catching up: Frederica, Maisie Dobbs, and Running Blind

Posted on January 4, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Oh my, I’m so sorry! I’ve gotten behind. I didn’t know the holidays would throw me so hard; I really didn’t expect it; but they did. I owe you several book write-ups now!

First of all, over the holiday weekend for New Year’s I finished Georgette Heyer’s Frederica, and enjoyed it so thoroughly! The characters were so cleverly drawn, and the dialogue was so witty and fun, I just giggled and hated to put it down. I will definitely seek out more Heyer. Who knew what I was missing all these years? I have never considered myself a reader of romance, but I shall have to either amend this statement or somehow define romance around Ms. Heyer, which I don’t think the reading world will permit. My only complaint would be that it ended rather abruptly. You know, what we look for in romance is not surprise: we know from the beginning, more or less, who’s going to end up together. We don’t need to be surprised. We just need to sigh in satisfaction at the union being competently arrived at. And at the end of Frederica, when the appropriate couple finally couples, it’s sort of abrupt, brief, and not very well-described. I didn’t need graphic sex or anything, but I wish we’d gotten a bit more declarations of sentiment. Ah well. I’ll be back for more all the same. The witty banter throughout were the best part anyway, that and the “scrapes” of the younger Merrivilles.

Then I was home sick yesterday, and didn’t blog (ack!) but I *did* get to read a whole book cover to cover: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. This is in thanks to Book Club Girl, who’s hosting the Maisie Dobbs Read-Along. I signed up for this challenge/read-along out of curiosity, not having encountered Maisie before, because she sounded interesting in the blurb provided. I figured I would sign on for just this first book and see how it goes. Well, I found Maisie delightful!

I really enjoyed the WWI history and the feeling for that time-and-place setting that was evoked. I actually cried a bit at some of the wartime farewells and hopeful loves and deaths – am I getting sappy in my old age or what?? – find myself crying a lot at books these days. I thought Maisie was remarkable for her poise and dignity in a number of strange situations, from childhood onwards. What a story of movement between classes in a time of change. The flashbacks and back-story on Maisie were some of my favorite parts. But I also enjoyed the up-to-date relationship she formed with Billy Beale, too. I hope he sticks around. I liked the characters and I look forward to more of them. So, I’ll be sticking with this read-along!

Today I was caught off-guard at lunchtime without a book, gasp, and picked up the nearest-to-hand Lee Child book: Running Blind. As you might have noticed before this, I’m becoming a fan of Jack Reacher. This one is right in line with Reacher’s vigilante loner style. See my Teaser Tuesday. Go Reacher!

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book beginnings on Friday: Maisie Dobb by Jacqueline Winspear

Posted on December 31, 2010 by pagesofjulia

This meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages.

Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear.


“Even if she hadn’t been the last person to walk through the turnstile at Warren Street tube station, Jack Barker would have noticed the tall, slender women in the navy blue, thigh-length jacket with a matching pleated skirt short enough to reveal a well-turned ankle. She had what his old mother would have called ‘bearing.'”

I like this start! Not only do we have a description, and a second character interested in the first, but we know she’s last into the station. Why?

I’m not starting this book today, because I have a busy day ahead of me, because I’m going mountain biking, because I’m still reading Frederica, and because I don’t want to start any new books until tomorrow, 2011, for the sake of the Where Are You Reading? challenge. 🙂 BUT I’m glad to have it here, thank you HPL!

I also picked up Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream, by Steven Watts. So today is my library loot day. Yay local library for having what I want/need.

Y’all enjoy your new year’s eve and please BE SAFE out there, people are crazy. See you in the next decade!

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Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Posted on December 27, 2010 by pagesofjulia

I started this book last Thursday and read it all the way through before bed, with the Husband very tolerant and occasionally (as necessary) sympathetic as I cried on the couch.

I had read the various reviews and blurbs (see amazon and the dust jacket, etc.) and thus grasped the concept: Annie is abducted and held captive for a YEAR before her escape, and we meet her in therapy as she tries to put her life back together. But I still wasn’t quite prepared for the graphic and disturbing descriptions of what she went through. That probably makes me naive; what, did I think it was going to be a cozy? (No.) But it was definitely on the dark side. I cried over what she went through; but I also cried over her attempts to recover, particularly her failed reunions with her well-meaning but bumbling boyfriend.

