Book #91: Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers

After reading Gaudy Night I was interested in reading some more Dorothy Sayers books, and I had actually checked this one out from the library at the same time. It actually turned out to be completely different from Gaudy Night, but still very enjoyable. Whose Body? is the first Sayers mystery novel with Lord Peter Wimsey, her Sherlock Holmes character, and Gaudy Night is maybe her tenth, so it's obvious that there was a change in her style by then. In this book, Sayers introduces Wimsey to us with a bang--a random, unidentified body found in a bathtub of a friend of Wimsey's, who takes it upon himself to investigate. Wimsey and a detective friend of his make the connection between this case and the strange disappearance of a wealthy finance man, and eventually, very excitingly, find the killer of the body. There really isn't much more to say about a mystery without giving away too much of the story.

Gaudy Night was very thoughtful and thought-provoking; the philosophical discussions about the place of women and the role of education were almost equal in importance to the plot and pace of the mystery. But Whose Body? seemed to be much more of a traditional mystery, focused on the plot and the one singular detective and his attempts to uncover the villain. I felt like this story focused more heavily than I am used to on the false starts that Wimsey followed up on which turned out to be nothing, which was kind of fun and misleading for both the detective and the reader. All in all, this was just a fun read with a very satisfying reveal of "whodunit" at the end of the book.

Book #90: Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers

I am a sucker for a good mystery, although I don't read all that many of them unless they are Agatha Christie, Maisie Dobbs, or came recommended to me by someone. I would never just go to the mystery section and pick one out off the shelf--there are too many and I am only interested in reading the good ones! But I felt like Sayers has popped up (very positively) in several book blogs and Facebook posts that I've noticed lately, particularly Gaudy Night, and I decided I wanted to check her out. It's the tenth novel featuring Sayers' pet detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, and although obviously I haven't read any other books by her, I was able to understand the characters and what was going on without too much trouble.

Wimsey is not the main character or narrator in this book, however; that honor goes to Harriet Vane, his love interest who hasn't reciprocated towards him yet. Vane is a detective novelist with a shady past (she and Peter met while he helped her get out of a wrongful accusation of having murdered her live-in boyfriend), and she goes to revisit her college days at Shrewsbury College at Oxford for a college reunion (called a Gaudy, for some reason). While there, she gets wrapped up in a rather mysterious situation with evil, anonymous notes being sent to professors and students all over the campus, and she agrees to stay and help investigate all of the violence and damage being done to the school. In the end, Wimsey comes to help figure out what's going on, and they find the culprit after an exciting attack (as usual). Wimsey's and Vane's relationship is also developed over the course of the novel and comes to a romantic conclusion at the end.

I don't know if you could compare this novel to an Agatha Christie. Christie is dead focused on the plot of the mystery--every single detail and character and event is calculated and meant to forward the story along or to provide some sort of clue that will be referenced later. This book was obviously much, much more rounded out and focused on a lot more of the character development and the themes of women's education and the roles of women in a changing world (the book was published in the mid-1930s). Harriet and the female professors and administrators of the college have plenty of conversations and discussions about the right of women's education, the role of single vs. married women, etc., and a lot of the conversation and discussions even went over my head because it was so complex. The perpetrator of the crimes was actually motivated in large part against women working and being education, specifically these women. But I actually kind of liked that element to it--I felt like it was more than just a "murder mystery"--not that I think that I'm above that sort of thing, but it was a different genre than I'm used to encountering and I liked that. I was just looking this book up and reading a little about it and saw that it's been called the first "feminist mystery novel"--which definitely seems justified.

All in all, this was much more complex than I was expecting to get, but it was so very enjoyable. I am hoping to find more of Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels and get through them soon.

