A Work in Progress

A Few Reading Notes

I'm nearing the 1,000 page mark of Hugo's Les Misérables!  I feel like I should set off some fireworks or something equally grand when I get there finally.  I'm still reading a little nearly every day.  Jean Valjean is still eluding Javert.  Cosette is blooming and Marius is in love.  I hope things end well, but I'm sure it won't be easy getting there, whatever the outcome.  When I do get past a thousand pages I think I should concentrate on just Les Misérables until I finish it.  Four hundred more pages surely can't be all that bad?  Maybe only a week and a half worth of reading?  Can I dedicate myself, is the question.

Lily Koppel's The Red Leather Diary started out just a tiny bit rocky, but the more I read, the more I am enjoying the book.  I'm nearly finished and I'll be sorry to see it end.  It makes me want to travel to New York City, but of course it wouldn't be the same.  I've already started writing a post about the book.  Next up is Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners by Laura Claridge.  More on NYC, but an entirely different perspective.

Since I don't seem to be picking up Wilkie Collins's The Law and the Lady I'm contemplating switching it out with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.  The thing is I Do want to read Wilkie Collins, only I want to be able to devote serious reading time to it, and as usual my attention is being drawn six different ways.  I'm afraid the same will happen with The Grapes of Wrath.  I'm very slowly working on Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, though Shirley has yet to make an appearance.  No worries, though.  I think I am far enough into the book that I won't set it aside.  This is the problem with classics.  I want to read them all, but then I pick up all the glitzy new books or crime books instead...

After complaining to myself that I don't read enough American authors I am having this craving to pick up one of my unread Persephone novels.  I think one or two might actually be by American authors, though.  Next month my Dove Grey Book group will be reading The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff and I plan on reading along.  I know a few other Persephones are thin, slim books, though, and I could just squeeze one in?...

Speaking of the Dove Grey Book group (If you happen to belong, please stop reading here), I've finished my postal reading group book.  It is well deserving of an entire post of its own, but I don't want to spoil it for any of the group who may happen upon this post.  I will say that it is a wonderful book.  If you appreciate gorgeous prose and an eloquent story, I highly recommend this one.  I'll be looking for a copy for myself to own as I know I'll want to reread this one later.  And I'm already looking forward to the next book.  We mail out at the end of this month, so I'll have a surprise in the mail in just a couple of weeks!

Miscellanea

I know I've been moaning a lot lately about the sad state of my computer, but I do think it is literally on its last legs now.  It crashed multiple times last week.  I spent more time rebooting it, and trying to get web pages to load than I actually spent online.  I love technology when it works, but when it doesn't it can be exasperating.  So I have once again fallen behind in emails and blog reading (I apologize if I owe you and email--I'm truly not ignoring you!).  In order to get my posts ready to go I've stayed a little late after work or come in a bit early to use the public machines in my library, though this has spoiled me.  It's amazing the contrast between an old, past-its-better days, sluggish machine and a new, top of the line machine like we have at work.  I've discovered I can practically cut my computer time in half using a nice, new, fast machine!

So I have been working on getting all my files saved to other places, so when I do get a new computer I'll be ready to go.  I'm dreading the switchover as I haven't really saved as much as I had wanted to pay for the new computer (I was hoping my machine would last for the rest of the summer), plus I hate the idea of reloading all my programs on to a new machine.  This is where I ask for help.  I've never had to replace a computer.  At the moment I am using Windows XP, and from what I understand it will be nearly impossible to get a machine with XP loaded on it rather than Windows Vista.  Is anyone using Vista, and what do you think of it?  I'm afraid some of my older programs might not be compatible--my digital camera for example.  I think I can load new drivers for my printers and scanner.  And here is my next question.  When I have my new computer, do I use the original CDs to load everything again (my printers for example) and then go to the manufacturer's website to update the drivers?  My internet is through Qwest and I have a broadband box--will I just hook it into the new computer?  Or do I have to do the dreaded thing and call them (wade through many menus and then wait until I can talk to a human?) in order to make the switch?  And if I want to use Firefox along with IE, where do I go and how do I do it?  And I've bought Norton anti-virus online, so how will I move it to the new machine?

