Well, I’ve been absolutely dreadful about keeping up with the Classics Club challenge.  I am planning an update for next week, but it won’t be pretty.  To be honest, life has become so hectic lately that I barely remember what I put on my Classics Club list – let alone actually spend time reading the books and blogging about them.  I want to get better about it though, so I am recommitting to the challenge, and to keep myself engaged I’m also planning to respond to the monthly memes.  February’s question is a good one:

What about modern classics? Pick a book published since 2000 and say why you think it will be considered as a “classic” in the future.

When I hear the phrase “modern classic,” the first thing that pops into my head is a name: Margaret Atwood.  I think her entire oeuvre is destined to be considered classic one day.  Maybe some of it already is – The Handmaid’s Tale, for instance, which was published in 1985 and therefore is not responsive to this question (although it is less than 50 years old, so wouldn’t qualify for the regular Classics Club challenge either).  It took me awhile to get my head in a place where I could really appreciate Atwood, but once I got there I blazed through five of her books in 2013-14.  So for this question, I’m going to cheat just a little bit and name, instead of just one book, a trilogy.  Specifically, the MaddAddam Trilogy:

Oryx and Crake (published 2003)
The Year of the Flood (published 2009)
MaddAddam (published 2013)

There is just so much in these books that I can’t see how future readers could fail to consider them classics.  So much about genetics, science, media, corporate responsibility, religion, relationships… There’s humor, especially in MaddAddam – Toby recounting Zeb’s life story to the Crakers made for some of my favorite moments of the entire trilogy.  “Yes, good kind Crake.  Please stop singing.”  There’s phenomenal descriptive writing and astounding creativity.  There are some of the best drawn characters I’ve ever encountered – Zeb, Toby, Adam One, Snowman, Crake…   And all of that good stuff is wrapped up in a really fantastic story that keeps getting bigger with each book.

My one complaint about the trilogy is the depiction of child abuse in Oryx and Crake.  I’ve come a ways as a reader and I’m no longer put off by difficult subjects or upsetting imagery if it advances the story.  (Exhibit A: The Handmaid’s Tale.)  But I didn’t think the child abuse was at all necessary for the plot of Oryx and Crake – the same messages about the media could easily have been conveyed by some other means – and as a mom, it really, really bugged me.  (Actually, I think those scenes – and there were not many of them; it really was a small part of the book – would have bugged me even if I wasn’t a mom.)  It’s also possible that, for all I’ve grown to be able to work through difficult topics, child abuse may just be one of those topics that I am never going to want to touch with a ten foot pole, and I do think it’s okay to have certain preferences as a reader.  But that’s really my only gripe about the MaddAddam trilogy – a small sub-plot in the first book, which never pops up again.

So that’s my answer for the February meme.  I think the MaddAddam Trilogy has all the makings of a classic: outstanding writing, magnificent plot and characters, and food for thought on every page.  And now I want to go back and re-read MaddAddam, which was my favorite of the three.

What “modern” book do you think is destined for classichood?  

(Image sourced from Google.)

Like many American lawyers, I count Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird as one of my prime inspirations in joining the legal world, and the novel’s hero, Atticus Finch, as one of my great professional heroes (yes, I know he’s fictional, and no, I don’t care).  I first read To Kill a Mockingbird the summer before my freshman year in high school, and I was staggered by it.  I knew about my country’s shameful history of racial injustice, but To Kill a Mockingbird brought it home to me like nothing else.  There are many characters in the novel, and many converging storylines, but it was Atticus and his brave defense of a man on whom the justice system had turned its back that spoke to me most.  I’ve read the book countless times since.  I still have my tattered paperback copy from that summer before starting high school.  It’ll always be one of my favorite books.  And like many readers, I always wished Harper Lee had written more.

