Badgwendel's Blog, page 3

What the Devil is A Clothing Coupon?

I’m at work, stacks of printouts growing taller and taller on my desk and listening to Kate Macdonald’s Why I Really This This Book (p.s. it’s brilliant and if you love older books you need to listen to this podcast ASAP) when I found myself nodding and saying out loud as one of the very handsome IT guys from next door strode by my desk “Oh I have so been there…wait…so I’ve been using context clues in reading?” Because like Kate trying to figure out sledding and what delightful goodies Katy’s family sent her at school, I’ve been using context clues to figure out concepts in all the older British novels that seem to make up more and more of my reading. But context clues can only take you so far. Sometimes…well sometimes you need more. And I need to remember that very handsome IT guys walk by my desk ALL THE TIME.

Luckily, earlier reading and having parents who plopped me down in the front of the television with them while they watched Upstairs, Downstairs back in the dark ages (aka the 1970s), Victorian culture doesn’t confuse me as badly as it could to say…Blacklight. Let’s just say whenever I run the vacuum cleaner over my bare toes (shoes are evil) yes I curse the vacuum cleaner but a little voice also says “girl, you could be using a carpet sweeper and used tea leaves and be on your hands and knees”. Or when I blind myself with shampoo in the shower? The little voice “imagine how gross your hair would feel if you couldn’t shampoo it every day? Or had to use soap on it? And no lovely fancy dan conditioner?”. That little voice? Quite wise.

But until I stumbled across certain books, that little voice wasn’t quite so knowledgeable about World War II England. I mean I figured out rationing and clothing coupons thanks to Noel Streatfeild’s Theater Shoes and 1940s House on PBS, but I didn’t realize just how complicated the whole thing was. Now? If my fellow Anglophile coworker ever came over for tea? There would be certain gaps in my bookshelf.

The following books are quite wonderful on their own as social documents of daily life in World War II England and can be purchased from your local bookseller. But they also add a certain “ahhh…oh yes” to reading and re-reading World War II fiction and non fiction. Silly example. Reading Joyce Dennys’ Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945, I wondered how Faith would get a layette together and deal with rations for little No-well (Noel). Well it turns out there are clothing coupons and ration cards to address that very situation.

The British Home Front Pocket-Book 1940-1942 from the Ministry of Information. (ISBN 978-1-84486-122-4) A treasure trove of information about everything from rations, evacuation, air raid shelters and more. I now know how to build a shelter in the middle of my living room if need be. (Blacklight: “WHOOO! Fort!”)
101 Things for the Housewife to Do 1949 by Lillie B. and Arthur C. Horth (ISBN 978-0-7134-9056-5) Yes, this from 1949 but remember Britain was still under rationing and restrictions even in this post war time. Make do and mend was still in full force. And after reading the section on growing bulbs? I completely understand the Provincial Lady’s agonies every year.
Make Do and Mend: Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations edited by Jill Norman (ISBN 978-1-84317-265-9) Facsimiles of actual Government Ministry leaflets about how to make your clothes last long with proper care and mending. Turns out I haven’t been too far off in my attempts to darn my dad’s socks. And I can totally see Vera from A Dark Adapted Eye reading each one of these pamphlets with the greatest of care before turning two old dresses into a new one or unraveling a sweater to re-use the yarn to make things for the infant Jamie.
Eating for Victory: Health Home Front Cooking on War Rations edited by Jill Norman (ISBN 978-1-84317-264-2) Even more facsimiles of Government Ministry leaflets with the focus on food and heating your home. Maybe Faith from Henrietta’s War: New from the Home Front 1939-1942 should have read these instead of lamenting the loss of silk stockings for her amazing and awe inspiring legs? And even though these are British publications, I can see the ladies of “Noah’s Ark”, especially Mrs Rasmussen giving a nod of approval before turning a toothpick, a pinch of salt, a tomato and three broken crackers into a lavish feast fit to build the puny Steve Rogers into a great big buff ripped to all get out Captain America without the super soldier formula.

Right now I have Lillie B. and Arthur C. Horth’s 101 Things to Do in Wartime 1940 on order. And if it’s anything like the above titles? It will be a most welcome addition to my bookshelves.

