The Castrato and His Wife by Helen Berry

Posted on January 9, 2012 by pagesofjulia

An intriguing story of a castrato’s unprecedented marriage and its implications for society at large.


Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci was an 18th-century Italian opera singer and a celebrity in England. Part of his mystique and mystery, and the reason both for his reportedly divine voice and his unusual social standing, was his status as a castrato. Tenducci had been castrated as a young boy in the hopes that he would make his fortune out of his singing. As historian Helen Berry explains, a surprising number of Italian youths underwent this dangerous operation in Tenducci’s day, although (like today’s hopeful rock stars) few actually succeeded. Tenducci not only beat the odds by making a (sometimes tenuous) fortune in opera, but also accomplished a surprising feat: he married a young English girl of good family.

The Castrato and His Wife is the story of that brief marriage and its annulment in an extremely curious extended legal case. It is also the story of Italian opera in the 1700s, both as an institution and as a business; of castration and its relationship with the Catholic Church; and of the institution of marriage and society’s changing concepts thereof. Berry’s prose can be a touch long-winded and academic at times, but Tenducci’s heart-wrenching story is unusual and evocative. Berry addresses a topic we still find mysterious, and Tenducci’s distinctive situation is surprisingly relevant to the ongoing question of what constitutes legal marriage.

This review originally ran in the January 6, 2012 issue of Shelf Awareness for Readers. To subscribe, click here, and you’ll receive two issues per week of book reviews and other bookish fun!

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Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland (audio)

Posted on January 8, 2012 by pagesofjulia

This was a lovely little audiobook. The writing beautifully, lyrically evokes the setting. At the start of the book, I recognized the tone and I’m sure there’s a literary term for it, although it escapes me; it actually reminded me of The Picture of Dorian Gray (which, however, I didn’t like). There was that same tone of desperate passion for a work of art; there was a similar element of a painting dominating a man. It was emotional, emotive. But it seemed to calm down as the book progressed, getting more contemplative, quieter, more introspective. And that was really nice, too.

The book is about a painting of a girl in a blue smock, taking a moment’s break from sewing buttons onto a shirt to look out a window. It is variously named by different characters in the story; the title is one name for it. The book opens in a present-day setting: a teacher invites a colleague back to his house to show him a painting he’s kept secret until now. He claims it is a long-lost Vermeer. (Vermeer is the real-life Dutch master who painted The Girl with a Pearl Earring.) From there, we trace the painting’s history backwards through time, through its various owners and caretakers, back to its painter and the moment of inspiration, visiting the girl who sat for it.

An obvious comparison to this book presented itself immediately: Tracy Chevalier’s very successful Girl With a Pearl Earring, which was made into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson. I thought both the book and the movie were lovely, and for others who enjoyed either, I highly recommend Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Not only is the subject matter very like (a fictionalized explanation of the history and inspiration of a Vermeer – or a questionable Vermeer), I found the tone to be reminiscent, as well. It’s interesting to think of these two as companion pieces. It’s been a few years since I read Pearl Earring (maybe that was 2004 or thereabouts?), so maybe my memory is warped, but they struck me as very alike. And for the record, it looks like both were originally published in 1999, so I don’t think anyone copy-catted anyone else!

The portraits of life painted (no pun intended – really she’s an artist) by Vreeland are remarkable. They’re very clear and realistic and whimsical, lovely vignettes into a nice selection of times and places. We meet Dutch, German, and American characters spanning several centuries, and each is neatly portrayed and very enjoyable even as brief snippets – meaning, each might stand alone nicely even without being part of a larger story. In fact, they stand alone so well that in the audio format, with a different reader for each, I kept thinking the book had ended! A person might even say each brief portrayal of a person or family’s life resembles a Vermeer painting, particularly when we get to the middle-class Dutch folks of his own period.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue is an effortless read with beautiful characterizations and scenes of life from a number of times and places, presenting the engaging puzzle of a beautiful painting and its questionable provenance. I highly recommend it.

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updating the TBR lists.

Posted on January 7, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Following up on Thursday’s post about reading intentions, I figured I would go ahead and take a look at my lists and shelves. Updating them here helps me to get this chore done, so here we are.

You may recall the very cool Britannica bookshelves that Husband built me, gosh, almost a year ago? (They were mentioned, and pictured, here and here.) They’re still serving as my TBR shelves, and I have done some cleanup and photographed them for you here.




And then there are the Hemingway shelves, most of which I’ve read (his own work) but a significant portion of which I want very badly to find time for (more of the books about him).