Well.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the big literary news.  Harper Lee did write more.  Her first novel, Go Set a Watchman, has just been rediscovered – and for the one or two people who haven’t already read the synopsis, it focuses on Scout as an adult woman, coming home to Maycomb to visit her father in the 1950s, and witnessing events there.  Lee wrote Go Set a Watchman before writing To Kill a Mockingbird.  As the story goes, the book contained some flashbacks to Scout’s childhood that Lee’s editor thought were particularly good, so he encouraged her to turn those into a book.  To Kill a Mockingbird was born, and Go Set a Watchman was forgotten.

Until now, that is.  What we’ve been told is that Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, found Watchman stapled to the back of a Mockingbird manuscript.  Lee believed Watchman to have been long since lost, and is allegedly “delighted” that it has turned up and is being published.  And published with a vengeance – Harper Collins is apparently planning a first printing of two million copies.  Two million.  On a first printing.  Basically, they’re expecting everyone and their dog to buy this book, and they’ll most likely be proven right.  Which leads me to my question:

Are you going to buy Go Set a Watchman?

Since I heard the news, my feelings on the subject have waffled even more than they usually do.  (And that’s saying something.  I’m a champion waffler.)  At first, I was elated.  NEW HARPER LEE NOVEL!  WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT!  Basically, my head exploded with the rest of the bookish internet.  Is it July yet?

And then.  And then.  I read some of the thoughtful pieces, written by people more deliberative than I, laying out some very real concerns about the story we’re all being fed.  First, Book Riot posted “Uncollected Thoughts on the New Harper Lee Novel,” in which Jeff O’Neal described some of the issues surrounding the release, including:

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being Lee’s full-throated 100% attributable consent and 10 being the shadiest of shady dealings on behalf of the people around her, I give it a…..dammit. I wish I could give a vigorous defense of this or a heartfelt attack. I just don’t know what we are dealing with. Is the story we are being given possible? Absolutely. Is it weird that Alice Lee recently died and that Harper herself has actively avoided public life for 50 years? More than weird. Whatever the truth is, I think it is probably beyond our understanding and that there is much more going on than either a worst case or a best case scenario. If you want to go into reading this book, and reading about this book even, with your eyes open, you are probably going to have to get used to the idea that you don’t know what the truth is.

There’s a lot more there, so go read the full post.  Since Book Riot’s post expressing concerns – concerns which many in the literary world share – new statements have come out purporting to be from Lee herself, affirming her approval of the project and her delight in the rediscovery of a manuscript that hasn’t seen the light of day in more than half a century, and her hurt at having to defend her competency to authorize publication of her first work.  So now, the question is, can we believe that these statements are really coming from Lee herself?  Or are they coming from others around her – namely, attorney Tonja Carter, who is apparently the only person involved in this process with direct access to Lee?  As I knew she would, my friend Amal had plenty to say on the subject:

Is Carter committing elder abuse, which is defined under Alabama law as “the maltreatment of an older person, age 60 or above”? It includes material exploitation: “The unauthorized use of funds or any resources of an elderly individual or the misuse of power of attorney or representative payee status for one’s own advantage or profit. Examples include stealing jewelry or other property and obtaining the elderly person’s signature for transfer of property or for a will through duress or coercion.”  Code of Ala. § 38-9D-2  (2014).

Again, I encourage you to go read Amal’s entire post, and her other posts on Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird.  (Amal is also an attorney and also a big Lee fan.)  Amal’s blog has a collection of some of the best thought-out posts I’ve ever read about Harper Lee and the legal controversies surrounding her in recent years.  And to be honest, as soon as I heard of some of the questions concerning Lee’s true feelings on the publication of Go Set a Watchman, one of my first questions was, I wonder what Amal thinks about this?

Amal has said that she won’t be buying a copy of Go Set a Watchman until she’s comfortably confident that her favorite author is not being taken advantage of.  And she has a point.  The entire situation smells funny.  Is it elder abuse?  I certainly hope not, but as Jeff O’Neal points out in Book Riot’s post, we might never really know.  And Harper Collins certainly doesn’t expect that people will be put off by the uncertainty of the situation – not if they’re ordering a two million copy initial printing.  The publisher is clearly banking on the buzz and the fact that it’s a new novel by Harper Freaking Lee.  This book could be nothing but a list of names and people would buy it.