*what is a clothing coupon? Clothes were subject to rationing in the war. People were issued ration books with clothing points or coupons. You had to give so many coupons plus cash to purchase new shoes or stockings or materials or notions and the like. Used/secondhand clothes didn’t need coupons but had fixed prices.

Filed under: Books You Need, Ministry of Information, World War II Tagged: Books You Need, Get Your Learn On, Ministry of Information, the Home Front, World War II

Henrietta’s War

You know you’ve discovered a good book when you mention said book to a coworker and the coworker’s eyes light up while they demand you send them the author’s name and titles ASAP. Another sign your book is a winner? Seeing Coworker’s shoulders slump when you explain “oh golly gee…you can get them from the X and Y libraries…once I return my inter-library loans…”. But Coworker forgives you because they’re just as big an Anglophile as you are.

Now what book had Coworker plotting just how fast I could read and return a certain book? Henrietta’s War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys. I’m not certain I might have stumbled across this little charmer without Amazon’s Customers Also Bought Items By while I was bemoaning  how very budget wrecking snapping up E.M. Delafield on Kindle would be to my wallet. The local library system had a few of Joyce Dennys’ books and the descriptions seemed interesting, so what did I have to lose?

Like her fellow Andre Deutsch Limited author Helene Hanff, Joyce Dennys was doing a spring clean one day when she came across some old writings from World War II. But instead of the relatively anonymous Helene Hanff’s letters to a London book shop, Joyce Dennys’ old writings were from her articles published in each issue of Sketch magazine, letters from an imaginary Doctor’s wife in the countryside writing about life at home to her childhood friend Robert fighting in the war. Our Doctor’s wife, Henrietta is a faithful correspondent, giving Robert all the little details about her daily life with the Doctor (Charles), her two grown children Bill and the Linnet, their dog Perry and all their friends and foes in the village.

I’m very tempted to burble on and on about the charming writing, the rough little sketches in each letter (done by Joyce Dennys herself) that even though they are just rough little sketches, you can get the warm and loving nature of Lady B in all her Helen E. Hokinson like club woman glory and the glamorous divorcee Faith who oozes a magic spell over everyone like a Peter Arno showgirl. So yes, burble I did. Henrietta’s War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 really is truly charming. You get a look at a way of life that is vanishing and how the everyday residents of a seaside village are coping with the upheavals. Liquor is in short supply but Charles manages to scrape up some sherry to offer to Lady B and use the ends of this and that for Christmas cocktails. During Marmalade Week, the residents are wondering how they will make their usual bounty with restrictions on sugar. Village glamor girl Faith has the idea of using saccharine tablets in place of the desired sugar. Her plan is flawed but it’s a plan. But a war isn’t going to keep our villagers from their rounds of visits and parties even if face powder and stockings are soon to be in short supply.

Henrietta’s War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 is a slim book and before you know it, you’ve devoured Henrietta’s letters to Robert and have questions plaguing you. Will Henrietta get to join in war work or is she just doomed to tend house and dig in the garden with a hot water bottle on her back until the war ends? Will Faith’s devoted suitor The Conductor ever get Faith to be all his? Will Lady B keep being the utter rock of grace and sense in wanting to defend her beloved country? But worry not, because there’s a second Henrietta book, Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945.

Filed under: Andre Deutsch Limited, awesome sauce, book review, charming, Henrietta's War, Joyce Dennys, Library Raid, The Home Front, World War II Tagged: book review, charming, Henrietta's War, Joyce Dennys, Library Raid, the Home Front, World War II, You Need to Read This Book

Starting 2014 Off Right!

Conversation with The Most Evil Brother Ever (aka Andy) on Sunday night.

Andy: “Yeah, so I went down to the Danbury Barnes & Noble this morning…”

Me: “That’s funny. I went to the one by Westfarms this afternoon. Just got a calendar for my desk.”

Andy: ” Their computer books section is so small. Think they’re on the chopping block?”

Me: “The Danbury one? I don’t know…they’re right next to Danbury Fair (a mall) and easy highway access. And they were one of the first Barnes & Noble superstores. I mean they survived the Borders threat. I totally see the Waterbury one getting closed though.”

