The Knowledge of Water

Finished August 21

The Knowledge of Water by Sarah Smith

This historical novel has elements of suspense and romance, as well as an interesting historical setting. It is 1910 and in Paris. 

One of the main characters, Alexander von Reisden adopted his current life when he was very young. At the age of eight, he was an American boy who killed in self-defense and fled, changing his name and his country. For years he had buried his memories of the past, but eventually remembered and now feels the weight of his actions heavily. He worried that his crime is a personality and moral flaw that he cannot escape. But the three people who know of his past have absolved him, recognizing the circumstances of the action he took. He now runs Jouvet Medical Analyses, an institute that specialized in mental disturbances and has an impressive case archive going back decades.

Perdita Halley is the other main character. She is a young American woman studying music, specifically piano, persevering in spite of her instructor's misogyny and her own failing sight.  She is the protégée of American rare book expert Gilbert Knight, who funds her studies and worries about her enough that he sends his friend, investigator Roy Daugherty to Paris to check on her, determine whether an outright gift of money is a good idea and see if his hoped-for union of Perdita and Alexander is likely.

Perdita and Alexander are close, and they grow closer despite their misgivings. They are drawn to each other, but Perdita worries that marriage will mean giving up music, and Alexander worries that Perdita won't be happy. 

Meanwhile the rain in France is at record levels and flooding issues grow more dire. There is also a murdered woman, who identified with the Mona Lisa, and whose body sits in the morgue waiting for the investigation on her death to lead to her murderer, and the museum guard who may have killed her. There is Milly Xico, a French writer whose ex-husband still tries to control her and exploit her talents as he did during their marriage, even as she makes strategic choices of her own. There is a possible art fraud regarding paintings by an artist who died a few years earlier, and his widow, Madame Mallais, who may be part of the fraud. 

I enjoyed the undercurrent of feminism here, with Perdita, Milly, and Madame Mallais, as they each navigate a world where women have different rules and expectations. There is also the very real flooding that happened in Paris and the immense damage it did, with both infrastructure damage and lives lost. 

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

Finished February 12

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

This novel was a delightful read. It takes place in the summer of 1919, and follows several young people who are adjusting to life after the war. Many of the women worked during the war, and have now found themselves without those jobs. Some are trying to survive on the small war widows pensions by augmenting it by other work. They aren't the only ones seemingly locked out of the work they had been doing. Men who were injured also find themselves treated as incapable. 

The central character here is Constance Haverhill. Constance's mother grew up with another woman who married into a titled family, while Constance's mother married a farmer. They continued to call each other best friends, but it seems like Lady Mercer treated her friend as an unpaid worker, often calling on her to help with childcare and other household endeavours. During the war, Constance worked as estate manager for the Mercers, but found herself quickly ousted when the war ended. With her mother dead from the influenza epidemic, she found herself called on to nurse Lady Mercer's mother, Mrs. Fog when she was ill. Her 'reward' is to act as companion to Mrs. Fog while she convalesces at a seaside hotel. 

But it is in this town that both Constance and Mrs. Fog encounter second chances. Constance meets another young woman her age, Poppy Wirrall. Poppy is also the daughter in a titled family, and she spent the war, along with other young women, working as motorcycle messengers. Poppy has started a small company offering motorcycle taxi (using sidecars) and delivery services, with a variety of young women employed part-time doing this work. Some have other jobs or widows pensions that they augment by working for her. 

Poppy's brother was a pilot during the war, and lost part of one leg in action. He is back at home, but depressed by the loss of many men he considered friends, and the inability of others to consider him employable. 

Constance is a calming force to Poppy's impulsiveness and exuberance, and as she begins to take chances, and open herself up to other possibilities in her life, I found myself hoping for a more promising future for her than she expected at the book's beginning. 

I also enjoyed Mrs. Fog, watching her go from recovering invalid to putting her own wishes first, despite the pressure of those she'd given into previously. 

I also found the story of the German waiter Klaus Zeiger touching. He is the quintessential waiter, always observant, mindful of propriety, and empathetic to the needs of those he serves. He is also highly aware of his ethnic baggage and how it has affected his life both during the war and now. I really appreciated that Constance saw him as a person, beyond his role. 

This is a novel of a time of great changes and adjustments and not all of them are fair or pleasant. This novel has moments of outrage, sadness, and joy. Well worth reading. 

The Trouble with You

Finished January 19

The Trouble with You by Ellen Feldman

This novel is set in a time period that I haven't seen covered as often in novels, but that was very interesting in a lot of ways. The novel begins on Christmas day in 1947 as Fanny, her husband Max, and their young daughter Chloe head off to a wedding, coming home in the beginnings of a huge snowstorm. It than jumps back to 1941, when Max is leaving for Europe. He is a doctor, and we are told a little of their pasts. Fanny went to Barnard, something she has her Aunt Rose to thank for. 

