July 30-comparing two favorite characters

This month I read both a mystery by J.D. Robb and a novel by Jacqueline Winspear, two of the series that I have discovered recently and I’m trying to catch up on.  Although they are completely different types of stories I have a good time comparing Maisie Dobbs with Eve Dallas-in some ways the antithesis of each other and yet some similarities at the core.  Both had difficult childhoods and both have suffered a traumatic experience with which they have to deal.  Both investigate mysteries:  Maisie as a private investigator and psychologist who has incredible intuition and an ability to read people; and Eve as a homicide detective for the New York City police.  Both are passionate about their jobs, Maisie with not only solving the “mystery” but helping all concerned deal with the aftermath and Eve with standing as Justice for the victim making sure the perpetrator pays for the crime.  Both are strong females that work at managing their vulnerability.    I like both of these characters and, especially in the J.D. Robb series, it s one of the main reasons that I keep going back to the series.

Unfortunately, I may never meet anyone who reads both so I can discuss this idea-unless I can convince Mary to read the Maisie Dobbs series.  I’m amazed that she likes the Eve Dallas series; I think she might like Maisie even better.  Diana doesn’t like Eve and I suspect Melinda wouldn’t, either-too gritty, and too futuristic-but they both like Maisie.

Winspear’s series is clearly better literature with each one being well crafted and historically researched.  So far there are five books in the series.  I found book five in hardcover on a sale table at B&N last week so sometime in the next few weeks I will be caught up and anxiously awaiting another installment.  Robb churns out her series at the rate of two a year in addition to all the books she cranks out under the Nora Roberts name.  I’ve read the first twelve plus two others out of order; in November she will publish number 27.  It will take me quite a while to catch up.  One thing that helps with the catching up is that these are very fast reads, a maximum of two easy nights reading assuming I’m smart and go to bed on time and don’t stay up to finish it! Let’s face it.  I like the Eve Dallas series because it’s chick fantasy!   Much of the attraction of the Maisie Dobbs series is its historical accuracy as well as appealing continuing characters you care about.

July 31-2008 goals and plans for the blog

I’ve been so busy trying to set up my new book blog that I’ve only had time to make one daily note-which may be defeating the purpose of the blog, which is to share my thoughts on reading.   In fact, I found I was also neglecting my reading.  I had set a goal of trying to read a minimum of six books a month for this year and I had to stay up late tonight to finish my 6^th book for July.  However, I’m still well ahead for the year since in the first six months I averaged nearly 9 books a month-53 books completed by the end of June.

My goal for the second six months is to read at least one classic book every month as well as to continue reading at least six books each month.  Luckily, in July my classic book was a short one.  If I decide to tackle Anna Karenina this year I may be glad I’m so far ahead in my total book tally!  In addition to having had a desire for many years to read that novel, it has the added bonus of giving me a big boost toward my goal of 10,000 pages from my personal library in 2008.  I have just a little over 2,000 pages more to reach my goal and Anna would be about half of the amount I have left.  Since all my classics will be from my personal library this year I have a good chance to exceed that goal, also.

However, first I must finish setting up the blog.  I planned to have the blog “start” with January of this year as I can draw from this journal to fill in the first six months.  I think I have May, June and the rest of July to catch up.  When reading I often make connections to other books I’ve read so I may go back to previous journals when I find a relationship between a current book and one I’ve read previously.  I also tend to read “series” books-especially mysteries-so I will use the earlier journals to fill in there, also.  One important thing I must learn next is how to make internal links when I want to refer to a book I’ve already read so the reader of the blog can just click a link to go to than review.

Crane, Stephen:  The Red Badge of Courage

I’m not sure how I managed to miss reading this for so many years because it is one of the most well known American classics about the Civil War.  It was never a reading assignment for me in school for which I am now glad because I’m sure I enjoyed it more as an adult than I would have as a student.

This is an “interior” novel that emphasizes the thoughts and emotions of a young, idealistic boy who enlists in the Union army against his mother’s advice and prayers.  He goes off with ideas of the glory of battle after reading such classic accounts of war for which the ancient Greeks were renowned.  He quickly learns that the reality is nothing like the ideal of the classic wars.  Crane does a good job of giving us the ups and downs of the daily life of a foot soldier and excellent descriptions of battles.  However, the focus of the novel is Henry Fielding’s (often referred to merely as “the youth”) adolescent perceptions and reactions to the daily grind of the soldier and to his concerns about how he appears to the other soldiers.   This is a coming of age novel that takes place in the hellish conditions of armed conflict.  It deserves its classic designation but if it is assigned to students it should be read and discussed in small doses.  There is essentially no plot to keep a young person’s interest but it could make a great discussion book about dealing with the ups and downs of adolescent emotions.

While reading this book I also started reading a book of Walt Whitman’s Complete Poems.  I know he had written poems about the Civil War so I looked up some of them.  After reading this very realistic novel most of them seemed to me to be a too romanticized look at the war.  However, one of them captured well the feel of a scene described by Crane early in the book.  I know Crane never witnessed anything of the civil War; I wonder if Whitman did.

CALVALRY CROSSING A FORD

A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,

They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun-

hark to the musical clank,

Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering

stop to drink,

Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a

picture, the negligent rest on the saddles,

Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering

the ford-while,

Scarlet and blue and snowy white,

The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind.