Andy: “Yeah, you’ve got a point there. Hey, want to go to the Book Barn on New Year’s Day…”

Me: “Heck yeah! Just got to make sure I don’t slip and fall on ice in my apartment parking lot like I did this year…”

Fast forward to today (Wednesday January 1, 2014). Andy and I were the first customers at the main Book Barn. Adorable cats were cooed at (my favorite Book Barn cat, Bitey Cat aka Jake, was curled up at the cash desk and in NO MOOD FOR PETS). And a very sweet little black cat decided I should be giving all the pets vs looking at any books in the Annex. Seriously, I was looking for D.E. Stevenson on the shelves with my left hand while the little black cat was straining to get at my right hand. Andy? Just laughed and headed for the main building to check out the history section. Andy is NOT a cat person.

And yes, books were bought! Here’s what came home with me today.

A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Letters and Diaries by Barbara Pym
Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy by Flora Thompson (PBS tie-in trade paperback. Would have bought the illustrated Lark Rise to Candleford hardcover but it was …abridged…I don’t do abridged.)
The Mystery at Lilac Inn (#4 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories(TM) by Carolyn Keene (yellow back hardcover with the 1950s updates. No judging. This is my favorite Nancy Drew story ever.)
80th Anniversary Limited Edition: The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (TM) by Carolyn Keene (how could I not buy this? It’s the source. The wellspring. The first. And only $1.o0)
Victorian Household Hints: Useful Hints & Tips to Keep a Well-Managed Household by Elizabeth Drury (Blacklight is laughing. Especially since I’m in a “why why why” mode about housework right now. But I do love me some vintage household hints.)
Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (one of my all time favorite books ever. Lovely hardcover. Bought a copy for my favorite baby niece a few years ago and hope she’ll love it as much as I do.)

Andy found some lovely finds too. He snapped up a massive book on cartography, a Latin grammar, Latin dictionaries, a book on early civilizations and several sci fi mass market paperbacks. And if he’s still in Connecticut on January 1, 2015? We’ll be in his car, waiting for 9 am and Book Barn to open.

 

 

 

Filed under: adventure time!, awesome sauce, book addiction, Book Barn, books, bookstore, Buy All The Books, New Year's Day tradition Tagged: Barbara Pym, Book Barn, Books. book addiction, bookstore, Buy All The Books, Carolyn Keene, Elizabeth Drury, Flora Thompson, New Year's tradition, Rachel Field

Buy All The Books!

I could be trolling the Lands’ End website, looking for the perfect grey, pink and green cardigans to add to the rainbow of Lands’ End fine gauge classic cardigans in my closet. Or I could be ordering a tiny bottle of Demeter’s Paperback because few things are sexier than smelling like books. Instead I’m on a mad hunt to replace wonderful, charming, enchanting and most delightful cozy reads that are disappearing from the local libraries. And the saddest thing? I know I’m not the only person reading these vanishing books because half the time I’m waiting for the books to be returned by another patron before I can get my little undead raccoon hands on them!

Perhaps I should have know something was up when I was in Canton and decided to check out Jacqueline Susann’s very first book Every Night, Josephine! Sometimes you just need to read about a glamorous poodle girl and her equally funny and glamorous owner (who was a few years away from Valley of the Dolls mega literary stardom). But when I went to the dog section, no Every Night, Josephine! for me. I shrugged my shoulders (it’s a small library and I can’t imagine Every Night, Josephine! was a huge checkout hit) and got a collection of James Herriot stories instead.

And then the E.M. Delafield Virago Classics disappeared from the stacks. And yesterday, well the Deaccession Squad, they got Faith Addis and Wendy Holden…

A little back story. On my commute to Company X, I listen to audiobooks and podcasts when I’m not listening to NPR. Which is fine and dandy except my dear Mr Honda doesn’t have a CD player or fancy USB port like my brother’s Honda. Mr Honda has a cassette player. And yes, technology and library resources have changed and everyone, I mean everyone has CD players and cassette audiobooks take up so much space and who checks out cassette books anymore  and all those wonderful cassette audiobooks are gone.