I'll admit that I am lazy.  I want to be able to come home and plug it in and have it ready to go, but it is going to require several hours (I'm guessing) work in order to get it loaded with everything correctly.  I'm not a techie sort of person, so no doubt it will take me twice as long to get everything ready to go. As you can see I like to have everything straight in my head before I jump in and do something.  I've been planning this for a while, and I think I'm ready to get it done finally.  In any case I don't think I have much choice.  I've pretty much milked this poor machine for all it's worth.  It worked much better this weekend, but I don't want to be lulled into a false sense of security!  I know there are readers out there who are far more knowledgeable than me, so any help you can offer would be very appreciated!  And of course I've been trying to read up on how to do things, but other people's experiences seem to be much more valuable!

One small reading note (since I can't quite keep away from the topic of books), I've been listening to Katharine McMahon's The Alchemist's Daughter and I'm really, really enjoying it.  I'm glad I found an audio book that works as the last few have been duds for me (not the contents mind you--particularly since I didn't get far in them, just the reader's voice--I'm very picky).  At first I wasn't sure as the woman who reads has sort of a high voice, but it really works for the character and the more I listen the more she grows on me.  The story is narrated by a young woman who is the only daughter of a widowed man who happens to be an alchemist.  He trains and educates her.  It's set in the early 18th century and there are lots of interesting details.  I like it so much I may have to buy the book and read it later as well.  I'll let you know how it turns out as I expect to actually finish this one!      

John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"

So many great books and so many great authors.  And the majority of them it seems, I've not yet read.  I don't think I will ever catch up no matter how fast I go!  I'm sure I read something by John Steinbeck when I was in school, but sadly so much of what I read when I was younger is now just a hazy memory, and a memory that I can't even be certain of anymore. 

These days I tend to favor British literature over anything else, but it almost seems to be at a detriment to American authors to say nothing of foreign writers.  Of all the books I'm currently reading only one is by an American the rest are British.  I really should rectify that and vary my reading more (how often do I say this, though).  I decided to at least get a taste of John Steinbeck's work this weekend and pulled out my trusty copy of 50 Great Short Stories edited by Milton Crane to read his very famous "The Chrysanthemums".  It's an intriguing story, though I found it to be very sad.  It's steeped in symbolism, which I've never been very good at deciphering, so I had to do a little extra reading.  It's been widely written about with various interpretations and even a bit of controversy.  I'm only going to give my own few impressions here.  If you've not read the story, I highly recommend it.  Beware of possible spoilers below.   

The story is set in California's Salinas Valley in winter.  Elisa and Henry Allen own a ranch, where Henry takes care of the cattle and Elisa looks after their home and works on her flower garden, which consists of gorgeous chrysanthemums that Elisa takes great pride in.  You get the feeling that Elisa is not terribly contented with her life on the ranch though she's very competent.  She's 35 with a face long and lean and eyes clear as water. 

"Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with.  She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked."

Although Henry doesn't seem unloving, and he does notice and compliment her flowers, he also doesn't appear entirely in tune with how his wife feels.  While Henry is off rounding up the cattle he's just sold, a tinker passes by in his slightly ramshackle caravan.  He's appearance is somewhat unkempt though not overly displeasing.  He takes great interest in Elisa's garden and tries to talk her into having some of her pots repaired or scissors sharpened.  When she turns him down he asks for some of her chrysanthemum seeds that another customer asked him for but he wasn't able to provide.  Elisa is flattered and takes great care to give him not just seeds, but tiny new shoots that she plants in a pot for him.  In the end she gives in and offers the tinker a pot to be repaired so he will have some money to buy dinner with. 

Elisa's encounter with the tinker has a strange effect on her.  As a way of celebrating the sale of the cattle, Henry and Elisa decide to eat away from home.  Elisa chooses her nicest clothes and pays great attention to her face and hair in anticipation.  Henry compliments her again on how nice she looks though is bewildered by her actions and responses.  she seems almost like a different woman.  Her happy contentment will be dashed when she spots the tiny chrysanthemum shots laying on the road.  The tinker dumped them out but kept the pot.  His attentions to her and her flowers was false.  He only wanted to flatter her into giving him some business.

