Just listen to the frogs...

Books that have been read lately or have spent some time at least on my bedside table:

The Jane Austen Bookclub by Karen Joy Fowler

Excerpt 1:
"Just listen to the frogs," Jocelyn said. We listened. Apparently, somewhere beneath the clamour of her kennel of barking dogs there was a chorus of frogs."

Excerpt 2:
"No passion at all." Prudie repeated the word, but pronouncing it as if it were French. Pah-see-ohn. Because she taught French, this wasn't as thoroughly obnoxious as it might have been. Not that we liked it. The month before, Prudie's beautician had removed most of her eyebrows; it gave her a look of steady suprise. We couldn't wait for this to go away. "Sans passion, amour n'est rien," Prudie said.

Excerpt 3:
"Bernadette was our oldest member, just rounding the bed of sixty-seven. She's recently announced that she was, officially, letting herself go "I just don't look in the mirror anymore," she's told us. "I wish I'd thought of it years ago...."Like a vampire," she added, and when she put it that way we wondered how it was that vampires always managed to look so dapper. It seemed that more of them should look like Bernadette. Prudie had once seen Bernadette in the supermarket in her bedroom slippers,hair sticking up from her forehead as if she hadn't even combed it. She was buying frozen edamame beans and capers and other items that couldn't have been immediately needed."

I really enjoyed this, and gulped it up in two days. The narration was clever and dryly sarcastic but constantly kind and understanding of individual foilbles. I was only disapointed that it ended sooner than expected because the last bit of the novel was actually just a book club guide! The end fizzled a bit I think though. And as much as I enjoyed it, the forays into unique lives of individuals making up this bookclub, and the things that brought them together...I know it will make a terrible movie, in the tradition of The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Something geared towards menopausal women. On the other hand, it might be more of a winner if cast closer to the mold of How to Make an American Quilt. Casting will be key I think....

The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe
This is a book with substance. There's something to it, that you can really lose yourself in. Rich narrative, plot, and characters abound and it's a period piece set in the second half of the nineteenth century in the American and Canadian west as well as Victorian London. The characters are deeply flawed and one or two are rather sinester. I got quite caught up in it and then mislocated it quite to my consternation. I just finally found it and after a few weeks away from it, I'm planning on picking up where I left off somewhere in the middle. I heard that something shockingly violent caused my friend's mother to put it down. It's been gritty for sure. One scene involved slicing open a horse abdomen and crawling in for warmth during a storm. All I could think of was that similar scene from Star Wars etched indelibly into my mind at a tender age.

Chelsea's Ride (Not Just Proms & Parties) by Patricia G. Penny

Teen lit- featuring a truly selfish and conceited central character which actually makes for an enjoyable read as you wait for her to get just desserts. In using a geeky guy for a chauffer, and dating a hottie purely for his looks and sex, she finds out he has used her as well, to get back at his ex-girlfriend. She bounces back though, and with a few more encounters the book ends with an unrepentent but highly interesting flounce. A great book for reluctant teen readers.

A Bike Ride: 12,000 Miles Around the World by Anne Mustoe

Haven't finished it though I found it really interesting, non-fiction never grabs me the same way. A middle-aged out of shape British woman quits her job as a private school headmistress and heads out on a bicycle to circle the globe in 15 months. I really enjoyed reading about Europe, because I'd love to do the same thing. I am looking foward to the bit about cycling across India, though my own ambitions do not reach that far!

J-Fiction to come another day...