(Walt Whitman)

Winspear, Jacqueline:  Messenger of Truth

I’m having a dilemma and so is my public library system about how to classify the Maisie Dobbs series.  Some of the local libraries, including mine, are putting these novels in the adult fiction area while others are classifying them as adult mystery (at least there is no doubt that they are “adult”).   Although I filed the previous reviews I’ve done on this series under mysteries, I have decided that they really do belong in general fiction.  The plots are more complex than most mysteries and involve more than one plot thread; although sometimes these threads overlap, they are not neatly tied into a tidy package at the end and usually there are things to ponder when the last page is read.  The “mystery” in each novel is not a puzzle to be solved but a story to be unraveled so that one or more characters can go on with his/her life.  There is character development within each story and not only with continuing series characters. One of the chief delights of the series is how Winspear takes us back to an historical time, the period between to two World Wars of the 20^th century in England.  We get to see the effects of this period across the entire social strata from the poor struggling to survive to the “last hurrah” of the peers of the realm who have no clue what is happening in the lower levels of society.

This entry in the series concerns the death of a famous artist on the eve of the opening of his largest exhibition.  While working on how he will exhibit his largest masterpiece, which no one has ever seen nor knows what it consists of, he accidentally falls to his death from the scaffold on which he is working.   His twin sister is not satisfied with the explanation of the police about his death and goes to Maisie Dobbs to have her investigate not only the death but what happened to the missing masterpiece.  Because the artist was a “war artist” there are memories of the war revived, in addition to a portrait of a once wealthy landed family dealing with not only artistic temperament but also how to cope with straitened circumstances.  Both Maisie and her aide, Billy, also have problems with which Maisie must deal.  This is a very satisfying if somewhat sobering story.  I highly recommend this series.

To me an interesting connection between this story and The Red Badge of Courage, which I also read this month, is that both novels have a scene where a cease fire is called so that the warring armies can go out on the battlefield to remove their wounded and bury their dead.  In Winspear’s novel there is poignant description of a meeting between soldiers from opposite sides who accidentally meet face to face amid the carnage and hug each other as they shed tears for their dead comrades.   This is followed by a horrifying account of what happens to one of the soldiers when he returns behind his own army’s line.

June 13-Friday

[note:  When I wrote this I didn't have a blog.  It was my difficulty being active in the challenge that prompted me start the blog.]

I’m really falling down on the job for journaling.  I’ve been struggling trying to get active in the Classics challenge I plan to do the last 6 months of this year.  Because I don’t have a blog site I’m experiencing a little difficulty getting my post on.  Also, I’ve discovered that they do not plan to actually discuss the books we are reading but just record them and get credit for them.  I’m disappointed about that because I thought this would be a chance to “talk” about books.  This was the post I left to answer a questionnaire they posted (I’m hoping it made the list):

My favorite classic?

Wow!  What a decision!  I probably have one for every day of the week.  The 2 classics I have reread the most are Pride and Prejudice (1st read in 8th grade and reread it probably every couple of years) and Lord of the Rings trilogy (1^st read during Easter vacation the 1st year I was married and have reread at least a dozen times–most recently in 2006 when I led a seminar at my church about it).

The classic I most wish to reread?

The Brother Karamazov: I read it in both HS and college (not assigned–I just wanted to) and loved it.  I would like to see how I would react now.

Classic I had the toughest time finishing?

The Three Musketeers–tried it several years ago and couldn’t get into it; tried it again this year and had the same problem.  Maybe I should read it for the challenge.

Recommendations for those who are concerned about classics:

There are lots of children’s and YA classics that are worth reading and go quickly-The Secret Garden by Burnett and A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle come to mind.

I am not a fan of horror novels but there are three 19^th century classic horror novels that I have read and loved that are short–quick reads if you are concerned about getting bogged down.  This will give you another genre and also 3 countries are represented:

THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James (American): Eerie and has an open ended dénouement.  This is thought provoking and the scariest of the three in my opinion.  Don’t read it if you demand closure; read it at the same time as a friend and you can have great discussions about it.  I read this in college just before the movie came out-now I’m motivated to read it again and see how it “wears.”

FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley (Great Britain/ England):–wife of the poet and written when she was about 19 years old-forget the movies; this is a great short novel.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson (Great Britain/Scotland):  After seeing the musical a couple of years ago I wanted to read the original. Yesterday I finally did it so I could include it on this list. This is another one to forget any dramatized versions-this is classic good vs. evil.  I only wish I could have read it before I knew the secret.  That’s pretty hard to do now but the story still holds your interest especially as a psychological thriller of the 19^th century-pre-Freud.  It is short-more of a novella-but a great story.

If you want to read a longer 19^th century horror story I highly recommend DRACULLA by Bram Stoker.  I have avoided vampire stories all my life-definitely “not my thing!”  When THE HISTORIAN by Kostova came out a couple of years ago I had several people insist I read it so I decided I had better read “the original” Dracula novel first.  I was astounded at how much I liked Stoker’s novel-essentially a classic tale of good vs. evil told in a very riveting way.  (If you like WOMAN IN WHITE I think you would like this, also.)  I liked Stoker’s novel much more than I did Kostova’s.  One of my sons suggested I should have read them in the opposite order and I might have enjoyed Kostova’s more-it just seemed pale after DRACULA.