Blog A Go-Go

In which I'm wondering, do you feel lucky?

Well, do ya, punk? The reason I ask is that I'm trying to read Richard Wiseman's The Luck Factor. And yes, I deliberately used weak language there because I'm also juggling about seven other books for research purposes right now and Wiseman's book is getting precious little attention. Which is too bad because it's fascinating! Dr. Wiseman is a psychologist studying the question of why some people really are lucky. He also lays out four principles for improving your luck in case you are one of those folks who identify yourself as unlucky. I haven't gotten as far as the principles, but I'd be willing to lay money on the fact that one of them would be to stop identifying yourself as unlucky. And then I'd win that bet. Because I AM lucky. I know Oprah hates the word and doesn't believe in it, but I do because I've been lucky all my life. (I also have lucky friends. The charming Kimmy, known to all and sundry as Kimmy Darling, wins contests CONSTANTLY, and boldly states she is simply oozing luck.)

Prompted by one of the quizzes in Wiseman's book, I started thinking about the specific luck I've had in very significant relationships. Meeting my husband, getting my agent, selling my first book--all of those hinged on a moment of luck where the scales could have tipped the other way. But they didn't. In smaller ways I'm lucky too. I often find money, both on the street and in accounts long-forgotten. When an unexpected bill arrives, the windfall to pay for it is usually not far behind. I win door prizes and blog contests, and I seldom lose the wishbone. But Wiseman would tell you that luck is simply a self-fulfilling prophecy. I believe I am lucky, therefore I am. What about you? Do you consider yourself lucky or unlucky? And do you think you could change that if you tried?

In which we do some winter reading

We've talked a lot at the Blog A Go-Go about seasonal reading. Jane Austen is spring to me, but the Brontes are definitely winter. (I can't figure out how to get the little umlaut above the "e", so pretend it's there, mmmkay?) Anyway, if you've only read the Bronte novels and haven't delved into their biographies, you must MUST get a copy of Juliet Barker's The Brontes: A Life in Letters. Their lives were, in short, heartbreaking, and Charlotte Bronte was nicer to her heroines than fate was to her. Of the four Brontes who grew to adulthood, three died within eight months of each other of tuberculosis. Only Charlotte remained, and if the image of her sitting alone each evening in the parlor of their parsonage-home, unable to read or write due to eyestrain, with no one to talk to and nothing to listen to but the wind as it whispered and howled around the house, if that doesn't break your heart a little nothing will. And if that weren't desolate enough, the final tragic irony is the last chapter of her life when she married a man she never expected to love, then died within months of their wedding, victim of a rare and fatal form of morning sickness. It would make a wonderful movie if people could bear not having a happy ending. The book itself is riveting, and Barker's brief notes are not at all intrusive. She also includes early reviews of the Bronte novels, and it's fascinating how many of them were critical. (The books were considered by many to be immoral and unreadable for ladies.) And I have to admit to an extremely pleasant moment of vindication on a very tiny point of British usage. From time to time I receive e-mails from English people wanting to chastise me for using the word "forgotten" in SITG on the grounds that "we never use that word". From now on I'm going to reply with "Charlotte Bronte did." I would add "So there," but it just seems petty. In any event, if you have any affection for the Brontes, track down a copy of their letters and you'll be amazed at how they spring to life.

In which I'm flogging a book

I've been on a Jane Austen kick for a week or so now for both professional and personal reasons. Professionally, I'm using Austen as a model to work out a character question, and personally, I just think Jane Austen rocks. Naturally, this meant I had to add to my Jane Austen collection, so I scoured the local bookstores and the library for lit crit I didn't already own. One of the books I snagged was Jane Austen for Dummies. Now I generally avoid the Dummies books for the same reason I avoid the K.I.S.S books and the Complete Idiot's guides--I loathe being insulted by my reading material. But as Caroline Bingley would say, "I am all astonishment." The Dummies book was written by Joan Klingel Ray--a past president of the Jane Austen Society of North America, a very worthy organization. And it's really very informative. It is best suited to someone who has watched a film or read one of the novels and doesn't know much about the Regency period or Austen herself, but any Austen fan could find something there to enjoy. It explains what entailments were and why the Dashwood sisters just couldn't go out and get jobs. (I realize this information is well-known to diehard Austen readers, but if you don't understand the social and political systems of her day, it can dampen your enthusiasm for the books and make Austen just that little bit more unaccessible.) I picked up half a dozen other books and when the weather is nasty and you've just made a pot of tea, immersing yourself in Austen's world is a VERY nice thing to do.

