My Favourite Books of 2013

Picking five favourites out of my list of collected book reviews for 2013 was much easier this year than it was last. I struggled last year, having read so many good books that my head burst with them. This year a certain few rose to the top and, while there were about eight that deserved a place, narrowing it down wasn't too tricky. So here we are! Something interesting to note is that all these books were read in the early months of the year - they must be potent to all survive and be on this list.

Tom-All-Alone's by Lynn Shepherd

A very clever book that draws on Bleak House by Charles Dickens and centres on Charles Maddox, a private detective, who is employed by the infamous Edward Tulkinghorn. An excellent book I want to read again soon. My full review can be found here.

Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise by Sam Irvin

I didn't read much non-fiction in 2013 but this biography was brilliant. Thompson was an incredibly talented yet self-destructive individual who was at the centre of Hollywood but very rarely in the public eye. The what-ifs of her story are so tantalising. My full review can be found here.

Elijah's Mermaid by Essie Fox

I realise this is the second year in a row Essie Fox has made it into my favourites list and I make no apology for that - Elijah's Mermaid is an entrancing book. It follows Pearl, a web-toed 'mermaid' who has lived her life in a brothel and Lily and Elijah Lamb, twins who live with their grandfather. Much more than that would be spoiling it so I'll say no more. My full review can be found here.

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

This is an incredibly dark book centred on a group of survivors in a lifeboat whose hopes of being rescued are slim and rely on the capacity of the boat being diminished. What follows is an excellent tale relayed by an unreliable narrator. This is probably the book that stayed with me longest once I'd put it down. My full review can be read here.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Reading Anne Bronte for the first time made me realise that she is my favourite Bronte, no question. This book, although quietly understated, deals with themes far ahead of its time. A woman, married to a drunkard and an adulterer, leaves her home in order to protect her son. The narrator, Gilbert Markham, falls in love with her, giving rise to an incredibly complex situation. A brilliant book in my view. My full review can be found here.  

Reading Challenge: TBR Challenge

This challenge is hosted by Roof Beam Reader over here. The goal is to read twelve books from your To Be Read pile that have been there for over a year. My TBR pile is overflowing so there were plenty to choose from. These are the twelve I settled on:

1. The Art of Fiction by David Lodge
2. Die a Dry Death by Greta van der Rol
3. Author, Author by David Lodge
4. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
5. Room by Emma Donoghue
6. Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John by Sally Cline
7. London Fields by Martin Amis
8. London Lore by Steve Roud
9. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by The Countess of Carnarvon
10. Quicksand & Passing by Nella Larsen
11. Mutants by Armand Marie Leroi
12. The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders

I think there's a decent mix of fiction and non-fiction there, with six of each. I certainly need to read more non-fiction in 2014 and this is a good start. All of these books are literally dusty, definitely been on my table a while waiting for me to get to them. Here's hoping I do!

Reading Challenge: Chunkster Challenge

This challenge is hosted by Vasilly over here. There are no set levels for participation but you have to set your own number of books ahead of time and try and stick to it. A 'chunkster' counts as more than 450 pages in this challenge and e-books are allowed. It also says you don't have to list your books in advance but I know me - if I don't make a list and stick to it, I won't complete the challenge. I'm only going with five 'chunksters' for this. It might not seem a lot but it adds up to over 2200 pages so it doesn't sound that shabby. These are the five books:

1. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (464 pages)
2. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte (608 pages)
3. Kate: The Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn by William J. Mann (532 pages)
4. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (530 pages)
5. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope (708 pages)

Poor Katharine Hepburn is a bit of an anomaly there, isn't she? But I have a sneaking suspicion that'll be my favourite from this list, although I have decent hopes for Mary Barton. Can You Forgive Her? will be my first Trollope so we'll see how that one plays out. Hopefully it'll all be cool... And porkies are flying past the window. 

Watchalong: Merrily We Roll Along

Yesterday, I eagerly downloaded the Digital Theatre recording of Merrily We Roll Along (the one that was shown in cinemas a few months ago) and participated in the watchalong that began at 5:00 pm. For the next couple of hours I devoted myself half to the screen and half to the #MerrilyOnScreen hashtag on Twitter and you know what? It was brilliant.

I saw this production in London in July and then saw it in cinemas too. However, the beautiful thing about Merrily is that it doesn't get old. The more you watch it, because of the fact it runs backwards, the more you understand it and the more you can pick up from it. What helps, of course, is that the central performances from Mark Umbers, Jenna Russell and Damian Humbley are fantastic, and the supporting cast are brilliant too. Everyone makes you care about their characters, even when they're horrible human beings - yes, Josefina Gabrielle as Gussie, I'm looking at you.

What was so enjoyable about yesterday was the sense of community. Someone tweeted that we had the ability to fall apart because we weren't in public but, really, we kinda were. It's just that we were with truly like-minded company and not with people just after a night out in the West End or at the cinema. The chronology of Merrily also makes it a perfect musical for discussion. Even when we knew what was going to happen because we'd already seen it, we're willing it not to. For example, one of my tweets:

Frank, just say no! And don't look into her devil eyes. Mary's waiting for you... #MerrilyOnScreen
— Lucy Brown (@CharmedLassie) December 22, 2013

I got steadily more emotionally involved as the show went on - by the reprise of 'Not a Day Goes By' I was a gibbering wreck.