I don’t think I’ll bother listing titles & authors here, but you can click the photo to enlarge. And please feel free to ask questions!

I have also collected some audiobooks on my iPod, so these are waiting in line:

  • Saturnalia by Lindsey Davis
  • Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran
  • Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Touch by Alexi Zentner
  • Juliet by Anne Fortier
  • The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
  • The Likeness by Tana French
  • War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
  • The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck

…and the big one,

  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

which at 38.5 hours is rather intimidating (not to say terrifying). I should be able to get through it in under a month…? But I have been wanting to read it and maybe this is the way. We shall see.

And finally, I’ve edited my ongoing Books I Wish to Read list here at the blog. You will notice that some books on the list also appear in my audio backlog and/or on my shelves; that is a good thing. 🙂

I admire those signed up for the TBR Double Dare; you are stronger than I! As I said a few days ago, I’m not ready for that kind of commitment. But I am going to try to stay a little closer to my TBR lists than I did in 2011, and the first step is cleaning up those lists! Here we go!

Have you set any goals for 2012?

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book beginnings on Friday: Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland

Posted on January 6, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Katy at A Few More Pages for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I enjoyed Vreeland’s Clara and Mr. Tiffany so much that I was happy to find this audiobook at my local public library. So far it’s beautiful. We’re just meeting the eponymous Girl, in a painting that may or may not be an undiscovered Vermeer – evoking another lovely Girl, Girl With a Pearl Earring. But first, let’s meet Cornelius. Here’s your beginning.

Cornelius Engelbrecht invented himself. Let me emphasize, straight away, that he isn’t what I would call a friend, but I know him enough to say that he did purposely design himself: single, modest dresser in receding colors, mathematics teacher, sponsor of the chess club, mild-mannered acquaintance to all rather than a friend to any, a person anxious to become invisible.

Haven’t we learned a lot in just a few lines, and aren’t they well done? I’m liking this so far. How does your weekend reading look?

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Reading Intentions – for the new year, or in general

Posted on January 5, 2012 by pagesofjulia

A number of you lovely fellow book bloggers have been posting, alongside your year-end wrap-up posts, your intentions for your reading in 2012. I am interested to see what you intend. I applaud those of you with lists. I wonder at your resolve; will you really stick to them? I couldn’t! I mean, gosh knows I have lists – dream lists (see Books I Wish to Read) – but I don’t do a very good job of reading from those lists. Here, just for fun, let me see… of 139 books in 2011, it looks like 13 were on a list back in 2010. That’s from memory; call it an approximate 10% at best. Now of course I can blame my book review gig at Shelf Awareness for sending me pre-publication copies of lots of wonderful books that are not on any lists! (There’s a conceivable exception to this, if I were anticipating one still to come out, but that doesn’t seem to happen very often.) The other problem with clearing out my TBR lists/shelves is working in a library. New books come flooding through every day, and some – necessarily – tempt me. I also get to shop for and BUY new books for the library, and you can bet some of those tempt me! (If I’m not buying any tempting books I’m probably doing it wrong.) While these are good problems to have, and I read (or listen to) lots of wonderful books that come to me in these ways – from Shelf Awareness (SA), or through the library – I also wish I were making greater dents in my TBR list and shelves.

Does this form an Intention? I’m not sure. I’m not going to give up my SA gig; I enjoy it, and it brings me new and interesting books, which improves the library as well. And I can’t resist picking up new books that come through at work, either; this also improves the service I provide at the library, because it keeps me up to date and better able to answer questions about the newest releases. But those books on my list, and my shelves, are there because I want to read them, and I do regret seeing them languish there. I don’t see myself making significantly more time to read in 2012 than I did in 2011; discovering audiobooks has allowed me to “read” during my daily commute, while running errands, and while working out in the gym and walking, and I already read during enough of my free time that Husband has been known to complain. Also, 2011 was an epic year for injuries for me, finally culminating in knee surgery, and keeping me off the bike for an entirely undesirable amount of time; if my riding & racing career goes the way I’d like it to in 2012, I will actually be doing less reading, not more! (I know!)

So will anything really change? I’d like to make some improvement in the backlog on my TBR list/shelves. Part of that improvement can come through weeding – as I’ve done before. If it’s been on my list for a few years and I’ve forgotten why I was interested, I can let it fade back off again. I’m also getting more and more comfortable with putting down a book I’m not enjoying. I like to tell my library patrons that there are too many amazing wonderful books in the world to waste our precious reading time on those that do not impress us! (I do try and stick with Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 in most cases.) And I’ll try to be a little more selective about the books I collect that then build up on my shelves at home…

I think I can expect to make some small improvement in 2012 at reading more books that I have intended and planned to read. It’s all about being selective. I have lists of books I’d like to find, and I have shelves of books that I’ve physically collected, and I have audiobooks downloaded onto my iPod awaiting my attention. I think I can make a vague commitment to choose from these as much as possible, where my schedule of reviews for SA allows. I can do that.