Book #89: An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

I read a bit of Wilde back in the day before college, even, but I really haven't revisited him much since. (Except for going to see his grave in Paris! Picture below.) But I have always meant to get around to reading more than just The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, both of which I really enjoyed in the past. In reading An Ideal Husband, I was surprised by how funny and sarcastic and yet how deep this play was. The play is about Robert Chiltern, a supposedly perfect man to everyone--with a perfect record in politics and a wife who almost worships him--who has a secret from the past come back to bite him in the form of blackmail. He gets help from his friend, the resolute dandy Lord Goring, who helps him to figure out what to do and how to save his reputation and his marriage. (I absolutely loved the character of Lord Goring--he's totally cut from the cloth of Percy in The Scarlet Pimpernel, the secretly intelligent and philosophical man who acts like he's only interested in fashion and shallow things.) And through this story, you get bombarded with hilarious quotes about how silly and shallow people are, and then also with these serious, deep quotes about how love truly works and how important charity and forgiveness are to relationships and love.

Some of my favorite quotes, both silly and serious:

"It is not the perfect, but the imperfect, who have need of love. . . . All sins, except a sin against itself, Love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon." (Act II)
"Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself." (Act III)
"What is unfashionable is what other people wear. . . . Just as vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people." (Act III)
"Like all stout women, she looks the very picture of happiness." (Act II)
"All I do know is that life cannot be understood without much charity, cannot be lived without much charity. It is love, and not German philosophy, that is the true explanation of this world, whatever may be the explanation of the next." (Act II)

Things work out in the end for Robert Chilton and his wife, and they understand each other much better and how to love each other better in the end. In the end, everyone understands better about what it really means to be an "ideal" husband--and that it's more desirable to be "real." So all's well that ends well in this story. I found the Rupert Everett version of it is available for streaming on Netflix, so I may watch that tonight while Tommy works. And I want to look for more of his works at the library to read!

And in closing, a picture of Oscar Wilde's tomb with its hundreds of lipstick kisses all over it. I can't believe I've actually been there. (And I just looked it up on Wikipedia and apparently we were some of the last people to see it like this--it said in 2011 (the year we went) they cleaned off his tomb and put a glass wall around it to keep people from defacing it. Awesome.)

Book #88: Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay

After reading Dear Mr. Knightley by Reay a few months ago, I knew I wanted to read her most recent novel, Lizzy and Jane. I loved how Dear Mr. Knightley incorporated tons of classical lit references and how much the Austen books really influenced the characters, but how the book wasn't an Austen fan fiction or rewrite but its own story all completely original. Lizzy and Jane promised the same charms--an obvious, direct reference to P&P in the title, but about a different set of sisters, set in contemporary times and dealing with a whole different set of challenges than the Bennet Lizzy and Jane. Instead of worrying about getting married to rich men, the modern Lizzy and Jane are dealing with Jane's cancer diagnosis and their own decades-long estrangement since their own mother's death from cancer. Lizzy is struggling with keeping her fancy NYC restaurant open with her recent lack of creativity as a chef, and decides to take a few weeks to visit her home and her sister to see if she can do anything to help while Jane undergoes chemotherapy, despite the fact that they've hardly talked for years and whenever they have their conversations have been filled with anger and blame about how they've each let each other down in the past. The weeks that Lizzy spends with Jane are life-changing and go a long way to mending their relationship--with a lot of Austen thrown in to make the transition smoother. And don't forget there's some romance too--but it definitely felt secondary to the family relationships (which I liked).

I really liked how this book was so honest and realistic about the difficulty of repairing those broken relationships even when both sides are willing and hoping to. Lizzy and Jane are both wary of opening up to each other, and uncomfortable being with each other at the beginning, but even after they have a few really good talks, it's not like they're all of a sudden perfect with each other. There are a lot of fallbacks and hurdles that they have to overcome together. But I think the best small part of this story was about how Lizzy used her specific talents--those of a chef--to serve her sister and some of the other chemotherapy patients at the hospital with her. She worked and tweaked and developed recipes that would tempt her sister's sick stomach and really tried to show her love through the work she put into her cooking. It was fascinating to read about her thought process through cooking and how she came up with ideas for foods. And I loved, loved how she came up with inspiration for foods from the books she read and loved--Regency foods from Austen, like shepherd's pie, or plain roast chicken from Hemingway. I loved how she focused so much on the food references in these books, ones that I can't remember or even notice.

