by Ursula K. LeGuin
My aunt gave me this book when I turned 21. It’s not a novel, but a collection of essays and transcribed speeches – the commencement address given to a graduating class at Mills College, is one such speech.
Nearly fourteen years later, it’s still a book I go back to, and is most often found in the upstairs bathroom, the one between my office and Fuzzy’s.
LeGuin’s fiction is wonderful, but this book is truly insightful, inspiring, and interesting.
by Lauren Willig
They seek him here, they seek him there.
The Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven, or in hell?
The damned elusive Pimpernel
Those four lines sparked my love of historical intrigue when I was twelve years old, and saw the remake of Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel on television, the version with Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymore. I fell so in love with the period, and the concept, that I bought a lorgnette (a monacle on a stick) and pestered my mother for calligraphy pens and sealing wax (I guess you can blame Sir Percy for my stationery fetish).
So, when I saw a display of Lauren Willig’s first novel The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, in Barnes and Noble several weeks ago, I knew, even before picking it up, that this was not a history of a flower, or even a normal romance novel, it would, in some way, relate to my beloved Pimpernel.
And I was right, sort of.
Willig has set her story a bit after Sir Percy Blakeney’s illustrious career, created a prodigee-cum-successor in The Purple Gentian, and also created a pair of romance-struck hero-worshiping girls, who decide that they, too, must save people from the French government, by working in tandem with The Purple Gentian (thus discovering who he is). And thus is the Pink Carnation born.
The novel is part historical romance, part swashbuckling action-adventure. There is as much swordplay as there is talk of fashion, and the historical bits are bookended by the tale of a modern American history student doing her dissertation on espionage during the French Revolution, and, in the process, trying to discover what we, the readers, know from the start: the identity of The Pink Carnation.
As novels go, it’s neither the best nor the worst I’ve ever met. The author is talented, and her attention to detail is amazing. (An article about her suggests that she majored in history for the sole purpose of writing an historically accurate romance novel one day, so this is not surprising.) The characters, in both eras, are likable and interesting.
The book screams for a sequel, and I suspect one will be forthcoming. For further info, check out the author’s website: ThePinkCarnation.com.
Kelley Armstrong
I haven’t been this excited about a new series of books since I first started reading Anita Blake novels back in…1997 or 98, I think. I’ve always had a thing for mythical creatures, and Armstrong’s first volume in her “Women of the Otherworld” series fills the craving nicely.
Like Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels, Armstrong’s novels are written in first person, and feature female protagonists, otherworldy creatures, and a bit of romance with the action. Unlike the more recent Anita Blake novels, there’s less sex, and more actual plot.
In Bitten, we are introduced to Elena, a rare female werewolf (in the Otherworld the were gene passes from father to son, females are produced only if human women are bitten and survive, which almost never happens), a Canadian with ties to a pack in upstate New York.
While there is a plot that connects all the different scenes, this novel is fairly typical of first novels in series: there’s a lot of character introduction, and more exposition than action.
There are also pop-culture references, and hunky male werewolves, neither of which seem out of place.
Fuzzy thinks there’s too much sex (he’s never read any of the Anita Blake books), but I disagree. This was a wonderful read, and a great introduction to a new version of “now.”
Kathleen Norris
In many ways, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith is a direct sequel to Norris’s earlier work, The Cloister Walk, but in just as many ways it stands alone.
Where the first book was a series of essays based on the experience of studying the Liturgy of the Hours with the Benedictines, this work is more of a lexicon in essay format. Each section ranges from half a page to several pages in length, and each focuses on a different word often encountered in the Bible and other religious venues. And each is interpreted, personally, by the author.
I read this book slowly, during the last few weeks of confirmation class, and it, more than anything, helped me to understand what we were discussing in the weekly sessions that I dubbed “Episcopalianism 101.” The choice to read this was mine – I saw it while shopping for something entirely different, had really enjoyed the author’s other work, and took it home. That it ended up being the perfect companion during these past few weeks was largely circumstantial.
It’s not light reading, though, I confess, as with everything I read, large chunks of it were bathroom reading. It requires reflection, and some degree of introspection. But Norris is so accessible that I have to recommend it, especially to women who are exploring Christianity.
Kathleen Norris
I first encountered Kathleen Norris’s book, The Cloister Walk, when we were still living in South Dakota. It is mainly autobiographical, sharing the personal history of a woman who is a midwesterner more by choice than anything else, and a poet, and a feminist reclaiming religion after rejecting it as a young woman.
More specifically, it’s her exploration of being a lay student of the Benedictines, and following the Liturgy of the Hours.
It’s not preachy, and it’s not always gentle. In the book, Norris confronts dark parts of her past, and tries to make peace between her political sensibilities and her yearning for faith.
It has become one of my favorite books, one that I can re-read more than once, always finding something new. (I also recommend her earlier work Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, especially for those transplanted to the Great Plains from other parts of the country – it totally saved my sanity when I was living in South Dakota).
Author: C. S. Lewis
Sometimes I can be clueless. I grew up reading the Chronicles of Narnia, but, at seven, had no concept that it was all a metaphor for Christianity.
Still, I’d read The Screwtape Letters one summer when there was nothing else to read, so I was reasonably familiar, I thought, with Lewis’s style.
Then Fr. Bob recommended Mere Christianity as a good introduction to the tenets of the Christian fath, and what I found wasn’t some dry old English guy proselytizing, but a collection of witty radio addresses on the basics of faith.
I’m not sure I’d recommend this to the general public, but if you’re leaning towards the Episcopal church, this should definitely be part of your reading list.
Author: John R. Stilgoe
In the opening paragraph of Outside Lies Magic, author John Stilgoe urges the reader to go outside, take a walk, and pay attention to everything.
And he means everything – everything from the architectural style of barns to the pattern of coffee-shop locations, to the pick-up times on blue mailboxes.
This book challenges us to go outside, explore our neighborhoods, and find the magic in everyday things.
Author: Stephen King
I have a thing for writing books, and when I was younger I was quite the fan of Stephen King’s novels, but it wasn’t until Wil Wheaton quoted some of this book in his blog, that I decided it was worth checking out.
It isn’t the best writing book I’ve ever read, but it was one of the most engaging, and direct. Reading it feels like a conversation with an older and wiser friend.
I definitely recommend it.
Author: Jennifer Weiner
While I really enjoyed Weiner’s other novel, Good in Bed, this one frustrated me – for the bulk of the book everyone’s following their own agenda, and all three main characters are leading completely separate lives. Then, with little subtlety, and far too little substance, a happy ending is engineered, just in time to meet the required page-count for a chick-lit novel.
Chick-lit can be delicious escapist reading. In Her Shoes, is not it.
Authors: Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
The conclusion of the story begun in A Time to Sow.