I have amassed many books recently through the kindness of publishers and of blogging friends.  In fact, as I was drafting this post I realised that I had acquired even more when I discovered a book stack photograph that I had forgotten to share with you.

The gifts in this pile are the ones teetering on the top: a Penguin copy of the first sequel to The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks, which I have recently read and will be sharing my thoughts on soon; the lovely Simon T presented me with The Backward Shadow at our meet-up on Saturday and also suggested (re-)reading it along with me so if anyone would like to join us… Also at the meet-up I received a copy of the food memoir of New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone, from the generous Thomas; I have started to dip into this and is a mouth-watering read.  I mentioned in my write-up of our meet-up that I was surprised by my Persephone Secret Santa and the gift they had warmly and thoughtfully chosen for me but I shall only tease about that just now and reveal in December on the official posting date (the 15th).  The Persephone books that feature in the photograph are the new titles and the beautiful 2011 Persephone Diary (The Persephone 90 is a thing of beauty with all the -so far- ninety endpapers and opening lines of each book in the catalogue); these were very generously given to me by Nicola Beauman when I helped out at the shop last month sending out the Biannually to overseas readers (plus a couple of bloggers whose names I recognised!) I intend to write-up my thoughts on The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow by Mrs Oliphant for next week (according to my poll it is one of the titles I have read recently that you are most looking forward to reading more about).

In a nostalgic nod to my childhood love for boarding school literature I bought myself a copy of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld but more on that in its forthcoming post.  The very kind Scott Pack (@meandmybigmouth) of The Friday Project sent me a parcel of books after I lamented the lack of book parcels on one quiet day … it was obnoxious of me but Scott was a sweetheart for indulging my whim.  One of the books he sent me is one I have been anticipating reading: Like Bees to Honey by Caroline Smailes.

I received YA ARCS of Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen and Matched by Ally Condie. Serendipitously I was approached by Hannah at Penguin when I was in the mood for some jazz-age literature (on the back of watching the amazing HBO Martin Scorcese show Boardwalk Empire) and Bright Young Things has Roaring Twenties New York as its backdrop so I devoured it immediately; Matched piqued my interest a few months ago when I discussed it with Amanda and I will be sharing my thoughts on its publication date.

Below Matched in the pile is my bounty from my last day of work experience at Random House.  I have already shared with you the Vintage Classics I acquired (except for the Maugham photographed and a couple of others that have slipped through the cracks) but the others are some of the current and forthcoming titles from the CCV imprints that had caught my eye.  There is also a little stack of some of their newest graphic novels and a signed copy of Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds (the film adaptation of which has recently been released) and The Whoopie Pie Book by Claire Ptak (I must visit Claire’s shop, Violet Cakes, soon as well as attempting my own).

The vertically-standing stack of books leaning at the side are all Viragoes.  Sophie and Victoria sent this selection, minus the bottle-green copy of The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield, which I hunted down for myself.  I would like to particularly mention Mad, Bad and Sad by Lisa Appignanesi at present because it is a book I have been lusting after for some time; Jane of Cobblestone Sea has written a fascinating post about women and mental illness -a subject I am particularly interested in- that mentions this book among many other recommendations (of films too).

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this loot whether it be by directly giving or sending me the books or by recommendation.

One of my very first reviews on Paperback Reader was of First Love by Ivan Turgenev and soon after I was gifted the complete Penguin Great Loves boxset.  When the Classics Circuit announced a tour of Imperial Russian literature, I was given the opportunity to read further about Russian love from the collection by opting for A Russian Affair by Anton Chekhov.

I have read Chekhov’s plays in the past and some of his short stories here and there; one of the stories, “The House with the Mezzanine” I read last year in the anthology, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off: Love Quarrels from Anton Chekhov to ZZ Packer also appears in this brief collection.  Consisting of only five short stories -all about love- A Russian Affair is a bite-size taster of Chekhov’s mastery of the short story form.  As a classic Russian writer, Chekhov can intimidate but he is surprisingly accessible and I am a great fan of his style; in the fashion of my favourite short story writer, Katherine Mansfield, Chekhov’s short stories are perfect little pieces of art.

Reading “The House With the Mezzanine” a second time in this volume was enriching; the first time it didn’t make a strong impression on me but rereading it I realised how powerful an evocation of first love it was.  An artist’s story, narrated in the first-person with hindsight, he recalls visits with two sisters seven years previously; he quarrelled continually with outspoken Lida whilst shy Zhenya was compliant and admiring of both her older sister and the artist.  Like the first story “About Love”, it is not about unrequited love but about love that is not acted upon, that haunts in its intensity and regret.  These first two stories struck me as being reminiscent of Turgenev’s First Love and wondered how much Chekhov was influenced by his successor; I also checked to see whether they perhaps had the same translator, but they did not share similarities in that technical way but more fundamentally in tone.

