The Thirteenth Tale

This was a really good book. It's by Diane Setterfield and of course I looked her up and can't find any other books by her. Isn't that always the way. Well this book was so enjoyable that I kept it from the library till it was overdue, and those of you who know me well know how EXTREMELY rare that is! Ok, Ok, here's your teaser:

"Isabelle Angelfield was odd.
Isabelle Angelfield was born during a rainstorm.
It is impossible to know whether or not these facts are connected. But when, two and half decades later, Isabelle left home for the second time, people in the village looked back and remembered the endlessness of the rain on the day of her birth. Some remembered as if it was yesterday that the doctor was late, delayed by the floods caused by the river having burst its banks. Others recalled beyond the shadow of a doubt that the cord had been wrapped round the baby's neck, almost strangling her before she could be born. Yes, it was a difficult birth, all right, for on the stroke of six, just as the baby was born and the doctor rang the bell, hadn't the mother passed away, out of this world and into the next? So if the weather had been fine, and the doctor had been earlier, and the cord had not deprived the child of oxygen, and if the mother had not died...

And if, and if, and if. Such thinking was pointless. Isabelle was as Isabelle was, and that is all there is to say about the matter.

The infant, a white scrap of fury, was motherless. And at the beginning, to all intents and purposes, it looked like she'd be fatherless, too. For the father, George Angelfield, fell into a decline. He locked himself in the library and refused point-blank to come out. This might seem excessive; ten years of marriage is usually enough to cure marital affection, but Angelfield was an odd fellow, and there it was. He had loved her more than he loved his horses, more even than his dog. AS for their son, Charlie, a boy of nine, it never entered George's head to wonder whether he loved him more or less than Mathilde, for the fact was, he never thought of Charlie at all.

Bereaved, driven half mad with grief, George Angelfield sat all day in the library, eating nothing, seeing no one. And he spent his nights there, too, on the daybed, not sleeping but staring red-eyed at the moon. This went on for months. His pale cheeks became paler; her grew thin; he stopped speaking. Specialists were called from London. THe vicar came and left again. The dog pined away from want of affection, and when it died, George Angelfield barely noticed.

In the end the Missus got fed up with it all. She picked up baby Isabelle from the crib in the nursery and took her downstairs. She strode past the butler, ignoring his protestations, and went into the library without knocking. UP to the desk she marched, and she plumped the baby down in George Angelfield's arms without a word. Then she turned her back and walked out, slamming the door behind her."

Don't you want to know what happens now? I did. Although I didn't realize the book was a mystery until the last chapter! The whole thing is one big clue! It was awesome. Enjoy.

Ok, revised some

NOW the masterlist should have all the books I have read on it in bold. So I guess I need to start working on the non-bold ones even though some of them I might not. (Also, I highlighed Memoirs of a Geisha even though I only read the first few chapters. I'm done with it anyway. I didn't highlight Reading Lolita in Tehran, even though I started reading it 3 years ago. I'm not done with it. I'm going to try again sometime.)

Response to the Master List

I wish I had a master list... I'm just trying to keep mine on Amazon, but I'm not very good at updating it (I usually go through it about once a year when xmas rolls around.) I've read several books on your list, and have been found seriously considering others in the corners of bookstores. Here are my opinions, if you are interested:

Achebe – I read this book and can’t really remember much about it. Although, other people rave about it, I don’t remember disliking it, but don’t really remember anything else either.

Alvarez – same as Achebe (and I own this one!) maybe I should just pick it up and read it again.

Berendt – I really liked this book, and just like everyone else, it made me want to go to Georgia on a little southern vacation.

Flagg – I think Fannie Flagg writes the perfect lazy Sunday afternoon novel. I think “Welcome to the World…” is not as good as “Fried Green Tomatoes…” but it’s still pretty excellent.

Golden – I would skip this one. I didn’t find it as compelling as other people told me. I would recommend Pico Iyer’s “The lady and the monk” for more interesting Japanese reads.

Haddon – I really liked this ‘book’ (I listened to this one.) Move this one closer to the top of your list!

Kingsolver – one of my most favorite writers. I own this one and really liked it. If you haven’t read “The Bean Trees” or “The Poisonwood Bible” read those first. (Although “Prodigal Summer” is very good, the other two are better.)

Letts – I could swear that I read this while staying at your apartment in KC once while you were in college! Are you sure you don’t already own this one?

McCourt – I had a *shrug* ‘whatever’, reaction to this book. I’m not sure why I thought he sounded whiny, but many other people liked this book.

