Pulitzer Prize Challenge

 

"Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light." - Joseph Pulitzer

In case you've always wondered how it's pronounced, the correct pronunciation is "PULL-it-sir."  (That's straight from the Pulitzer Website FAQs.)

This year marks the centennial of the Pulitzer Prizes awarding. "We're celebrating by telling stories on the prize winners, finalists and their work, and by partnering with individuals and organizations to host events across the country." 

People all around New Mexico have joined the Pulitzer Prize Challenge and are reading five books in five months to commemorate the centennial of the Pulitzer Prize. The Pulitzer Prize Board announced the Campfires Initiative to ignite community engagement and discussion of the literary, journalistic and artistic values Pulitzer Prize winners represent. The New Mexico Humanities Council has been chosen, among other state councils, to participate in the initiative. Libraries across New Mexico have been holding book discussions on five chosen titles:

 
Beloved by Toni Morrison 

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich 

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 

The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever 

Lovely, Dark, Deep  by Joyce Carol Oates

If you missed most of the book discussions, you can still pick up one of the five titles at your library and challenge yourself to reading a distinctive Pulitzer winner or finalist. And you still have time to catch the last two group discussion at South Broadway Library: 

Lovely, Dark, Deep - November 19^th 
Beloved - December 17th ...and If 5 books is not enough of a challenge for you, download the Pulitzer Bookmark and read the fiction winners from the first 50 years: 1917-1966. 

Book Talk: Hour of the Bees

Two of my colleagues and I thought it would be fun to read Hour of the Bees together and then discuss it for a blog post. Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and as of this writing, it has a 4.23 rating on Goodreads.

Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar
Candlewick Press
March 8, 2016

Things are only impossible if you stop to think about them. . . . While her friends are spending their summers having pool parties and sleepovers, twelve-year-old Carolina "Carol" is spending hers in the middle of the New Mexico desert, helping her parents move the grandfather she's never met into a home for people with dementia. At first, Carol avoids prickly Grandpa Serge. But as the summer wears on and the heat bears down, Carol finds herself drawn to him, fascinated by the crazy stories he tells her about a healing tree, a green-glass lake, and the bees that will bring back the rain and end a hundred years of drought. As the thin line between magic and reality starts to blur, Carol must decide for herself what is possible and what it means to be true to her roots. Readers who dream that there's something more out there will be enchanted by this captivating novel of family, renewal, and discovering the wonder of the world.

Me: I thought the story was basically fine (I especially liked the folklore), but I really had issues with how the author described New Mexico, like the landscape, the houses in Albuquerque, and the size of Albuquerque.

Veronica: I agree, the author should have done more research on Albuquerque, but I like that she set the book in New Mexico, because I feel like we have a very unique culture here and that legends like this one do get passed down from generation to generation.

I thought that the main character, Carolina, was very mature for being twelve years old and maybe should have been older.

Me: Yes, I love it that a middle grade novel that's gotten a lot of hype was set in New Mexico.

Crystal: I agree with both of you.I enjoyed the folklore part of the story. But, I did not think that the description of Albuquerque was true to the city. I also wasn't really a fan of the interjections of the pamphlets throughout the beginning the story. I know the author was trying to get information across, but I felt like it could have been done different--possibly a scene from the past that shows the relationships between the family before they go to the farm.

Like Veronica, I also thought that Carolina was really mature for her age and she could have been a little bit older. I also could not quite believe that when she drove the car, she seemed to know exactly where she was going with little help from her grandfather or GPS or something.


Me: I agree with all of that. I also thought that the parents weren't as involved as they should have been, especially when it came to actually watching their kids. They sure did let Carolina's baby brother crawl around by himself a lot!

Crystal: This book emphasizes roots, but the only roots I saw were the grandmother and grandfather, and them living in one place for hundreds of years (if the folktale is true). There were no great-grandparents, or great-great-grandparent. And realistically, if these people were living off and running a farm, where there are no stores or civilization for miles, wouldn't they have much more than sheep on the farm, and more than a single child to help run it?!