Also in included in this collection is one of Chekhov’s more famous short stories, “The Lady with the Dog”, which is the adulterous Russian affair to which the title alludes; this story moves from young love explored in the earlier stories to the more difficult, all-consuming love.

A Russian Affair provides an insight into Chekhov’s writing style, is easy to read and makes for romantic reading with emotional depth.  With only five stories, it is a mere sample of what Chekhov has to offer, but it is enjoyable glimpse of his work that draws you in with its exploration of the emotional complexities of love.

When I’m reading I do like doing it with a cuppa and some chocolate; I have also been known to have a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the other.  When I was given the opportunity to review chocolate with red wine, it was an offer I could not decline.  I feel that books and chocolate are very similar in their packaging/cover; both work towards attracting you and compelling you to pick up the chocolate /book in the first place and make you want to buy it. Also a good chocolate bar, just like a good book, should excite and have an interesting beginning, middle and end with different levels of intensity, texture and enjoyment.  Moreover, I think that on bottles of wine, where it tells you what meals it is best to drink with, chocolate packaging should cover which books are best to read or films to watch whilst eating… marketing departments, take note.  Wine labels should extend to sharing that information too: full or medium-bodied, with hints of, best read with…

As for my review itself: I was kindly sent a bar of Zotter Chocolate Schönberger Red Wine by Lee of Chocolate Reviews.  This Fairtrade alcoholic chocolate from an Austrian company is given the following description “A premium red wine from Burgenland. The Blaufränkisch (Burgundy) grapes form a complex taste spectrum, which give the exquisite dark chocolate a soft aftertaste” and retails at £3.00 a bar.  More expensive than a regular bar of chocolate it tastes rich; it is potent truffle-filled bar that is not moulded into segments but is one slab. A fine bitter chocolate with red wine and chocolate inside, it is a chocolate bar with a filling as opposed to a bar of chocolate infused with red wine. The bitterness prevented me from being able to eat this bar in the one sitting -and therefore is not one to eat on the run for energy- but I enjoyed it in small nibbles and thought it worked well with a glass of wine to bring out its notes.  I was impressed by how authentically like wine the chocolate tasted although that’s not surprising as it is made with red wine as opposed to artificial flavoring; the alcohol content of the bar is 2% and yet manages to be heady and taste strong.  The aroma is of cocoa as opposed to wine and the packaging something of a let-down (the gold foil reminded me of the inside of cigarette packets, which instantly cheapened it for me).  This chocolate was a rare treat and more decadent and rich than I am used to but if you enjoy truffles (and, of course, red wine) then this is recommended, or is perfect for a special occasion.

Whilst I prefer my chocolate less rich I do love richness in my reading; I like my wine full-bodied and the same can be said of my literature.  This post and photograph also serve to contribute to Simon of Stuck in a Book’s meme.  Simon called for a photograph that summed up my reading taste that didn’t include a book in it (am I ineligible as this one does, even though it is only for decoration?) and I ruminated long and hard before I realised that the photograph above was perfect.  My reading taste is eclectic and difficult to fully surmise but liking my taste in books to my taste in red wine is accurate; both are great loves of my life (as are cats) and share many elements.  My favourite writers -Angela Carter, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel García Márquez, Colette, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Sarah Waters- all write rich prose that I become drunk on and then require a little break from; their language, imagery, and stories are lush as am I… Like the most heady of red wines, these writers are at the top of the grape varieties and they mature with age, with hidden notes and subtle flavours detected upon further tastes.  Reading a book by one of these writers is like drinking a fine wine, something I appreciate, savour, and look forward to, and yet try to do in moderation.

I also enjoy Earl Grey tea reading -Persephone Books- or Champagne reads that are bubbly and effervescent, that go straight to my head, like The Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice, but I will always return to my favourite tipple of all: red wine.

If you’re in London then you may have noticed some elephants around.  Between May and July there are 250 baby elephant sculptures dotted around Central London, each with a unique design by an artist; the Elephant Parade is a “conservation campaign that shines a multi-coloured spotlight on the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant.”  The above photograph was taken by Verity when we met in Notting Hill Gate at the weekend and shows elephant #51, Oran, designed by artist Adam Bridgland.  I find the charity event exciting and inspirational; I am hoping to volunteer my time and become involved as well as finding and photographing as many of the elephants as I can over the coming weeks.  It is lovely to see London with so many splashes of colour (some of the elephants have wonderfully wacky and psychedelic designs) and it is such a fun initiative to raise the profile of the endangered elephants; I have been enjoying discussing it with fellow tweeps (that’s Twitter people to lay-people!) and sharing viewing experiences.  I am also coveting my own miniature elephant (ornament, not a real one), which you can purchase here, in the official shop in Carnaby Street, Selfridges or Greenwich Central Market.  I fully support the campaign and what it is set out to achieve; elephants are one of my favourite animals and the desolation their extinction would bring is beyond my imagination.

