The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

Kenilworth Castle...

So he takes me to Kenilworth
On the bus with him.
To see the ruins in the rain.
Elizabeth
Kept her favourite here,
In Kenilworth.

And Time stood still when she came:
The Great Clock Tower
Stopped
For her
And they feasted and frolicked,
Elizabeth and her favourite -
Right here.

And it is the most romantic place I've ever seen:
Kenilworth Castle continuing to
Crumble, as it should,
   in the rain.

This is an excerpt from pg 140 of The Weight of Water. It was one of my favourite pages/poems and when I read the author blurb at the end, it was also Sarah's favourite piece.

The Weight of Water is the story of Kasienka who arrives in England from Poland with her mother, looking for her run-away father.

What follows is a heart-breaking, poignant but ultimately uplifting story of one girl's search for belonging, acceptance and love.

A superb read for mature 12+ readers.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

I've decide to write three reviews for Murakami's trilogy (even though they're presented in English in one huge book) as a way to give me a breather between each one.

I've never read any Murakami before so I wasn't even sure if I would like it, his style, the translation - anything! And I knew absolutely nothing about the story except that lots of people I know love it.

I wasn't even sure how to pronounce the title - was it a date 1984/1Q84 (with some kind of reference to Orwell) or was it the letter 'I' - IQ-84 and some kind of Intelligence test?

Now that I'm looking at the cover again closely it's obvious that it's a date. The cover even gives hints that 1Q84 is a fantasy/time slip story - again something I wasn't expecting.

So what did I think of book 1?

I loved it!

I'm intrigued, captivated and full of questions about what's happening.

There is obviously going to be a meeting up of Aomame and Tengo at some point and I'm curious how this will play out.
The secretive cult Sakigake is the obvious link between the 2 sides of the story along with the mysterious young damaged girls with their sinister tales of the Little People.

And what's going on with the 2 moons? What has happened to Aomame's 1984 and why?
I'm loving the mystery & the gradual build up of tension and horror.

I can see I wont have much of a breather bewteen book 1 and 2 after all!

My only grump is that sometimes the language seems somewhat unwieldy or awkward. I'm not sure if it's the translation or the Japanese way of describing things that sometimes pulls me up. The chapter headings often make me laugh with their obtuseness.

I do like that the letter 'q' is pronounced kyu in Japanese which is the same word/sound for the number 9. It gives the title an extra little spark knowing this.

Book 2 here I come!

Quack, Quack, Quack

Make Way for the Ducklings is a wonderful story about family and belonging. First published in 1941, it won the Caldecott Medal in 1942 and has been a favourite of teachers and librarians ever since.

Mr and Mrs Mallard circle Boston looking for just the right place to make their home sweet home. After a misadventure or two they finally find the perfect place to raise their family. And before we know it, the Mallards are joined by Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack!

The ducklings are taught how to stay in line and follow carefully until they are ready to make the big trek across to the Public Gardens with policeman Michael's help.

The illustrations are delightful with each duckling given individual characteristics.

At preschool I always read this book in conjunction with Alexander's Outing by Pamela Allen.

Published in 1994 it introduces us to Alexander and his brothers & sisters who have also been taught how to walk and swim in line and follow the leader. But Alexander does not stay close or take care!

As Alexander and his family take a walk through the Botanic Gardens and Hyde Park in Sydney, Alexander gets lost!

What follows is a lovely problem solving adventure.

Angus and the Ducks by Marjorie Flack follows the adventures of a very curious Scottish Terrier. First published in 1930 to such success that Flack followed up with other Angus stories.

Angus is an Indoor dog, but Someone leaves the door open and Angus takes the opportunity to go exploring!

His curiosity gets the better of him when he encounters two bossy Ducks in the garden Next Door.

Flack based Angus on her own dog which helps to explain why he is drawn so lovingly.

Although modern preschoolers sometimes struggle with the old-fashioned illustrations, the stories still charm them and their teachers alike!

Triburbia by Karl Taro Greenfeld

My good friend The Girl Booker brought Triburbia to my attention last year. I've been saving it as one of my summer holiday reads ever since.

And I wasn't disappointed.

Triburbia follows the lives of a group of creative types. They're all 30 pushing 40, married, divorced, with kids, without, gay and straight.

My husband read Triburbia after me which meant that our discussions about the book last over several weeks.

We wondered if we had 'wasted' our lives by not making the kind of money that many of the Tribeca folk obviously had.