Veronica: I liked the family and especially the connection between Carolina and her grandfather. I also liked the folktale/magical realism in the story.


Me: I think the folklore was my favorite part of the story, though I found it interesting that it was a combination of folklore and magical realism. I've not seen that done before in fiction, and I wonder if that would be confusing to younger readers.

Crystal: I agree, the folklore and magical realism was my favorite part, too. I think that Eagar did a great job of weaving magical elements of the folklore story in with the real life story. The bees that nobody saw but Carolina were a great foreshadowing element as well.

Me: So, it sounds like we're all pretty much in agreement: We loved the folklore and magical realism, but think other parts of the story could have been a bit stronger. Thanks for participating in our discussion, Veronica and Crystal!

Have you read Hour of the Bees? If so, what did you think about it? Let us know in the comments!

Getting Ready for A Wizard of Earthsea

It's time to start reading A Wizard of Earthsea for our online reading group! Don't forget to post comments & questions either on the blog or on the abc book banter forums.Click here to visit the official website of Ursula K. Le Guin-the site links to articles, biography, bibliography, & includes selected works by Le Guin onsite!

About the author:

Ursula Kroeber was born in 1929 in Berkeley, California, where she grew up. Her parents were the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and the writer Theodora Kroeber, author of Ishi. She went to Radcliffe College and did graduate work at Columbia University. She married Charles A. Le Guin, a historian, in Paris in 1953; they have lived in Portland, Oregon, since 1958, and have three children and four grandchildren.

Ursula K. Le Guin writes both poetry and prose, and in various modes including realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy, young children's books, books for young adults, screenplays, essays, verbal texts for musicians, and voicetexts. She has published seven books of poetry, twenty-two novels, over a hundred short stories (collected in eleven volumes), four collections of essays, twelve books for children, and four volumes of translation.

Most of Le Guin's major titles have remained continuously in print, some for over forty years. Her best known fantasy works, the six Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in America and England, and have been translated into sixteen languages. Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered epoch-making in the field for its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity. Her novels The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home redefine the scope and style of utopian fiction, while the realistic stories of a small Oregon beach town in Searoad show her permanent sympathy with the ordinary griefs of ordinary people. Among her books for children, the Catwings series has become a particular favorite. Her version of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, a translation she worked on for forty years, has received high praise.

Three of Le Guin's books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and among the many honors her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, SFWA's Grand Master, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Margaret A. Edwards Award, etc.

Le Guin leads an intensely private life, with sporadic forays into political activism and steady participation in the literary community of her city. Having taught writing workshops from Vermont to Australia, she is now retired from teaching. She limits her public appearances mostly to the West Coast.

[abridged from her website]

Some things to think about as you delve into your reading:

Ged grows up in the course of this novel. What are the qualities that mark him as childish in his early youth? What are the qualities that mark him as adult at the end?

What meanings are associated with Ged's Shadow? Why does it flee from him when he begins to pursue it?

Discuss pride. Is it Ged's pride that causes all his problems? Is the shadow a part of Ged's pride? Is pride always a bad thing? Are there times when pride is appropriate?

Discuss names. Names are important to a lot of cultures. Name one culture that treats names in a similar fashion to this novel. Why is it important to Ged that he not reveal his name to anyone?

What are the rules that govern magic in Earthsea? What can magic do and what is impossible using magic?

This novel is similar to traditional fairy tales in which characters succeed by confronting frightening beings, such as "Hansel and Gretel" and "Little Red Riding Hood." What are the similiarites & differences between those fairy tales & this novel?

The Big Read's A Wizard of Earthsea Reader's Guide

Getting Ready for The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

It's time to start reading The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society for our online reading group! Don't forget to post comments & questions either on the blog or on the abc book banter forums.

Click here to visit the official website for the book-the blog links to articles, contains virtual book group discussion questions, the recipe for potato-peel pie, & more!



About the authors:

Mary Ann Shaffer, who passed away in February 2008, worked as an editor, librarian, and in bookshops. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was her first novel.

