Opening Sentence of the Day: Cold Comfort Farm

"The education bestowed on Flora Poste by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged; and when they died within a few weeks of one another during the annual epidemic of the influenza or Spanish Plague which occurred in her twentieth year, she was discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living."

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

That is one of the best opening sentences I've read in forever. It is a whole short story in one sentence. I want to live in this book for a long, long time.

Cold Comfort Farm is one of my all-time favorite movies (I think it is actually a British TV show patched together into a movie). It is the source of several "lines" in my household, including the best, "I saw something nasty in the woodshed," always said in a quavery, sepulchral voice. So far, the book is just like the movie, which is fine by me.


NOTE
Book Beginnings on Fridays is a new "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. 

Review of the Day: The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds is a perennial favorite. Every couple of decades, its popularity is regenerated with a new adaptation, most famously with Orson Wells’ 1938 radio production that convinced listeners that Martians were invading in real time, and most recently with Steven Spielberg’s 2005 blockbuster. But there is something to be said for revisiting the original – H. G. Wells’ 1898 novel.

The book is a monumental work of science fiction, both for its science and its fiction. The story itself is particularly exciting in the original because of its historical setting. Martians land in the suburbs of London and proceed to massacre the inhabitants with a terrifying heat ray and smothering toxic smoke. But this is the 1890s – the people have to fight back with infantry and cavalry troops. There are no tanks, no planes, no nothing.

The science gives the book depth beyond the adventure story. Wells provides a roadmap to late-Victorian popular issues, covering Darwinism, Marxism, microbiology, planetary science, military advancements, and even that Victorian favorite, botany. Discussion on these topics gives the reader ideas to mull over after the excitement fades.

NOTES

This counts as one of my books for the Typically British Challenge.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

State of the Blog, Part One: The Lists

Spring has sprung.  The pink trees are blooming and Easter is on the way. It is time to assess what bookery bloggery progress I've made in the first quarter of 2010.

My List of Lists is over in the right-side column. These are Prize Winners, Must Reads, and other lists of books I have read or intend to read for some reason or another. Also in the right-side column is a list of my favorite authors. I add to both lists from time to time.

This is a three-part assessment. This first part addresses the book lists. Part Two, coming soon, will deal with the challenges I joined this year. Part Three will take a look at the author lists.

THE LISTS

1899 Top 100
Books read so far: 7/100
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2

1. The Moonstone by Willkie Collins
   
2. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Books on my TBR shelf: 13

All-TIME Top 100
Books read so far: 75/100
Books read in 2010:

• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (reviewed here)
  

Books I hope to read in 2010: those two, plus two-thirds (I really hope to finish The Lord of the Rings.)
Books on my TBR shelf: 14

Anthony Burgess
Books read so far: 28/99
Books read in 2010: 2

• A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (reviewed here)
• Titus Groan by Mervin Peake (reviewed here)

Books I hope to read in 2010:one more (Strangers and Brothers by C.P. Snow)
Books on my TBR shelf: 20

BBC's Big Read
Books read so far: 52/100
Books read in 2010: one (Black Beauty, Anna Sewell)
Books I hope to read in 2010: one more (Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake)
Books on my TBR shelf: 10

Book Club
Books read so far: 15/16
Books read in 2010: one (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz)
Books I hope to read in 2010: 5 (but The Red Tent is the only one I know so far)
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

College Board
Books read so far: 75/101
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath)
Books on my TBR shelf: 15

Costa Book of the Year
Books read so far: 3/24
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2 

• The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
• Small Island by Andrea Levy
  

Books on my TBR shelf: 2

Easton Press
Books read so far: 56/100
Books read in 2010: one (The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan)
Books I hope to read in 2010: only the one
Books on my TBR shelf: 25

Edgar Award
Books read so far: 6/55
Books read in 2010: one (New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith)
Books I hope to read in 2010: only one
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Erica Jong
Books read so far: 29/100
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: several, including

1. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
   
2. Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier
   
3. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
   

Books on my TBR shelf: 19

French Connection
Books read so far: 43/109 (and counting -- there are more books to add to the list)
Books read in 2010: one (The Flaneur by Edmund White)
Books I hope to read in 2010: one more (The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein)
Books on my TBR shelf: 20

Guilt List

Books read so far: I don't keep track, because I delete them after I read them
Books read in 2010: same
Books I hope to read in 2010: 15 more (I'll be busy)