Roy – whoof, excellent and heavy. My advice would be to not finish the book right before bedtime. I had a really hard time getting to sleep after reading this one, and I went back and read the ending twice, it was VERY good. (A less heavy and less excellent recommendation would be “the Death of Vishnu.”)

Wells – Skip this one. Really, I thought it was awful, horrible, brain poison. I think I finished it out of spite and have no idea why so many people thought it was good. Horrible traumatizing childhoods make for zany adulthood? I think not.

Masterlist

Ok, this list is mostly for me. I have been keeping this list of the books Pam's book-group read and checking them off for the last 3 years. Now I just want this paper off my desk. What better way to save the list than on the book blog? Here they are:
Abraham, Pearl: The Romancer Reader
Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart
Albom, Mitch: Tuesdays with Morrie
Alvarez, Julia: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Atwood, Margaret: The Blind Assasin
Berendt, John: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Bohjalian, Chris: Midwives
Brooks, Geraldine: Year of Wonders
Chevalier, Tracy: Girl with a Pearl Earring
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Dallas, Sandra: Persian Pickle Club
Diamant, Anita: The Red Tent
du Maurier, Daphne
Enger, Lief: Peace Like a River
Evanovich, Janet: One for the Money
Faulkner, William
Fielding, Helen: Bridget Jones Diary
Flagg, Fannie: Welcome to the World, Baby Girl
Frazen, Jonathan: The Corrections
Frazier, Charles: Cold Mountain
Glass, Julia: Three Junes
Golden, Arthur: Memoirs of a Geisha
Graham, Janice: Firebird
Gregory, Philippa: The Queen's Fool
Gulland, Sandra: Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
Guterson, David: Snow Falling on Cedars
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime
Hamilton, Jane: The Book of Ruth
Hegi, Ursula: Stones from the River
Hoffman, Alice: The Probable Future
Irving, John: A Prayer for Owen Meany
Irving, John: A Widow for One Year
Johnson, Charles: Middle Passages
Kaysen, Susanna: Girl Interrupted
Kidd, Sue Monk: The Secret Life of Bees
Kingsolver, Barbara: Prodigal Summer
Lamb, Wally: She's Come Undone
Landvik, Lorna: Patty Jane's House of Curl
Letts, Billie: Where the Heart Is
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
McBride, James: The Color of Water
McCourt, Frank: Angela's Ashes
McDermott, Alice: Charming Billy
McEwan, Ian: Atonement
Monroe, Mary Alice: The Book Club
Moore, Christopher: Lamb
Moriaty, Laura: The Center of Everything
Morrison, Toni: Paradise
Nafisi, Azar: Reading Lolita in Tehran
Niffenger, Audrey: The Time Traveler's Wife
O'Carroll, Brendan: The Mammy
Patchett, Ann: Bel Canto
Patchett, Ann: Patron Saint of Liars
Perry, Anne: The Cater Street Hangman
Rowling, JK: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Roy, Arundhati: The God of Small Things
Rushdee, Salmon: Fury
Russo, Richard: Empire Falls
Shreve, Anita: The Last Time they Met
Schlink, Bernhard: The Reader
Tyler, Ann: Ladder of Years
Tyler, Ann: The Amateur Marriage
Vreeland, Susan: Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Wells, Rebecca: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Lethem, Jonathan: Motherless Brooklyn
Hosseini Khaled: The Kite Runner

Here are a few other Authors I wrote down for some reason:

Ahern, Cecilia
Gore, Kristin
Eggers, Dave


Yeah, desk is just that much cleaner now!

Briga-DOOM

Ok, for all your chick-lit, murder mystery fans, here's a laugh: Briga-DOOM by Susan Goodwill. It was all fun and adventure. Here's a teaser:

Chapter One

"You look ridiculous, Kate," my aunt Kitty said.

This coming from a seventy-four-year-old in a black-feathered turban, yellow dance leotard, blue high-tops, and a red plaid mini-skirt.

I sighed and closed the door behind her. I felt ridiculous. Golf clothing was new to me, pink was not my color, and the socks, with their little pom-poms bouncing around my ankles, made me feel like the rear window of a Chevy low-rider.

Kitty and I stood in the lobby of the London family's dubious legacy, the Egyptian Theatre. She handed me a Styrofoam coffee cup.

"The outfit's for Ronnie's golf outing," I said. "He picked it out."

"Well, darling, you can always divorce him," she said, maneuvering her way across the loose floor tiles behind me. "They'll get easier now that you've gone through one. By your third or fourth, you'll slide through like a hot knife through butter."


That's the first page although my favorite parts are actually about dumpster diving and a naked bandit who mugs old ladies. It's fun and fast.