Aunt Rose is also an important character in this novel. She is a woman who went to work directly from school, earning the money to put both her brothers through college, and eventually starting her own business as a dressmaker and seamstress, specializing in recreating designer dresses for those who can't quite afford the real thing. Rose's story will come to be important in Fanny's life in other ways as well. We see how, with Max off in Europe during the war years, life went on for Fanny. Chloe grew, some of Fanny's married friends found jobs that men had done before the war, and Rose was nearby and very involved in Fanny and Chloe's life, babysitting so Fanny could spend time with friends and taking Fanny to plays and on other cultural outings. Since Fanny's mother died when Fanny was young, Rose was almost a mother to her in many ways. We see how her cousin Mimi, also with a husband off to the war, goes on a different path, moving home to her parents for this time. 

Then, after the war, we watch as Max returns, they move out of the city to a house and we read our way back to 1947. Home after the wedding, the day will end in tragedy for Fanny, and she will have to find a way to move on. 

Moving from the house she and Max lived in in New Jersey, she takes a small apartment not far from Rose's in New York City. We follow her as she adjusts to her new life, providing for herself and Chloe, and we also sometimes see things through Chloe's eyes.

One element of the book that I enjoyed learning more about was that of McCarthyism. Fanny works in a field where people get blacklisted for the most minor of things: donating to a cause, a past association, an opinion stated. This is interesting, particularly in relation to the world today, where people use socialist as an accusation. I found the parallels worth thinking about. 

I also enjoyed seeing Fanny bloom as she earns a living, starts doing something she really enjoys doing for herself, and takes a chance on love again. 

The Wave in the Mind

Finished June 3

The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on The Writer, The Reader, and The Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin

I've been reading this book slowly, savouring it. Le Guin was such a great writer, and this book has her not only writing, but talking about the process, the craft, and how reading is a relationship we have with a book. She also, naturally, talks about being a woman doing these things, and some of her writing in that area makes me think of Rebecca Solnit on that subject. 

The personal essays at the beginning of the book captured me and made me want to share them with a cousin that also enjoyed this author. She's so much funnier than I expected. The first piece, Introducing Myself, which was written to be performed, is absolutely wonderful. One quote: "As a matter of fact I think sex is even more boring as a spectator sport than all of the other spectator sports, even baseball."

Her second essay, Being Taken for Granite, has obvious humour right from the title and yet is thoughful and profound again right along with the humour. The next essay, Indian Uncles, gives some insight into her background and her parents, and the environment she grew up in. All of that is helpful in understanding in how she came to be the person she was. The essay My Libraries shows her feelings about libraries and what she values about them. She says a public library "must be available to all who need it, and that's everyone, when they need it, and that's always." The next piece is one she wrote for a magazine when she was asked to write about a favourite island. She had to think about it a while and finally chose Sauvie island on the Willamette river, where it enters the Columbia river. She gives some history of it, but talks about what makes it special and how it has, so far, defended itself against being spoiled in how it is used. The last essay in this section, called On the Frontier, was also written for a magazine, and talks about frontiers, physical and mental. 

The next section is called Reading and contains pieces about other writing, from Tolstoy to Borges to Mark Twain. I enjoyed her insights into these authors and their writing. There is also a very interesting piece in this section on rhythm in writing, both in poetry and in prose, and another about rhythmic patterns in the Lord of the Rings books. She also has a piece about reading poetry out loud, and I always like to read poetry out loud if I can, so that really connected with me. 

The third section of the book is called Discussions and Opinions. Many of the pieces here also touch on reading and writing. The first essay looks at narrative and the differences in fiction and nonfiction. The next piece was one that discussed awards and gender and started with an experience where a jury that consisted of three women initially picked only women  for the short list, and the discussion and actions that followed that. This experience drove her to amass some statistics on literary awards and the results were quite eye-opening. This naturally led into the theme of the next essay which looked at genetic determinism and a critique of the naturalist E.O. Wilson and his writing. The next essay talked about feet, and what we do to our feet in the name of beauty. Again, some thoughtful ideas emerged here. This was followed by another essay that touched on ideas of beauty, this time about pets (dogs and cats) and dancers. This essay talked about how we see ourselves and the beauty we see in those we care about that isn't what people who don't know them see. The essay that followed this one, again talked about beauty, and connected it back to the idea of rhythm, both in writing and music, and that made me think of these things differently. This is followed by the essay Telling is Listening, a discussion of communication. Not just communication between people, but also other creatures, and in indirect ways. She talks about conversation and how reading differs from watching television in that it is a conversation of sorts. She uses a lot of examples when she does this and that helps clarify what she is saying and making it understandable to the reader in real ways. The essay The Operating Instructions talks about literature is the guide to life, a manual on it for those that pay attention.The last essay in this section is a collection of thoughts on oppression, revolution, and imagination, grouped into themes. This essay is named from a quote by Primo Levi where he says "It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end."

