The Bell Jar

Title: The Bell Jar
Author: Sylvia Plath
Published: Originally 1965, this edition is from 1986
Genre: Semi-autobiographical
Pages: 258


I'm on my third book after finishing this one, so let's see what I can recall...  Esther Greenwood, a college girl, is working in New York on a summer internship, away from home and family and her something-of-a-boyfriend, who is in hospital with tuberculosis. She's young, free and in New York, but she can't enjoy herself. To her, the city isn't glamorous or exciting, and she doesn't seem to care what happens. When she returns home, she finds out that her plans for the rest of the summer fell through, and she ends up staying with her mother, becoming increasingly depressed.

The book is semi-autobiographical, with names and such changed from Plath's own life and experiences. I was semi-aware of this when I read the book, but I don't know what really happened and what didn't.

For a book about depression and how it was treated back in the days (electric shocks, ow), The Bell Jar was not a depressing or dark read. It was even humorous in places, even though the humour could be very dark.


   The same thing happened over and over:
   I would catch a sight of some flawless man off in the distance, but as soon as he moved closer I immediately saw he wouldn't do at all.
   That's one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the coloured arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.

Maanantaisin suljettu

Nimi: Maanantaisin suljettu
Alkuperäinen nimi: Zavírací den
Kirjoittaja: Pavel Soltész
Julkaistu: Taifuuni, 1992.
Genre: Murhamysteeridekkaripokkari
Sivuluku: 285


Kuten jo aikaisemmassa päivityksessä mainitsin, joku pois muuttava naapuri jakeli kirjastoaan ilmaiseksi tuossa viikko pari sitten. Mukaan tarttui... piti käydä laskemassa. 15 kirjaa, plus kaverille kolme. Tämä oli yksi viidestätoista. En vain voinut vastustaa yhteen lempipaikkaani, Prahaan, sijoittuvaa dekkaripokkaria jännällä kannella.

Opiskelija Martin Vencu (toim. huom. En osaa lisätä tsekkinimien päälle kaikkia mahdollisia pikku-v -merkkejä ja pallukoita. Bear with me...) on luvannut esitellä ystävättärensä Veronikan jazz-bändin isänsä tuttavalle, joka voi kiskoa nyörejä ja saada bändin jonkunlaiseen musiikkikatselmukseen. Hakiessaan Veronikaa jazzkapakka Banjoon, jossa bändillä on illalla keikka, selviää että joku on käynyt tonkimassa paikkoja Veronikan kotona. Ei kestä kauan ennen kuin alkaa löytyä ruumiita. Martin ei saa kovin hämärää sotkua mielestään, ja päätyy selvittämään mysteeriä, lähinnä juttelemalla Banjon erikoislaatuisen asiakaskunnan kanssa.

Maanantaisin suljettu oli ihan jännä pikku mysteeri, mutta jokin kirjassa oli että... en osaa ihan selittää, mutta olen ekoista sivuista asti yrittänyt miettiä mikä kirjassa on niin... no, se vain on vähän... outo. Sekin vähän hämmensi että vasta sivun 120 hujakoilla selvisi edes se, mille vuosikymmenelle tarina sijoittuu. Mutta kirja oli nopeaa ja ajoittain hauskaakin lukemista, eli ihan kiva etta nappasin sen omaan hyllyyn.


   En todellakaan halunnut enää ajatella asiaa. Hetkisen vielä mietin, mikä kumma minut sai kysymään Rousista, käsilaukusta ja veden keittämisestä, mutta pakotin itseni heittämään ne mielestäni. Menin huoneeseeni ja paremman puutteessa rupesin siivoamaan sitä.

Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante

Title: Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante
Author: Monica Nolan
Published: 2013
Genre: Pulp fiction!
Pages: 281


 Whee! I had just been thinking that I need/want to read Lois Lenz (linky link) or Bobby Blanchard (the link) again, as they're fun and great summer reading, but then I happened to find this one in the book shop! Joy of joys!

