the seventh five

The events of the last few months interrupted my desire to curl up with a good book and as a result, the speed at which I usually devour books was slowed. Slowed, but not abandoned. And so, finally, here are my next five books.

31. Howard's End by E. M. Forster

I have long loved Forster's A Room with a View, and as such, many years ago picked up Howard's End for the first time. I'm not sure why, but I got stuck near the beginning of that first attempt and put it aside. Finally I decided to try again, and with each page I turned, I wondered why it took me so long to just read it already. It was both enchanting and riveting, full of Forster's typical wit and fascinating characters. I loved it.

32. Katharine and E. B. White: An Affectionate Memoir by Isabel Russell

My mom and I share a love of and fascination with E. B. White. Though he is best remembered for his classic children's books, particularly Charlotte's Web, he was much more prolific than most people realize. And, if I may be so bold to say, he was one of the best writers of the 20th century; his style is one I always find myself trying to imitate. While reading his essays and letters give a peek into his life, a memoir or biography is a little bit more efficient. My mom found this book, and she recommended it to me, though she did so with a caveat: the author, who worked as Katharine's personal secretary, was obviously infatuated with Andy White and simultaneously portrayed his wife, who was as much the literary genius as her well-published spouse, very unfairly. Also, she's an awful writer. But -- all that aside, it was still an interesting peek into life in the White's coastal Maine household in their later years.

33. E. B. White: A Biography by Scott Elledge

Another E. B. White recommendation from my mom. Though it is officially an unauthorized biography, Elledge took great care when researching White's life. He even maintained a friendly correspondence with White, who supported his efforts by providing access to his papers at Cornell University and occasional corrections to the text. I believe that this biography took Elledge about 20 years to complete. Because it is unauthorized, a lot of it is conjecture, and there are some holes thanks to the fact that the bulk of his information came from the White files at Cornell. But it was well-written and provided me with a more whole (and unbiased) view of his life.

34. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

It took watching the BBC film adaptation (which is fabulous, by the way) to get me to read this book. I didn't realize that Mrs. Gaskell had written anything else of note besides her biography of Charlotte Bronte (a book I still, despite my love of all things Bronte, haven't been able to get through). The film was pretty true to the book, which made it easier for me to read. I really enjoyed it. I loved that Margaret and Mr. Thornton finally worked through their differences, but I think I loved even more that they mostly despised each other throughout the majority of the book. Neither character was perfectly loveable, which made this 19th century love story not only a little more real, but a little more entertaining as well.

35. The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis

Though I don't live in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, I see plenty of them come through to shop at the big discount department store a few blocks away. As I watch them, always with similar conservative hair and dress styles, always in large family groups, and always so young looking, I find myself wondering about their culture, which to me rubs off as one they prefer not to share with the world at large. Perhaps this is why I found this book so interesting. It's a novel about a community of Orthodox Jewish women in Memphis, Tennessee, and it was absolutely fascinating -- both in what it revealed to me about the Jewish religion and culture, as well as how remarkably similar theirs seems to mine. As layers of the story kept unfolding, I couldn't help but notice how much Jews and Mormons have in common. With the swapping of a few terms and ways of worship, this story could have just as easily have been about a community of Mormon women in a close-knit small Utah town. Unfortunately, that observation doesn't always speak highly of the Mormon culture, but it is what it is, I guess -- and none of us, no matter how religious we are, is perfect.