The Art of Reading...

Pietro Antonio Rotari - Girl with Book

"She felt a sudden desire for perilous adventures."

--W. Somerset Maugham, The Magician

Another Classic...

A conversation between Isabella Thorpe and Catherine Morland:

"...when you have finished Udolpho, we will read The Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you."

"Have you indeed? How glad I am! What are they all?"

"I will read you their names directly...Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time."

"...but are they all horrid? Are you sure they are all horrid?"

 The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons is one of those "horrid novels" mentioned (and mocked) by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. It's a classic Gothic novel of virtue vs. villainy and it is full of Gothic cliches. The main character, Matilda Weimar, is an orphan who must flee her guardian's questionable protection. She stumbles upon Castle Wolfenbach which is purportedly haunted. There she meets Victoria, the Countess of Wolfenbach, who has a scheming and evil husband and a dark secret of her own. In the first 48 pages alone there is an abduction, a mystery, a murder and even arson. Matilda's fate and Victoria's virtuous struggle to free herself from her villainous husband, along with romance and many declarations of love, take up the rest of the novel. But, as Eliza Parsons promises, Providence favors these "poor creatures" in the end.

This isn't the worst novel ever written, but it's not the greatest either. Still, I tried to enjoy it for what it is--one of those "horrid novels" that Jane Austen poked fun of, with damsels in distress, too many counts and countesses to count, overwrought situations, and more than enough moralizing. Towards the end, I found myself heartily agreeing with one of the characters when she exclaimed: "Let's have no more dismals; I declare these last five days have vapored me to death." But I got through it and completed another category in the 2015 Back to the Classics Challenge: read a classic novel written by a woman author. As a bookish bonus, it's also one more book checked off my TBR list.

Happy Reading!

Going deep...

James M. Tabor defines "supercaves" as vast geologic monsters that are miles long and many thousands of feet deep; they are rare and as difficult to conquer as Mt. Everest. Their hazards include darkness, vertical drops, fatal falls, hypothermia, fissures, rock slides, hurricane-force winds, dangerous microbes, asphyxiation and poisonous gases. They also have turquoise pools, cascading waterfalls, beautiful water-carved limestone formations, and caverns immense enough to hold several Greyhound buses. I find them alluring and completely fascinating, but the thought of actually exploring one scares me to death. So I read about them instead.

In Blind Descent, James M. Tabor chronicles the stories of two men--American Bill Stone and Ukranian Alexander Klimchouk--two caves, and two quests to find the deepest place on earth. It's Cheve Cave in southern Mexico vs. Krubera Cave in the Republic of Georgia. Both are incredible supercaves, and both pose great risks to anyone who enters them. And Tabor does a masterful job of taking the reader on an incredible journey deep into the center of the earth. It's a memorable and well-written true life adventure story.

But my favorite caving adventure is told in William Stone's and Barbara am Ende's Beyond the Deep: The Deadly Descent Into the World's Most Treacherous Cave. This firsthand account of Stone's 1994 expedition into Huatla Cave in Mexico is 'unputdownable'. What the cavers experience is scary, and sometimes deadly, and very hard to forget. Talk about going where no one has gone before! Both of these bookish descents into darkness are compelling reads that I absolutely loved!

Happy Reading!

A birding update...

So far this year I've added three new birds to my bird list: a snow goose, a brown creeper, and a great horned owl.

Can you believe it? A pair of great horned owls have been nesting at the Salt Lake City Cemetery for the past six years. They are incredible birds. And I finally spotted one!! I'm closing in on my 150th bird...maybe this summer.

Happy Birding!

P.S.  Here's a picture of the little brown creeper:

Bookish Thoughts...

On waiting too long. There are some books that need to be read when the mood strikes, because if you wait, the mood to read that particular book may never come again. It's almost like some books have a built-in expiration date; if you let them sit on your shelf for too long they lose their freshness and charm. I'm not sure why. (And maybe it only happens to me.) I just know that there are one or two books sitting on my shelf that I really wanted to read once upon a time...and now I don't. I guess for me, they've passed their bookish expiration date.

On spring-cleaning my "To Read" list.  I collect titles of books that I want to read from a variety of places: other bookish blogs, bookstores, Goodreads, from my sisters and friends, even from the bestseller lists. Needless to say, my list is long. Too long. So I went through it the other day and did some spring-cleaning. If I didn't remember what a book was about, or why I had put it on the list in the first place, I crossed it off. Then there were all those out-of-print books that I haven't been able to find; I crossed them off, too. It's time to move on. Some books on my list I no longer want to read (even though I once did); they were the next to go. And what about those titles I find myself skipping over every time I'm looking for my next read? I got rid of those, too. It felt good. In the end, my To Read list is still too long, but it no longer feels impossible, and at least I know I want to read all the books on it.  Eventually.

Happy Reading!

Bookish Suspense...

Three years, ten months, and twelve days. That's how long Reeve LeClaire was held captive in a dark basement, tortured and raped by her captor. It's six years later and Reeve, now 22, is still recovering from her ordeal; she only needs to meet with her psychiatrist, Dr. Lerner, once a week, she only has a part-time job, and the nightmares have mostly stopped. Until another young kidnap victim is found:  Tilly Cavanaugh. Dr. Lerner thinks Reeve is just the person to offer Tilly the support she needs. What he doesn't know, and what Reeve is about to find out, is that the mastermind behind Tilly's kidnapping is still out there, keeping both girls under surveillance. And as long as he's around, neither girl is safe.


Watching this dominating and smart sexual predator close in on Reeve, and being helpless to stop him, makes this novel genuinely creepy. Especially when no one else is even aware of his existence. The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton is psychological suspense at it's best--it's dark and compelling, but not too disturbing or graphic. But what really makes this memorable thriller a cut above the rest is Reeve herself. What a great character! For all her fragility, Reeve is surprisingly tough. She's also smart and resourceful. And I really liked her. She's the type of heroine you could write an entire series around...and I hope Norton does.

Happy Reading!

It's April...

...which means it is also National Poetry Month. To honor the occasion, I decided to read a poem or two and post them here, but then I saw this particular book of poetry and I just couldn't resist:

Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum

What does a poet do when he turns into a zombie? He chronicles his descent into mindless flesh-eating hunger with a series of clever and funny (and sometimes disgusting) haiku. Talk about creative! This 139-page book is hilarious, and I loved it! Here are a few of my favorite zombie haiku:

My town is broken.

From this view, I see the end.

Below, they gather.

There's nothing quite like

the pain you feel while dying--

switching to hunger.

I keep saying "brains".

I remember other words,

but I just need one.

Happy Reading!