Third of Monica Nolan's series -I hope there'll be a looot more- set in the late fifties, early sixties, we've already met Maxie in the first book as a minor character, living in the same boarding house as our other heroines. And now it's her turn to shine! Maxie's an heiress to a rich family, but when she's caught -by her mother! Gasp!- in a country club's powder room, getting to know another young girl very personally, she's told to either move home from the big city, or make it on her own. Maxie chooses the latter, and sets out to find a career for herself. Jobs aren't as easy to keep as one would think, but luckily there are plenty around. Girlfriends are not so easy to keep either, especially since there are so many other pretty girls around! Maxie is particularly interested in Lon the laconic loner, who seems to be mixed up with the Scandinavian mobs running the darker side of the city.

Oh, oh, oh, that's another thing. Alliteration. I love alliteration, and Ms. Nolan does as well. It makes me happy and helps to set the pulpy tone for these lovely books.


   Maxie burst into the Arms full of her new job and her new discovery. "Hallooo!" she caroled, when she reached the fifth floor. "Where is everybody? I've got news!" How the girls would exclaim when she told them that Kitty, the new girl, was playing the innocent student while spying on all of them in order to write a supposedly serious sociological study of the Sapphic sisterhood!


I might just re-read Lois and/or Bobby anyways.

The Liar

Title: The Liar
Author: Stephen Fry
Published: 1991
Genre: Humour!
Pages: 388


And after Sarah Waters' first book, here's Stephen Fry's! The Liar follows Adrian, an exiled bastard prince turned international jewel thief who, purely by accident, ends up killing an important head of state. He really only meant to steal their priceless signet ring, to bring it to the head of the Moscow mob, to save his long-suffering, cross-dressing lover! In a wild attempt to save his own skin long enough to save the lover, Adrian hops on the Trans-Siberian train, and ends up in a very Agatha Christie -like whodunnit, in a hurry to find a murdered before the murderer -or the mob killers!- get to him. And if you think that's wild, just wait till the ufo's --- oh, now I'm spoilering it.


Full of Mr. Fry's witty and smart humour, and I must admit, as much as I liked the book, which I did, very much so, I am only s-m-r-t so some bits went flying over my head. They whistled pleasantly as they did so. But since not a word of it was true, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. The ending... ha! "Wait, was that the end? But that was--- oh. Oh! Ohhh! Ha!"


   He was always doing that in these days. Everything he saw became a symbol of his own existence, from a rabbit caught in headlights to raindrops racing down a window-pane. Perhaps it was a sign that he was going to become a poet or a philosopher: the kind of person who, when he stood on the sea-shore, didn't see waves breaking on a beach, but saw the surge of human will or the rhythms of copulation, who didn't hear the sound of the tide but hears the eroding roar of time and the last moaning sigh of humanity fizzing into nothingness. But perhaps it was a sign, he also thought, that he was turning into a pretentious wanker.

Tipping the Velvet

Title: Tipping the Velvet
Author: Sarah Waters
Published: 1998; this was a poorly edited e-book
Genre: Historical romance
Pages: 472, at least in proper book form


Mom: What are you reading?
Me: Umm... it's called Tipping the Velvet (don't ask don't ask don't ask)
Mom: What? How do you tip velvet?
Me: I don't know. I... think that it's a... an old English saying. Or something.
Mom: Must be. Weird.
Me: ...yeah. Weird.


This is Sarah Waters' first book, set in Victorian London -one of my favourite places!- and it's about Nancy Astley, an oyster girl from Whitstable who falls for a music hall star, drag king Kitty Butler. Nan soon becomes Kitty's dresser and follows her to London, where her role in Kitty's life and show grows.

Tipping the Velvet is a fun book, pacing's great, I love the characters... I just really like this book. This is the second time I've read it, first go was in... 2007, so before I started this blog. This time I read it as a very poorly edited e-book, which was full of typos. Typoes? Still, I kept reading until my phone's battery ran out.

There's also a pretty decent 3-part BBC adaptation out there, which I recommend! Might watch it again myself one of these days...