I have no resolutions to read more or less in various genres, in nonfiction, or in classics. I do aspire to read a respectable proportion of nonfiction, and of classics, but I don’t necessarily have a number or percentage goal, and I wasn’t too unhappy with my numbers last year. All I really want to do is read more books I meant to read – but I’m okay with the rest of them, too. New releases will continue to interest me and that’s okay; and it’s certainly more than okay for SA to continue to ship me galleys!

If it seems I’m lacking in significant resolutions, please don’t judge me. For one thing, I have made some non-bookish resolutions, regarding competitive mountain bike racing; saving money; and my home life with the loving Husband and two little dogs. It’s not that my reading life couldn’t be improved upon; it’s more that it’s not an area I want to go messing around with. I find my reading fairly satisfactory as it is, and I don’t want it to be a place of highly structured self-improvement. I want it to continue to be a place of recreation, fun, joy, learning, and relaxation. So that’s my reading intention for the new year: to enjoy reading, and to record it here.

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two-wheeled thoughts: Einstein, and my father

Posted on January 4, 2012 by pagesofjulia

two-wheeled thoughts

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

–Albert Einstein

and the response:

…words for me that quite simply and literally define survival; physical movement = life.

–Pops

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Teaser Tuesdays: Hanging Hill by Mo Hayder

Posted on January 3, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!

I’ve just begun a new thriller from Mo Hayder, starring a damaged red-headed bad-girl police detective named Zoe, and to a surprisingly equal extent starring her estranged sister Sally, who thinks of herself as demure and easily frightened. I think Sally is a tougher cookie than she realizes, but it’s early yet. Here’s your teaser…

She got out and stood on the lawn, breathing the sulphury smell of the engine and the organic waft of cow manure and grass – scanning the valley where the line of commuters wound its sluggish way towards the motorway. When she was sure nothing had followed them she went back to the car and opened the door.

Nice sensory elements, no? I am always bothered when thriller writers think they can dispense with the writing part of the job; looks like Hayder isn’t one of them.

What are you reading this week?

This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.

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The Absolute #1 Best Book of 2011

Posted on January 2, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Ahem. Did I not make a point of choosing an overall favorite when I did that year-end post the other day? Shame on me. Sorry. I shall keep this brief. I just want to say that the best book I read in 2011 was…

Fire Season by Philip Connors.

If you’re interested, you can read my review; read my father’s review; or read about how Fire Season inspired my father and eventually me into some further reading.

It doesn’t hurt, of course, that this talented author whose book touched my life so much back in May, ended up contacting me and has been a pleasant correspondent ever since! But no, it’s not a popularity contest; Fire Season wins for what’s in between its pages, alone. Thanks Phil for writing, though. 🙂

Honorable mention goes to Dorothy Canfield’s The Home-Maker.

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more movies

Posted on January 2, 2012 by pagesofjulia

We’ve been watching a few more movies; thought I’d share them with you here.

First off, I finally got around to seeing The Goonies (1985), a childhood classic that passed me by. (I may have been a few years too young; also not absolutely in touch with pop culture.) It’s a kids-to-early-teens movie, and when allowances are made for the target audience, it’s really pretty fun. It reminded me of The NeverEnding Story (a childhood favorite of mine), for its imaginary-coming-true element. The premise is that everyone who lives in the “goondocks” are about to have to move; their homes are being bought out from under them (mortgage issues contributing to the problem) to build a golf resort. The kids are naturally bummed; and finding a treasure map in Mikey’s attic offers a natural solution. Mikey and his three buddies, chaperoned by his older brother Brand and eventually joined by two girls Brand’s age (for the romantic element), set out looking for lost treasure. To get there, they’ll have to wrangle with the Fratellis, a slapstick mother-and-two-sons crime team. (There’s a delightfully peverse lesson in family values there I think.) I love that the kids got a chance to save the day! And I love Data. How cute. I like his opening sequence when he enters through the screen door. 🙂 Anybody else remember this one fondly?