Elisa (and maybe Henry, too) is extremely discontent with her life and the tinker's attentions and his free lifestyle on the road only brings home to her how unhappy she is.  She comments on how lucky the tinker is to be able to travel and she would like to as well, but "it's no life for a woman".  As to where this unhappiness stems from?  Some critics seem to blame it on sexual unhappiness in her married life.  She's stuck in a relationship or situation that isn't fully loving and fulfilling and childless as well.  Perhaps two unhappy people are stuck together in marriage but don't know how to unstick themselves.

I suspect this is a story that a group of readers could read and everyone would come up with a different interpretation or explanation.  And no doubt it is the sort of story that would become clearer with more than one reading and discussion as well.  And like every other short story author I read every weekend--I really need to read more of his work.     

More Loot

I've been accumulating a few new books this past month.  Most are books that I broke down and ordered but a few are mooches and two are review copies.  From top to bottom: Suspect by Michael Robotham, which is called "taut and fast-moving" and has a "stunning twist".  I'm obviously planning on continuing with my murder and crime reading binge.  The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate is a book I came across while looking for another book online.  Then serendipitously it was discussed in my online reading group, so I ordered a really lovely Penguin edition from The Book Depository.  Click on the link to see the cover, which I love.  It sounds very Edwardian, so I can't wait to read it. 

The Oxford Shakespeare: Macbeth, I do want to continue reading one or two plays by Shakespeare a year.  I've not made much progress so far this year, though.  I am trying the Oxford University Press edition.  It also has a lovely cover illustration--a John Singer Sargeant painting of Ellen Terry as Lady M.  East Lynne by Ellen Wood is another new OUP edition and it also has a very cool cover.  I swear I'm not just buying books for the cover art, though it is nice if it is attractive.  This is more Victorian sensation literature, and this edition has "the racy slang-ridden narrative" that was removed from earlier editions.  Could be fun!  Scapegallows by Carol Birch is a book I came across browsing The Book Depository site (I really shouldn't do that).  It's set in 1700s England and Australia about a woman born into "a smuggler's world".

In the Woods by Tana French, which I've already mentioned several times and plan on reading soon.  Raven Black by Ann Cleeves is a recommendation I received from Karen at Euro Crime.  It's set on the Shetland Islands and I believe there are due to be four books in the series.  The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard is a mooch.  It's another murder mystery set in the American heartland.  I'm really looking forward to reading Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners by Laura Claridge.  I received this through Library Things' Early Reviewer Program.  It is a biography and looks very interesting.  Regina's Closet: Finding My Grandmother's Secret Journal, by Diana M. Raab is another biography.  The author kindly sent me a copy to review, and I am really looking forward to reading this and the book on Emily Post.  They are up next as soon as I finish Lily Koppel's The Red Leather Diary.  I've been greatly enjoying the biographies I've been reading this summer!  And finally I had to get The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry.  I've heard good things about it (of course).  It is "a tale that spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths."  Why am I so drawn to books like this?

I feel another vacation day from work is due very soon....    

A Fatal Inversion

One hot, idyllic summer in 1976 five young people come together at a grand country estate.  Murder will take place.  Lives will be changed irrevocably, the repercussions felt distinctly many years later.

There's a reason that Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell) is known as 'the Queen of Crime', and that she's won award after award, and that she happens to be one of my very favorite mystery authors.  Vine's writing is always excellent, her plotting pitch perfect, and her characters fully developed and entirely believable.  In A Fatal Inversion the reader knows from the first chapter that something terrible has happened.  And early on we know who committed the crime.  What we're unsure of is the motivation for the crime and who exactly the victim is.  All along I thought I had a good idea who was in that grave, but it took me until the last chapters to be sure, and then I got it wrong.  Barbara Vine knows how to string along her reader until the last horrific moment.

A Fatal Inversion is a complex story moving forwards and backwards in time and told from multiple viewpoints.  When the current owners of Wyvis Hall decide to bury their dog in the estate's pet cemetery, they dig up the bones of a woman and a baby.  Ten years previously Adam Verne-Smith inherited his great-uncle's estate, to the dismay of his father who had spent years sucking up to his uncle fully expecting that upon his death he would be the new owner.  He's shocked when the estate passes to his son who cares naught for it or its contents.  This creates animosity between the two that will never completely disappear.  Later Adam will wish his father had been the one to bear the burden of Wyvis Hall.

