We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson

copyright 1962

Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, 2006

146 pages

"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have ben born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."

So begins this creepy classics that's recently attracted much attention from book bloggers. My reaction mirrored the other favorable (and beautifully written) reviews, but it was a unique reading experience that really stood out.

I began on October 29 or 30, anticipating an ideal holiday-themed read. On Halloween Day, the wind howled and whipped leaves everywhere as rain pelted the windows. Power flickered on and off all afternoon and finally, around sunset, went out for good. Surrounded by candles, with a book light clipped to the cover, I curled up to finish We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Creepy, indeed... perfect reading for a dark and stormy night!

The Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition shown above is gorgeously disquieting too, but have you seen the back cover and flaps?

For an actual review, please visit:

Fleur Fisher Reads

Paperback Reader

Book-A-Rama

Savidge Reads

Fizzy Thoughts

(may I add yours?)

Teaser Tuesdays - North River

"The textbooks were filled with the medical ignorance of the day, now worthless rubbish that could not even be sold to the dealers on Fourth Avenue. And yet he could not throw them out. Once he loved them and learned from them. They were like aging teachers whose time had passed." page 33

North River

by Pete Hamill

Hamill will be the next speaker for the Rosamond Gifford Lecture series. I plan to read this and one of his nonfiction titles within the next month.

The rest of the above paragraph (just because I love it):

"Then his eyes fell to the lower shelves, full of treasures. Dickens and Stevenson and Mark Twain. Conrad and Galsworthy, Henry James and Edith Wharton. On one shelf, Theodore Dreiser leaned against Dostoyevsky, and he remembered how sure he once was that they were snarling at each other, each filled with certainty. To their left, unable to soothe them was the good Dr. Chekhov. With any luck these books will be the patrimony of the boy. And who will teach him how to read?"

and finally...

"...he would read novels to know more about human beings, who were, after all, his basic subject, and still were. The medical books didn't tell such stories. Only novels did."

Thanks for letting me indulge in this (very) extended teaser. Find more teasers at MizB's blog, Should Be Reading.

Short Story Monday: Oprah's latest selection

Whatever your opinion of Oprah, her book club selections, or the effect she's had the publishing industry, I think her newest selection is an important book. Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan, a Jesuit priest with a MFA in creative writing, is a collection of stories portraying the struggle of everyday life in Africa today.

In "The Ex-mas Feast", a large family living in a Nairobi shanty goes about daily living, while making small adjustments for the holiday. It opens:

"Now that my eldest sister, Maisha, was twelve, none of us knew how to relate to her anymore. She had never forgiven out parents for not being rich enough to send her to school. She had been behaving like a cat that was going feral: she came home less and less frequently, staying only to change her clothes and give me some money to pass on to our parents."

Although the family has very little, money is being raised to send eight year old Jigana, the eldest son and narrator of the story, to school. The children go out begging with Baby in tow, Maisha sells herself on the street, while their father steals wrapped gifts and trades them for food. The children sniff kabire in an effort to deaden the pain of an empty stomach.

Although difficult to read at times, the story is told with remarkable humanity. A touching part of the holiday ritual involves naming all dead or lost family members. Later, when young Atieno is shivering, her father "stuck her head through the biggest hole in the middle of our blanket. That was our way of ensuring that the family member who most needed warmth maintained his place in the center of the blanket."

My knowledge of modern Africa, as well as my experience with African-American literature, is limited. Reading the rest of the stories (two are long enough to be considered novellas) over the next several weeks, will surely help increase my understanding.

Thank you Frances (Nonsuch Book) for sending this amazing book my way.

Visit The Book Mine Set for more Short Story Monday posts.

TSS: An Evening with Geraldine Brooks

(photo courtesy of The Syracuse Post-Standard, Mike Greenlar)

It seems like everyone in central New York is either sick or recovering from a cold or flu, so Geraldine Brooks must have felt right at home. She was in town, "squeaking like Minnie Mouse", to deliver the second lecture in the Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series.

The former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent and Pulitzer prize winning author spoke with obvious enthusiasm about writing historical fiction. Although based in fact, she prefers when there isn't too much of it available. Her imagination can then be allowed to fill in the blanks. Brooks works by "trying to hear the voices", a job description which caused one of her children to ask if she were schizophrenic.

A stroll through the English countryside and an old fingerpost labeled "Plague Village" provided the inspiration for her first novel, Year of Wonders. At that point, she was on holiday from her job as Middle East correspondent and the lush green landscape provided a much-needed a break from the desert. It also provided a new direction for her career.

Brooks spoke of her early discouragement upon discovering a letter Henry James had written to Sarah Orne Jewett disparaging the historical novel. James said this type of novel was condemned to a "fatal cheapness" for the reasons that a novelist cannot possible know or understand the mind of anyone who lived more than fifty years ago. He said that "You may multiply little facts that can be got from pictures and documents, relics and prints, as much as you like - the real thing is almost impossible to do and in its essence the whole effect is as naught..." Find the complete letter here.

The letter sent Brooks to her kitchen for a "stiff gin and tonic", but also lead her to the realization that an author can, in fact, understand the minds of long-dead people and that certain aspects of human experience must be universal. She has so obviously succeeded in writing historical novels that the audience roared in laughter when she said something to the effect of "So take that, Henry James!"

Brooks treated the crowd of over 1500 to a power point presentation highlighting photos and background from her research from People of the Book, which I must read soon.

March, her Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 2006, was triggered by the discovery of buried belt buckle in Virginia that belonged to a civil war soldier and by visiting Antietam with her husband, author Tony Horwitz, for the fourth time.

Brook next novel, Caleb's Crossing, set in the 1600's, will be based upon the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. It is scheduled to be finished around this time next year and I'm looking forward to it already!

Weekend Cooking: Dark Chocolate Cookies with Espresso

I've been in a bit of a blogging slump the last couple of weeks. Although I'm reading and enjoying the books, I just can't seem to get any reviews written. There's a new Weekend Cooking feature over at Beth Fish Reads that might be just the thing to get me posting again.

This week I made some of my oldest daughter's favorite dark chocolate cookies with espresso. The recipe came from Martha Stewart's Everyday FOOD magazine (the small one found at the supermarket checkout).

Dark Chocolate Cookies with Espresso

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa (spooned and leveled)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 4 ounces melted and 4 ounces coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. Using an electric mixer,beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Combine espresso powder and melted chocolate; beat into butter mixture. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Fold in chopped chocolate.

3. Drop dough by 2 heaping tablespoons 3 inches apart, onto two baking sheets. Bake until edges are dry, 14 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets half way through. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely. (To store, keep in airtight container at room temperature, up to 3 days).

Yield: 22 cookies

My notes:

These cookies are rich and delicious! The secret may be in using a high quality chocolate. I use Ghirardellli cocoa and chips. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk.

Visit Beth F's blog today for Weekend Cooking: Cookies, Anyone? and see what everyone else is cooking up.

Veterans Day Wordless Wednesday

Teaser Tuesdays - November 10

"Agatha remembered when she was at school, she vowed that when she had her first pay cheque, she would walk into a sweet-shop and buy all the chocolate she wanted. By the time it happened, her desires had focused on a pair of purple high-heeled shoes with bows. She enjoyed having enough money that enabled her to buy what she wanted." (page 85)

The Quiche of Death

by M.C. Beaton

This is the first Agatha Raisin mystery, and a delight to read!

Visit MizB at Should Be Reading for more teasers.