As for me?  I don’t know.  I started out leaping around my house (as much as I can leap around in my third trimester) and chewing hubby’s ear off about how excited I am about this book and now… now I just feel squicky about the whole thing.  (That’s right, squicky.  It’s an industry term.)  I really, really don’t want to support any endeavor that takes advantage of anyone’s age or declining health, maybe least of all that of the woman who wrote the Great American Novel.  (Yep, it’s been written already.)  But… dang.  I have to know what’s in this book.  So now I just don’t know what to do.  Am I going to buy Go Set a Watchman?  If I’m being completely honest, I have to say… I probably am.  I really, really respect Amal’s scruples, and the scruples of anyone else who can resist buying this book until they have a comfort level that Lee really is delighted with the whole thing.  And part of me worries that if I don’t take a stand against the publication (at least until we have some clearly unbiased information about Lee’s approval) I’m part of the problem.  But I don’t know that I’m strong enough to stay away from this book – especially if, as Jeff suggests, we might have to make peace with never knowing for sure.  Gah.  I sure wish these issues were simple.  But as Atticus Finch could attest, they never are.

What about you?  Are you going to buy/read Go Set a Watchman?  How conflicted are you about the whole situation?

One more post to go in my week of bookish 2014 wrap-ups, and then we’ll really be done and on our way to 2015 reading!  Coming up with book superlatives is always one of my favorite yearly wrap-up posts.  Anyone else’s high school yearbook do “senior superlatives?”  I actually won one – “shortest” – sigh.  But even though my superlative was a bit of a disappointment (I was going for “Teacher’s Pet”) I still love doling out the awards to the books I read each year.  So here we go, the bookish class of 2014…

 Brainiest – This year’s Valedictorian is The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, for shedding light on an aspect of World War II history of which I was completely unaware.  I was hooked from the first page, and I learned a lot.

 Best Looking – With the whimsical illustrations and the gorgeous reprints of letters handwritten by J.R.R. Tolkein himself, Letters from Father Christmas is a shoo-in for this one.  Tolkien’s children were lucky indeed, to get these beautiful missives every Christmas.

 Best Friends – I wish I could have lived at Patty’s Place with Anne, Priscilla, Stella and Phil during their years at Redmond College.  Whenever I need a dose of cozy girlfriend chatter, I know I can find it between the pages of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of the Island.

 Class Clown – This would have to be The Honest Toddler: A Child’s Guide to Parenting, written under the supervision of Bunmi Laditan.  I’m a huge fan of HT (as anyone who follows me on Twitter will be sure to know – sorry for all the retweets, but I can’t help myself!) and here my second-favorite toddler has written a parenting guide full of LOLs.  I was rolling on the floor as I read it.

 Biggest Jock – Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line – And Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity, by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea, is my pick for biggest jock.  I can always count on SBS and Dimity for a dose of motherly encouragement in running, parenting and life.  I bought their second Another Mother Runner book in hopes that they’d get me across the finish line of my first marathon.  Pregnancy intervened, but I’ll be looking to my favorite #motherrunner duo for plenty of inspiration in 2015.

 Teacher’s Pet – Hmmmm, this was a tough category to award this year.  I usually have quite a few books in school settings, but not for 2014.  So, the superlative goes to Laura Ingalls Wilder, circa These Happy Golden Years, in which Laura tries her hand at teaching to help support her family and save money for her sister Mary to go away to a college for the blind.  Teaching is not Laura’s passion, to say the least, but she does her best, and for that she’s Teacher’s Pet this year.

 Biggest Nerd – This year’s award goes to a book nerd – a lady after my own heart!  Rebecca Mead’s My Life in Middlemarch will speak to any bookworm who has read her way through the same favorite classic, to the point where it becomes part of her life story.  (That’d be Jane Eyre for me, but I certainly know what Mead is talking about.)