Her niece, Annie Barrows, is the author of the children’s series Ivy and Bean, as well as The Magic Half. She lives in northern California.

Click here for the novel's Barnes & Noble page, which gives a longer biography of author Mary Ann Shaffer, an excerpt from the book, recommended further reading, & discussion questions.

Some things to think about as you delve into your reading:

What was it like to read a novel composed entirely of letters? What do letters offer that no other form of writing (not even emails) can convey?

What historical facts about life in England during World War II were you especially surprised to discover? What traits, such as remarkable stamina, are captured in a detail such as potato peel pie? In what ways does fiction provide a means for more fully understanding a non-fiction truth?

Discuss the writers who capture the hearts of the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Does a reader's taste in books reveal anything significant about his or her personality?

Who was your favorite character in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society? Do you think books have the power to lift people out of their circumstances? What role did books play in the lives of the Guernsey Literary Society?

This novel is currently in development to be filmed. Do you think this book will translate well onto the big screen? What do you think of movies that are literary adaptations in general?

Just for fun, consider the recent article from a British paper: "Guernsey: Channel isle with a literary landscape".

Getting Ready for The Unit

It's time to start reading The Unit for our online reading group! Don't forget to post comments & questions either on the blog or on the abc book banter forums.



About the author & the translator:

Ninni Holmqvist was born in 1958 and lives in Skåne, Sweden. She made her debut in 1995 with the short story collection Suit [Kostym] and has published two further collections of short stories since then. She also works as a translator. The Unit marks Holmqvist's debut as a novelist.

Marlaine Delargy works as a translator and adult learning support tutor. She has translated novels by Åsa Larsson and Johan Theorin, among others, and serves on the editorial board of the Swedish Book Review. She lives in Shropshire, England.

Bookreporter has a brief interview with the author. I also found a Swedish interview with her that Google translate is mostly able to translate on a site called Författarcentrum Författarförmedlingen.

Some things to think about as you delve into your reading:

If any of you have read Margaret Atwood or Marge Piercy, does this book remind you of their works? Is Ninni Holmqvist a modern George Orwell or Aldous Huxley?

Has anyone read Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which has a plot involving children raised to be organ donors?

Consider issues of translation as brought up in the Guardian article "Why translators deserve some credit".

We also found quite a lengthy study someone named Eric Repphun did called "Dysenchanted Worlds: Rationalisation, Dystopia, and Therapy Culture in Ninni Holmqvist’s The Unit" which might be of interest. We didn't want to read too closely, in case it contained spoilers, but it seems to compare Holmqvist & her novel with both other Scandinavian works & movies like Logan's Run & The Island.

Online Book Group Titles

We had a great response to our online book group poll! Thank you everyone who voted. There was a 3-way tie for the winner between The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Unit, & A Wizard of Earthsea. We have decided to read all three, staggered throughout June, July, & August. The first one will be The Unit, beginning June 16th, followed by The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in July, & finally A Wizard of Earthsea. Would you prefer to have weekly reading goals or just read at your own pace?

We'll be posting author biographies, reviews, our thoughts, & other ephemera on the blog during this time & looking for your feedback! If you have questions or want us to look up anything in particular about the book or authors, please don't hesitate to let us know. Additionally, we have created forums for your commentary-on the sidebar, click on the 'abcreads book banter' link to get to the forums. Feel free to comment there at will & add new topics-we only ask that you be courteous to each other in your posts & try to avoid posting spoilers (if you must post spoilers, please add a *SPOILER ALERT* to your post). We encourage you to post all summer long on any of the books.

Magic for Beginners & Going Bovine also got a lot of votes, so while we don't plan to post about them on the blog, we'd like to invite those interested in reading the two books to do so, & comment freely in the forums. We are interested in finding out more about those two books, but we just can't commit to adding anything more to our summer reading load!

We here at abcreads look forward to spending the summer reading together!

Online Book Group for Summer?