Accompanied by his friend Rufus, Adam sets off to check out the estate, which he's prepared to sell in order to finance a trip to Greece.  A day visit turns into a week and a week into a month.  Adam and Rufus spend languid days boozing and sunning themselves.  It had been a particularly hot and sunny summer, so why bother traveling to Greece.  Adam gets the idea that they'll turn Wyvis Hall, or Ecalpemos as they rechristen it, into a sort of commune with everyone paying their way.  Instead it's more a mixture of hangers-on and idealistic youths who sell the furnishings piece by piece to keep them in food and drink and the occasional trip to the local pub.  It's a strange combination of friends and acquaintances who will end up clashing as events will bear out.

This is not a fly by the seat of your pants murder mystery.  Vine very slowly spins a web of murder and deceit.  It's the psychological motivations of the characters that's important here.  The story starts out slowly and builds to a crescendo of murder and mayhem.  The first couple of times I picked this up to read I couldn't get into the story.  But if you are prepared to take your time and let the story slowly reveal itself you'll be richly rewarded in the end. 

This definitely ranks at the top of my favorites of Barbara Vine's books.  Reading it makes me want to go on a binge of her work to fill in the gaps of the novels I've missed.  So I've already started looking for the books I don't own (not the Inspector Wexford mysteries, but the novels).  I've read just about every book she's written under the name Barbara Vine, but there are still lots to find and read that she's written under her real name.  As a matter of fact I just recently started reading A Judgement in Stone, which so far looks to be another classic.  It has all the elements that make her so thoroughly readable.  I'll get back to my other mysteries soon enough, until then I plan on enjoying a bit more of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's genius.    

War in Fiction, Part 2: WWII

Okay, as promised here is the second part of my "War in Fiction" list.  These all are set during WWII.  You can see the WWI list here.  Make sure you read through the comments as there are loads of great suggestions.  I still plan on adding links to those books on that post, but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.  Here are a few good titles that I've come up with.  As usual, many of these I've already read and the others are waiting patiently on my TBR piles.

• April in Paris, Michael Wallner
• The Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons - This is a sweeping epic of a story.  I've read it several times and loved it.  It's set in Leningrad, so you get the war from the Russian perspective.
• Heart Mountain, Gretel Ehrlich - A novel set in the Wyoming Japanese-American internment camp.
• Resistance, Owen Sheers - This is high up on my TBR pile.  I've heard very good things about it--it's a 'what if' scenario had the Germans invaded Britain.
• She Goes to War, Edith Pargeter - Did you know she also wrote the Ellis Peters' mysteries?  This is a semi autobiographical novel.
• A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
• Atonement, Ian McEwan - Loved the book, loved the movie, too.  It's about time for a reread.
• Jill, Philip Larkin
• Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy - This is another novel I've read several times.  It's an excellent story evoking the American homefront during the War.
• The Siege, Helen Dunmore - A novel of the Siege of Leningrad.
• The Welsh Girl, Peter Ho Davies - One of my favorite books last year.  This is about a German POW camp in the Welsh countryside and how it effects the people in the village.  It's beautifully written.
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Mary Ann Shaffer - I'm reading this now and it's as good (even better!) than everyone has been saying!!
• The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje - More beautiful prose.  This is another book that is due for a reread.
• Charlotte Gray, Sebastian Faulks - I really liked this, it isn't perhaps as good as Birdsong, but still very good.
• Land Girls, Angela Huth - This is the story of four girls who are brought together by the war as they work as land girls
• Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes, Mollie Panter-Downes - MPD is one of my great author finds this year.  I've read a couple of her novels and thought they were excellent.  I'm looking forward to reading this book of short stories.
• The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy, Olivia Manning - I'm looking forward to reading both of these books.  "The Balkan Trilogy is a portrait of a marriage, an evocation of a vanished way of life and an ironic comedy of manners in a breaking world."