 Most Creative – I read a lot of creative books this year, but The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, takes the prize.  Wecker merges two cultural traditions, and two mythical beings, into a rich tapestry of a story in which 1890s New York City is another living, breathing character.  I hung on every word and didn’t want the book to end, ever.

 Most Opinionated – God is an Astronaut, by Alyson Foster, might seem like an odd choice for this superlative, but stick with me here.  Reading between the lines of the story, which describes the crumbling marriage of a botany professor and her husband, an executive in a private space travel company weathering a major catastrophe, there’s a lot here about science and ethics.

 Most Likely to End Up in Hollywood – Let me preface this by saying that if this book does end up in Hollywood, I won’t be going to see the movie.  I’m not a horror fan in general, and while I did frantically turn pages to see what would happen in M.R. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts, and while I think it would make an incredibly gripping movie… it’s just way too scary for me!

 Biggest Rebel – Is there a rebel more rebellious than Flavia de Luce?  I read four of her adventures this year – A Red Herring Without Mustard, I am Half Sick of Shadows, Speaking from Among the Bones, and The Dead in their Vaulted Arches – and loved every moment of watching my favorite diabolical chemist break all the rules, solve murders and torment her two obnoxious older sisters.

 Biggest Loner – Amy Gallup, from Jincy Willet’s The Writing Class and Amy Falls Down, wins this category, hands-down.  All Amy wants is to hole up in her house with her resentful Basset hound, Alphonse, and write her blog “GO AWAY.”  But the outside world keeps intruding on Amy – first in the form of a murderous writing student, and then later in the form of unexpected career success.  What’s a washed-up recluse to do?  (Read these books, please.  They’re terrific!)

 Cutest Couple – I read so many books with fantastic romantic plots this year, but the 2014 superlative just has to go to Laura and Almanzo Wilder, from the Little House books.  I mean, Almanzo sensing Laura’s homesickness and arriving every Friday on his sleigh to bring her home from her teaching job?  And still showing up even after she told him she was basically just using him for the ride?  Swoon.

 Most Likely to Succeed – Marcus Samuelsson is a true success story, as his memoir Yes, Chef perfectly illustrates.  Born into poverty in Ethiopia and adopted, along with his sister, by a Swedish family, Marcus cultivates a love for cooking and follows his passion all the way to the top rung of the foodie career ladder – winning “Top Chef,” cooking for President Obama, and opening his own restaurant in Harlem.  He doesn’t gloss over his mistakes and failures, but you’ll cheer for him all the way.

And that wraps up my look back at bookish (or not-so-bookish) 2014!  How was your year in reading?  What book was your valedictorian, and who was your prom queen?

BOO!

Happy Halloween, all!  I hope that your day is filled with no tricks and plenty of treats.  We’re going low-key this year, because it turns out Peanut is a gigantic scaredy-cat and hates everything to do with Halloween.  More on this to come.  But in case you’re up for more Fright Night shenanigans than we are over here, I’ve got a list of a few spooky, creepy, or eerie books to send a chill down your spine tonight.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – In this installment of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures, our intrepid detective is called to the spooky Dartmoor region to investigate reports of a spectral hound that has haunted a local aristocrat to his death and is now stalking his heir.  Holmes doesn’t believe in supernatural dog hauntings… do you?

The Penguin Book of Witches, ed. Katherine Howe – I’m midway through this one now (wanted to finish it by Halloween, but didn’t quite manage it) and am completely fascinated.  Howe has compiled an absorbing little volume of primary source materials on witchcraft in medieval England and the early Colonies, which she explains in clear prose through her prodigious scholarship.  Reading primary sources on the English and American witch hunts is both interesting and chilling.

The Writing Class, by Jincy Willet – Not a “spooky” novel, per se, but definitely one that will chill you to the bone.  This is a poison pen/murder mystery novel featuring reclusive writing teacher Amy Gallup, whose local university extension class is terrorized by a “class sniper” with a wicked pen, a talent for writing, and a complete disregard for human life.  Pretty scary stuff, and I guarantee you’ll think twice before signing up for your local extension classes.

