I, being a technology simpleton, don’t know how to do that as part of the blog, other than putting it in the comment section. I will continue to work on figuring that out. In the meantime, please let all of us know when you are excited about a book. 

Book Review (or why the guests were uninvited...

Wow. I’m not even sure what to say about this book. I vascillated between hating it and being extremely amused by it. I can’t say I ever loved it.

I generally am very clear on how I feel about the characters in a book. Sometimes I am disgruntled to find that I don’t like a character that I think the author wants me to like. Except for Emerald, and perhaps Patience and Ernest, and of course Smudge, I heartily disliked the characters most of the time, but liked them on and off. But my suspicion is that this is exactly what the author wants me to feel.

Though the social mores of the main characters were disturbing (i.e. ignoring the train survivors in lieu of preparing for the party), I could understand (if not forgive) because of my love of Downton Abbey. The classes were the classes in post-Victoria n England, and these characters could not be any different, even though they were actually quite penniless.

I found the author’s writing style quite charming and quirky. The plot was bizarre, but funny – almost like a play. In fact, I could see making this into a play. The story of Smudge and the pony was hilarious. In fact, the intermingling of everything that was happening as the night ensued was really funny, and I could have actually whole-heartedly loved this book if it hadn’t been for the whole ghost thing that seemed to come out of nowhere and then be dismissed fairly off-handedly.

Charles was utterly despicable, but apparently quite charming and charismatic. I was initially morally affronted during the parlor game in which guests were to name something unique about one of the others, and I began squirming when it seemed to turn mean. How could they do this, I wondered. All of the sudden, a memory came crawling into my mind – something not even my two sisters know about and will be horrified to read.

When I was in junior high school, I went to the birthday party of one of my school friends, whose mother had a hair salon in their basement. Not surprisingly, BOYS crashed the party. Nothing good comes of an unsupervised gathering of junior high girls and boys. At some point, the boys decided it would be hilarious to write something on one of the girls’ foreheads using nail polish. Yours truly was the one selected. Now, most assuredly, some little voice in my head told me this was not a good idea; nevertheless, in an unending pursuit of popularity, I agreed to it. I was blindfolded, and one of the boys proceeded to use nail polish to write on my forehead. Upon removing the blindfold, I discovered the boy had hilariously written F*** on my face. Now whether nail polish remover was unavailable or we just didn’t think about it, the way we removed the polish was by using a brillo pad to scrape off the top layer of my skin, leaving a bright red mark across the top of my face.

The reason this memory came back is that it reminded me just how easily human nature allows us to do something that is profoundly wrong just to be accepted by others. That is what I saw happening during that parlor game. The guests all knew it was wrong, and yet they kept playing and, in fact, became quite mean. Interesting.

Once it was disclosed that Charles was a ghost, I realized that the others were ghosts as well, so the ending didn’t really come as a surprise.

I would definitely NOT recommend this book to others, though, as I said, I found the author’s writing to be quite funny, and the story to be really clever at times. Still, it says a lot that the best thing I can say about this book is that it was blessedly short.

Happy 2013

As a result of some serious family events that took place at the end of 2012, Ethereal Reader sort of fell by the wayside. I had hoped that we could do as we did last year and read and report on a Christmas novel (or two) of your choice. Didn't happen.

But 2013 is a new year, and a new start for Ethereal Reader. Here are your three choices for our next book discussion:

The Uninvited Guests, by Sadie Jones
Fallen Skies, by Philippa Gregory
The Shell Seekers, by Rosamund Pilcher

You have until this Monday, January 14, to vote by emailing me at kzmclain@comcast.net.

I Spy

Sorry that I'm late in posting this review. I sort of lost track of time.

I recently read Winter of the World, a very long and detailed account of World War II written as a novel by Ken Follett. It was an extremely good book, but quite dark and detailed in its examination of this yucky war.

But because of my recent reading of this novel, I was somewhat apprehensive about reading Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, though I was intrigued by its description, and the fact that it was the first in a series. My apprehension was proven unnecessary.

Mr. Churchill’s Secretary isn’t a comedy; however, it is a novel about one of the more interesting facets of the war, and told through fairly light-hearted characters. I had read and heard before about the fact that spies abounded during WWII, and in fact there were posters posted during this period reminding people that any Tom, Dick, or Harriet could be a spy. But this was sort of an easier demonstration of this phenomenon.

Jen texted me one night and said, “I like this book. There are spies EVERYWHERE.” And so it was. I found myself trying to figure out who was the spy and who wasn’t. I was convinced throughout that John was going to end up being the spy, and was relieved when that wasn’t so. I also suspected Chuck and the twins. Must say I never suspected Paige.

I thought this book definitely had first-bookitis. Some of the plot themes were kind of predictable. For example, the three friends – Paige, Sarah, and Maggie – were blonde, brunette, and redhead – kind of like a Barbie Doll collection. Still, I gave Macneal the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she was going for cheesy, sort of like a Dashiell Hammett mystery. She even featured martinis prominently in the book. And I loved all of her descriptions of clothes and hairstyles. It gave me a strong sense of time and place.

But, I found it confusing that Maggie got her job as Churchill’s secretary because Mrs. Tinsley got sick. Then, Mrs. Tinsley never came back?????? She was mentioned at the end of the book, but why didn’t she get her job back as his secretary?

I liked the presentation of Maggie as an independent-thinking woman who was ahead of the game when it came to women’s liberation.

  

It was somewhat unbelieveable to me that Maggie’s family and friends kept the fact that her father was alive a secret for so long. Why? Reality suspension I guess.

I also really liked the use of real characters mixed with fictional characters. I of course liked Churchill, but I also enjoyed the references to some of our most highly-respected people and their acceptance of Nazism, at least initially (e.g., Joe Kennedy). It’s interesting to note that there are two sides to most stories. While there is nothing good to say about the Nazis as they played out, it is interesting to be reminded about the economic conditions that made Hitler even remotely make sense to anyone.

Finally, I think it gave a good perspective about what war looks like from different perspectives. The Irish characters were only concerned about Ireland, and so they supported the Nazis as a way of getting to the British, for example. War stinks, but everyone has a different perspective about it. Still, I can’t imagine living the way people had to during the war, never knowing when the bombs were going to drop.

A good read overall.

Fall Book Selections

I am offering three book choices for our Fall (pre-Christmas) book:

In Need of a Good Wife, by Kelly O'Connor McNees
Violets of March, by Sarah Jio
Mr. Churchill's Secretary, by Susan Elia MacNeal

Email your vote to kzmclain@comcast.net by Friday, November 3.