   I didn't listen: I was too taken with the gay girl's story. She was saying now: 'We flat fucked for a half-an-hour; then tipped the velvet while the gent looked on. Then Susie took a pair of vampers, and -'
   I looked again at Florence, and frowned. 'Are they French, or what?' I asked. 'I can't understand a thing they're saying.' And indeed, I could not; for I had never heard such words before, in all my time upon the streets. I said, 'Tipped the velvet: what does that mean? It sounds like something you might do in a theatre...'
   Florence blushed. 'You might try it,' she said; 'but I think the chairman would chuck you out...' Then, while I still frowned, she parted her lips and showed me the tip of her tongue; and glanced, very quickly, at my lap. I had never known her do such a thing before, and I found myself terribly startled by it, and terribly stirred. It might just as well have been her lips that she had dipped to me: I felt my drawers grow damp, and my cheeks flush scarlet; and had to look away from her own warm gaze, to hide my confusion.

White Night

Title: White Night
Author: Jim Butcher
Published: 2007 in book form but this was an audio book
Genre: Noir urban fantasy
Pages: 416 says Wikipedia.


Ooh, I had two weeks of summer holiday, and finished three books! Yay! I also re-organised my bookshelves, and they're now pretty and colourful. Except for the black and white one. And just when I had finished with that, some neighbor abandoned their books, free to a good home. Sooo. I ended up with several new books. ...yay!

Book #9! James Marsters is still reading 'em, so I'm still listening to 'em. A year has passed since Proven Guilty, and Harry is asked to check out a suicide. After some further research, it turns out that there is a serial killer of magic using women running amok around Chicago. After some more research, Harry and Co -including his now-apprentice, Molly- end up with suspects enough to share.

It's been about two weeks since I finished White Night, so I can't really remember what I wanted to say about it. Without spoiling things, anyway. The book jumped straight into action, and didn't slow down until the end. If I remember correctly, there's maybe three more books read by Mr. Marsters. Maybe I'll skip to reading them after those are done.

Quote courtesy of Wikiquote.


Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another.

Dune

Title: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Published: 1965, this edition is by Ace from 2010
Genre: Science fiction
Pages:794, 883 with appendixes and afterword


Ooh. Dune. One of the masterpieces of science fiction! I've mentioned before that I'm not so well acquainted with sci-fi, but I've wanted to read Dune for a while. I might have seen the movie when I was a kid, not sure. I've been wanting to see it now, but wanted to read the book before I do that. For one ~800 pages long, it was a surprisingly fast read!

15-year old Paul Atreides moves with his father the Duke, mother Jessica, and their court to the desert planet Arrakis, to rule over the planet and the collection of expensive spice, per imperial command. The previous rulers, the Harkonnens, are not very happy to part with the riches of the world, and have long planned for a warm welcome. And Paul, well, he's not your average teenager by a long shot, and becomes less so in his new home.

There's politics and nature issues and all kind of things going on, I'm fairly sure I missed many things.The book felt kind of... clinical most of the time. People's actions and motivations are explained, but they still feel distant. Some kind of futuristic stiff upper lip? I don't know. That being said, I still enjoyed the book and wanted to see what happens next. Even though the reader is informed of certain plot points, you still keep reading, to see how they play out. Will be checking out the rest of the series, at least the next couple of books, sometime in the future.


   "On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power," the Duke said. "Here, we must scrabble for desert power. This is your inheritance, Paul. What is to become of you if anything happens to me? You'll not be a renegade House, but a guerrilla House-running, hunted."
   Paul groped for words, could find nothing to say. He had never seen his father this despodent.
   "To hold Arrakis," the Duke said, "one is faced with decisions that may cost one his self-respect." He pointed out the window to the Atreides green and black banner hanging limply from a staff at the edge of the landing field. "That honorable banner could come to mean many evil things."
   Paul swallowed in a dry throat. His father's words carried futility, a sense of fatalism that left the boy with an empty feeling in his chest.