My husband wondered if he'd missed his creative opportunities in life á la the memorist  "I thought of all the ways a writer's life could go wrong: never actually writing anything..., losing one's nerve, never having enough time to write, never getting published, never achieving recognition, never making a living, never fulfilling early promise, spending one's career doing the wrong sort of writing, having one's work censored, being imprisoned, always feeling underappreciated, becoming jealous, bitter, angry, resentful, dying undiscovered."

But ultimately, the lives of the characters in Triburbia were so fucked up, that there was nothing to envy at all. They were having affairs, addicted to drugs, work, sex, lies or keeping up with the Jones'. They struggled to be happy in the here and now because they thought they would be happy when....except the when never arrived.

Each chapter is written from a different point of view. You see the main characters through other's peoples eyes and you see certain situations from multiple perspectives. It's fascinating in a train-wreck kind of way!

The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald

The Beautiful and Damned was the book I chose for the recent Classics Clubs Readathon - (starting post) and (end post).

I love The Great Gatsby and I thought this would be a similar quick, engaging read, suitable for a readathon. I also recently read a biography on Chanel and Hemingway's A Moveable Feast where the Scott Fitzgerald's were referenced several times. I knew this book was said to be biographical in nature and I was very curious.

The first problem I had is that this is not Scott Fitzgerald at his best. The story is slow to start and there are odd chapters written like a play. The ending is also poorly realised and unconvincing.

The second problem is the length. Too many words that say so little. There is almost none of the succinct, revealing and elegant phrasing that you find in The Great Gatsby.

The third problem for me, was Zelda/Gloria. Scott regularly used Zelda as a model for his female characters. Zelda's mental health issues are well documented - whether it was schizophrenia, manic depression or the more recent suggestion that she had borderline personality disorder.

The stories told by Anthony about Gloria's flippant attitude towards money and work, her angry outbursts that became "the primary duty of Anthony's day" and anecdotes like the tomato sandwich and laundry bag all rang true.  

Gloria's oft quoted maxim of "How I feel is that if I wanted anything I'd take it" sums up her attitude towards people, experiences and things.
Up until a few years ago I would have read about this type of personality with curiosity and perhaps a little bit of disbelief. But having someone in your life who actually acts like Gloria is exhausting, trying and incredibly frustrating. There is nothing charming or lovable about it at all!

But I'm obviously meant to be learning something from all this as I keep reading books and watching movies that feature such personalities!

Scott obviously learnt from this book that making the carefree, decadent aristocrats the protagonists didn't necessarily work as it's hard to make them appear sympathetic, romantic or charming.
I didn't care about their disillusionment, their despair or their decline as I didn't like them very much. Gatsby works because the same disillusionment, despair and decline is told through the eyes of a sympathetic outsider.

Is The Beautiful and Damned a classic? Only just.
The real interest for me was seeing how a writer developed and practiced his craft until he was able to produce a truly great classic like The Great Gatsby.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The History of Love turned out to be an epic read. It took me nearly half a year to finish the book and almost as long to work out why I had so much trouble engaging with it.

The cover of my book had all sorts of labels attached to it  '1. Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006'.

2. A quote from Ali Smith "A beauty of a book, totally alive, made with real energy. It restores your faith in fiction. It restores all sorts of faith".

3. And another from the Independent on Sunday "A tender tribute to human valiance. Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on our mind in such diamond-cut prose?"

So what was my problem?

I didn't not like the book, I just couldn't rave about it in such glowing terms.

I kept waiting for the book to live up to the quotes...and it almost never did. At every page and stage I felt disappointment as I waited for "real energy" and "diamond-cut prose".

Sadly, The History of Love did not live up to my expectations.

However Leo did stay with me the whole drawn-out time. Even as I read other books inbetween and forget about everyone else in the story; Leo stuck. His loneliness and loss struck a chord.

Perhaps the book could have been called The History of Loneliness?

Loneliness, loss and love go hand in hand. To love is to fear losing that love one day. You can't have one without the other.

Certainly none of the characters in Krauss' book did!

I'm including this post in Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thurs L meme.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Simon Mawer

I love historical fiction as most of you know. And a good war story is hard to beat!

But something about The Girl Who Fell From the Sky didn't quite work for me.

It had all the right elements and there were stretches when I enjoyed it and thought, "yep he's got me now". Then all of sudden there would be a little Mills and Boon style love scene!

Does he love me, does he not, swoon he kissed me, oh the torment of being apart!

When Mawer stuck to the spying stuff, war details and dialogue we were okay. But the love scenes and soul-searching just made me cringe with annoyance.