We've had a request to have an online book group again this summer. We would be reading between June & August. Below you'll find a list of suggested titles with short descriptions. We have tried to include titles based on availability in the library catalog & length. If any of them sound interesting to you, please vote in the sidebar! Voting will end June 5th.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
290 pages
Winding up her book tour promoting her collection of lighthearted wartime newspaper columns, Juliet Ashton casts about for a more serious project. Opportunity comes in the form of a letter she receives from Mr. Dawsey Adams, who happens to possess a book that Julia once owned. Adams is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—no ordinary book club. Rather, it was formed as a ruse and became a way for people to get together without raising the suspicions of Guernsey's Nazi occupiers. Written in the form of letters (a lost art), this novel by an aunt-and-niece team has loads of charm, especially as long as Juliet is still in London corresponding with the society members.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
496 pages
Libba Bray's latest offering is an unforgettable, nearly indefinable fantasy adventure, as immense and sprawling as Cervantes' Don Quixote, on which it's based. Here the hero is Cameron, a 16-year-old C-plus-average slacker who likens himself to "driftwood," but he suddenly becomes the center of attention after he is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of mad cow disease. In the hospital, he meets Dulcie, an alluring angel clad in fishnet stockings and combat boots, who presents him with a heroic quest to rescue the planet from an otherworldly, evil force. Guided by random signs and accompanied by a teen dwarf named Gonzo, Cameron sets off on a wild road trip across the U.S. to save the world, and perhaps his own life.

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
320 pages
An all-night convenience store's regular customers include zombies and a beautiful woman who drives a car full of ghost dogs. Some middle-aged guys in a basement playing cards call up one of those phone lines and listen to a little-girl's voice tell about how one of them is being haunted by many versions, at different ages, of his ex-wife. A guy just out of prison crashes a teenagers' drinking party and drives off with the hostess' six-year-old brother (it's not what you think, or doesn't seem to be). A middle-class family moves from Manhattan to a suburban house; almost immediately, parts of the house and things that they moved into it become haunted; well, at least there are all those rabbits on guard, maybe, on the lawn. Each of these stories is much stranger than it sounds. You'd like to know what happens after they end but aren't sure about what happened in them.

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
272 pages
Swedish author Holmqvist's chilling, stunning debut novel is set at the Second Reserve Bank for Biological Material, where men and women of a certain age without families or jobs deemed "valuable" by the government are sent to participate in experiments and donate organs to more essential members of society. Writer Dorrit Weger, who lives in a small house with her beloved dog, Jock, has just turned 50—and has been marked as dispensable. When she arrives at the Unit, she is surprised to find it a pleasant, clean, lovely place, complete with a restaurant, a gym, and a garden resembling a Monet painting. Dorrit gradually becomes resigned to her fate and participates in several harmless experiments while enjoying the Unit community and her close friendships with several other residents, many of whom are also artists and writers. Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme.

The World to Come by Dara Horn
336 pages
An actual art heist inspired this fictional tale of former child prodigy and television quiz-show writer Benjamin Ziskind, who steals a Chagall sketch from a New York museum during a singles cocktail hour--he's convinced the painting, titled Over Vitebsk, belongs to his family. The provenance of the piece is revealed layer by layer in Horn's spellbinding second novel, which takes readers from a 1920s Soviet orphanage (at which the real-life Chagall taught art to young Jewish boys) to the battlefields of Vietnam, where Benjamin's father lost one of his legs. With the help of his twin sister, Sara, a talented painter, Benjamin hopes to outsmart the comely museum representative who's pegged him for the crime. A compelling collage of history, mystery, theology, and scripture, The World to Come is a narrative tour de force crackling with conundrums and dark truths.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
352 pages
Paralleling his own experiences growing up in the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, Díaz has choreographed a family saga at once sanguinary and sexy that confronts the horrific brutality at loose during the reign of the dictator Trujillo. Díaz's besieged characters look to the supernatural for explanations and hope, from fukú, the curse unleashed when Europeans arrived on Hispaniola, to the forces dramatized in the works of science fiction and fantasy so beloved by the chubby ghetto nerd Oscar Wao, the brilliantly realized boy of conscience at the center of this whirlwind tale. Writing in a combustible mix of slang and lyricism, Díaz loops back and forth in time and place, generating sly and lascivious humor in counterpoint to tyranny and sorrow. And his characters—Oscar, the hopeless romantic; Lola, his no-nonsense sister; their heartbroken mother; and the irresistible homeboy narrator—cling to life with the magical strength of superheroes, yet how vibrantly human they are.