I could probably go on, but I'll stop here.  I'm afraid I stuck with only fiction titles, though I am sure wonderful NF books on the period abound as well!  I'm sure there are many more wonderful books out there set during the WWII period, so suggestions are welcome and I'll add them to this list.  

Misc. Reading (and Listening) Notes

I finished reading Barbara Vine's A Fatal Inversion (excellent--will write about it later in the week hopefully), and I thought I was all prepared with a new mystery book, but now I'm not so sure.  I have Tana French's In the Woods set aside, but the Vine was so good it's hard to choose a book to follow it.  I better concentrate on some other books and decide later.

After seeing this list of favorite mysteries, I was wondering if there was a definitive list out there of that included more international authors as well.  I didn't find one, but I did find a couple of other interesting links.  I came across this list of The 50 Greatest Crime Writers.  And I love this idea--Around the World in 80 Sleuths.  I momentarily toyed with the idea of making my own little reading project of it, but then thought better.  The moment I make a list of books I will read, I will want to read entirely different authors!  But this is a great list to use as a source for some good international crime fiction.  Many of the authors are new to me.

I picked up a few books from the library after work--no mysteries however.  They all sound good and I'm not sure which I'll start with.  Until I decide they will join the towering pile that I already have checked out.  I brought home Beatrice Colin's The Glimmer Palace (historical fiction set in early 20th century Berlin), Antonio Munoz Molina's A Manuscript of Ashes (literary novel set in 1960s Spain--this is a work in translation that I'd really like to read), and Erin McGraw's The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard (about a young wife and mother who gives up her dull Kansas life and runs away to Hollywood when it was in its infancy--early 1900s--and recreates her life).

And I've done some serious shuffling on my MP3 player.  I was not getting along at all well with most of the books I had saved.  I got rid of most of them and will give some new books a try.  I've been listening to Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.  It is actually a radio dramatization done by the Colonial Radio Theatre of Boston, and it's very well done.  I'm really enjoying listening to it.  It is only a couple of hours long, but I love hearing the different voices and music and other sound effects.  So this is what people did before TV!  I still want to read the book, though.  I have lots of other good stuff to choose from when I finish; Robert Alexander's The Romanov Bride, Katharine McMahon's The Alchemist's Daughter, Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adentures in Wonderland (read by Michael York).  Surely these will keep me busy for a good while now!

S.J. Bolton's Sacrifice

I sometimes choose books based not only on plot but on setting as well.  I'm not quite sure where I first read about S.J. Bolton's Sacrifice, the author's first novel, but when I saw that it was set on the Shetland Islands I had to snap it up, or in this case queue for a library copy.  Anything set by the sea or on an island is something I'm going to take note of, and it didn't hurt that it also happens to be a thriller.  I had high expectations for this story and aside from a few small quibbles, I wasn't disappointed.  It reminded me just a bit of Robin Cook's Coma (didn't read the book but saw the movie) which ever since has made me wary of ever having to be be anesthetized (silly, I know).

Tora Hamilton is a strong and independent character.  And she's going to need every ounce of her courage by the end of the novel.  A Londoner by birth, she's moved to the Shetland Islands with her husband, Duncan, where he grew up.  The move causes tension in the relationship, which is not helped by the fact they're trying unsuccessfully to conceive.  Duncan's job takes him off the island quite often, but no matter, as Tora is busy delivering babies and looking after expectant mothers.  Although she loves her job as an obstetrician, it's sometimes difficult working with pregnant women when can't get pregnant herself. 

She gets a shock when she's digging in a field by her house.  She uncovers the body of a woman with Viking runic symbols carved into her back and her heart ripped from her chest.  Her first thought is that she's found an ancient bog body in the peat, but when it's determined that the body has been in the ground only a few years and the woman had given birth shortly before her death, Tora's curiosity is piqued.  Her work in a hospital allows Tora easy access to medical files that abound with discrepancies.  When she discovers the physical findings don't mesh with the medical records, not only does her husband, her boss at work, and the police warn her off asking so many questions, she begins to wonder if there's anyone left on the island she can trust.   