The final section of the book is one writing and includes talks that she has given when teaching writing, whether in classes or workshops. There are many things she brings into these discussions: trust, the writer's relationship with their characters, assumptions that writers make about their future readers, and the issues that accompany ego for a writer. She also has a piece dealing with that common question writers get about where they get their ideas from. This essay had a few paragraphs that really connected for me:

    Reading is active. To read a story is to participate actively in the story. To read is to tell the story, tell it to yourself, reliving it, rewriting it with the author, word by word, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter.... If you want proof, just watch an eight-year-old reading a story she likes. She is concentratedly, tensely, fiercely alive. She is as intense as a hunting cat. She is a tiger eating.

    Reading is a most mysterious act. It absolutely has not been replaced and will not be replaced by any kind of viewing. Viewing is an entirely different undertaking, with different rewards.

    A reader reading makes the book, brings it into meaning, by translating arbitrary symbols, printed letters, into an inward, private reality. Reading is an act, a creative one. Viewing is relatively passive. A viewer watching a film does not make the film. To watch a film is to be taken into it -- to participate in it -- be made part of it. Absorbed by it. Readers eat books. Film eats viewers. 

As an avid reader, that really made sense to me. Later in the same essay she quotes Virginia Woolf about the need to feel the rhythm in a story to write well, and it is from this quote the she gets the title of this book. Woolf says "A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing (such is my present belief) one has to recapture this, and set this working (which apparently had nothing to do with words) and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit it."

In the following essay she talks about the impulse to write and how writing comes to her. The last piece is a long poem about writing, which I read several times, getting more from it every instance. 

An amazing book. I borrowed this one to read, but have now ordered my own copy. 

I Was Told It Would Get Easier

Finished May 1

I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman

This is a road trip novel, with a mother and daughter travelling in the eastern U.S. on a college tour. Jessica is a single mom, 45, and a partner in her law firm. She has mentored younger women lawyers for years, and is currently mentoring Valentina, who is up for partner. She has had a live-in nanny for her daughter Emily from the beginning, and Anna is more like a member of the family than an employee. 

Jessica is looking forward to the trip to spend time with Emily and get some quality mother-daughter time. But to add to the reasons, one of the lead partners has told her that he doesn't intend to make either of the women who qualify for partner this year a partner, for not very good reasons. Jessica has had enough of this attitude and has issued an ultimatum of quitting if he doesn't, which makes her a little nervous. 

Emily is also looking forward to going away, but not because she particularly wants to spend time with Jessica, or because she wants to explore colleges, but because something has happened at school, something that she has had a role in, and she wants the dust to settle before she returns to school and before her mother finds out. 

Emily isn't sure what she wants to do with her life, but she doesn't feel that college is the right choice for her. She is, however, having trouble convincing Jessica that this is a good move. 

As the two of them visit a number of colleges from Washingon, D.C. to New York City, there are many encounters, between them, the problems they left back in California, and other people on the tour. Some of these encounters are ones that may change their lives. 

I liked that the viewpoint changed between the characters of Emily and Jessica, so you got to see and experience both viewpoints, and see some of the underlying tensions of their relationship, as well as other worries that are in their heads. They are both good people, with strong ethical foundations, and this comes through during the course of the book. They are also very capable people in their own right and their own sphere, and while those spheres are different, they both grow to acknowledge the other's worth beyond their relationship. 

There are many other interesting characters that have small but important roles here, including the other parents and teens on the trip, the young woman who is leading the tour, and people they meet along the way. I really enjoyed this read, and seeing the characters grow. 

Shrewed

Finished March 23
Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls by Elizabeth Renzetti

This collection of sixteen essays covers feminism, advice, and Renzetti's personal experiences. Some of the essay titles are intriguing such as "Tales for Young Witches." Others are instantly relatable, such as "The Voice in Your Head is an Asshole." On the personal side, Renzetti includes a letter to her daughter, a letter to her son, and an essay about her mom, among others. The final essay here is what she would say were she asked to give a commencement address at her school.
There is so much here to love that it is hard to know where to start. Here's a couple of quotes from the essays to give a taste of them.
"Loneliness is a public health crisis."
"At the Museum of American History, the Woolworths lunch counter, site of the Greensboro protest sit-in, stands across the hall from the wagon that delivered the suffragette newspaper The Woman's Daily."
This book made me laugh, it made me sad, and it made me angry. I encourage everyone to read it.