About to take a mini timeout from tweeting while 'Not a Day Goes By' cripples me. #MerrilyOnScreen
— Lucy Brown (@CharmedLassie) December 22, 2013

The delight of the third viewing was picking up on things I hadn't noticed before. For example, when Frank first meets Beth in 'Opening Doors' and Mary's watching them:

Mary knew from the moment Beth started singing, didn't she? #MerrilyOnScreen
— Lucy Brown (@CharmedLassie) December 22, 2013

I can't articulate how good this show is. Now it's available for rent or purchase on Digital Theatre, I'd heartily recommend it. The songs are gorgeous but only really make sense in the context you see them. For example, on this third time around, 'Like It Was' in the first act got to me because I knew how things went.

'Like It Was' breaks me now. Once you know what comes...before. And Jenna knocks it out of the park, of course. #MerrilyOnScreen
— Lucy Brown (@CharmedLassie) December 22, 2013

There was a nice little discussion going on about whether Frank's life would've turned out differently if he had married Mary instead of Beth - would he still have gone off with Gussie, which was the bit that broke everything? I say that he wouldn't. Mary said it herself at opening night - sometimes you don't have to trust them and you need to keep an eye on them instead. I think that would've stuck. But maybe I'm just a romantic at heart.

If you want to take a look at the Storify for the watchalong, it's here. I'll leave you with one of the (many) beautiful lines Mary has throughout the show:

"I had to borrow a dress...from the guy upstairs." Brilliant, Mary. #MerrilyOnScreen
— Lucy Brown (@CharmedLassie) December 22, 2013

Collected Book Reviews 2013

For reference, here's a list of the books I reviewed in 2013. If this list tells me anything it's that I need to read more next year!

Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise by Sam Irvin

Elijah's Mermaid by Essie Fox

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

May 1812 by M.M. Bennetts

The Carrier by Sophie Hannah

Tom All-Alone's by Lynn Shepherd

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale

The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons

The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins by William Clarke

A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody

The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green

Derby Day by D.J. Taylor

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Till Human Voices Wake Us by Patti Davis

A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

John Marchmont's Legacy by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

The Loyal Servant by Eva Hudson      

Classic Film Review: Ann Vickers (1933)

Ann Vickers stars Irene Dunne as the title character, a social worker who falls pregnant following a dalliance with an officer about to go off to war. With the help of her aunt, Malvina (Edna May Oliver), she procures an abortion (though this is never explicitly stated) then throws herself into prison reformatory work. She becomes very successful but meets Barney Dolphin (Walter Huston), a married judge whose complex past may be her downfall once again.

I felt the film was too short for everything it tried to include. You got a lengthy set-up between Ann and Captain Resnick (Bruce Cabot), only for it to be merely the catalyst that throws her into prison reform. Her experiences observing the women are potent but they're glossed over far too easily. My opinion was that a few more intimate conversations with the prisoners would've been more helpful than the scenes in the background while a distressed Ann watches. However, this was 1933 so the reticence has context. Ann's affair with Barney is handled more openly, although the romance between them does feel rushed, as much of the film does.

Irene Dunne's performance is, as usual, superb. She handles the scenes after Resnick's betrayal well and you do get a sense of the character developing and maturing as the film progresses. However, my favourite scenes were the ones between Irene Dunne and Edna May Oliver as Malvina, though that may be because this is the second Oliver film I've reviewed this week. The evident warmth in their relationship offset the somewhat shallow relationships Ann has with the male characters.

Overall, I found this film undeniably rushed, detrimentally so. Too much time was spent building up characters who later played no or very little part in proceedings and the central romance didn't feel authentic at all. However, Irene Dunne is excellent in the role, particularly in the scenes following the abortion and when she is forced to make a big decision about her job later on. There are some twists, yes, but nothing you wouldn't expect if you were paying attention. A little formulaic, perhaps, but entertaining nonetheless.

Work Diary Gone Awry

Back in July, I wrote about the benefits of the work diary I'd been using for a year at that point. I'd found that it made me feel like I'd accomplished something and keeping track of the various projects I was working on allowed me to see which ones I was neglecting. Amusingly, however, in recent weeks it's been the diary itself that has been neglected.

You see, November was a tad hectic. I explained about my other November commitments alongside NaNoWriNo at the end of October and, to be perfectly honest, it all ended up being much worse than I'd anticipated. This year has quite possibly been one of my worst and November was the iceberg that sank me.

My last decent work diary entry was on 31st October: 'Wrote 800 words of Downton essay'. For the next two weeks there are spasmodic references to work accomplished but with no detail - I say I worked on my thesis, for instance, but don't say how many words I got down on paper or whether I was editing or crying over the laptop. Not much of a reference tool for how much work I'd done. Since 14th November I haven't documented a single thing. I think my head was in too much of a whirl.

I was juggling essay edits with my firm determination to complete NaNoWriMo and a thesis chapter that was intent - and still is, I think - on not fitting together properly. In addition, some personal problems finally got the better of me and I spent much of late November in a haze. I woke up, tried to cope with whatever my inbox was throwing at me, worked until my brain gave up then collapsed in a heap. It's possibly no surprise that as soon as my final, final, final essay rewrites were done I succumbed to that monster cold that's been going around. I'm still not completely better now, which is a mark of how hard something had to hit me in order to force me to slow down. There's a lesson in there somewhere but I'm not sure it's one I'm ready to learn.

So what of the work diary? I'll try and pick it up again in January, though I'm not sure if I'll be successful. If I get back to the point where I'm too all over the place to document what I'm doing then I fear 2014 may be as tricky as 2013 has been. And that, dear reader, is a frightening prospect.