Hibernation

The above book arrived (thanks, Steph!) and I'm hibernating today until it's finished. Do you do that too? Count down the days until a book is released and then drop everything else until you have read it? I am often incommunicado for a book and I wouldn't have it any other way.
See you tomorrow.

The Group Redux

In July I wrote about The Group by Mary McCarthy and I enthused about it; five months on and it remains one of my best book discoveries of 2009. Today marks the reissue of The Group by Virago Press as a Virago Modern Classic, a categorisation it so richly deserves; readers in the UK can now buy a copy (with 25% off from an affiliated online bookseller). Virago very kindly sent me the book and I was so happy to receive a copy of my own that I was tempted to immediately reread it again, which is testimony to how profound an impression this book made on me. I actually received my copy a few weeks ago but it was under embargo so I haven't been able to urge you all until now to buy The Group now that it is newly available!

When I reviewed The Group I mentioned the comparisons to Sex and the City (that may make some run for the hills but I personally love the show) and appropriately Candace Bushnell wrote the introduction to the reissued edition. Bushnell's editor commissioned her to write "the modern-day version of The Group" and what is apparent, being familiar with both and being a woman myself, is that the issues that face women and the choices they make are not so very different seventy years on (the novel is based in the 1930s).

The Group was published a few months after The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and is a seminal feminist text within the bounds of fiction. I find it interesting that Mary McCarthy distanced herself from this label as do current female writers (you can read more about the effect of the novel on McCarthy and subsequent women writers in this interesting Guardian article from the weekend). There is such a stigma attached to the word "feminist" that is, in my opinion, unjust. The Group is a highly enjoyable and intensely interesting novel that vividly evokes the era it is set in and yet remains timeless in its concerns. The first of its kind to address the issues of sex, contraception, motherhood, marriage and careers, The Group is a striking study of the issues women face and the choices they make. It is also wonderfully well-written and for writers and those aspiring to write, a great example of what can be achieved writing about real-life and personal experience.

In a serendipitous blog coincidence, Verity has reviewed The Group today.

Waiting On...

Earlier I read this latest post by Mrs. B. of The Literary Stew, which is a Waiting on Wednesday post, a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. Waiting on Wednesdays spotlight forthcoming releases that we are anticipating.

I thought this would make a fun post today. I am most excited about the publication of Jasper Fforde's latest book -and the first in a new series- Shades of Grey, due to be published by Hodder & Stoughton in January 2010. I have been waiting for this from early last year when I finished reading his Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes books and now the end is sight.

From Amazon.com: Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey

Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.

Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey Nightseer from the dark, unlit side of the village. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.

Stunningly imaginative, very funny, tightly plotted, and with sly satirical digs at our own society, this novel is for those who loved Thursday Next but want to be transported somewhere equally wild, only darker; a world where the black and white of moral standpoints have been reduced to shades of grey.

From Amazon.co.uk: No one could cheat the Colourman and the colour test. What you got was what you were, forever. Your life, career and social standing decided right there and then, and all worrisome life-uncertainties eradicated forever. You knew who you were, what you would do, where you would go, and what was expected of you. In return, you simply accepted your rung upon the Chromatic ladder, and assiduously followed the Rulebook. Your life was mapped. And all in the time it takes to bake a tray of scones . . .

Eddie Russett lives comfortably in a world where fortune, career and ultimate destiny are rigidly dictated by the colours you can see. Until he falls in love with a Grey named Jane, and starts to question every aspect of the Rulebook. Why are spoons illegal? And what actually happens to all those people who are sent to the Emerald City to Reboot? tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color—but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means.


Which book are you most looking forward to?

Thou Shalt Covet Books

My first commandment: thou shalt read books
My second commandment: thou shalt covet books
My third commandment: thou shalt have books

What better way to blog on a dreary Bank Holiday Monday than to blog about the books I covet. I have read a number of book coveting posts this month that contribute to Debi's mini-challenge in honour of Dewey and I thought I would contribute.

My book eyes being bigger than my book stomach I am continually coveting new books to read and my wants and desires are eclectic and wide-ranging. For the purpose of the post I took the books most recently added to my Amazon wishlist, along with the first three books that I am desperate to own.

1. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: I am literally counting down the days (THREE) until this is released in the UK. I am jumping up and down with anticipation. Thanks to Littlebrown's Sarah Waters website I have had a sneak read of the first two chapters and I am impatient to read the remainder. I have splurged and pre-ordered a copy and I only hope that it arrives on time.

2. The Thing Around Your Neck, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I have mentioned in a previous post how much I am looking forward to reading this title; I have requested it from the library but am fifth in line so should expect it some time close to Christmas. I really should own it in hardback as I own Adichie's previous titles in that format.