Blood on the Wood by Gillian Linscott
320 pages
Intrepid British suffragette Nell Bray has her hands full when she accepts what seems to be a straightforward assignment. A wealthy benefactor has bequeathed a valuable French painting to the suffragettes, and Nell must claim it and bring it back to London. She heads for the Venn estate in the Cotswolds, which turns out to be a kind of socialist summer camp. After she obtains the painting and takes it to Christies for auction, however, she learns that it is a copy recently commissioned by the bereaved widower. Then, when he refuses to part with the original, Nell decides to break into the house and switch paintings. Doing so lands her in the middle of a murder investigation. Readers will soak up fascinating detail about the Fabians, the Scipians, and the Arts and Crafts Movement while following the action in this delightful romp through England at the turn of the century.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
192 pages
Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

What if Everyone on Twitter Read One Book?

If you are on Twitter, consider joining the One World, One Twitter Book Club! They started reading on May 5th. The idea is similar to The Big Read program that Albuquerque participates in during October.

'Last year Edinburgh residents tackled Arthur Conan Doyle's dinosaur adventure The Lost World, last month Dubliners were taking a collective look at The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Brighton's readers are currently engrossed in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel From Russia with Love. Now a new project is hoping to take the "one book, one city" initiative a step further, and get the whole world reading the same novel.' -from The Guardian article

The book that the book club is reading is American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Read about it on Gaiman's blog.

For instructions & a discussion scheduule, be sure to check out Wired magazine's article.

Book on the Side: Week 5

So, this is the 5th week of our reading of The Thirteenth Tale. How's it going? Are you enjoying the read? We'd love to hear some feedback! Otherwise, we'll conclude our reading of this book.

We're looking for you, our beloved readers, to suggest more titles for us to read starting in January. In the comments section of this post, please let us know any books you'd be interested in reading with us.

Alternatively, we could try a different format, & instead of having an online book group we could feature online reviews. If you would prefer to read reviews, please drop us a line in the comments section.

We crave your input & thanks for 'checking in' (ah, the library puns) with abcreads!

Book on the Side: Week 4

How is your reading of The Thirteenth Tale going? Are you still in the first section, "Beginnings" (pages 3-143)? Have you reached "Middles" (pages 147-344)? Or have you reached "Endings" (pages 347-406)? What do you think of the way the story is broken up?

Since we haven't heard from any of you yet (& your comments are always welcome & appreciated!), let's discuss "Beginnings". The first chapter, "The Letter", introduces both main characters. What did you think of Vida Winter from her letter?

The second chapter is "Margaret's Story", which really sets the tone of the narration, brings up themes that will reoccur & resonate later. Margaret says 'I am not a proper biographer'. Do you think that statement applies to her own story, or just to the biographical studies she writes?

After that comes "Thirteen Tales", which is about Vida Winter's writing. Do you find Margaret's descriptions of the books interesting? Do the titles of Vida Winter's books & stories sound intriguing or dull? What do you think of Margaret's assertion 'I read old novels. The reason is simple: I prefer proper endings'--do you agree or disagree?

"Arrival" is a short chapter that introduces Judith, Vida Winter's housekeeper, & takes us to Vida Winter's house. Following that is "Meeting Miss Winter", "And So We Began...", "Gardens", "Merrily and the Perambulator", "Dr. and Mrs. Maudsley", and "Dickens's Study", the bulk of which is taken up with Vida Winter's story. What do you make of the Angelfield household? What do you think of Vida Winter as a storyteller? Do you see some of the traditional Gothic themes represented in her story: the supernatural; death; decay; madness; secrets; & hereditary curses?