In which it is almost a new year

I don't do resolutions, ever. I may set a fresh intention, but I do that so many times during the year, it hardly counts to do it at New Year's. Besides, the idea of all those promises being made and broken just depresses me. Far better to just give up on the idea altogether and enjoy January without all the pressure, I think. But if I WERE to make a resolution, it would be to finish reading the books on the list of 75 Books Every Woman Should Read that's been floating around the internet. It started here, if you want to read the original post. Here are the books, and I have to say, it's a pretty fabulous list. Reading even a handful of these books in 2009 would be a pretty good resolution. Happy New Year!

The Lottery (and Other Stories), Shirley Jackson
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Like Life, Lorrie Moore
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin
A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
A Good Man Is Hard To Find (and Other Stories), Flannery O'Connor
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
Earthly Paradise, Colette
Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
Property, Valerie Martin
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Runaway, Alice Munro
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
You Must Remember This, Joyce Carol Oates
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
The Liars' Club, Mary Karr
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley
The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
The Group, Mary McCarthy
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
Three Junes, Julia Glass
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
Sophie's Choice, William Styron
Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
The Face of War, Martha Gellhorn
My Antonia, Willa Cather
Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Harsh Voice, Rebecca West
Spending, Mary Gordon
The Lover, Marguerite Duras
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
Possession, A.S. Byatt

In which I am in bed

Honestly. Night before last I stood up too quickly and it felt as if someone had jammed a hot wire into my lower back. Things just sort of seized up. Thank goodness for heating pads, a comfortable bed, and my darling mother's supply of Skelaxin. (I blame the lack of yoga. I haven't been in two months, and I think the things that a twenty-year old body will forgive you for, a forty-year old body will hold against you.) I'm sure a little time off my feet will do the trick, and I already have an appointment with Chiropractor on Monday--I'm sure he'll finish sorting me out. Anyway, I've piled myself up in bed with DVDs and a stack of books, including the very delightful Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief. If you haven't read it, DO. It's a retro read, in the very best way. It reminds me of Agatha Christie or Ngaio Marsh. (There is also a superb version on Librivox if you'd rather listen to it on your ipod. The quality of Librivox recordings is highly variable, but this is one of the best I've found.)

On a sorrowful note, I am extremely bitter that "Pushing Daisies" is being cancelled. (Only five more episodes, *sob*.) I don't remember seeing a show that quirky or original in a very long time, and the casting was just brilliant. So, I'm wondering, what are your favorite shows, wonderful things I might have missed?  

And in completely unrelated news, today is the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe. I have a strange affinity for Mary which I cannot explain. I'm not Catholic, but I've always been drawn to the Virgin Mary, particularly the Virgen de Guadalupe. There's something immensely comforting about her, and one of my most-loved pieces of jewelry is a small image of her I bought at a museum in San Antonio. I was preparing to move to Virginia the next month and I wanted something to keep with me always to remind me of home. I have worn that medallion during the most stressful, difficult times since then, and I find myself rubbing it between my fingers, almost like a talisman. Somehow it feels like I'm tapping into all of that lovely, calm, maternal energy when I do. So, for those of you marking the day, I hope it's a special one.

In which I am ONLINE!

Oh, thank heavens. Honestly, how is a girl supposed to keep up with the latest sales at Anthropologie when her internet won't cooperate? All I know is I am back online thanks to the persistence of the menfolk in my family. (The husband gets special mention here for service above and beyond the call of matrimony.) I'm finally able to start working through my e-mail backlog and check up on the Disapproving Rabbits. The car will be attended to tomorrow, the dog is doing extremely well, and slowly but surely, the things that were disordered seem to be tidying themselves up.

A few days back I mentioned a novel I was invited to read with an eye to blurbing and a reader (Roshni?) asked if I would share the title. Absolutely! It was Anna Dean's A Moment of Silence. It is a Regency mystery with a spinster sleuth, and I quite enjoyed it. (My quote referred to it as 'elegantly plotted'.) It is a quick read, but if you enjoy the Jane Austen series by Stephanie Barron this ought to be quite your cup of tea. I don't have a release date on it, but I know the hardcover UK edition is available now if you're feeling impatient. As soon as I find out when it's being released, I'll post a reminder.

I also recently gave a quote for Karen Harper's upcoming (Feb. 2009) Mistress Shakespeare. It's the story of Anne Whateley, Shakespeare's alleged first wife. It has an epic feel, spanning the second half of the sixteenth century, but it never bogs down with the weight of history. It's riveting--and it ought to be because I don't know anyone who is more familiar with the intricacies of Elizabethan times than Karen Harper. (And I actually DO know her. I got to meet her last August and she is absolutely charming--gorgeous skin, too...) Anyway, you might know her from her highly-enjoyable Elizabethan mystery series. I seem to remember one of them is set at Christmas, a perfect seasonal read right now while you're waiting for Mistress Shakespeare.

Note: I just checked, and the Christmas mystery is called, appropriately enough, The Queene's Christmas.