1. The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos
2. The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda
3. The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malott
5. The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt by Rulka Langer 
6. Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley
7. Leaving Brooklyn by Lynn Sharon Schwartz
8. Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories by Scott Nadelson 
9. Clown Girl by Monica Drake 
10. The Farmer's Daughter by Jim Harrison 
11. Jumptown: The Golden Years of Portland Jazz 1942-1957 by Robert Dietsche
12. Another Way the River Has: Taut True Tales from the Northwest by Robin Cody   
13. An Architectural Guidebook to Portland by Bart King 
14. The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vinyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Brian Doyle  
15.  The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees

Books on my TBR shelf: 15

James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Books read so far: 8/96
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry)
Books on my TBR shelf: 9

LT Early Reviewers
Books read so far: 25/27
Books read in 2010: two

• A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (reviewed here)
• Maimonides: and the Biblical Prophets by Israel Drazin
• Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow (reviewed here)

Books I hope to read in 2010: two more

1. The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain, published by Words Without Borders Anthologies
2. Short Stories, Book I by Anton Chekhov

Books on my TBR shelf: 2

Man Booker Prize
Books read so far: 21/43
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I don't know which
Books on my TBR shelf: 13

MLA's 30
Books read so far: 22/30
Books read in 2010: one (The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver)
Books I hope to read in 2010: just the one
Books on my TBR shelf: 4

Modern Library
Books read so far: all of them!
Books read in 2010: zero (finished this list a couple of years ago)
Books I hope to read in 2010: none
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

National Book Award
Books read so far: 24/63
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to Read in 2010: 2 (for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge)

• Them by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

Books on my TBR shelf: 15

NBCC Award
Books read so far: 16/33
Books read in 2010: one (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz)
Books I hope to read in 2010: one more (Counterlife by Philip Roth)
Books on my TBR shelf: 8

Nobel Laureates
Authors read so far: 19/105
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset)
Books on my TBR shelf: 30 (but most by authors already read)

Observer's Top 100
Books read so far: 55/100
Books read in 2010: 2  

• Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Books I hope to read in 2010: two-thirds (the last two book in The Lord of the Rings)
Books on my TBR shelf: 19

Orange Prize
Books read so far: 1/13
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Small Island by Andrea Levy)
Books on my TBR shelf: 4

Oregon Books
Books read so far: 3/20
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: maybe none
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

PEN/Faulkner

Books read so far: 7/29
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2

• Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley (also on my Guilt List)
• Seaview by Toby Olson

Books on my TBR shelf: 12

Pulitzer Prize
Books read so far: 40
Books read in 2010: one (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz)
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least 2 (for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge) 

• The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
• Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Books on my TBR shelf: 15

Radcliffe's Top 100
Books read so far: 86/100
Books read in 2010: tqo

• Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster (reviewed here)
• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Books I hope to read in 2010: 4+

• the rest of The Lord of the Rings
• Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
  

Books on my TBR shelf: 9

RCR Top 10
Books read so far: 10/10 (it's my list)
Books read in 2010: zero (the list has not changed -- so far)
Books I hope to Read in 2010: maybe a new book will make it to the list
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Well-Stocked Bookcase
Books read so far: 35/60
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to Read in 2010: one (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath)
Books on my TBR shelf: 14

I want to concentrate on the Radcliffe list because I have a shot at finishing that one once and for all. But my Guilt List is in danger of toppling over, so is claiming my immediate attention.

Teaser Tuesday: City Limits

"That's what I crave: meaningful places.  No one like a convert -- poor li'l L.A. boy, I'm a big fan, an aficionado, of this Portland thing because it offers me an alternative to the dilute life of the endless suburbs."

City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary by David Oates (published by the Oregon State University Press).

Although this book is about Portland's "Urban Growth Boundary," it would be interesting for anyone who contemplates what makes a city "livable" and how they think about their own life in relation to their city.  I don't agree with everything Oates writes, but his book is thought-provoking.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

I had such a hectic trial week last week that I comforted myself with an order from amazon that arrived in time for Mailbox Monday.

I saw Death in the Truffle Wood on Kittling Books and impulse purchased it on the spot, along with the sequel and a P. G. Wodehouse book to bring the order up to $25 so I could get free shipping.

Death in the Truffle Wood by Pierre Magnan.  Published in 1978, this is the first of two Commissaire Laviolette mysteries, both set in Provence. I get a kick out of vintage mysteries, so I am looking forward to reading both of these. The are also going on my French Connections list.



The Messengers of Death by Pierre Magnan (the second Commissaire Laviolette mystery).



Jeeves in the Offing by P. G. Wodehouse