A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness – If you haven’t already read the All Souls trilogy, featuring witch Diana Bishop and vampire Matthew Clairmont, there’s no better time than Halloween.  A Discovery of Witches is the first, but they get better and better as the trilogy progresses.  This is “Twilight for the grad school set,” as I described it to my mom, and if you’ve been avoiding vampire novels because… well, you know, the silliness… this is one series you might actually enjoy.  It’s still silly, but in a surprisingly absorbing way.

The Girl With All the Gifts, by M.E. Carey – I didn’t say much about this in my review of it back this summer when I read it, and I won’t say much now, because I don’t want to give away the plot.  Let’s just say, this is the only horror novel I’ve ever read and while I wouldn’t say I necessarily enjoyed the experience, I was glued to the book because I just had to know what would happen.  I can usually spot a twist a mile away, but this book had one that took even me by surprise, so bonus!  If you enjoy the occasional gory horror piece, give this a try.  Shudder.

There!  That ought to give you plenty of material for your Mischief Night.  Now, what are you waiting for?  Get to reading – it’s almost the witching hour!

A little over a week ago, Anne of Modern Mrs. Darcy suggested that we all “make Autumn Reading a thing” and shared a TBR list for fall.  Anne’s fall TBR contained some of my favorite books – L.M. Montgomery’s Emily series, for one, and I Capture the Castle for another – and some books that I’ve been wanting to read for awhile – Crossing to Safety being the big one; I need to read some Wallace Stegner.  I loved the idea, and making a fall TBR seems like a good way to get out of my current reading slump.  So here are ten books I’d like to take on this fall (oh, I won’t get to all of them, but I hope to cross at least a few off of this list):

Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery.  I love the Anne books, as you all surely know, and Anne of the Island is my favorite.  I think that this installment, in which Anne goes off to Redmond College, finds new girlfriends, learns to be independent, and ultimately falls in love, is the perfect book for back to school season.

 Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens.  “Read some Dickens” is one of the items on my fall list, since there is a serious Dickens-shaped hole in my reading career thus far.  I’ve read Oliver Twist, like a million years ago, and A Christmas Carol a few times around the holidays, but nothing else.  I want to read it all, but let’s start with what I’ve always thought of as the Big Kahuna of the Dickens Bibliography.

 Village School, by Miss Read.  It’s been too long since I’ve visited Fairacre, and a spell with my favorite fictional teacher-friends is in order.  Another great back to school season read, the first Fairacre novel introduces us to the charming village and all its eccentric residents.  I can’t wait to go back.

 All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.  I just keep hearing fantastic things about this new release, and I think it’s time to pick it up.

 Lion in the Valley (Amelia Peabody #4), by Elizabeth Peters.  Fall is also a good time to pick up a cozy mystery (I mean, the word “cozy” is part of the genre, for goodness’ sake) and the Amelia Peabody books are my current series.  I loved the first, liked the second, and really liked the third, so I’m excited to get back to my favorite indomitable Victorian Egyptologist.

 Miss Buncle’s Book, by D.E. Stevenson.  I bought this charming reissue of a 1930s comedic tale shortly before we moved.  The story of a woman who writes a book featuring the residents of her small English town, with ensuing hijinks, sounds like such fun, and perfect for reading on a chilly fall day with a cup of tea in my hand.

 Jane Austen’s England, by Roy and Lesley Adkins.  Fall is back to school time, as I’ve already mentioned a few times in this post, which means it’s time to get our learn on!  With Jane Austen’s England I’ll immerse myself in Georgian England and, hopefully, pick up a bunch of new facts about my favorite author.

 Amy Falls Down, by Jincy Willet.  I read and loved the first novel featuring Amy Gallup, The Writing Class, and fall strikes me as the perfect season to visit with my favorite antisocial professor again.

 What We See When We Read, by Peter Mendelsund.  More learning for fall, and I think this book looks crazy fascinating.

 Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson.  Added because it’s been on my TBR forever and a day, and it sounds like just the kind of compelling book that would make for perfect snuggling-under-blankets-and-getting-lost-in-words reading material.

I almost certainly won’t read all of these books this fall.  Life continues to be busy and crazy, and many of these choices are books I own but that are still packed in boxes with no hope of getting out anytime soon.  (I have to find the 2T hand-me-downs my BFF J sent for Peanut before I do anything else.  Then I have to organize my kitchen, find the rest of my work shoes, locate my slippers…)  But if I get the chance to sit and read at all this fall, I’m hoping it will be one of these books in my hands.

Are you making autumn reading a thing?  What’s on your fall TBR?

I’m a little late to the party with this, seeing as tomorrow is the last day of July, but I can’t resist.  It’s been a good year of reading thus far, and I want to give you my highlights.  So without belaboring the point, my top 10 books of the first half of 2014:

The Writing Class, by Jincy Willet – Sharply written, suspenseful, and utterly engaging from the very first page, this story of a maniac terrorizing a learning extension fiction-writing class had me both furiously flipping pages and trying to slow down my reading to make it last longer.

The Dead in their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce #6), by Alan Bradley – The sixth volume (and most recent) in the Flavia de Luce mystery series was a marvelous read – heart-wrenching, sweet, and surprising.  The series is primed to move in a new direction now and I can’t wait to follow Flavia’s adventures as she embraces her destiny.

Little House on the Prairie (Little House #2), by Laura Ingalls Wilder – A childhood favorite I revisited this January, I loved this just as much as I remember.  Although the thought did enter my mind, for the first time on reading these books: what did Ma think of all of Pa’s schemes and plans?

Henrietta’s War and Henrietta Sees it Through, by Joyce Dennys – Loved these two epistolary novellas. Henrietta, a Devon doctor’s wife, keeps her “dear childhood’s friend” Robert up-to-date on the home front happenings while he is off fighting for King George in World War II.  Sweet, but not without a little bitterness to temper things.

My Life in Middlemarch, by Rebecca Meade – Meade achieves what every bookish girl dreams of: the chance to travel around and immerse herself in the world of her favorite author (George Eliot).  I read and loved Middlemarch for the first time last year and I so enjoyed learning more about George Eliot and the world of Middlemarch (I love that Mary Garth!) through the eyes of a devoted fan.

I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, by Courtney Maum – Richard Haddon has to snap his artistic temperament right out of a funk when his (gorgeous, intelligent, French, totally-out-of-his-league) wife discovers his infidelity.  In trying to sort out the mess he’s made of his life, Richard has a major epiphany: he loves his wife, and he wants her back.  This was funny, sad, heart-warming and uplifting.  And it didn’t hurt that Maum’s wonderful descriptive writing focused on such settings as Paris, London, the French coastline, and New England.

The Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody #1), by Elizabeth Peters – Amelia Peabody (indomitable Victorian spinster, forever armed with umbrella and sundry other weapons) is a marvelous character.  Her first Egyptian adventure is full of fun.  This is a can’t-miss if you enjoy cozy mysteries of the Agatha Christie variety, with a touch of the exotic for interest.

Snobs, by Julian Fellowes – The creator of Downton Abbey and Gosford Park can, of course, be trusted for sparkling wit and good upper-crust fox-hunt fun.  I enjoyed this romp through 1990s Society-with-a-capital-S and the steamy British theatre world.

God is an Astronaut, by Alyson Foster – When a tragedy strikes Spaceco, a private space-travel corporation in which Jess’s husband Liam is a principal, Jess doesn’t know where to turn.  Fraught with anxiety over the accident, and unable to seek any comfort from her embattled marriage, Jess throws herself into building a greenhouse and writing long emails to her colleague Arthur, on sabbatical from their university botany department.  Jess’s emails are funny, pathetic, a touch clingy, and brutally honest about the disaster and her own mistakes.

There you have it – my top ten books of the year thus far!  What have you read and particularly enjoyed in the first half… errrrr, seven months… of 2014?