Persephone Books

I am completely obsessed with Persephone Books. It’s a publishing company based in London and they reprint awesome books from the twentieth century, mostly authored by women, which have largely been forgotten. The stories are varied, interesting, and entertaining. Persephone publishes fiction, non-fiction, and cook books (but I don’t cook so there’s a good chance that  I will not be reading these). The first Persephone book I read was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. I had never heard of it – I picked it up because of the amazing cover art.

And this is such a great book! It’s wonderful to curl up with on a rainy day. And it’s a quick read too. It’s about a wonderfully spontaneous and glamorous day in the boring, dreary life of Miss Pettigrew. I highly recommend. It was made into a movie (which is not as good as the book – what else is new – but still a lot of fun to watch). I’ve also read Cheerful Weather for a Wedding by Julie Strachey. It’s a short book about a girl who’s thinking that it might not be the best idea to be getting married. There’s some great characters and wonderful description in this book. You can easily read it in one sitting.

But I highly recommend visiting their website and seeing what other books they have to offer.

The Old Man and Me

 

Simply put- this is a good book. Actually, it’s a great book! I loved reading every word and was disappointed it came to an end. There are some books that you just never want to end. The Old Man and Me is a completely original spin on a somewhat cliched story line: a young American woman flies off to England to reclaim her fortune by seducing a rich old man who is in possession of it.

I probably never would have taken a second look at this book had I not read Dundy’s first novel, The Dud Avocado. The title The Old Man and Me sounds cheesy and all kinds of boring. And when I pulled the book of the shelf at the library, the cover was worn and yellow and torn. It looked like it hadn’t been read in years and smelled like it too as I thumbed through the musty pages. But what I happily discovered was a wonderful cast of characters who are insanely entertaining.

What made me fall in love with Elaine Dundy’s writing while reading The Dud Avocado is the wit she infused into her characters. That same charm and edge I enjoyed in Dud Avacodo is everywhere in The Old Man and Me. The clash of the British and American cultures come into play to create some classically hilarious and awkward situations.

So, the story is this: American Betsy Lou, moonlighting as Honey Flood, an American heiress set loose in England, is out to seduce C.D. McKee. C.D. McKee is a very rich man. Make that a very rich OLD man. And Betsy Lou believes she is the rightful owner of his riches. How that actually works out is a wonderfully complicated, melodramatic, and enjoyable flashback to read, so I won’t ruin that story line here. But to get back her money, Betsy Lou must first get to C.D. And once she accomplishes that, she has no idea what she’s going to do or how she’s going to her her money back. What Betsy Lou had not counted on was that she might, possibly fall in love with that C.D. McKee. But as her funds disappear and she becomes more desperate, Betsy Lou has to decide how far she’ll go to get back what is hers.

The Old Man and Me was written and takes place in the sixties. But the story isn’t antiquated and the characters are as alive as ever. The story jumps off the pages and sucks you in from the first page until the very last sentence. The comedy is face-paced, and at times very dark – but never dull.

The Dud Avocado

“It was a hot, peaceful, optimistic sort of day in September. It was around eleven in the morning, I remember, and I was drifting down the boulevard St. Michel, thoughts rising in my head like little puffs of smoke…”

The Dud Avocado, by Elaine Dundy, follows the adventures of Sally Jay Gorce, an American in Paris. She has no plans and no real expectations – only for adventure. She falls in and out of several acting jobs and falls in and out of love with several men. Along the way she breaks off an affair with her older Italian lover, takes up with a movie-star-to-be and loses her passport.

I had never heard of The Dud Advacado before reading it. I had never heard of the book’s author Elaine Dundy. But there is really something wonderful about this book. There is a hint of the chick-lit we’re all so used to nowadays. But there’s a depth, an intellect, a realness to the story and especially to the characters that is so often absent in the chick-lit books we’re inundated with now. There’s an evolution to Sally Jay and her story. She’s not saintly – she has good moments and some not-so-good moments, but she’s always open to life, open to adventure.

It’s amazing to think that this book, so filled with adventure, wit, and energy about one independent free-thinking young woman was written in 1958. Some of the fashions and slang may have changed, but the themes present in this book have weathered the years and still resonate with young women of today. Figuring out what you want in life and what kind of person you want to be is tricky business. And can be a bumpy road. I couldn’t put this book down and recommended it to ALL my friends. Very glad I bumped into it that day in the bookstore.