Bolton combines an edge of your seat thriller with island folklore.  Although the Shetland Islands are part of Britain, they were at one time invaded and colonized by the Vikings who brought with them their own beliefs and mythology.  Just what exactly has Tora stumbled upon, how many people are involved and who will believe her?  She finds a sympathetic ally in a female detective new to the island's police force.  As they delve deeper into the mystery of the murdered woman the two women will find themselves in an increasingly dangerous situation.   

As I was reading I was wondering just how plausible the story was (and sorry, I've not given you a lot of details, but I hate giving too much of the plot away), but I've decided that it's the moments of the novel's implausibility that make for a story that's actually quite frightening if I think about it long enough.  It gave me pause to wonder if something like this could ever actually happen.  And doesn't the saying go that truth is often stranger than fiction?  So why not the reverse?  If I ever do find myself on Unst or any of the Shetland Islands I might have just the slightest trepidation about walking alone at night down a dark street!

I thought this was a wonderfully entertaining and atmospheric thriller.  The setting was perfectly evoked.  There was at times a sense of claustrophobia on the island that worked well with the story Bolton was telling.  I'll definitely be watching for the author's next book, which I hear she is already working on.  Tora Hamilton will be taking a breather next time out.  Bolton's new book is set on the coast of Devon (yay) and features a veterinary surgeon as her heroine.  You can check out the author's website here.

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Okay, so this is one lottery I would rather not win.  I'm sure I read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" at some point when I was younger, but I had forgotten just what possessing the winning ticket meant.  I found the story in 50 Great Short Stories edited by Milton Crane, which I've gotten a lot of usage out of so far.  In case you've not yet read The Lottery, you can find it online here.

Shirley Jackson was an American author (1916-1965) who grew up in an affluent neighborhood in California and later moved to New York.  She attended university where she worked on the the college's literary magazine and met her husband, future literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman.  They eventually settled in Vermont.  She was a very private person, not caring to talk about her personal life or her work.  She is quoted as saying, "Our major exports are books and children, both of which we produce in abundance." I read that both Neil Gaiman and Stephen King were influenced by her work. 

Spoilers to follow.

June 27th was a clear and sunny summer day.  In an unnamed but clearly average American small town, the villagers begin to gather for the annual lottery.  First the children and then the adults make their way to the town square where they joke and laugh.  In a corner sit a pile of stones.  The lottery has been held for longer than most people can remember.  It's a tradition that no one questions and everyone participates in.  There are about 300 people and the head of each household will draw from the black box.  The lottery is conducted by a respected man of the community who runs the town's coal business.  The townspeople are anxious to get the lottery going as it will take a couple of hours to accomplish and they'd like to finish by the midday meal and get on with their day.  Each person draws a slip of paper and holds on to it until everyone has had their turn.  Then they open their ticket and someone will have a paper with a black spot on it.  The "winning" family gets to draw again.  Each family member, children and adults alike draws a paper and the lucky winner gets, you guessed it, stoned to death by their neighbors.  The stoning or sacrifice will ensure a good harvest.  How primal is that?

What's so chilling about this story is the sort of deadpan way it is presented as if this is the most normal everyday sort of occurrence and is accepted by everyone.  The lottery is just another chore to take care of between washing the breakfast dishes or hanging the laundry on the clothesline and setting the table for lunch.  Of course the winning ticket holder, in this case a wife and mother, doesn't so easily accept the outcome and cries the unfairness of the drawing.  Only a few hours earlier she was a willing participant until she was chosen.  So the villagers choose their stones and the fun begins.

This story was published in The New Yorker on June 26, 1948.  It caused quite an uproar and the magazine received hundreds of negative phone calls and letters and many even canceled their subscriptions.  Even Jackson's parents were disappointed by the story.  Jackson's response to the criticism:

"Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."

Not surprisingly this story has made the most often banned list.  It's an excellent, although disturbing story.  Sometimes disturbing is a good thing though, it gives you more to think about.  I'm planning on reading more of Shirley Jackson's work this fall (already contemplating what to read for Carl's annual RIP Challenge in October).  If you've not read it, I highly recommend it.

