Big Books, Short Books, Old Books and New

The sales figures for eReaders continue to rise but bookshops are overflowing with customers at the moment.  A sight which makes my heart sing!  Four employees were steadily ringing up sales at my local Indigo shop yesterday as the line-up was constantly added to.  My family likes to arrive at the threshold and then wave each other off as we head to the area we each like best.  Our latest trip was to pick up a stash of magazines for indulgent slothing about during the Christmas break.  You know the days - pajamas until noon and the coffee table is littered with clementine peels and Quality Street wrappers. 

A few new books have arrived on my shelves either through the mail, bookshop or found at a second-hand shop so let's see if you can be tempted...

Friends & Relations by Elizabeth Bowen - If you haven't discovered this magnificent author yet then you are missing out, I am telling you!  From the back...

During a soft summer in the 1920s, the Studdart sisters marry and set up house, one in London and one on a country estate.  However, things are not as they seem.  Using careful, elliptical prose interspersed with comic quips and populated by memorable characters, Elizabeth Bowen reveals how these seemingly placid lives are anchored in lies.'  And...'For admirers of the Bloomsbury circle and watchers of Downton Abbey, Friends and Relations offers an unforgettable comedy of manners tinged with romance and regret.'

Treasure Hunt by Molly Keane - I bought this one because Danielle from A Work in Progress piqued my interest about this author in one of her posts and secondly because while flipping through the pages I spotted the words 'tea tray'.  Call me shallow but there you have it - one ever so slight mention of the partaking of tea and I instantly become fond of a story.  First published in 1952 this Virago reissue has been languishing on the shelves at BMV Books in Toronto for ages, I've passed it over numerous times, so it was time to just give it a home.

'To the outrage of their elders and the servants, Phillip and Veronica decide to do the unspeakable and take in paying guests.  A battle of wills commences, with Consuelo and Hercules doing their utmost to thwart the new regime.  In the midst of it all is old and dotty Aunt Anna Rose, who insists that she has some rubies.  If only she could remember where she hid them...'

The Brickfield by L. P. Hartley - By the look of things John Murray Publishers is in the midst of reissuing several of Hartley's novels.  The timing couldn't be better for me as I absolutely loved The Hireling and The Go-Between earlier this year.  Head off to The Book Depository for details...

'A lonely boy living on his uncle's farm in the Lincolnshire Fens, Richard Mardick's solitary existence is interrupted by a chance meeting, and the idyllic love affair, with Lucy.  A disused brickfield is the scene of their clandestine meetings, and it is there that Richard finds her drowned in a muddy pool' 

A sequel called The Betrayal will be printed later in 2013 and the wait will be unbearable!

Upstairs & Downstairs by Sarah Warwick - This is one of those coffee table books you find on the clearance table at your local bookshop and makes for entertaining browsing.  Full of gorgeous photos and illustrations it covers every aspect of domestic life in country houses as well as articles on the suffragette movement, George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, other Bloomsbury Group members...and P G Wodehouse! 

Last week I succumbed to a terrible virus making the rounds and was in bed for two days.  This book was on the pillow next to me for most of the time and was just the thing when I could muster the strength for something light. 

A copy of Loving, Living and Party Going by Henry Green is on its way from The Book Depository because Book Snob makes it so ridiculously hard to refuse.  Three titles for the price of one and I'm really looking forward to discovering this author.

So who is clearing space on their bookshelves in anticipation of bookish gifts from others or yourself? 

The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley

'I would not have gone to war for a kindness, perhaps, but for a grace I would, and did.  For I had no doubt, as my voice floated upwards, who was going, or why.'

L. P. Hartley was edging toward his sixties when he wrote The Go-Between but he certainly had not lost the capacity to remember what it was like to be a child.  As Leo Colston travels through the story, Hartley keenly reminds us how it felt to go unnoticed by adults and ignorant as to what so many things are about.  There is charm though in the swirl of wonder and curiousity amidst so many unknowns and it can be one of the best times of our lives.  Hartley poignantly defends the idea that ignorance is bliss, at least in childhood.

The story begins with Leo as a mature man routing through an old red cardboard box full of the sorts of things a small boy would call treasure.  Finding a diary from the summer of 1900, when he turned thirteen, he recalls being bullied but also the most fantastic case of coincidence resulting in his becoming something of a hero to other bullied youth.  Reading more from his past, Leo finally processes the events of an unusually hot summer spent with the Maudsley family as a playmate for Marcus,  a friend from his dormitory.

Brandham Hall is a world apart from Leo's modest home and upbringing.  In this upper class mansion, clothes are changed often, meals are formal, servants pick your things up from the floor, appearance is everything and sticking to your class in relationships matters.  The Maudsleys seem to relish in the project of 'bringing up' Leo to their standard and outfit him in expensive garments in cooler fabrics rather than see him suffer in his hot, scratchy wool.  The colour they choose for him is green which is rather symbolic and intentional on the author's part I'm sure.

While staying at Brandham Hall, Leo develops quite the crush on Marcus's older sister, Marian.  When she asks if he would mind delivering a note to a nearby farmer, Leo jumps at the chance to serve.  He then becomes a go-between but a rewarding feeling of being useful turns to one of jealousy and dread.  Just what is going on between the farmer and Marian that requires such secrecy?  Rather than enjoy all the wonders of an idyllic summer holiday spent frolicking in cool ponds under a blazing sky, Leo agonizes over things he can't fully understand until a dreadful day of reckoning.  His blissful ignorance of the adult world has vapourized and he is changed forever. 

The library I work for is in the midst of a massive weeding campaign and last week I snapped up a discarded copy of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.  This story is included as one of them.  The Go-Between and The Hireling are two books by this author that I have thoroughly enjoyed but be prepared, not only will L. P. Hartley's writing grab your heart but he goes for your guts as well.  

Books, Buck House and Buckets

Last weekend we were in Toronto and with a quick 'see you soon!' shouted over my shoulder at my husband I made straight for the 'H' section of BMV for another L P  Hartley title.  Poor Stella Gibbons has been sandwiched between one excellent read, The Hireling, and another, The Go-Between, reported to be even better.  While My American is lovely I really can't say it has me rushing home from work to pick up where I left off or flicking on my bedside lamp in the middle of the night to sneak a few pages in.  Who knows though, the ending may just have me eating my words.

I also wanted to stop in to Nicholas Hoare after receiving an email reporting the closure of two of his shops, one in Montreal and one in Ottawa.  The rents are rising by a ridiculous amount and I heaved a sigh of relief that one of my favourite bookshops in Toronto hasn't been affected, yet.  Too many times have I enjoyed all the glory of this fine establishment and then bought the titles that caught my eye on The Book Depository to save money (mind you, their prices are creeping upwards since Amazon's buyout).  I can't continue to have my cake and eat it too so I dished out for Millions Like Us by Virginia Nicholson, a book I've been coveting for quite some time.  A few weeks ago I pulled out my copy of Sisters at Arms about nurses during several conflicts and was so upset by the treatment and rape of these brave women at the hands of the Japanese that I had to set it aside.  Usually I wouldn't shy away from tales of horror but in that book it was unrelenting, hopefully Nicholson's book will have a lighter side at least some of the time.

Oh, and I had an email yesterday from The Heiress.  She was in London with a friend and the Duchess of Cornwall rode past in a car just outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.  And not one mention of what she was wearing, nor any description of a feathered hat or shiny brooch.  I will just have to use my imagination while giving the floors the wash they need so desperately and then there is the weeds to see to.  This exercise in procrastination has come to an end.  Happy Friday!