Bitter is the New Black

The title pretty much says it all. This is the tale of a bitter, unemployed, fabulously attired, fiercely determined woman in her 30’s. Her name? Jen Lancaster. Her mission? Find a job. Where does the bitterness fit in? Well, way back when, she had it all: a fabulous apartment, regular hair and spa appointments, designer bags, designer shoes and a good paying job. Unfortunately she was fired and left scrambling as she tried to decipher life with no job. Sound like the next big thing in chick lit? Guess again. This is the true story of a real girl in the very real world.

The hilarity of this book stems from how Lancaster fills her days once her former employers give her the old heave-ho. Volunteering her time at a local animal shelter (in designer clothes), collecting unemployment checks (carrying a designer bag), redecorating her not-so-humble abode and spending plenty of quality time watching reality TV. She also deigns herself a junior sleuth – drawing up plans to solve the mystery of her missing newspapers. But starting her own website about her unemployment and attempts to find employment is what sets her back on course (eventually). This book is so hilarious, I often found myself laughing out loud on the train on my morning commute to work (the stares of annoyance didn’t even bother me).

If Lancaster were a super-sorority-bitch all the time, this book would probably be unbearable to read. And though the tone of Bitter is the New Black is truly sarcastic there are pockets of real life that pop up which any reader can relate to. One of my favorite moments was when Lancaster was explaining why the air conditioner was broken and was exasperated why no one could understand said explanation:

“I told him fifteen times the blowery thing worked fine but it never made the big whoosh full of cold, cold air so the pipes didn’t get sweaty and the issue was a lack of the chilly-making juice. I said we probably just needed another box of neon like we did when our AC was out in Lincoln Park. I’m not sure how I could have expressed the problem more clearly.” (cue laughter followed by annoyed looks)

Ultimately Lancaster was writing about a bad time in her life. But she got through it with the support of her boyfriend, her grit, and a great sense of humor. She got through it all and came out the other side a little wiser. Lancaster wrote two sequels to her first memoir – I can’t wait to get my hands on them and speed through.

Remember Me?

The last thing Lexi Smart remembers was being a frizzy-haired, snaggle-toothed, badly paid young professional with a loser boyfriend. But one day she wakes up to a completely different life: a great job, capped teeth, an amazing house and…a handsome husband?

Courtesy of a nasty bump on the head, Lexi has amnesia. She’s completely forgotten the last three years of her life and has woken up in the hospital with straight, glossy hair, a platinum American Express card, and a Louis Vuitton purse. Her lips also seem to be plumper than she remembers… but she has more important things to deal with. Like trying to remember her husband. Or comprehend how her little sister went from being a sweet little girl to a law-breaking smart ass. Or why all her friends hate her.

Lexi soon realizes that she’s become a no-carb-eating-bitch-boss-from-hell who may or may not be having an affair with one of her husband’s business partners and has managed to alienate all her old friends. Her new life is filled with beige suits, perfect chignons and a computerized pet (less mess). Lexi’s just trying to figure out what the hell happened in the last three years.

Remember Me? is the latest book from Sophie Kinsella, the author of the Shopaholic books. I am a HUGE fan of the Shopoholic books and picked up Remember Me? the first day it was out. It’s an entertaining book packed with awkward moments, a lot of wit, and the expected slice of romance. There’s not as much verve as there is in the Shopaholic books, but it’s a great story with interesting characters…and a little bit of a mystery that explains Lexie’s great transformation.

Pink Think

Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons is a fascinating result of author Lynn Peril’s obsession with collecting retro advertising and advice books from the 40’s through the 70’s. In Peril’s words, Pink think “is a set of ideas and behaviors about what constitutes proper female behavior.”

Women were subjected to these pink think ideals from every angle of society, “advice writers, manufacturers of toys and other consumer products, experts in many walks of life, and the public at large…” Society held incredibly high and restrictive standards for women to be feminine, which meant to be gentle, soft, delicate, nurturing. Society believed that women could “desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity.” And the color pink became specifically associated with femininity everywhere. There was no escaping it.

Society seemed to fear that if women worked, or became too independent, the world would come crashing down around us. Work outside of the home was made to seem more like a distraction- a way to spend your time until you get married instead of being a way to feel fulfilled. A 1950 ad for U.S. Savings Bonds read “when a young girl goes to work, she is apt to look on her job pretty much as a fill-in between maturity and marriage.”