I read some not-so-favorable reviews of this book – luckily, after I had read it and formed my own opinions! But I do give Still Missing a strong review. It may not be terribly “serious” or literary, but since when is that all we look forward to? I found it moving – lots of tears – and I was still thinking and talking about it days later. While the story is fictional, we live in a world with lots of bad, and I bet this very thing has happened, and I bet the psychology is not far off. It certainly got to me.

I was surprised at how similar it ended up feeling to my understanding of Emma Donoghue’s Room, and I may decide not to read that one next for this reason! Although I’m also interested in the comparison. Hm. Time to go browsing. Check in tomorrow and see what I come up with…

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book beginnings on Friday: Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens

Posted on December 24, 2010 by pagesofjulia

This meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages.

Session One:

“You know, Doc, you’re not the first shrink I’ve seen since I got back. The one my family doctor recommended right after I came home was a real prize. The guy actually tried to act like he didn’t know who I was, but that was a pile of crap — you’d have to be deaf and blind not to.”

Annie was abducted and held for a year, and endured some awful things, obviously. We join her as she tries to recover from the experience. I like thrillers and psychological puzzles like this. These first few lines set things up nicely, echoing the dust-cover blurb which I’ve summarized for you here. I’ve been looking forward to this one. Stay tuned!

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final thoughts on Faithful Place?

Posted on December 23, 2010 by pagesofjulia

Just to recap in case you were getting confused 😉 there were a few posts on this title, here, here, here, and here. Karma, how’s it going?

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I’m Mad for Maisie!

Posted on December 22, 2010 by pagesofjulia

I’m getting a little crazy, because I don’t have enough books in my life as it is, and I’m going to go ahead and read a little bit about Maisie Dobbs along with Book Club Girl, who’s hosting the Maisie Dobbs Read-Along.

Courtesy of Book Club Girl: About Maisie Dobbs – The First Maisie Dobbs Novel

The daughter of a struggling greengrocer, Maisie Dobbs is only 13 when she’s sent to work in the house of the wealthy Lady Rowan Compton. A voracious reader who longs to learn, she is discovered late one night reading in the library. Fearing dismissal, Maisie is shocked when she discovers that her thirst for education is to be supported by Lady Rowan and a family friend, Dr. Maurice Blanche. But The Great War intervenes in Maisie’s plans, and soon after commencement of her studies at Girton College, Cambridge, Maisie enlists for nursing service overseas.

Years later, in 1929, having apprenticed to the renowned Maurice Blanche, a man revered for his work with Scotland Yard, Maisie sets up her own business. Her first assignment, a seemingly tedious inquiry involving a case of suspected infidelity, takes her not only on the trail of a killer, but back to the war she had tried so hard to forget.

I’ve never read any Winspear, but it sounds intriguing. I have already requested this book from my local PL and will be looking forward to being involved in the read-along! For now (because, again, of all those books in my life) I’m only committing to read the one, and see how it goes. Thanks Book Club Girl for piquing my interest!

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Tuesday Teaser

Posted on December 21, 2010 by pagesofjulia

Just for fun I’m going to play along with Should Be Reading here and give you a Tuesday Teaser. From page 201 of Faithful Place by Tana French:

“It was late enough that the street was dark and creepily silent, everyone neatly tucked up in their high thread counts. I parked under a decorous tree and sat there for a while, looking up at Holly’s bedroom window and thinking about nights when I had come home late from work to that house, parked in the drive like I belonged and turned my key in the lock without making a sound.”

Beautifully written; I love how much he expresses by writing that the tree is “decorous” and that everyone is tucked up in high thread counts. It says a lot about the neighborhood he’s in.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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finished Faithful Place

Posted on December 21, 2010 by pagesofjulia

I finished this novel last night, and was sad that it was over. That’s always a compliment. I think author Tana French did a great job of creating a world and putting me in it. I don’t know Dublin, or the neighborhood Faithful Place, but I feel like I know it now. The crazy Irish-Catholic family culture was really evocative; although I can’t speak to the accuracy it certainly felt real. And I’m a big fan of Frank as my newest Bosch-style detective. (As I told the Husband the story last night: “there are a lot of Bosch’s, aren’t there?” Excellent observation dear.) And as predicted, French did throw another loop in, after I thought I knew whodunit. This was a great read, and right up my alley: strong sense of place, gory but also sentimental, with the romance between Frank and Rosie, family drama, and all that; and Frank is my kind of detective character. I will definitely look for more of French. I would like to see more of Frank, too, and maybe more of Stephen – it sure felt like he was being established to play more of a role, so I hope he’ll continue in a later book. It looks like French’s first two novels, In the Woods and The Likeness, kept the same detective, so maybe we can hold onto Frank for a little longer. In the meantime I’m going to keep my eyes open for those two earlier titles.