But the library in the same town as Company X, a picture perfect Connecticut town you fully expect to see Lorelai Gilmore pop out of a shop clutching a to-go cup of coffee the size of the Titanic as she chats a mile a minute, this town, heck let’s call it Stars Hollow, had tons of space and money and cassette audiobooks. And not just any cassette audiobooks but Clipper Audio cassette audiobooks. I had never heard of Faith Addis until I stumbled across Year of the Cornflake, Green Behind the Ears and Down to Earth. Sure I had read and loved Wendy Holden’s Gossip Hound (I love me some Wendy Holden!) but I had no idea how many of Belinda Black’s adventures had been removed from the US release until I  found the Fame Fatale (UK title of Gossip Hound) cassette audiobook and laughed myself silly on my commute for a most glorious week.

But the Deaccession Squads are busy at work combing the stacks. If I had any idea that some of my favorite books/cassette audiobooks had been on the chopping block I would have been first in line at the library book sales to snap them up. Any wonder I’m on Mr Couch, tracking my Awesome Book UK order for E.M. Delafield Provincial Lady omnibus and searching for Faith Addis? Who will be next? Monica Dickens? Miss Read? Winifred Watson? Joyce Dennys? D.E. Stevenson? Helene Hanff? Barbara Pym? Elizabeth von Armin? Maybe I should just book a ticket to the UK and raid the used bookshops…

Filed under: audiobooks, audiobooks on cassette, book addiction, books, Buy All The Books, deaccession, Deaccession Squad, library, Life is Unfair Tagged: audiobooks, audiobooks on cassette, book addiction, deaccession, Deaccession Squad, libraries, Why Why Why

Merry Christmas! Now Let Me Read…

It’s Christmas morning. Blacklight is trying to get some sleep before we go to my father’s house for Christmas lunch. The kitchen wants cleaning from last night’s snack fest. Upstairs? Go ahead, play Christmas songs at full blast all day long. But me? Getting ready to curl up on Mr Couch with a Christmas read and losing myself between the covers until Blacklight’s alarm goes off.

The Christmas scenes in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series. Don’t care if it’s the Big Woods, the Prairie or the surveyors house in the embryo De Smet, love them all.
Louisa May Alcott’s Christmas stories. Better make sure I have a stack freshly ironed vintage hankies at hand because “The Quiet Little Woman” and “What Love Can Do”? Make me cry and want to be a better person every time I read them.
Miss Read’s Village Christmas and No Holly for Miss Quinn
Maeve Binchy’s This Year It Will Be Different And Other Stories
Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
Nancy Mitford’s Christmas Pudding
Sharon Krum’s The Thing About Jane Spring. We should all pull up for Christmas in a vintage white convertible with the top down!
David Sedaris’ Holidays on Ice

The hardest thing?  Deciding which to read first!

Filed under: books, Books I Loved Back in the Day, Books I Want, Christmas, Christmas Reads, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott, Maeve Binchy, Miss Read, Nancy Mitford, reading, Sharon Krum, Terry Pratchett Tagged: Christmas, Christmas Reads, Leave Me Alone I'm Reading

The War Workers

So I’m visiting the Kindle Store wondering how best to spend a $10 Amazon gift certificate from Company X. Remember I need to get maximum reading value from my money. And as I’m sighing over how expensive the Bloomsbury Reader Kindle editions for E.M. Delafield are, I notice two titles with the magic price of $0.00. Of course I snap them up thinking they’ll be good reading for our trip to Texas next year. But you know that’s like me saying I’m going to parcel out my stash of classic Aero bars or Lindt Almond truffles. Last night I was plundering Mr Kindle for something to read and clicked on E.M. Delafield’s The War Workers.

Now if you do know who E.M. Delafield is, it’s most likely for her most famous book, 1930′s Diary of a Provincial Lady. Which is a lovely and charming book and if you haven’t read it and you adore a cozy read? Track it down! I’ll wait here with an Aero bar while you snap it up from the Kindle Store. But remember there’s more to E.M. Delafield besides our friend the Provincial Lady.

