Tuesday Intro: Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage

At the Cherbourg Quay
Wednesday, April 10, 1912, 3:40 P.M. 

The Titanic  was going to be late. 

To the first-class travelers aboard the Train Transatlantique, now chugging to a stop at Cherbourg's quayside terminus, this would be dismaying news. The six-hour journey from Paris had been quite long enough. How many hours, they wondered, would now have to be spent in this small, smoke-grimed station before White Star's new steamer could arrive to take them to New York?

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World
by Hugh Brewster
Broadway Paperbacks, 2013

Even though fiction is my normal reading fare, I also enjoy well-written nonfiction on a variety of subjects. The story of the Titanic is endlessly fascinating, so when a new book focusing on the lives of the first class passengers became available for review, I couldn't resist. Three words from the title/description clinched my decision: Edwardian, Titanic, first-class.

The Titanic has often been called "an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,” but until now, her story has not been presented as such. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, historian Hugh Brewster seamlessly interweaves personal narratives of the lost liner’s most fascinating people with a haunting account of the fateful maiden crossing. Employing scrupulous research and featuring 100 rarely seen photographs, he accurately depicts the ship’s brief life and tragic denouement and presents compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers: millionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim; President Taft's closest aide, Major Archibald Butt; writer Helen Churchill Candee; the artist Frank Millet; movie actress Dorothy Gibson; the celebrated couturiere Lady Duff Gordon; aristocrat Noelle, the Countess of Rothes; and a host of other travelers. Through them, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own. And with them, we gather on the Titanic’s sloping deck on that cold, starlit night and observe their all-too-human reactions as the disaster unfolds. More than ever, we ask ourselves, “What would we have done?”

After a couple of chapters, I'm enjoying this quite a bit. Are you interested in the Titanic?  What do you think of the opening?

 Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

And the number is...

That means I'll be reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy for the Classics Club spin. It's not exactly a title I'm dying to read but, on the plus side, I will have company. Brona of Brona's Books also had it listed at number six.

Here's the book description from amazon:
Hardy’s penultimate work, Tess of the D'Urbervilles  is arguably the greatest tragedy of all Victorian literature. It tells the story of Tess, an impoverished woman whose past relations and miscarriage cause her to be rejected by her husband on their wedding night. Touching upon the themes of class, religion, gender, and sexuality, the novel was highly controversial for its time and is held in high esteem by literary scholars to this day.

Anyone else want to read along? Our goal is to finish by July 1.

The Sunday Salon: Right Now

Good morning and Happy Sunday. We're enjoying a relatively quiet weekend on the lake... how often does that happen? My husband is out of town for a family memorial service/reunion and will be home early this evening. Twin A is putting in long hours at work, while Twin B and I take care of the yard work, run errands, and (hopefully) accomplish a few domestic chores.  

Inspired by Lisa, I'm experimenting with a new Sunday Salon post format.

Right Now

Time:  9:30 Sunday morning
Place:  my favorite chair
Out my window:  56 degrees, overcast with a few showers... very quiet on the lake

Reading :
The last twenty pages of Some Tame Gazelle  by Barbara Pym and sipping black coffee... although tea might be the more appropriate drink.

Listening to:
 And the Mountains Echoed  by Khaled Hosseini
I literally had goosebumps at the end of the first chapter, and the word 'mesmerizing' came to mind after the second. I plan to purchase a hardcover copy when the book is released on Tuesday because I can't listen fast enough.  My mother and sister will love it, too.

Making:
So many beautiful knitted projects have been popping up on blogs and Pinterest lately, but my needles have been idle for the last decade. I'm off to the yarn shop this afternoon and will attempt to get back into things with this simple scarf... if I can only remember how to cast on! (photo from Pinterest)

Watching:
No film or television viewing last week, but the twins and I enjoyed a few old family movies, especially our 2001 'Christmas of the American Girl Doll' when Samantha, Kit, and Kirsten joined our household.

Enjoying:
Sunday home delivery of the New York Times

Anticipating: 
Tomorrow's Classics Spin number... it will determine my next read.

Hoping for: 
A quick trip to NYC to see Daughter #1... maybe next week?

How was your week?  Any big plans for today?

Another Classics Spin

The recent Classics Club spin game was a huge success and now it's time for round two. The rules are the same, only the dates have been changed.