Next, Hanna (2011) recommended to me from Jimmy. Hanna is a teenager living in the back of beyond somewhere (did we ever learn where? it’s arctic). She barely remembers her mother, and has been raised by her father without other human contact; he teaches her to fight, to hunt, to survive; everything else she might need to know comes from an ancient encyclopedia. He’s also given her a false identity; she has her home address, school, and the names of her dog and two best friends memorized. Early in the movie they begin considering whether she is “ready”; Dad digs up the black box, they flip the switch, and get ready for all hell to break loose. I won’t tell you any more.

I really enjoyed this movie, but I regretted a few things. For one, I thought the early part of the movie – when it’s just Hanna and her father in the bright white arctic wilderness – was the strongest, and regret that we didn’t spend more time there. And the premises of the world out there that Hanna eventually enters weren’t as fully developed as I’d have liked. If this had been a book and not a movie we might have fleshed out the concepts a little better. Call this a flaw of the format, maybe. At any rate it was definitely worthwhile.

And then one of the westerns loaned me by Catherine & Bill during my post-surgery laid-up time: The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). I wasn’t sure this would work for me, as westerns seem to be one of the genres that fail to penetrate my thick skull (cf. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly). But with the volume turned way up (Clint Eastwood had marbles in his mouth, no?), Husband helping me keep up, and a few rewinds, I followed this one fine, and found it quite entertaining. Maybe I’ll have to give a few more Eastwood classics a try. With subtitles?

PC it’s not, with the Indians and all, but Clint is a tough guy and I gotta say, I eat that shit up. (Jack Reacher, anyone?)

A friend posted this the other day and I have to say I find it apt and amusing…

(Sorry, Twilight fans. Wait, that’s the guy from Twilight, yes?)

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2011: A Year in Review

Posted on January 1, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Well! I have tended to appreciate other bloggers’ wrap-up posts, so I thought I’d join in. This was my first full calendar year of blogging (I began in October 2010) and I definitely read more books this year than I have in a number of years, maybe ever. Although I’ve always been a big reader, this year was exceptional for several reasons: working in a library filled with tempting books; blogging about them; discovering audiobooks for my commute; and taking on a book review gig with Shelf Awareness, to name a few. (See some of my SA book reviews here.) I read 139 books this year.

Here are a few statistics…

  • 17% were nonfiction
  • 46% were by female authors
  • a whopping 63 of the 115 novels I read were mysteries; 10 were historical fiction and 11 were classics, the rest a smattering of short stories, drama, poetry, romance, fantasy, and “other.”
  • 38 were 100-300 pages; 80 were 300-500; 15 were over 500 pages, and 6 were under 100. Husband asked how many pages I read this year, so for his sake we’ll estimate, using the midpoint of the ranges (which may throw us way off but what the heck), and say I “read” some 50,580 pages this year! (keeping in mind that some were listened to and not read…)
  • 31 books, or 22%, were audiobooks – look what good use I made of my commute/driving/gym time!
  • 60% of the books I read came from the library! the vast majority came from the library where I work, with just a few coming from the Houston Public Library. another 24% came from publishers for review, leaving only a combined 22 books that came from my personal collection, books I was loaned, books I purchased, or (those treasured few) books I was given as gifts.

What fun.

Of these, I did of course have favorites… you can refer back to my premature Best of 2011 post of December 1, to which I’ve since added 11/22/63 and The Home-Maker, for an unwieldy list of 22 (!) books I loved this year. What can I say, I’m full of gushings. In honor of this Year in Review post, I have culled it down (painfully) to my Favorite 11 Books of 2011 (thanks Thomas for the idea, and for sending me two (!) of the books on the list*):

Whew! That’s a year! I see other bloggers discussing reading goals for 2012, and I don’t really have any to contribute… I think I’m going to pass on reading challenges this year. (You may recall that of the three I signed up for in 2011, I completed two and quit the third. I also participated in several readalongs: the Maisie Dobbs series, Gone With the Wind, and Their Eyes Were Watching God.) If anything, I’m most tempted by the TBR Double Dare (to read only books already on my TBR shelves from now til April 1…!), because my house is so full of books I want to read that I feel like I’ll never get to them all! But even if I didn’t encounter new books through my job that I want to read and probably should so I can talk with patrons about them, there’s my book review gig, which I love. So. No challenges. If anything, I’d like to make a dent in my TBR shelves at home; and part of that dent-making may come in the form of giving books away unread. Sigh.

My real reading goal in 2012 is to continue to read a diverse selection of new and old books; to continue blogging; and most importantly of all, to continue enjoying it. The day that reading feels like work will be a sad day, and the day I need to take a break; here’s to not finding that day in 2012!

Do you have reading goals this year? What challenges have you signed up for? (Don’t twist my arm…!) Did you do a year-end post that I may have missed? Please do share!

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