The War Workers focuses on a supply depot in World War I Britain run by Charmain Vivian, known as “Miss Vivian” to the women who toil under her iron fist. Working at the supply depot isn’t easy and the ladies run themselves ragged to tend to the troops coming through on trains and Miss Vivian’s extremely high standards. There are people in the supply depot who feel guilty for taking their well deserved lunch if Miss Vivian doesn’t stop for breaks. If Miss Vivian says “jump”, the ladies say “how high Miss Vivian?”.  The supply depot staff (with the exception of Miss Vivian) when they’re not at the office, train station or manning the military canteen after a long and full day of work, all live in a cramped hostel run by very well meaning and kind manager who tries her best. Our depot ladies range from Miss Vivian devoted secretary Miss Delmege who can’t ever stop singing Miss Vivian praises (no one likes her) to the sweet friendly to everyone girl (Tony-played my head by the very young Deanna Durbin), the distressed Mrs Potter, the always running late Miss Marsh and Welsh newcomer Grace Jones (yes it took more than a few pages to NOT picture Grace Jones the model/singer/actress-this Grace Jones is tidy and well scrubbed and sensible as they come with the tiny exception of getting faint at the sight of blood, of course the dogsbody secretary Miss Delmege loathes her) who butts heads with Miss Vivian.

Oh good golly Miss Molly. Miss Vivian. In my head, Miss Vivian is played by Emma Thompson at her most brittle and nasty. You can almost hear her supply depot staff scraping and bowing and curtseying as she enters a room. At one point her devoted staff think of her as being very much like Queen Elizabeth I. I kept wondering where Charmain Vivian falls on the autism spectrum. And at a few times, how she would rank on the psychopath test. She’s well born (the Vivian family are the local gentry), she has had all the advantages in life and her elderly father adores her. But she’s colder than a marble statue smack dab in the center of the Arctic Circle and has no regard or feeling for her family or the women who are working themselves sick to meet her demands.

At one point, Miss Vivian is forced to stay at the hostel with her staff. The manager of the hostel, Mrs Bullivant gives up her own rooms so Miss Vivian can have as much comfort and a splendor as the hostel can give, the supply depot ladies toil to make the tiny rooms as bright and cheery as can be. There is war on. And the hostel isn’t The Ritz but they make it cozy and even give up some of their own few treasures for Miss Vivian. Heaven forbid Miss Vivian not have a perfect mirror or her very own teapot. Their fearless leader’s reaction? To complain to her former governess in a letter about the horrid conditions and plot to leave as soon as possible. But those same horrid cramped conditions? Just fine and dandy for our supply depot ladies.

When Miss Vivian’s true nature is revealed? Her once devoted staff lose their blinders and find better lives with people who deserve their devotion with the exception of only a few people who you know will never give up their hero worship of Miss Vivian, not even if she stabbed a puppy right in front of them.

Miss Vivian is such a toxic force reading parts of The War Workers dealing directly with her is a chore. I might have wanted to bundle Miss Vivian into a trunk and stick her on a train headed straight for France and the trenches. When Lady Vivian (Miss Vivian’s mother) says she should have whipped the very young Charmain, I wanted to stand up and shout “here here” in my very best George from Blackadder Goes Forth voice. Lady Vivian is a voice of reason and a novel written around her story with Charmain in the very edges would have been quite lovely. She’s not a saint and her open dislike and handling of Charmain after a tragedy is a breath of fresh air. Charmain can take a situation or leave it in her mother’s eyes and you can almost feel the relief flooding through Lady Vivian when Charmain makes her choice.

If you’ve read Angela Thirkell’s World War II era Barsetshire novels (Cheerfulness Breaks In, Northbridge Rectory, Marling Hall, Growing Up and The Headmistress) and want something in a similar vein with a bit more bite? Get thee to your local used bookstore or the Kindle Store and grab E.M. Delafield’s The War Workers. And be very, very grateful your boss isn’t Miss Charmain Vivian.