Thank you to Verity for the use of the photograph; I don’t have any of my own yet as the first few elephants I saw in early May, I was completely oblivious to what they represented and was out shopping without my camera.  Verity and I had a fun day book-shopping in Notting Hill (in the amazing book and comic exchange, where we could happily lose ourselves for hours seeking green and grey spines and reminiscing about children’s literature we read) before the UK book bloggers’ meet-up.  The meet-up was such a fun evening and perhaps the first of many; a second in Oxford this summer is already in the pipeline.  Along with a lot of bookish chat and an ice-breaker hosted by yours truly (many thanks for that, host Simon T!) we also had a book swap; I received a hardback copy of a book I have been wanting to read for some time, The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford, from Katy of Fifth Estate.  Polly of Novel Insights received from the swap (from Simon T) a copy of The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns; serendipitously I also picked up a green Virago Modern Classics edition of the book earlier that day (credit to Verity who picked it up for herself before realising that she already owned it and has reviewed it here) so we have decided to read-along together at the beginning of June.  For anyone who also has a copy of the book or can borrow it from their library, then please join us in reading it; it’s a short book and from the Comyns I have read before -Our Spoons Came from Woolworths- and the reviews I have read of her other books, it is bound to be a little bizarre!

Speaking of Virago Modern Classics, I am excited to see that Capuchin Classics are reissuing The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield later this year.  I had been under the impression that Virago were themselves bringing it out again but this way I now have an excuse to take advantage of Capuchin’s online offer…  From those familiar with my blog, you may know that Katherine Mansfield is one of my favourite writers and one whom I have waxed lyrical about in the past; I look forward to reading this earlier work that eventually became her acclaimed Prelude.

Angela Carter was enthusiastically involved with Virago Press and collected and edited two volumes of short stories for the publisher of books by women: Wayward Girls and Wicked Women and Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales; the former is the book I wish to discuss today.

I have reviewed a few short story collections in the past ( you can click on the short stories tag to view) and an issue that I have with them, whether they are anthologised or a volume by the one author, is that they can be uneven, which is of course the hazard of short stories as the quality will naturally differ from story to story.

I read Wayward Girls and Wicked Women pre-blogging and I think my mistake was reading the stories consecutively, as opposed to dipping it and out of it (another great volume of short stories by women, also published by Virago albeit now regrettably out-of-print, that I simply must recommend for reading sporadically is this one. I can’t recommend the superiority of this volume enough, especially to those readers with modernist sensibilities).  I fully admit to getting bogged down in reading this volume and should have spaced out the stories; collecting eighteen short stories by different female authors, it is quite the undertaking to read them all at once.  That is not to say that I did not enjoy the stories, because I did, but I recommend the collection with the reservation to read them slowly and savour the stories one or two at a time.

To begin with, from the contents page, this volume collects stories from three beloved writers: Katherine Mansfield, Colette,  and Angela Carter herself (“The Loves of Lady Purple”; their inclusion alone should have ensured that I loved this and I do hold it dear, willing to read closely from its covers in short spurts in future revisits.  “The Rainy Moon” by Colette is more of a novella and one that I own in several collections (mainly Colette ones); it is a story that showcases its writer’s immense talents are their finest.  If there is anyone whose rich and lush writing Angela Carter’s could be compared to then it would be Colette.  If you know little of Colette, or even if you do, then please read this excellent essay about her written by Angela Carter; it makes me want to instantly reach for the books I have by Colette and not come up for air until I have read her very last word.

In Angela Carter’s own words, this is a collection in which the title is ironic and the tales subversive; “Most of the women in these stories, even if they do not prosper exceedingly, at least contrive to evade the victim’s role by the judicious use of their wits, and they share a certain cussedness, a bloodymindedness, even though their stories are told in an enormous variety of ways, and come from all over the world”.  Leonora Carrington’s riotously funny “The débutante” in which the eponymous (anti-)heroine persuades a hyena to take her place at a ball, is a highlight but there are several stand-out stories.  Reading Wayward Girls and Wicked Women has made me seek out other work by some of the writers, some of whom were new to me and others I have been meaning to read for some time; you can expect me at some point to share my thoughts on my extended discoveries of Elizabeth Jolley; Grace Paley; Djuna Barnes; Bessie Head (who will be re-issued by Virago later this year); Jamaica Kincaid; Frances Towers (a collection of whose stories are published by Persephone Books).

]]> http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/04/17/wayward-girls-and-wicked-women-by-angela-carter/feed/ 12 http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/01/30/defined-by-books/ http://www.paperback-reader.co.uk/2010/01/30/defined-by-books/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:42:00 +0000 Paperback Reader http://paperback-reader.co.uk/?p=1009