The Content Reader

The Classic Club Spin #26 took place yesterday and gave us # 11. For me, that number is Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Since I do not have that book with me where I am now, I will take the next book on the list, which is The Wings of the Dove  by Henry James. A favourite author and a book I wanted to read for some time, so please with that. I hope you all got an interesting book as your number 11. Enjoy!

The Classcic Club spin #19 gave me this book to read. Since spin # 19 are aimed at chunksters and I did not adapt my list, I will also read Kristin Lavransdotter by Sigrid Undset. I failed to finish it last time, and have just read a few pages. Henry James is always a pleasure to read. This is a very short novel so I have already finished it. I think we could say that this is one of the highlights of James' novels. It is his usual slow, easy going story telling. What always amaze me in James, is that nothing much happens and still you don't get bored. Or maybe this is the wrong way to put it. It seems nothing much is happening, but it does. Not so much in action as by his sharp glimpse of family relationships, society and its peculiarities. What makes it so readable, as with all of James' work is his wonderful prose. Here is the opening line: "During a portion of the first half of the present century, and more particularly during the latter part of it, there f...

It is Friday and time for some interesting book beginnings and to see what we can find on page 56. It is Rose City Reader and Freda's Voice who are hosting these challenges. This week I have just started to read the book for the Classic spin #19. It is, from a favourite author, Henry James and his Washington Square.  He is famous for his long sentences, and his beginning here does not disappoint. Isn't it just wonderful how much information he manages to put into the first sentence. Book beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader "During a portion of the first half of the present century, and more particularly during the latter part of it, there flourished and practised in the city of New York a physician who enjoyed perhaps an exceptional share of the consideration which, in the United States, has always been bestowed upon distinguished members of the medical profession."  The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice ""My allusions are as k...

The number for the #19 Classic club spin is 1 . Since I just filled up my list, all of them are not chunksters, and my number 1 is the contrary. Rather thin. It is Henry James' Washington Square.  I think I have actually read it, but since I can not remember it, it will be a re-read. No problem, since James is a favourite author. Maybe I will add Kristin Lavransdottir, which I failed to read last time. That is a chunkster at least. Looking forward to see what you all will read! Good luck with your reads, especially if it is a chunkster. Thank you for your reviews on this novel; Becky  and Nish

Dolce Belezza is hosting a read along of The Portrait of a Lady, and has written a short summary of the plot here . As always with the novels of Henry James, the ending holds more questions than answers (compare The Turn of the Screw) . Belezza has two questions: why did Isabel Archer marry Gilbert Osmond? Why did she plan to return to him on the very last page? Two relevant questions and I am looking forward seeing what the other read alongs will answer. Here are some of my thoughts. Why did she marry? Although she, unknowingly, was manipulated into the marriage, it is not the whole answer. She already had two offers of marriage and friends and relatives were much for both of them. However, she refused. She had clearly stated that she did not want to marry, but travel around the world. She wanted to have an independent life, settle down somewhere nice and live her life as she chooses. It was definitely easier after she came into the money, and would have been difficult without...

Recently, I wrote about the 100 best non-fiction books ever (a list from the Guardian ). There were several books from the list I wanted to read, among them Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own .  My friend Alex at the Sleepless Reader suggested we read it together during February. A good idea, otherwise it will take me a long time before I get around to read it. Are you interested to read along with us? If so, please leave a comment below and I will contact you in the end of January. I like discussion points, which I like to consider during the reading. Voluntarily of course. I found these on  Shmoop .

This is what you have heard on this blog lately. I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden the real world took over most of my attention! In March, my parents came to visit for two weeks. Great fun, since we don't see each other that often. At about the same time we sold our flat in Mallorca, which generated a lot of preparations.  For Easter we went there to finalise the signing and moving out of the flat. It was sad in a way, but we will come back to Mallorca. It is a lovely place! Our plan was to buy another flat in Sweden. I knew already where and had seen the flat in a viewing some years ago. We settled down to wait for the relevant flat to come on the market, expecting to wait even a year or two. You can imagine the surprise when it came on the market this April! We went to Sweden for a day to have a look. I already knew I loved the flat, having seen it before, but the good thing was that my mister also loved it! We gave an offer and got it. So you see I have ...

Having read a while ago The Turn of the Screw and lately, What Maisie Knew and (for the second time) The Aspern Papers , Henry James is popping up as one of my favourite authors. He is never an easy read. Well, easy enough to read, but his novels always end in a state of: WHAT! What does he mean? Why don’t we get any answers? It is really amazing. A while ago I saw a movie based on his What Maisie Knew which I really liked. It was put in a modern setting, but I thought that the end would be more or less in line with James’ novel. So I was reading and reading, amazed over the characters that appears in the novel. Are any of them really sane? Some do seem so, but as mentioned above, James does not want to make it easy for us. Reading on, getting closer to the end, I was just expecting the rather happy ending that I had seen in the film. I was up for a surprise! The ending was neither happy nor unhappy, and definitely not as in the film. And then again, James leaves us with a qu...

A while ago I read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I like very much. So it was with great anticipation, I grabbed another of her books The Fearful Symmetry . Some years ago I read an interview with her, where she was talking about the story of this book. It seemed fascinating, so at a time, I bought it. So, as you see, these two books have graced my TBR shelves for some time, but not anymore! The Fearful Symmetry is a very ‘illusive’ story that lingers on the border between life and death. Julia and Valentina Poole are twins and, as usual with twins, they are doing everything together. One day they receive a letter from an English lawyer stating that their aunt Elspeth Noblin has left them her flat, overlooking Highgate cemetery. There is only one condition of the inheritance; their mother is not allowed to cross the threshold. At this point they did not even know they had an aunt. Their mother is reluctant to speak about her and for the twins it is quite a myst...

Some years ago I read Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and I absolutely loved it. Wonderfully written, wonderful out of the ordinary people. When I saw that he followed up this book with a book about Venice,  The City of Fallen Angels , I bought it and it has decorated by TBR shelves ever since. Finally, I grabbed it and started reading. As with his other book you are drawn in to the history of the city. He manages to find all these interesting people that he contacts to get their story. As with the Midnight book, the main story is a legal one. The opera house in Venice burnt down while it was renovated. Now they are searching for the people responsible, either by arson or by accident. This leads us into the thorny area of Italian law, where for a foreigner, once your inside, there seems to be no way out!