The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

This is a shorter, less daunting offering from Susanna Clarke, who gave us the weighty and (ultimately for me unreadable) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. A few of the stories are quite good; the first one, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, is clever and original and got me all excited to read more. But I should have been tipped off by the book’s (fictional) introduction by the (fictional) professor James Sutherland, Director of Sidhe Studies at the University of Aberdeen, about how Clarke’s collection seeks to illuminate the study of magic and faerie throughout British history. Instead of using a coherent storytelling voice, Clarke has created a mishmash of stories featuring wildly different narrative styles and devices, and sprinkled with faux scholarship and obscure literary and historical references. It didn’t matter than I liked the first story because its style and substance bore no resemblance to any story that followed.

I suppose for true devotees of fantasy (especially faerie-centered fantasy) this approach wouldn’t be a problem but I was just looking for something consistently entertaining and I felt a little bit cheated. The story The Ladies of Grace Adieu is set in the 19th century England of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell and made me think that maybe I should go back and try again to read that book. But I did try, and it was just Too Much. Remember the footnotes (all 185 of them)?

(Book 35, 2011)

I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron

This was better than I Feel Bad About My Neck, about which I complained in this post back in 2007. The essays in Ephron's new book have more substance; more of them are about something, Ephron reminisces about her childhood and her early experiences as a journalist in New York in the 1960’s (shades of Mad Men, only funnier). It’s another fast read (like the Calvin Trillin book I posted about recently) and good for filling in an afternoon.

I keep trying Ephron’s essays because I like her movies (Julie & Julia, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally). However, the Ephron work I’m most interested in right now is the play Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which is a collaboration with her sister Delia Ephron and which was based on the book of the same name by Ilene Beckerman. I loved that book and for a couple of years I gave it as a gift to a lot of my friends. I am hoping to see the show at the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago before it ends its run in January.

(Book 34, 2011)

About Alice by Calvin Trillin

I know Trillin is famous for his witty essays in the New Yorker, but I'm only an occasional reader of that magazine and somehow his stuff has escaped me thus far. A few weeks ago, however, I saw Calvin Trillin on the Daily Show  He was delightfully funny, and I realized that I was probably missing a lot by not seeking out his work. His new book Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin (even that title is funny) has a long queue at the library, so I picked up About Alice instead. What a sweet book! It's an homage to his late wife and is touching and hilarious at the same time. It's a very short read and a perfect introduction to Trillin. If, like me, you have never quite gotten around to reading anything by him, About Alice is a good place to start.

I've pinned a link to the Daily Show broadcast to my Pinterest board.

(Book 33, 2011)