Filed under: book review, Books That Need To Be Republished, E.M. Delafield, The Battle At Home, The War Workers, World War I Tagged: book review, Books That Need To Be Republished, E.M. Delafield, The War at Home, The War Workers, World War I

Audiobooks: That Voice…

Over the last few months I’ve been tearing through audiobooks like a mad thing. On the way to work. Making my work drawer tremble in fear as I lay waste to it’s contents. Washing the dishes. Cleaning. Cooking. It seems like suddenly my local library is bursting with amazing things to listen to versus the usual bestsellers. Did they get a grant? Did the audiobook fairy visit? Who knows? What I do know is I’m counting on my fingers trying to remember if I’m at my checkout limit of 5 audiobooks when I’m staring at the shelves.

So no surprise I’m writing about audiobooks right? Maybe it’s me but some of these treasures? End up right back in the library book bag before I can even finish the first disc. And it’s not the fault of the story. Many times the book is something I’ve read and loved but the audiobook version? Can’t get it out of the house so enough. Other times? The audiobook gets listened to so many times I can almost recite along. Why? It’s the narrator.

Confession time. This is most likely a huge and horrible thing given how large he looms in the audiobook world and you can certain tell me what a total idiot I am who doesn’t deserve to listen to audiobooks in the comments but I don’t like audiobooks narrated by George Guidall. I’ve watched interviews with the man and he seems like a lovely person. But when he puts on headphones and starts to narrate? THAT. VOICE. I can’t quite describe why it annoys so very much. It just does and distracts me from the story at hand. Pity, since I do like to listen to classics and Recorded Books has some awfully good ones. If I pick up a Recorded Books offering and see George Guidall is the reader? Back on the shelf with you Mr Audiobook!

Then there are narrators who were so perfectly cast in one book that hearing them read another is a jarring experience. When I stumbled across the Recorded Books version of 84, Charing Cross Road read by Barbara Rosenblat? Perfection. The sassy Helene Hanff I imagined writing these zippy little letters was captured perfectly. Barbara Rosenblat reading If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? Sure why not? Erma Bombeck always struck me as a very sassy lady and Barbara Rosenblat? Does sassy so well. Barbara Rosenblat reading a Diane Mott Davidson culinary mystery? Nope. No thanks…

If you’re thinking “hey Gwen, maybe Diane Mott Davidson isn’t as good as Helene Hanff?” Yeah, that’s for sure.  While trying to get ready for the perfect storm of Coworker 123 retiring and an upcoming vacation I snapped up the unabridged audiobooks for Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House. Both are fine Shirley Jackson novels that aren’t on my favorites list but I have friends who adore them. Popped in The Haunting of Hill House. Started listening. Hey, “Toby” from The Year of the Flood (aka Bernadette Dunne) is the reader. Elinor grates. I would like to smack Elinor really hard. Realize I would rather be listening to The Year of the Flood. Next day. Pop in We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Same darn thing.

Bernadette Dunne does such an amazing job bringing Toby in The Year of the Flood to life that no matter what I listen to that she narrates? Bernadette is always going to be Toby to me. It’s like watching a Harrison Ford movie, any Harrison Ford movie and only seeing him as Han Solo or Indiana Jones.

But even with narrators I can’t stand (sorry Mr Guidall), I’ll be in the audiobook section of my local library, picking up an audiobook, flipping it over and then sometimes popping it into my bag. Because, my commute isn’t going to get any shorter and there’s eight glorious hours at Company X to fill my ears with all the books.

Filed under: audiobooks, Recorded Books Tagged: audiobooks, Barbara Rosenblat, Bernadette Dunne, Erma Bombeck, George Guidall, Gwen's Crazy Literary Theories, Helene Hanff, Margaret Atwood, narrators, Recorded Books

MaddAddam Redux

It’s not a huge secret I didn’t love Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam. I wanted to, but I just couldn’t connect with the story. And this disconnect has happened before with other books. I sure couldn’t stand Terry Pratchett’s Snuff when I tried to read it the first time. But, then I listened to Snuff and a book I wanted to jump up and down on became well…not so bad. So when I was at the Berlin Peck Memorial library last week and saw the audiobook of MaddAddam I added it to my pile and brought it home. Now I am fortunate to have a job where I can listen to audiobooks and podcasts all day long as I plug away at my work. And Monday morning I popped in MaddAddam and started to listen. Would the audiobook trick work again?