3. Journal by Katherine Mansfield: I am itching to puchase the title. I have been obsessed with Katherine Mansfield recently (which reminds me I have an unfinished blog post concerning her) after re-reading some of her short stories and remembering how much I loved her writing. This is the title from Persephone Books that I most covet.

4. The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery: the follow-up (not a prequel per se, more a side-by-side?) to The Elegance of the Hedgehog this book isn't released until Autumn but my book taste-buds are salivating in anticipation - an appropriate yet unintentional desciption as it concerns a food critic.

5. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White: the advantage of taking these directly from my wishlist is that it demonstrates my book likes in all their versatility. This timeless manual for writing is the one I am most wanting to invest in.

6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: Another one that isn't being released until later in the year (by Penguin Modern Classics,) I have been coveting this book for a while but it has been out of print. I don't know much about it and would like it to stay that way until read.

7. Mixed Media: Feminist Presses and Publishing Politics by Simone Murray: Simon reviewed this title recently and I was immediately interested. The Virago section alone is enough to peak my interest although I was disappointed to discover that Persephone isn't included.

8. Moomin: the Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip: I loved the Moomins as a child and I would love to own the four-piece hardback collection. How lovely would they look on the shelf with the other comics and graphic novels?

9. The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook: Cupcakes, enough said. I covet a visit to this bakery on Portobello Road.

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate: Volumes 4 and 5 are also on the wishlist so I can read Season 8 of the cult TV show (and personal favourite) in graphic novel form.

11. Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson: Another Persephone and another I covet. The synopsis amuses me.

12. Captivated: J.M. Barrie, the Du Mauriers and the Dark Side of Neverland by Piers Dudgeon: I cannot articulate how much I covet this book. J.M. Barrie? Daphne Du Maurier? I've been wanting this book for six months, since reading Daphne by Justine Picardie.

Books I am Most Looking Forward to in 2009

I think a list is in order today.
There are many books that I am looking forward to being published or reprinted this year:

1. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

I am a huge fan of Sarah Waters. I have read all of her work, so far, my favourite being Fingersmith, a wonderful Victorian Gothic tale that uses Wilkie Collins' The Women in White as inspiration. I am lucky enough to have have heard her speak a few times (three, I think) and have my copies of her books signed. The Little Stranger is a ghost story and I highly anticipate it to be pleasurable and chillingly satisfying. I also hope that I manage to attend a reading of this book by the author. It's due to be published in June.

2. The Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Another installment of the Discworld is always something to look forward to! According to Wikipedia (and implied by the title), this outing of Ankh-Morpokians will feature the Unseen University wizarding (and the Orangutan LIbrarian) football team... I'm laughing already. It will be a long wait until October.

3. The Children's Book by AS Byatt

As yet I haven't read much Byatt, and what I have read (short story collection The Little Black Book of Stories) didn't wow me but I can't resist the temptation of a book about books in an imaginative setting, like Inkheart for adults. This title is expected in May.

4. Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons

Virago Press are reprinting this "sprawling, delightful, eccentric fairy tale", as Amazon describe it, with a preface by Sophie Dahl (who writes modern fairy tale like fiction of her own). I eagerly await its publication (due early April).

5. The World that Was Ours by Hilda Bernstein and Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey

Both of these (along with Noel Streatfield's Saplings, which I already own) will be published by Persephone Books as Persephone Classics next month and will be added to my collection. Although I love the dove grey Persephone covers, the Classics are also beautifully presented and are cheaper, which is important to me just now: I buy so many books that it is great to make a saving here and there!

6. Making Conversation by Christine Longford

Speaking of Persephone Books, this is one of their forthcoming Spring/Summer's titles. I know nothing of this yet except for its pretty endpaper (not a surprise) and that it will be accompanied by a new Persephone Lives series title: The Other Elizabeth Taylor, about Virago popular author Elizabeth Taylor and written by Nicola Beauman (Persephone founder) herself.

7. Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde

A new Jasper Fforde series! woo-hoo!
According to US Amazon the premise of this series is set in a "world where social order and destiny are dictated by the colo[u]rs you see."
This is out in July and it's going to be a great summer of reading.

8. Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

Bloomsbury are reprinting six titles this summer (July), all of them -like Persephones- forgotten classics (including Virago Modern Classic The Brontes Went to Woolworths). This title sounds like a treat and is one of Simon's at Stuck in a Book "50 titles you must read but may not have heard about".

9. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A collection of short stories due to be published in a couple of weeks that I am really looking forward to reading. I greatly enjoyed her novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun.

10. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

The paperback edition of this novel is being published in April too. I have heard good things and look forward to it along with the others.

All of these books excite me, some will be pre-ordered, all will be purchased (well, if my financial situation improves), all will be read (I hope) and hopefully enjoyed and finally reviewed.