Book #87: How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

I feel like I've officially reached boring adulthood when I willingly read parenting books and find them interesting. Soon I'll be going to sleep at 9 and ranting about junk food in the house! (Wait... already kind of doing those things . . .) My sister-in-law Lindsay sent me this book early this year after she read it for her kids and really enjoyed it. I finally got around to reading it, because I figured that Dane is a TALKER and it can't hurt to learn about good habits to get into with him.

I feel like this book really is an excellent resource. Although it really is aimed at parenting older children, ones who you can really argue with and need to help work through problems with, I definitely can see how useful it will be even for me. Each chapter is focused on a different aspect of communication with your child, from acknowledging their feelings to avoiding punishments to encouraging independence in your child. And each chapter has specific steps you can/should take while communicating with your kids--so it is much more doable and possible than just reading general vague ideas or theories. There are short comics that exemplify the lessons discussed, to make it easy to visualize how it will work. And honestly, all of the suggestions seem really, really useful. Most of them seemed aimed towards preventing fights and blow-ups between kids and parents, and allowing both sides to recognize and express their feelings and still keep things civil. I already have caught myself doing some of the "bad" things, like denying Dane's feelings (like if he says he's sad, I might say, "No you're not!"), so it's good to keep these in mind. I don't imagine I will implement these very easily, but I'm glad I have the book to keep around as a resource, because I am sure I will want to revisit it often as Dane and other kids get older.

A quick example: in the chapter on helping kids deal with their feelings, the steps listed are:
1. Listen quietly and attentively.
2. Acknowledge their feelings with a word. (Like "Oh . . . I see . . .")
3. Give the feeling a name. ("That sounds frustrating!")
4. Give the child his wishes in fantasy. ("I wish we could do that right now!")

According to the many, many examples and role-plays in the book, this is a great way to get your kid to talk our his or her feelings instead of for you to try and "fix" what is going on immediately and make them frustrated, etc. This was a great chapter. Also, I really liked the ideas on how to get your kid to cooperate with you and avoiding punishment--those are also really, really useful and I am sure we will need them one day (they're still a little advanced for the stage we are currently in).

Book #86: Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

I have had this book on my to-read list for forever, because I read one good review of it a long time ago. I have had it checked out from the library for a while, and finally got around to reading it. The book is set in 1987, right in the middle of the AIDS crisis in the U.S., with fourteen-year-old June Elbus dealing with the aftermath of her uncle's death from AIDS. Her uncle Finn was an amazing artist, and his last wish on earth was to paint a portrait of her and her sister Greta. June thinks that the painting is the only place where she and Greta can be together these days; although they used to be best friends, Greta has turned mean and worldly and doesn't seem to care about June any more. After Finn dies, June feels like she's lost the only person in her life who understands her, until his partner, Toby, reaches out to her.

June is one the most interesting and relatable characters I've read recently. She is only fourteen but she has spent a lot of time with her uncle and is fascinated by medieval times and wants to be a falconer, mainly because she is uncomfortable around other people, particularly kids her own age. You can't help but feel for her and be interested in what she's doing. She doesn't have any friends, unlike Greta, who is two years older, beautiful, popular, and an amazing singer. Greta and June were best friends for years, but I love how the story probes into how their relationship has fallen apart and where they lost their ability to communicate with each other. The book seems to be a lot about difficult and unrepaired relationships (June's mom and Finn, sister and brother, had a similar "falling-out" and the breach was never really repaired), and about the dangers of loving someone too much and losing grip on what was truly best for that person and for your relationship. The book also does a great job of creating the scene of what it was like for people at that time, not knowing really how AIDS was spread and being truly afraid of this scary, unknown disease. It sounds a little like the Ebola scare in the U.S. but a whole lot more widespread and long-lasting (since the Ebola talk has already died down a ton since a month ago). That was a really interesting part of the book.