Having finished up MaddAddam yesterday I can say for me…MaddAddam works so much better as an audiobook versus the book I spent all that time tracking down in September. Unless I’m crazy, the audiobook seems to get rid of the prologue summing up the events from Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood that so many people didn’t like. Bernadette Dunne returns as Toby and there is just something about her voice that makes Toby’s “ZOMG does Zeb wub me?” seem less outtakes from Bridget Jones. And she’s able to make the subtle shift in her tone to convey the experience of telling stories to the Crakers something you picture right down to the face she makes when given the undercooked fish. Bob Walter portrays Zeb and has just the right blend of smart/schemer/trickster to bring Zeb into 3-D. And Robbie Daymond as Toby’s shadow aka the small Craker boy Blackbeard turns that character from an annoying device to an interesting character who makes some of the more bizarre elements of the plot just that much more believable.

The audiobook version of MaddAddam isn’t perfect. I’m still missing the stories that haven’t been told. And some parts of the plot still have me rolling my eyes and almost snorting out bits of chocolate on the keyboard while they unfold. But it’s a good companion to the previous MaddAddam trilogy audiobooks and sure makes the hours fly by.

 

Filed under: Book Versus Audiobook, Is The Audiobook Better, Library Raid, MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood Tagged: audio book, book versus audiobook, Crakers, MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood

Empty Mansions

The very rich have fascinated me since I was just a little thing. You could blame Gloria Vanderbilt, now best known for being news anchor Anderson Cooper’s mom, putting her famous name on jeans, perfume and whatnot. I was dragging home just as many books about the Vanderbilts, Astors and Rockfellers and their ilk as I was sex and shopping novels from Madames Krantz and Collins. (Blacklight: “So once again you’ve changed how?”). Now I have another person to add to my pantheon of tragic and creative socialites. If there is an afterlife for these talented ladies, I really hope Mary Millicent Abigail Rogers and Doris Duke are welcoming Huguette Marcelle Clark with open arms and a quiet sunny art studio.

So you might have heard of Doris Duke (her family put the Duke in Duke University) and Millicent Rogers (granddaughter of Standard Oil’s Henry Huttleston Rogers) but Huguette Clark? Who she?

Instead of shoving Mr Laptop open to Huguette Clark’s Wikipedia page, I can calmly hand the questioner (let’s say…Blacklight) Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr’s excellent Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. It’s not one of those doorstops about the Astor or Vanderbilt clan I would pour over as a teenager. But it’s not a cheap and quick tell all either with Gothic horrors detailed in inflammatory language. The very best way I can sum up Empty Mansions is (and I mean this as quite high praise) it’s like one of those amazing profiles Vanity Fair used to run back in the days before Tina Brown and when Dominick Dunne was at the top of his game. The kind of writing that had me saving my allowance so I could buy the multi-year Vanity Fair subscriptions and line them up issue by issue on my bookshelves.

In all my mooning over the lost Gilded Age mansions in New York City, I never heard of the Copper King William A. Clark.  I never realized the grand and insanely wondrous creation he built for himself, second wife and their two young daughters which was torn down just sixteen years after it was built. Or that the first Girl Scout camp was founded after their older daughter Andree died much too young. And that their surviving daughter Huguette would go into relative social seclusion for decades until the descendants of her half siblings from William A. Clark’s first marriage feared the worst had occurred and decided to find out what happened to her.

There are parts of Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune were you’ll shake your head in sheer disbelief. Or feel to make sure your eyes haven’t popped right out of your skull. Huguette Clark wasn’t a Hetty Green, taking extreme measures to save and grow her fortune. Remember the subtitle? Just how Huguette Clark spent her fortune isn’t stinted. Picture the scene, I’m curled up on my bed in Moderate Income Apartments, feeling like a used up SOS pad and reading about how Huguette Clark decided to buy herself a lovely retreat in New Canaan, CT. Which she never lived in or set for in for the whole sixty years she owned it. A retreat with a 5000 square foot bedroom. A retreat were the groundskeeper earned more than my yearly pittance from Company X. This account with lesser writers? Would have me closing the book, stomping into the living room like a baby Godzilla and ranting to Blacklight about the sheer unfairness of the world. But Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr aren’t lesser writers, so I kept reading.