We Should All Be Feminists

Finished January 5
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This short book came out of a TED talk Adichie gave. Adichie uses her own experiences both in Nigeria and elsewhere to show how the way men and women are treated is still not fair for women. She gives examples from her life and from the experiences of others and shows that the attitudes stem from the way we are taught beginning as young children. For things to change, we must not only bring up girls differently, but also boys. We need to reexamine how the things we do as a matter of habit keep these differences alive. She shows how just being aware can help move us further down the road. She gives examples of how men can question other men's actions to change things, to bring that awareness to others.
This is a book that everyone should read, and I also recommend her TED talk.

A Jury of Her Peers

Finished April 13
A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter

This overview of American women writers covers the entire history of the topic from the beginnings of the country to the end of the twentieth century. Showalter includes more than 250 women writers in her commentary from poets to dramatists to short story writers and novelists. She touches on not only the obvious issues of gender, but also race, class, and politics.
The book is arranged chronologically with authors reappearing in different chapters as their writing carries over multiple time frames. As the book gets closer to the present, the time frames shorten to decades. Showalter looks at the writing in its context, examining the personal lives of the writers, how their experiences shaped their writing and their lives, and how outside forces reacted to their writing. Some drew support from male writers of their time, while others did not. Some flourished economically but not critically. Some did well at the time of writing and grew less significant in following years, others didn't do well during their lives, but became more valued later. Some had to sacrifice their preferences in the type of writing they wanted to do due to the pressures of economics, family situations, or prejudice.
There were a lot of writers I had never heard of, but also many that I've heard of but never read (some of them I've even got the books on my shelves!) And of course ones I've read and loved, or read and not loved. This book will help to guide some of my future reading.
Showalter gives us a history but also includes some criticism here, occasionally making clear her own views on the writers' works, and the reasoning behind those views.
The title is taken from a short story that was adapted from a play. The author, Susan Glaspell was a journalist who covered a murder case where a woman was accused of murdering her husband, and then was so fascinated by the case that she developed it into both a play and a short story. When the county attorney and sheriff go to the house to gather information, their wives accompany them and looking through a woman's eyes make their own discoveries and decisions about her actions. Of course, real juries at the time of the case, 1917, didn't include women and the link is made in this book from legal juries to literary juries. Glaspell won a Pulitzer Prize in 1931 and yet didn't rate inclusion in literary overviews even at her death nearly 20 years later. Questions are raised by the question of "peer" and what that means both legally and in a literary sense.What judgments have been made about the subject matter women chose to address in their writing at various times is discussed as is the change over time to the situation today where a woman writer can, without judgment choose any subject she wishes to write about.
A work leading to reflection, more reading, and thoughtful response.

Criminal

Finished December 1
Criminal by Karin Slaughter, read by Kathleen Early

This thriller takes us back and forth between the present and the summer of 1975. It also brings together two characters from previous novels, GBI detective Will Trent, and doctor Sara Linton. In the present, Will and Sara are early in their relationship, still learning about each other. Will has been sidelined to less active duty very recently by his boss Amanda Wagner, and when a college student goes missing he wonders why he isn't on the case. When he discovers there is a link to his own past, he must go through heartache and self-doubt as he faces his demons.
In 1975, Amanda is a young policewoman, facing discrimination and her own doubts in her career. When she and her partner Evelyn are sent to a housing project on what proves to be a false case, they learn about some missing women. They are intrigued by the case, despite being warned off by fellow officers, and are determined to get to the truth of the matter. The two women are tested to the extent of their ability, and put themselves in immense danger, but prove themselves as police officers in a way that changes their workplace.
This is a tale of social history, self-knowledge, and friendship.
A wonderful book, with so much more than just a good thriller case.

The Good Girls Revolt

Finished October 14
The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich

The story of the women of Newsweek began in the sixties, but continues into the present. Lynn follows the development of the case from its inception through its public unveiling to subsequent cases and slow change at the newsmagazine. While she was beginning to write this, she was approached by women working at Newsweek in the early twenty-first century, who were still feeling unfairness in the workplace and had just discovered the historic case. This present situation became part of the story included here, and brings in the changes, and gaps that still exist 42 years later. This was a landmark case for women's rights, and one of the interesting elements is the reaction by women both then and now to the term feminism. Among women today, there is a lack of knowledge of the history that partly explains this, but there is also a mindset among many women across time about what feminism is.
A very interesting book, about an important historical change that had long lasting impact on the workplace.