Although I really liked the characters and themes, a lot of the time I was reading, I felt uncomfortable with the assumptions and actions that the characters were making. The whole storyline of June kind of being in love with her uncle, and then in love with Toby, just felt wrong and uncomfortable to me. (There was never anything inappropriate between them, but the age difference and relationships just made it feel really awkward to me.) It just felt weird to have June skipping school and going into New York City secretly without anyone knowing to go visit her uncle's old boyfriend, even if they weren't doing anything bad. I felt like I wanted to skip past all of that and just get to more about June and Greta and their relationship, and how they eventually ended up overcoming that.

Book #85: Mary Poppins Comes Back by P. L. Travers

I feel a little like I am cheating, reviewing this one, because I didn't actually finish it--I was about 80% done with it when I returned it to the library. But since it would have taken me less than a half-hour to finish it and I only didn't because I didn't want to, I figured I would count it. This book was equally as adorable and fun as the first Mary Poppins book--equally being the key word. Most of the stories (each chapter being a different story) start to feel redundant after a while and start to get a lot less interesting. I think as a child, I loved that sort of repetition, but now as an adult, it made me a lot less likely to want to read it. (For example, in the first MP, Mary takes the Banks kids to see one of her relatives for tea, and while they're there, they magically float up to the ceiling the whole time. In the second MP, they go visit another relative and spend the whole time upside down. It's the exact same story, just a different character.) I just didn't feel like I needed to keep reading to get the gist of this book, since it was so similar to the first one--but you guess that's why the charm of Mary Poppins was so strong, because the adventures were so sweet and charming and somewhat predictable through their magic.

Book #84: Yes Please by Amy Poehler

I've read Bossypants by Tina Fey, and I read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling, and when I heard that Amy Poehler was coming out with a book, I definitely wanted to read it too. It's like the holy trinity of female comedians in TV these days. I got on the list at the library and got one of the first copies (the book just barely got published!) and read it yesterday.

On one hand, I really liked this book. I love Amy Poehler (I watched all of Parks and Rec earlier this year) and this book is filled with half-memoir-ish stuff and half life advice, and it all seems pretty solid. I liked the chapters about her childhood and growing-up years, and about her beginnings with working in comedy in Boston, Chicago, and New York, with some really interesting and funny anecdotes about her time in her comedy groups and SNL (although it all sounds completely exhausting and I honestly do not understand how they survive that sort of thing). I love that she had a good childhood and supportive parents and still has a good relationship with her family. And I thought her advice was solid and came from a good place of well-meaningness and happiness. She says good things about the working mom vs. stay-at-home mom debate (that it's stupid and meaningless and everyone can be happy doing what they want) and about body image and being happy with who you are.

On the other hand, I didn't love this book. The whole introduction was about how terrible the whole process has been of writing a book, and how awful she is at writing and how much this has been like pulling teeth. Not just a few paragraphs about it--like 20 pages about it. I was BORED by that by the end, and yet she kept coming back to it throughout the book. I'm sure it was just a tactic to lower our expectations for the rest of the fantastic book, but it was overkill to me. I also thought it was a little odd how much she talked about all the drugs she's taken over the years, considering that they are illegal and that she has young kids who she says she doesn't want to do drugs. The other thing I didn't love about the book was personal and probably based on my own feelings I was having that day. I really and truly cannot believe how much she does and how many projects she has going on and what she has done in her life. The inside flap of the jacket goes on and on about all of Amy's projects and then ends with "So even if you could meet Amy, she probably wouldn't have time for a movie night or girl's night out." Okay, so you are soooo busy and much more important than the rest of us normal people. And I was just feeling so blah about my life and my job (had a bad day yesterday, we'll just say that) that I felt more depressed about my life than uplifted by her stories and advice.