These are just some of the things I thought about while reading the book. What's your take? Let us know what you think!

Book on the Side: Week 3

As we wend our leisurely way through The Thirteenth Tale, I'm happy to say that I have finally made some progress with the novel. As soon as I started reading, I was immediately sucked into the plot & especially the mystery. I think Diane Setterfield has done a really good job writing a modern Gothic novel. The Thirteenth Tale seems to me to have all the elements of Gothic fiction (as defined by Wikipedia)--a ruined house, madness, secrets, hereditary curses, secrets, darkness, doubles. & while, like many others I've spoken to, I was not exactly smitten with the protagonist, Margaret, I think that she is an important piece of the novel. She is a protagonist in the tradition of Rebecca's unnamed protagonist--"lacking self-confidence and overwhelmed by her new life." (Wikipedia)

How is your reading coming along? Are you enjoying it? The book has impressed me so far as exhibiting "a pleasing sort of terror", straddling the genres of horror & mystery. I've been at the edge of my seat reading, that's for sure.

Book on the Side: Week 2

I've got to confess: I'm behind in my reading of The Thirteenth Tale. What with writing 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month (current word count: 32, 000) and getting ready for Thanksgiving, it has just fallen by the wayside.

So, our idea is, let's continue with our reading of The Thirteenth Tale into December, which will give us a chance to catch up & not give us, or any of you, another reading assignment during the busy holiday season. We'll start afresh with a new book in January, so if you have suggestions, don't hesitate to start letting us know!

For those of you who have been diligently reading & looking forward to discussion, I consulted with Thirteenth Tale fan Elisabeth for some commentary:

Elisabeth doesn't like mysteries, but she liked this book--she found it to be a great psychological story, like Rebecca, dark & slightly creepy. Elisabeth thought Margaret was a bit of a cold fish and Vida was sometimes annoying but feisty & more likeable. She also liked the characters of the housekeeper & the gardener. The most interesting thing about Elisabeth's experience with The Thirteenth Tale is that she first listened to it on audiobook, but disliked the reader & was not very interested in the book. However, when her book group opted to read the book, Elisabeth tried reading it in book form & loved it.

Do you agree? Disagree? Inquiring minds want to know, we want to know!

Book on the Side: Week 1

How are you enjoying The Thirteenth Tale? We've been debating it amongst my co-workers. One didn't like the book--she found the characters too self-consciously odd, as though the author was trying too hard to make them quirky. Another did enjoy the book, particularly the mystery aspect of it.


Much of the novel takes place in two grand estates --- Angelfield and then Miss Winter’s. How are the houses reflections of their inhabitants?

As the story unfolds, we learn that Margaret and Miss Winter are both twins. What else do they have in common?

I've seen The Thirteenth Tale listed as 'having all the mystery of a modern day blockbuster' and as gothic fiction, in the tradition of the Brontë sisters. Do you agree with these classifications?

Book on the Side: November

Our second Book on the Side read will be The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Booklist Reviews has this to say about it: "Margaret Lea, a bookish loner, is summoned to the home of Vida Winter, England's most popular novelist, and commanded to write her biography. Miss Winter has been falsifying her life story and her identity for more than 60 years. Facing imminent death and feeling an unexplainable connection to Margaret, Miss Winter begins to spin a haunting, suspenseful tale of an old English estate, a devastating fire, twin girls, a governess, and a ghost. As Margaret carefully records Vida's tale, she ponders her own family secrets.Readers will be mesmerized by this -story-within-a-story tinged with the eeriness of Rebecca and the willfulness of Jane Eyre. A wholly original work told in the vein of all the best gothic classics. Lovers of books about book lovers will be enthralled."

The Thirteenth Tale is also available in large print and audiobook. There is no need to sign up for Book on the Side! Feel free to leave your comments and reviews for The Thirteenth Tale any time during the month of November. Leave your comments and reviews in the comment form of the blog. Don't forget to check back often to see what other readers are saying about the book!

Thank you for visiting abcreads! We look forward to discussing The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield with you.