100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century

I spotted this at A Girl Walks into a Bookstore and had to nab it for myself.  It is "The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century, as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's online members (compiled in 2000)."  Since I am a great fan of mysteries I was wondering how many I could cross off the list as having read (or in this case I've bolded the titles).

Allingham, Margery. The Tiger in the Smoke
Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios
Armstrong, Charlotte. A Dram of Poison
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Death
Ball, John. In the Heat of the Night
Barnard, Robert. Death by Sheer Torture
Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat
Blake, Nicholas. The Beast Must Die
Block, Lawrence. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
Brand, Christianna. Green for Danger
Brown, Frederic. The Fabulous Clipjoint
Buchan, John. The 39 Steps
Burke, James Lee. Black Cherry Blues
Cain, James M.. The Postman Always Rings Twice
Cannell, Dorothy. The Thin Woman
Carr, John Dickson. The Three Coffins
Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep
Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Connelly, Michael. The Concrete Blonde
Constantine, K.C.. The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes
Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop
Crombie, Deborah. Dreaming of the Bones
Crumley, James. The Last Good Kiss
Dickinson, Peter. The Yellow Room Conspiracy
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca
Dunning, John. Booked to Die
Elkins, Aaron. Old Bones
Evanovich, Janet. One for the Money
Finney, Jack. Time and Again
Ford, G.M.. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?
Francis, Dick. Whip Hand
Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn
George, Elizabeth. A Great Deliverance
Gilbert, Michael. Smallbone Deceased
Grafton, Sue. "A" is for Alibi
Graham, Caroline. The Killings at Badger's Drift
Grimes, Martha. The Man With the Load of Mischief
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs
Hiaasen, Carl. Tourist Season
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hill, Reginald. On Beulah Height
Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time
Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem
Innes, Michael. Hamlet, Revenge
James, P.D.. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Kellerman, Faye. The Ritual Bath
Kellerman, Jonathan. When the Bough Breaks
King, Laurie. The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Langton, Jane. Dark Nantucket Noon
le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird
Lehane, Dennie. Darkness, Take My Hand
Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty
Lochte, Dick. Sleeping Dog
Lovesey, Peter. Rough Cider
MacDonald, John D.. The Deep Blue Good-by
MacDonald, Philip. The List of Adrian Messenger
Macdonald, Ross. The Chill
Maron, Margaret. Bootlegger's Daughter
Marsh, Ngaio. Death of a Peer
McBain, Ed. Sadie When She Died
McClure, James. The Sunday Hangman
McCrumb, Sharyn. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O
Millar, Margaret. Stranger in My Grave
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress
Muller, Marcia. Edwin of the Iron Shoes
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel
O'Connell, Carol. Mallory's Oracle
Padgett, Abigail. Child of Silence
Paretsky, Sara. Deadlock
Parker, Robert. Looking for Rachel Wallace
Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Club Dumas
Perry, Thomas. Vanishing Act
Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank
Peters, Ellis. One Corpse Too Many
Pronzini, Bill. Blue Lonesome
Queen, Ellery. Cat of Many Tails
Rendell, Ruth. No More Dying Then
Rice, Craig. The Wrong Murder
Rinehart, Mary Roberts. The Circular Staircase
Robinson, Peter. Blood at the Root
Rosen, Richard. Strike Three You're Dead
Ross, Kate. A Broken Vessel
Rozan, S.J.. Concourse
Sayers, Dorothy. Murder Must Advertise
Sjowall & Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman
Stout, Rex. Some Buried Caesar
Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar
Thomas, Ross. Chinaman's Chance
Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills
Turow, Scott. Presumed Innocent
Upfield, Arthur. The Sands of Windee
Walters, Minette. The Ice House
White, Randy Wayne. Sanibel Flats
Woolrich, Cornell. I Married a Dead Man

Perhaps I'm not as well read in mysteries as I thought I was.  Does it count if I've read some of these authors, just not those specific mysteries?  A few I've not even heard of.  Of course no list is ever complete, and they've left a few of my own favorites off the list, but it is still interesting to see which titles/authors are considered most popular.

My regular Sunday short story post will happen later in the week.  I'm in too lazy of a mood and just want to sit and watch the Olympics.  I don't generally watch much TV and don't really like sports, but I do find myself addicted to watching the Olympics!