And the end? In some ways I'm glad it ended how it did - it was satisfying and a bit of a shock, but not ultimately very believable (even though loosely based on true events!)

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is a fine summer holiday read. It's undemanding, with brief chapters and engaging enough. The story becomes more plausible with a cocktail or two under your belt!!

Readathon ends...

I have to say that today has been a thoroughly enjoyable day.

A day completely devoted to books and reading. Not as much reading as I would have liked, but I spent a lot of time thinking about reading!

It has been a long time since I spent a whole day reading and curiously I found it difficult to stay focused for more than an hour or 2. I was distracted by my husband, housework, blogging, the news and I kept dozing off (much to my husband's amusement)!

I think that choice of book is important. You need a book that sweeps you up, carries you away and becomes an unputdownable.

The Beautiful and Damned was not one of those books, so perhaps that's why I struggled with focus.

1. What book(s) did you read during the event? The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald
2. What book(s) did you finish? I completed 213 pages of 364
3. What did you like about our event? I loved the community feel. I enjoyed knowing that there was a group of like-minded readers from all over the world reading a classic at the same time as me, checking blogs, facebooking, twittering and Instagramming their progress. I enjoyed visiting other blogs and seeing what else people were up to. I appreciated that there was no pressure to read all day or to read a certain number of books or pages. The readathon also gave me a reason to devote a whole day to reading.
4. Do you have suggestions for future Readathons through The Classics Club?  I'm in a weary happy glow of book love right now :-) Perhaps, when I'm less tired, I might have some thoughts about quicker ways of keeping track of everyone's progress. Given that we're all connected because of blogging it's logical to use that as the main tool. But it can be a slow process and distracting! I also had the same problem when I checked into facebook and Instagram, so perhaps the problem was me after all!!
5. Would you participate in future Readathons? Definitely - I loved it! Thank you to all the lovely folk at the Classics Club for organising and running their first ever Readathon. I hope you found the experience as worthwhile, enjoyable and rewarding as I did.

Happy Reading and Good Night.

Readathon begins....

I finally settled on 2 books for the Classics Club Readathon
                           - The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald (1 because I love the cover and (2) because I recently finished Hemingway's A Moveable Feast and the chapters on Fitzgerald were the most fascinating).
                           - A Good School by Richard Yates (because it was slim!) 

In Sydney the start time is midnight Sunday 6th January.

I know I wont be able to stay up much past midnight...so I ran a bubble bath and started on TBAD a couple of hours ago. The intro (which I only scanned quickly in case it gave away the story) suggested that TBAD was not one of Fitzgerald's best. So my expectations are not high for Anthony or Fitzgerald.

Now I'm just waiting for midnight with a cuppa and the 2 books in hand to see what happens next!

Perhaps it will be like NYE? Waiting, waiting, waiting for nothing much to happen...or waiting with anticipation for the most spectacular fireworks display ever!

While I'm waiting I will answer the questions posted by Allie at the Starting Post.

1. Snacks and Beverages of Choice: Tea, coffee and later on tonight Bailey's on ice!
2. Where are you reading from today? I'm reading at home - multiple locations (bed, lounge, back yard, front verandah, bath tub).
3. What are your goals for the Readathon? see above
4. What book(s) are you planning on reading? see above
5. Are you excited? VERY!!!!!

UPDATE #1

8:30am Sunday 6th EST Australia (4:30 pm Saturday 5th EST USA).
I managed to stay awake for an extra hour last night to read some of your early starting posts. In bed I read another chapter before my eyes got too heavy to continue. Page 24/364

"It was a girl in a red negligé, silk surely, drying her hair by the still hot sun of late afternoon".

"The elevated, half a quiet block away, sounded a rumble of drums - and should he lean from his window he could see the train, like an angry eagle, breasting the dark curve at the corner."

I'm now ensconced in front of my computer with my muesli and a cup of Buddha's tears jasmine tea unfurling gracefully. I'm catching up on posts before heading to our local pool to do my morning laps. Today I will take The Beautiful and Damned with me to read as I dry off.

I'm looking forward to a full day of reading.

UPDATE #2

12pm EST Australia (8pm EST USA).
Lots of distractions so far, but I've been thinking about reading all day!

The pool was delicious - it's a 30°C day - the perfect summer's day in fact.

I got distracted by Instagram when I took a photo of my book at the pool...there is now a #classicsclubreadathon tag if anyone else would like to add photos of where they are reading today.