Articles about Diane Setterfield & The Thirteenth Tale:

British Teacher Becomes a Literary Sensation in the U.S.

Debut Writer's Million-Pound Success Story

The Girl from Theale

Book on the Side: Dreamers of the Day Wrap-up

So, are you all finished reading Dreamers of the Day? Did you like it? Dislike it? How did you feel about the characters? The plot? Do you like historical fiction that includes real people as characters? (I was at a book group recently where they were not fans of figures from history as fictionalized characters.)

Once again, here's a link to some discussion questions. Let us know what you think of the book or your Book on the Side experience! Don't forget to vote for November's Book on the Side!

Book on the Side: Week 3

Here are some topics to mull over in Week 3 and another interview with the author. Enjoy!

Unlike Mumma and her devout sister Lillie, Agnes struggles with her faith. Why are some people so at home in the religion they were born to, while others chafe at it? Does her trip to the Holy Land change Agnes's philosophical framework, or is she left without a moral compass? Where is Agnes at the end of the novel? Is she a “soul who cannot find her way?”

Russell paints a vivid picture of America in the Roaring Twenties, and identifies a strong correlation between identity and consumption (with Freud and postwar advertising to thank). How has advertising changed since the 1920s? Do you recognize modern America in the descriptions?

T. E. Lawrence, Karl Weilbacher, Gertrude Bell, Lord Cox, and Winston Churchill all have theories on imperial rule and how to best resolve the growing conflicts in the Middle East. What are their ideas and how do they hold up to hindsight and a modern historical perspective?

Mary Doria Russell discusses writing Dreamers of the Day (another interview with the author)

Book on the Side: Week 2

Hope you are enjoying the book! Here are some discussion questions for you to consider as you read. Don't miss the link to the interview with the author that follows!

Agnes begins to break the mold when she buys new clothes and gets her hair bobbed. Makeover shows are popular on television today, and people often say that “this has changed my life.” Do you believe them? Are appearances really that powerful?

Clothing is mentioned a great deal in the novel. In what ways are the characters in Dreamers of the Day defined and/or influenced by their clothes? How do Agnes, Mumma, Gertrude Bell, and T. E. Lawrence use their fashion choices as indicators of their attitudes? Is your clothing a tool or a disguise or just something to cover your nakedness?

What does Rosie embody for Agnes? Is her attachment to her little dog “pathetic,” as she suggests? How does Rosie's existence color the novel and influence its chain of events?

Interview with Mary Doria Russell about Dreamers of the Day

Book on the Side: Week 1

Have you had an opportunity to start reading Dreamers of the Day? Here is an article about the Semiramis Hotel, where our heroine planned to stay. Want to know more about Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia? Find out more about Gertrude Bell and read a few excerpts from her letters.

Book on the Side: October

Greetings literary mavens! We've chosen our first Book on the Side title & it is Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell, a work of historical fiction by the author of The Sparrow. Booklist Reviews has this to say about it: "On the heels of a family tragedy precipitated by the influenza epidemic of 1919, middle-aged spinster schoolteacher Agnes Shanklin inherits enough money to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Traveling to Egypt, she settles in at the Semiramis Hotel, where she meets and becomes involved with a number of members of the Cairo Peace Conference, including T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Winston Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell. A natural for book-club discussions. " We shall see if Booklist is right about that last part!

So, start reading, & we'll check back next week with discussion questions & more! You can also find some useful links below.

Random House Reader's Guide

Mary Doria Russell's website

Book on the Side--Suggest a Title!

As part of this blog, we want to have a monthly online reading group. For the first month, starting October 5th, we've put up a few titles for you to vote on to the right of this post. For future months' reading, we're open to your suggestions! Here are a few more of ours:

Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Accidental by Ali Smith

We do try to suggest items that have at least 8 copies (in all formats--large print & audiobook count!), so if we don't use your suggestion, that may be the reason. We also try to wait until the book doesn't have a giant hold list.

We'll probably be keeping the format of the online book group similar to Magical Summer, with weekly reminders & discussion questions.