Sorry

I am sorry I have not started my next book, but have every intention of finishing it this week. Once again I am traveling, I am beginning to loathe traveling, especially back to back events. My husband has a conference and I am taking lots of reading, though I will also be exploring. The book is REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro and from what I have read so far it is written in the voice of the butler who is in the employ of an American named Mr. Farraday. They reside at Darlington Hall in England. From what I have read so far Mr. Farraday has left to go back to America on some form of business, leaving the butler, Stevens, the use of his car to go see the countryside. Stevens is not sure that this American understands the rules in regards to relationships with staff. That is all I have for now, I will let you know how it plays out.

A Separate Peace- Finished and Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker

I went to England and left A SEPARATE PEACE behind about three quarters of the way finished, so as soon as I got back I finished the book. Why not take the book with me, well, it was a library book and I do not travel with library books on a plane. So home and finished. I will also talk about another book I did take on the plane and finished while on my 8 hour flights both ways.

A SEPARATE PEACE, by John Knowles first published in 1959, my copy was published in 1996 by Scribner publishing. There is no introduction or follow up essay, so you will need to deal with my take on the subject.

Setting: Starts during the summer at a boys school in New England. Time: During WWII. Main Characters: Phineas (Finny), all star athlete, breaker of rules, wants to have fun during summer instead of being locked up studying. Narrator Gene, studious, jealous of Finny, but his best friend. Supporting people: Brinker, Leper, and rest of the Lower Middler Class at Devon.

This is a sad story, a tale of jealousy, betrayal, hardship with the war in the background as these boys are close to turning 18 and being eligible to be drafted. They are at the start of the story being led by Phineas, who thinks that they should do the same exercises as the Upper Middler Class who are preparing for their time in the services.  He is a leader and likes to invent games, so he climbs a tree and jumps into a river. He calls out Gene to climb the tree and jump. Gene is not as athletic as Finny, but to save face he climbs the tree and jumps. Gene is resentful of Finny and in some moment of shear spite for not letting him study, he jumps on the tree branch Finny is standing on and causes him to fall off the branch, where he hits the ground.  Gene instantly regrets what he has done, but must deal with the guilt. He even goes to Finny's house to confess but Finny gives him an excuse. Back at school, Finny is able to return for fall, he makes Gene go in training for the Olympics. This is so Gene can carry out Finny's dream of being in the Olympics. Gene follows this because of the guilt he feels. Other bad things happen and you just feel sorry for all the young men in this book.

As I said before this book has betrayal, jealousy and hardship, but it does not end with the above tale. It is sad to think that we still have the pressures that we put on our kids to be the best, and this encourages jealousy. Set during war times with the possibility of losing your life, these kids are aided by Phineas to enjoy life before it ends. Our hopes and dreams for our children sometimes do not come to fruition because life steps into the picture and makes them grow up too fast. It would be nice if we could let our children have the life they should, without adult problems and fights putting pressure on them to be grow up. A sad but reflective book.

The book I read on the plane is called MRS. LINCOLN'S DRESSMAKER by Jennifer Chiaverini. It was published in 2013 by PLUME a Penguin Random House Group. Jennifer Chiaverini is known by her ELM CREEK QUILTS books, which are based on history of the United States. This book is also based on history, a work of fiction but all people represented are real. Mrs. Lincoln, the modeste to Mrs. Lincoln named Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley. The book is about Mrs. Keckley, a freewoman who purchased her own freedom to become a seamstress to Washington Elite, including Mrs. Jefferson Davis before the start of the Civil War. It is a great book and I am glad that I picked it up to read based on my familiarity with her Elm Creek Books. I enjoyed reading about a part of history that I knew nothing about in terms of the Lincoln's and the personalities of the people in the White House. I had read somewhere that Mrs. Lincoln was considered mad, but now I know the reasons. I really liked Mrs. Keckley for her fortitude and compassion in a time where black members of society were treated like second class, if even that, people. I cannot wait to delve into other historical novels by Jennifer Chiaverini if they are this well written. Kudos on the research of a hidden person and making her come back to life.