Now I'm back home; the housework is done; the house is quiet...it could be time to get serious about this book.

""Let's walk up the Plaza and have an egg-nog," suggested Anthony. "Do you good. Air'll get the rotten nicotine out of your lungs. Come on - I'll let you talk about your book all the way."'

UPDATE #3

9pm EST Australia (5am EST USA)
Chances are the only ones still awake are those of us in the Southern Hemisphere!

I finally got some solid reading time in this afternoon, but sadly the local news has grabbed my attention tonight. Horrific fires are ravaging Tasmania right now. Hundreds of homes lost, people missing, whole communities devastated. The downside of summers in Australia.

The Beautiful and Damned has been a bit hard to get into - too long in the build up to the wedding I think. But things seem to be racing along now...I may even finish it by midnight!

""A classic," suggested Anthony, "is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it's safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It's acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place ot its fashion..."''

"'He says unloved women have no biographies - they have histories."" (I was interested to come across this one as it is quoted in the Chanel bio I recently read).

Coco Chanel The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie

There's something about her.

The rags to riches story.

The secrets, lies and urban myths.

The glamour, the romance, the heartbreak.

And, of course, Paris. Ahhh, Paris!


I had been saving Justine Picardie's book for my summer holidays because I knew that I would want to read it in one greedy gulp!

I loved the numerous photos and etchings thoughout the book. I enjoyed Justine's friendly conversational tone as she tried to unravel the mysteries & lies that surrounded Chanel's early years in particular. I enjoyed her descriptions of Chanel's various homes & work places and how the childhood places influenced so many of her later designs and motifs (even as she tried to deny ever being there).

Coco was a complex, complicated, secretive woman.

She spent so much energy covering up, trying to keep track of what story she had told who, justifying, reinventing and just plain lying about everything to everyone (including herself I suspect). These lies caused her so many problems with her lovers, friends and colleagues that at the end, she found herself alone and lonely without really understanding why.

It's quite a sad story really. All that glamour, all those famous names, the riches and success didn't bring Coco happiness. She may have been true to herself, but she was never honest, open or true to anyone else.

Nowadays she would probably be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder!

Fifteen years ago I read Edmunde Charles-Roux's biography with a very similar reaction. Fascination tempered with pity. Because at the end of both books I simply felt sorry for Coco. And I sensed that both Justine and Edmunde felt the same by the end of their research.

Was her nephew really her son? Did she collaborate with the Germans during WW2?
No-one will ever know for sure.
Coco took those secrets to her grave.

She was a remarkable woman who achieved great things despite the odds (or maybe because of the odds). Some of the things that made Coco great where also her greatest flaws. Her story is truly captivating.

I for one, am not done with Coco!

My First Ever Readathon

I'm not sure what I'm letting myself in for but I've just signed up for my first readathon!

It's with the Classics Club which may go some of the way to explaining why (I love this group and how it has inspired me to read more classics).

The timing is also right for me. It's not only the middle of my three week summer holiday break but I will be child-free that weekend as well!

The readathon starts 5th January 8am EST USA which is midnight 6th January in Sydney, Australia.

The only stipulation is to read a classic.

If you've been um-ing and ah-ing about joining the Classics Club, then this might be the time to jump on board.

Now I just have to decide which one to read!

Happy Reading.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

I've struggled with this book.

Not the writing style - I actually don't mind Hemingway's pared back, non-descriptive language.

And I love all things Paris.

There's something about Hemingway himself - the man comes across as being a pompous, self-righteous old git!

As I moved through A Moveable Feast I realised that I didn't trust Hemingway's observations or opinions of other people. I didn't believe what he was telling me. It felt like I was reading the self-justifications of a dying man.

Perhaps The Paris Wife and Hadley's side of the story was still too close to my heart. Whatever the reason, the end result was the same; Hemingway failed to move me.

Hemingway may be a great American writer - profound, respected and influential - were 3 words I kept coming across when I goggled him, but I failed to connect to him at all.

Sadly, in Hemingway's hands, even Paris seemed like a bland, any-city entity. I didn't get from his writing why Paris was his 'moveable feast'; why it was so influential and significant within the course of his life that he wanted to write a book about it.

But I think the part I struggled with the most was his dialogue. The language and the actual conversations seemed stilted and pointless. They rarely moved the story on or revealed anything significant.

A Moveable Feast has left me with no compulsion to read anything else by Hemingway.
But I will continue to read all I can about Paris and Scott Fitzgerald!