Now remember I mentioned how Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune reminded me of profiles in Vanity Fair? Those profiles always seemed to have a snake in paradise. A caretaker getting too big for their boots. Greedy extended family. Well, the story of Huguette Clark offers both. You have her day nurse/companion Hassadah Peri who ended up getting over $31 million in gifts from Huguette Clark. It makes me wish my mother was alive so I could call her and say “Mom, you were doing the housekeeper thing all wrong” because my mother thought it was amazing to get an extra $50 in her pay packet. She scrubbed toilets on her knees. Nurse Peri? Try walking around with a five million dollar personal check from Huguette Clark. Then you have extended (and yes we are talking about great-nieces and nephews and great-great-nieces and nephews) family who didn’t seem to know if their Auntie Huguette was even okay until they heard she was selling some of her treasures. Now add contested wills and courtroom battles and you have a juicy read better than anything my Company X workers say I have to read (please stop trying to get me to read Fifty Shades and Twilight people, really) .

As much shock and scandal Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune reveals, there is also a human side. Scattered among accounts of wild or unusual spending are remembrances of phone conversation author Paul Clark Newell Jr had with his great-aunt. Because from behind her wall of wealth and privilege Huguette Clark did care about her family and friends even remembering small details. You can feel the warmth and shots of joy she gave to people such as her beloved goddaughter even if she couldn’t let them get closer than the telephone. And at the end, you want to know more about that side of Huguette just as much as you want to know what happened to her estate.

*Note: at the time of publication for Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, the lawsuits over Huguette Clark’s wills were ongoing. On September 24, 2013, a settlement had been reached with monies going to Huguette Clark’s extended family and her intended arts foundation.

 

Filed under: Bill Dedman, book review, Empty Mansions, lawsuits, Paul Clark Newell Jr, socialities, The Very Rich Tagged: Bill Dedman, book review, Empty Mansions, fortune, fortune hunters, Huguette Clark, lawsuits, mysteries, Paul Clark Newell Jr, scandal, socialite, spending, the very rich, William A Clark, wills

The Perfume Collector

I’m a sucker for well written historical novels and Kathleen Tessaro’s latest offering The Perfume Collector? Doesn’t disappoint and has me checking my Amazon gift card balance to see if there’s enough left to snap The Perfume Collector up before the Kindle Daily Deal ends at midnight.

Like Kathleen Tessaro’s previous historical novel (The Debutante), The Perfume Collector tells the tales of two women separated by a generation. In post World War II England, lovely Grace Munroe should be happy but her marriage is crumbling and her future feels as bleak as her empty womb. Her husband? Tom-catting about with a slinky society beauty who doesn’t realize married means “hands off”. One day, Grace receives a letter from a French lawyer about an inheritance and decides to throw off her suffocating life and go to Paris to find out what the letter means. After all, who does Grace even know in Paris? A generation earlier, an orphaned French teen-age girl begins to work at a posh hotel until one guest changes her life forever.

Now even the stuffed dragons and I figured out the plot twist about 20 pages in. Maybe because we read a lot of trashy and less well written books? Or have low minds? Who knows. (No, am I not going to tell you the plot twist. Pick up the darn book and figure it out yourself.) A lesser writer would handle the plot twist in a much more ham-fisted manner (coughcoughAnnoyingAuthorcoughcough). But how Kathleen Tessaro unveils the plot twist is delicate and intriguing and engages the reader. Finishing The Perfume Collector, you might (okay, once again I) wanted to race off to the best perfume counter you can find and discover a scent as enchanting as Madame Eva d’Orsey concocted. The only thing holding me back? This silly trifle called rent…

So snap up The Perfume Collector, make a nice lovely hot cup of tea and settle in for a good read!

Filed under: Amazon Kindle Daily Deal, book review, Buy This Book, historical fiction, Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector Tagged: Amazon Kindle Daily Deal, book review, Buy This Book, historical fiction, Kathleen Tessaro, perfume, The Perfume Collector