THE CRUELEST MONTH

One of my fast reads between reads, THE CRUELEST MONTH by Louise Penny. My book has a copyright of 2007, published March 2008 in the United States by Minotaur Books. This is the third in the mystery series by this author. I was first introduced to this author by my father who is also an avid reader. It is a Three Pines mystery starring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, his team and the village of Three Pines. All three books involve a murder, mystery section, and the Old Hadley House. Now I have to go to the library and find the rest of the series. A good quick read. If you like mysteries this is a good series. But now I need to finish A SEPARTE PEACE and REMAINS OF THE DAY, one of them has to be finished before my trip on Wednesday because I will not be bringing my computer with me. So I think my Mother's Day will be spent reading, hopefully, my two men will just have to cook.

THE GOOD SOLDIER- Finished

THE GOOD SOLDIER, by Ford Madox Ford. The book was first published in 1915, after the start of the Great War. My book was published in 2005 for Barnes and Nobles Classics in New York. There is a timeline, an introduction by Frank Kermode and a letter to Ford Madox Ford's "wife" Stella, that he wrote in 1927, in actuality she was his mistress, his wife would not grant him a divorce. In the letter to Stella, we find out some interesting facts, one that this is supposedly a true story and that the author had to wait until all the characters in the story were dead before writing it. This is found on page 5 of the book: "I wrote it with comparative rapidity, I had it hatching within myself for fully another decade. That was because the story is a true story and because I had it from Edward Ashburnham himself and I could not write it till all the others were dead." This is why I am to believe that this book is semi-autobiographical, though the narrator of the story Dowell sets about trying to convince us that he is not like other males and their dalliances. We also find that the book started out called THE SADDEST STORY, but because it was published during the war, his publisher gave it a new title. So what is the story like, it is about the narrator being told about events that occurred that he was too blind to see at the time they are occurring. He does not find out about his wife until after she is dead, or the character Ashburnham's secret life until after he is dead. The narrator goes back and forth in his reflections, characters are introduced, but we do not find out their name or their importance until the book is almost done. The girl Nancy is always referred to as "the girl" (page 23-he told the girl and the girl told the wife.) Now Captain Ashburnham had other girls, so I it was hard for me to figure out at first who they were talking about, and if I am honest I had to read the footnote first. Captain Ashburnham is called sentimental and that is why he cannot help falling with pretty young things who will listen to him and make him feel good about himself. He is furious with his wife because she took over running his house and grounds, because he had an affair which cost him 20000 pounds with the Grand Dukes mistress. His wife Leonora took over the estate giving him a stipend, at the cost to her good looks, and got him a job as Captain in India, so they could make up the 20000 and other debts. Leonora only wanted to be loved but she would not lose all their money. She had been taught a different way to run things, which is why Captain Ashburnham, even though he was a good soldier, was not a good husband. He met another soldiers wife who would listen to him and ended up having to pay 300 pounds a year to keep her husband quiet. SO Leonora does a lot of scheming and trying to bide time till her husband comes around, but she is replaced every time you turn around with someone new. This includes the narrator of this sagas wife. Florence, who in herself is a piece of work, never having sexual relations with her husband because of her "heart", but having sexual relations with others behind his back, insisting they sleep in separate rooms so as not to cause her heart to act up. So the Narrator, Mr. Dowell is either a very naïve fellow or he is blind as a bat when it comes to things placed in front of his eyes. So I could go on and on about this book, the reason why August 4th is important, but I will let you read the introduction. Also there is a great amount of commentary on the Roman catholic and protestant differences and how that plays a roll in this book. Then of course the war. So if you like a little bit of history, a little bit of sabotage, and affairs of the heart, then read this book. It is a good one and I have my favorite character and it is not the narrator Mr. Dowell. Reading the authors timeline and the fact that he too had a mistress, that he was in the war, I wonder if it is not slightly autobiographical. Well, they say a good writer writes about what he knows, so who knows.

The Good Soldier

I have not finished this book yet, but I should be done by tomorrow. I can say that the "Good Soldier" was a cad. The narrator of this stories wife was one of this soldiers flings. Of course, his wife was also a piece of work. Hopefully, my first thoughts on this story will end with a miscommunication or error in judgment on part of the narrator but I do not think so. I will give more details later.