Here's how it works:
- Go to your blog.
- Pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club list.
- Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog by next Monday. (5/20)
- Monday morning, we’ll announce a number from 1-20. Go to the list of twenty books you posted, and select the book that corresponds to the number we announce.
- The challenge is to read that book by July 1.

I've decided to use a slightly modified version of my first spin list:

Pick Me, Pick Me (books I want to read now)
1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
2. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
3. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
4. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne DuMaurier
5. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Heavy/Chunky
6. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
7. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (reread)
9. Them by Joyce Carol Oates
10. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Quickies
11. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
12. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
13. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
14. Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
15. Gigi by Colette

Favorite Authors
16. The Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
17. Cranford by Eizabeth Gaskell
18. They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
19. The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck (reread)
20. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (reread)

Let's spin...

#Estellagram Update: Days 8 - 14

Our May photo-a-day challenge has reached the midpoint and I'm still on track. Here's my quick recap of #Estellagram Week 2:

Day 8 | A page from my 1998 reading journal

Day 9 | edition... I have many copies of Pride and Prejudice, but this is my favorite.

Day 9 | number... Not exactly bookish, but appropriate for laundry day

Day 11 | poetry...happy to see a Robert Lowell poem at the beginning of Snow Angels  by Stewart O'Nan

Day 12 | 9 o'clock .. Perusing book sale finds and enjoying my 2nd cup of coffee

Day 13 | green 

 Day 14 | mail ... A belated Mother's Day gift arrived today!

On to week 3... find me on Instagram: lakesidemusing

Tuesday Intro: Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym

The new curate seemed quite a nice young man, but what a pity it was that his combinations showed, tucked carelessly into his socks, when he sat down. Belinda had noticed it when they had met him for the first time at the vicarage last week and had felt quite embarrassed. Perhaps Harriet could say something to him about it. Her blunt jolly manner could carry off these little awkwardnesses much better than Belinda's timidity. Of course he might think it none of their business, as indeed it was not, but Belinda rather doubted whether he thought at all, if one were to judge by the quality of his first sermon.

Some Tame Gazelle
by Barbara Pym

Some Tame Gazelle, published in 1950, is Barbara Pym's first novel and I think the opening paragraph is very representative of her style. It says pure comfort reading to me. Would you continue?

Have you read Barbara Pym?

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

Book Sale Bounty

Book sale season has arrived! On Saturday afternoon, I made an impromptu trip to the Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library book sale. This is easily the largest sale around. Boasting a warehouse  filled with over 250,000 titles, I could happily browse for hours. We had all sorts of activities planned for Mother's Day weekend and a trip to Ithaca wasn't on our agenda, but around mid-afternoon it was beginning to look like a possibility and we were on our way shortly after three.

The crowd had thinned and browsing was easy by the time we arrived around 4:30. I was hoping to find something by Angela Thirkell or Barbara Pym (for Pym Reading Week), but it was not to be. There was nothing at all by Thirkell, and a single well-worn trade paperback of Excellent Women was the only Pym available.

My first thought was that Thomas had scooped up the Thirkells earlier in the day, but he struck out, too. Either nobody in upstate New York is reading Angela Thirkell, or they all sold the first weekend of the sale. As for the Pyms, Thomas left a couple of hard covers and several trade paperbacks, so there are obviously more fans in the area... and they all arrived ahead of me!

There were still thousands of books to peruse and I left with a very nice stack (from the bottom):

Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout
Strout is always a favorite. I recently finished The Burgess Boys (fingers crossed for a review this week), loved OliveKitteridge, and enjoyed Amy and Isabelle  years ago, too. This is a pristine hardcover edition of her second novel.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Book blogger favorites are irresistible.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Prize winners always catch my attention, too, and this won the Booker Prize in 1993.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
I enjoyed The Forgotten Garden  and thought this might be a good summer read.

Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres
Corelli's Mandolin  is a favorite. I've wanted to read this for years.

Old Filth by Jane Gardam
I've been meaning to read Gardam for some time and snapped this up in light of a recent New York Times book review.

God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam
A beautiful Europa Edition of Gardam's 1978 first novel

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey
I can never pass up a Persephone Classic.

Snow Angels by Stewart O'Nan
After reading four of O'Nan's novels, I want to read them all.

Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
I seem to be reading a lot of British novelists lately...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
It seems everyone in the world has read these books, but I'm afraid they may be too gruesome and have continued to avoid them. Yet another friend raved about the series during a recent dinner party and convinced me to give it a try. We'll see...

Any thoughts on these books?