Karma, I was surprised several times over; did she get you too? What were the big surprises for you? I know you’re not done yet. I really cared about Frank and was really upset about Rosie and the death of the ideal. Was it that real for you? Keep me posted. Valerie, I recommend this one when you find the time…

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reading weekend.

Posted on December 18, 2010 by pagesofjulia

Without getting too personal, I’ll say that I’ve got a situation here that has derailed my weekend intentions and instead landed me a whole lotta reading time, which is the silver lining. I started Faithful Place last night, with enthusiasm but also with regret that it required putting down When Christ and His Saints Slept; I was really enjoying it. I’m also feeling the pull of Room and several others… but to get back on topic:

I’m now feeling the need to pause (come up for air) on page 262 at the start of chapter 17, realizing that my friends and fellow readers (Karma) probably have not been quite as full-time as have I in the last 24 hours. So.

I’m really enjoying this book! I was drawn very quickly into the romantic story of Frank and his childhood love with Rosie, who no-showed their elopement date and left him thinking she’d, well, left him. There’s an air of mystery about it from the first (let’s be fair, all the blurbs and the inside of the dust jacket agree that it wasn’t that simple, so no spoilers there) and I care about them right from the first, too. Frank is familiar to me. Am I projecting, are all detectives starting to look like Harry Bosch, or is Frank another loner-type, hard on the edges, who cares deeply about his job (see my last post: job is one of the things he’s die for), but has the very soft spot of a young daughter, complete with estranged baby-mama? I think he is. This is my type of detective. But he’s in the relatively new-to-me setting of modern Dublin, and I’m eating up all the local culture and dialog. (I ❤ Guinness.) There's an interesting interplay of class and culture between his family home and neighborhood, which he hasn't visited in 22 years, and his ex-wife's world of privilege. But I think the best part is the characters and the complications of their relationships. If Frank and his four siblings are types, it doesn't make me love them any less, or make them any less real.

It’s hard for me to go much further than this without revealing plot spoilers, which I’m determined not to do, because I want Karma and Valerie and the rest of you to be able to discuss with me in this blog even if you’re not keeping up with my pace in the book. (I think I’m going to switch back to Christ and His Saints now so as to allow some catch-up time.) So what I’m saying here is that the plot has some interesting twists and turns and surprises me, which of course I love. The revelation on page 205 kind of floored me, in fact. When you get there, let me know what you think.

Now, more than half way through the book, I’m starting to get a fatalistic feeling that perhaps I can see the end and the whodunit, and it’s awfully sad. Poor Frank… the guilt and distant love in this family… but you know, author French has me going, and I won’t be surprised if she has a few more surprises to throw at me in the next 140-odd pages.

For now, as a side story, let’s talk about the character Stephen. I like him! It would be very unlike the “type” that is Frank to make a new friend (and he is resisting it) but I’m pleased to meet this likeable guy. How do you feel about him?

I’m off to take a break now and give my other books some love, and hope that you’ll catch up with me a bit. We’ll get back to Frank & Rosie in a day or three. Thanks for joining me here and I hope your weekend allows for all the action and/or restful reading that you like.

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book beginnings on Friday: Faithful Place

Posted on December 17, 2010 by pagesofjulia

This meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages.


I’m giving in to the temptation here, to give you two book beginnings to the same book: one from the prologue and one from the proper start of the book. I’m also sticking with my preferred quotation parameter of two sentences.

So, from the prologue of Faithful Place, by Tana French:

“In all your life, only a few moments matter. Mostly you never get a good look at them except in hindsight, long after they’ve zipped past you: the moment when you decided to talk to that girl, slow down on that blind bend, stop and find that condom.”

I find this outstanding. It makes me stop and think about which moments have mattered in my life, and have I recognized them in hindsight? I can think of a few. But these first two sentences of prologue really make me want to stop and meditate. I call that a strong beginning.

From chapter one:

“My father once told me that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for. If you don’t know that, he said, what are you worth?“

I’m still interested. I’ve heard good things about this book from several sources, and I have a readalong buddy for this one too, so I’m excited. Stay tuned.

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