Peril includes in the book a test that was in the February 1960 issue of Seventeen magazine entitled How Do You Rate as a Girl? It includes thought-provoking questions like “Do you listen responsively to a story you have heard before rather than squash the pleasure of the boy who is telling it?” and “In a serious discussion which includes both sexes, can you keep from being overpowering even though you know a great deal on the subject?” If you scored perfectly you are deemed a “veritable flower of femininity.” I took the quiz myself and scored five to seven yeses- “there are a few thorns.” Couldn’t be prouder.

It was almost frightening to read about the advice that “experts” were giving to women about how to be “feminine.” Essayist Louis Paine Benjamin wrote in 1947, “[Women] will know how to whip up a tasty meal, a new dress…turn a shirt collar or paint a living room…woman’s skill and interest in her home life can be just as stimulating and ego-rewarding as a successful profession in the business world.” All those experts were forceful that women would be unable to find anything other than being a wife and mother as completely satisfying. Of course some women did, and do, find being a stay-at-home mom satisfying. But, whereas we have the choice now, in the 40’s work outside the home was automatically considered unfeminine.

Peril also looks at how advertisers targeted women by associating their products with helping to create the perfect family. She looks at the experts advice on sex-ed and a girls reputation. And in an effort to look at all perspectives, Peril delves a bit into how boys and men also had specific standards of behavior they were expected to live up to. But that’s a far less interesting chapter.

Obviously, things have changed. Women can choose to stay home with their kids, have a career outside the house, or do both. But this book also made me wonder about how things haven’t changed. Television ads for cleaning products always show women looking completely satisfied after finally being able to get their kitchen floors sparkling. But how often do you see men featured in ads like these? And fashion advertisements consistently display thin, beautiful women with flawless skin and glossy hair. These unrealistic pictures, which have been airbrushed to death, are the new impossible standards women face. And of course, the age old question. Career and a family: can women have it all?

Pink Think is not just an interesting and enjoyable read. It was truly thought-provoking and made me realize that even though women have earned more independence and respect in society, we are still faced with, and have to fight against, pink think.

Into a Paris Quartier

I’ve never met Diane Johnson, author of Into a Paris Quartier: Reine Margot’s Chapel and other Haunts of St.-Germain and Le Divorce, but we do have something in common; we both love Paris. And while I’ve only ever dreamed about walking by the Seine and eating croissants at cafe’s in the famous walking city, Johnson lives it. She splits her time between San Fransisco and Paris and Into a Paris Quartier is her own love letter to the beauty of the city. For Johnson, the history and architecture is part of what makes Paris so special to her. It’s rich past is embedded in every part of the present- you can’t escape it. Janet Flanner, the New Yorker correspondent, wrote, “The streets sing, the stones talk. The houses drip history, glory, romance.”

In Johnson’s introduction, she writes that “the City of Light has haunted the American imagination from the days of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.” Johnson is just another American that has fallen under the influence of the city’s allure. Johnson’s apartment is on Rue Bonaparte in the historic and famous neighborhood of St.-Germain-des-Pres. Jefferson lived just a few doors down two hundred years earlier and Franklin just around the corner. The spirit of Sartre, Beauvoir, Wilde, Piaf and Wharton still vibrate around every corner.

From her apartment window, Johnson can see an old chapel built by Queen Margot in 1608 and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. She is a stone’s throw from Louvre, the Insitut de France, the Pont Neuf and other famous landmarks. Every building has a story, a rich history. The influence of great figures in history are in the streets they walked and they linger in the buildings they built.

Johnson begins her book with a question: What is it about Paris? Into a Paris Quartier is Johnson’s own search for what Paris means to her- what it is that keeps her coming back every year- what made her fall in love with the city and consider it home.

Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen has it all- romance, jealous husbands, murder… the circus, an elephant with a penchant for alchohol and so much more.

The novel follows Jacob Jankowski, an old man (unhappily) living in a nursing home. He gets occasional, unmemorable visits from his children and finds comfort in complaining about the food. One fine day the circus comes to town. As they begin to set up the tent right across from the nursing home, Jacob’s mind slips back and forth between the present and the past.