In which my router is still rebelling

Yes, the router still hates us, my car is flashing the "Check Engine" light at me--in spite of being serviced for just that problem two weeks ago, and I found a FIFTH set of stitches on the poor dog. Actually, I think it's rather efficient getting so many bits of nastiness at one time. All of these things should be tidied away in a few days and none are totally dire. And best of all, the husband comes home today! Between you and me, I cannot WAIT. (BTW, my router troubles mean I've had extremely limited internet service, so I am barely keeping up just with posting entries right now. I have SO appreciated the comments and the lovely e-mails! Many thanks.)

Yesterday I finally got around to watching "The Rape of Europa", and if you haven't seen it, DO. It's available on DVD and my PBS station has been airing it. It is a documentary film, based on the book of the same name by Lynn H. Nicholas, about the Nazi looting of European art treasures during WWII. It is extremely informative without being the least bit dry. I was riveted from start to finish, and I have to say, I found it very moving. If war is humanity at our worst, then surely art is us at our best, and it seems a triumph that so many of the looted pieces have found their way back to their rightful owners.

Many of the masterpieces are STILL missing, possibly destroyed, possibly circulating in the underworld, and if you are intrigued by the lost works, be sure to grab a copy of Simon Houpt's Museum of the Missing. My copy is an ARC, so the plates are B&W, but even without color plates, it's a fascinating book. Houpt makes the argument that the most splendid and compelling museum in the world is that which comprises the pieces which are missing, some taken during museum heists, some looted during times of war. He touches on everything from the Isabella Stewart Gardner theft to Napoleon's rampage across Europe and the looting of the Baghdad museums during the Iraqi invasion. (And this book coupled with Nicholas' book and a copy of the DVD would make a fabulous holiday gift for anyone interested in art...)

In which I am international!

I just found out that the second book in the Julia Grey series, Silent in the Sanctuary, is being released this month in Italy! (Under a different title. It translates to Silence and Secrets, I believe. I think the first one was released under Silence and Poisons, so they're consistent!) I also learned yesterday that the series is coming out in Spain beginning in December--SQUEEE! Of course this started my father and I off on a tangent trying to translate it ourselves. "Ai, Eduardo, que es la problema?" Needless to say, we would NOT get very far with that one. It would probably end up a flip book for as little Spanish as we remember. At some point Julia would have to order toast and ask for directions to the train station because that's about all I have left of my Spanish vocabulary. Anyway, all good stuff and very exciting. My goal is a European tour of the countries that have my books in translation! (Hey, Meg Cabot gets it. Why not me someday?)

Yesterday tried L'Artisan's Drole de Rose. I'm trying to remember what it smells like and I can't. Not a good sign. It was meh. Certainly nice enough, don't get me wrong. It is worlds better than most of the tripe they sell in department stores. But it isn't memorable on me. I have a creeping suspicion that Passage d'Enfer has RUINED me for other fragrances because that one is utterly addictive.

In which you might be looking for out of print books

In case you find yourself browsing the out-of-print shelves anytime soon, there are a few of my favorites that I still cling to in tattered paperback editions because no one has been kind enough to reprint them. They are all WELL worth reading.

If you like Regencies--anything by Fiona Hill, particularly The Country Gentleman. I discovered her when I went through my first Jane Austen phase. (Inevitably, if you love Jane Austen, there comes a time when you've exhausted the major novels, the fragments, the juvenilia, and you are BEREFT that she wrote so little. Then begins the quest to fill the void...) Fiona Hill's voice is astonishingly apt and the novels are bright and charming in a very Pride and Prejudice sort of way.

If you are of an Arthurian bent and like mysteries, Phyllis Ann Karr's The Idylls of the Queen is delicious. It's a proper murder mystery, with Sir Kay sleuthing around Camelot to find a murderer, and everyone a little gray about the temples. The brilliant thing is that you can see the end is coming, but this book is about a relatively peaceful interlude before the destruction of Camelot. It is funny without being silly and modern without being anachronistic.

If you loved The Phantom of the Opera, you must read Susan Kay's Phantom. Seriously. Every person I've ever given it to has sobbed. It is delicious and heartbreaking and pitch-perfect. I haven't read it in more than a dozen years and I could still quote lines from it.

In which I don't know anyone who is expecting

But if I did, I would get her a copy of Anna Johnson's The Yummy Mummy Manifesto. There are loads of dreary books about having babies, most of which are mildly terrifying to one degree or another. Anna Johnson's book is different. It's sweet, it's funny, and it's as much about clothes and decorating as anything else. (Frivolous, I know, but there are piles of books to handle all the icky aspects of motherhood. Expectant mothers need at least one book to help them feel a little glamorous.) You can also direct your fertile pals to check out Anna's Website.