When Jacob was in college, his parents were killed in a car accident. Reeling from the news, he walks out of his final college exam before becoming a veterinarian and runs away. He stumbles on a passing train, jumps on, and interrupts a group of circus folk. After narrowly escaping being tossed from the moving train by a muscly circus worker, Jacob joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth (which turns out to NOT be the most spectacular show) as the new vet. Soon, Jacob finds himself with a roommate who harbors an intense dislike for him, falling for a beautiful circus perfomer (who happens to be married to a very jealous man) and almost getting his arm taken off by a tiger.

Water for Elephants is an original, creative novel- a real page-turner, filled with great descriptions and an interesting cast of characters. But the story goes further than a behind-the-scenes drama at the circus. The treatment of the animals often mirrors that of the circus workers. They are treated as a commodity- without humanity. But the struggle, compassion and developing relationship between the workers and the animals adds real beauty to the novel. It’ll get you from the first paragraph and keep you gripped until the last page.

An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England

An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England is an odd (but good) novel starring a sort of quirky (but lazy) protagonist, a mysterious mystery, family dysfunction and, of course, plenty of arson.

The main character is Sam Pulsifer, who, when he was a teenager, “accidentally” set the historial and beloved home of Emily Dickinson on fire, burnt it to a crisp, killed two people in the process, and solidified his role as the town’s outcast. So he went off to prison for ten years, squatted in his parents home for a while after that until he was kicked out, and reluctantly went off to community college. He quickly set out to forget his past and made a new life for himself. One that included marraige and fatherhood but didn’t include him telling his family about the “accident.” But it becomes impossible for him to hide his past when it walks right up his driveway. And when someone begins burning down historical writers’ homes in New England and Sam is the prime suspect, the perfect life he tried to build up around him, quickly come crashing down.

I felt that the novel began slowly. But soon mysteries start popping up, the plot begins moving swiftly along, and Sam’s character becomes both endearing and frustrating (an interesting combination). The tone, the voice and the characters in this novel are original, different. If you want to read a book that is both witty and heartbreaking, An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England is a good choice.

Summer at Tiffany

Summer at Tiffany is a charming story written by Marjorie Hart about the summer of 1945, when she and her best friend, and sorority sister, Marty leave Iowa for life in the big city- New York City. They found a great apartment (with a couch on wheels) and even greater summer jobs (the first female pages at Tiffany and Co.) and had themselves the most memorable summer of their lives full of diamonds, movie stars and midshipmen.

This is no tale of epic romances or nail-biting action. Hart simply puts on paper the enchanting memories of a summer long ago. It’s a great look at how America used to be: when a sandwich and a drink cost 15 cents and the subway cost a nickle, stores were closed on Saturdays because of the war, and cafe society was filled with velvet booths and twenty-five peice bands.

It was an interesting time to be in New York as well because of the war. Marjorie and Marty were there to welcome back the Queen Mary with 14,000 servicemen and women aboard and also were in Times Square when it was announced that the Japanese had surrendered. Hart eloquently wrote about that moment bringing it to life with great description of the scores of people squeezed into Times Square and observing that “no one was a stranger in that crowd…” It was really incredible to read how involved everyone was in helping the war effort. Small efforts were made by everyone every day- it was a part of their normal lives.

During the week, they lived glamour and fun at Tiffany & Co., where the uniforms were “elegant shirtwaist style in an aqua-blue silk jersey with black leather shoulder bags for deliveries.” Movie stars such as Judy Garland and Marlene Deitrich floated through the store throughout the summer, and Marjorie and Marty were free to admire the diamonds, crystal and china adorning the shelves and become chums with the salesmen on the floor. And on the weekend, Marjorie and Marty explored the city- restaurants, dances, dates…and the subway. They also took their first trip to the beach, where they fell asleep, awoke with sunburns and found that they had missed the last bus to the city but were luckily able to hitch a ride with a couple of amused poilcemen.

Hart writes with great wit, energy and youthful enthusiam. You can tell she had a blast writing and remembering all that happened to her during those couple of months all those years ago. The pace of her storytelling is just right and she kept my interest from the first word to the last. Hart does a great job of bringing the reader into the moment and experiencing the excitement of being young in a big city. She includes letters she wrote to her family in Iowa during her summer in the city and they provide further proof as to the great culture shock she must have experienced that summer. If you’re in the mood for something light and cheeful, this is the book.