Literary Connections

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Literary Connections post so I’ve got quite a list for you today.

Literary Connections are those times when something you’ve read in one book comes into play in another book you read shortly after. I love those fortuitous finds – they never fail to make me smile. Here are the links I’ve found lately (the titles take you to my reviews) …

• While reading Till We Have Faces I found a mention of Alcibiades. If I hadn’t read Tides of War, I’d have had no idea who he was.
  
  
• Ines of My Soul begins during the final days of the reign of Juana la Loca, the Mad Queen of Spain. Juana’s presentation here is in contrast to the new look at her life presented in The Last Queen, I book I really loved.
  
  
• While I was reading The Lightning Thief to Kiddo my in-the-car audio book was The Iliad. It gave me the background I needed (and couldn’t quite recall) to explain Greek mythology to Kiddo.
  
  
• We're now in the middle of the 2nd Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters. I recently finished listening to The Odyssey and this was the PERFECT complement to that book – the monsters in both books are the same!
  
  
• In Cranford one character mentions the work of Ms. Edgeworth. I could be wrong but I think she’s referring to writer Maria Edgeworth, who I know of only because I read Castle Rackrent.
  
  
• My current book club read is The Unlikely Disciple. I found out in the first chapter that the author worked as an intern for AJ Jacobs when he was writing The Year of Living Biblically – that book was already on my TBR list.
  
  
• I'm reading Frankenstein (for the Dueling Monsters read-a-long) and there is a quote on the very first page about being fascinated with the polar regions. That same passage was quoted in the beginning of The Voyage of the Narwhal.
  
  
• Near the end of A Thread of Grace one of the characters describes the disparity in the numbers of soldiers on each side of a skirmish as being "of Agincourt proportions" - and I knew what that meant only because I recently listened to a book called Agincourt.
  

Phew, that was a long list! It is fascinating to me – and I hope to some of you as well – the way my reading seems to overlap. I’m sure it has to do with the amount of books I’m reading lately because I don’t remember this happening before I started blogging. Or maybe it is that I am spending more time analyzing what I read and therefore it is sticking with me ... I can't say for sure.

Does this happen to anyone else? Does it fascinate you when it does happen, like it fascinates me?

More Literary Connections

A while back I wrote about all the literary and pop culture connections that I found while reading THE THIRTEENTH TALE. I had to do another post like that because I just couldn't believe all the odd connections between what I've been reading lately.

Ok, here goes ...

1. I recently read THE LOST MEN by Kelly Tyler-Lewis which opened with the telegraph station at Awarua, New Zealand receiving a vitally important message from the survivors of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party.
2. Now I'm listening to MISTER PIP by Lloyd Jones and the city of Awarua plays a significant part in the story. The title of the book refers to Pip, the lead character in GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens.
   
3. I just finished reading LITTLE BEE by Chris Cleave, in which the title character is given GREAT EXPECTATIONS to read. The character of Little Bee is from war-ravaged Nigeria.
4. The next book I started reading was THE SECRET KEEPER by Paul Harris. The main character in this book is a journalist who was in war-ravaged Sierra Leone and who has returned there several years later.
5. As I was researching info for my book club's discussion of LITTLE BEE I came across this video posted on Chris Cleave's blog:
   

Now tell me that isn't a crazy set of connections!

Literary Connections in CHILDREN OF GOD

Literary Connections are those times when something you’ve read in one book comes into play in another book you read shortly after. It's been a while since I did one of these posts but my reading has been so unexpectedly interconnected that I just had to share it with you.

My reading has been very eclectic lately (big surprise, huh?) and not all of the books have been great reads.  But there does seem to be a larger plan at work here and I saw it come together while reading Mary Doria Russell's CHILDREN OF GOD (CoG) for this month's read-a-long ...

• In CoG there is a character named Joseba who is from the Basque region of Spain.  His background is in terrorism and his family had a history of being involved in ETA.  Also, he is fluent in Euskara.  All this would have meant very little to me had I not recently listened to THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.  I didn't particularly enjoy that book but I did learn a great deal from it.  That knowledge definitely came in useful here and it helped me to appreciate this character and his unique perspective.
• Another character in CoG is Danny Iron Horse, descendant of the Lakota Sioux tribe and also of Swedish immigrants.  Having just finished listening to the amazingness that is BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE and also the highly educational INDIAN CHIEFTAINS AND GREAT HEROES, I understood a great deal about Danny's background and the perspective and prejudices that he brought to the book. The decisions he made near the end of CoG made a stronger impact on me than they had during my previous reading of this book because I now understand more of where he's coming from.  
• This last point isn't meaningful as the previous ones, but ... At one point a characters describes someone else's viewpoint as definitely not Panglossian and having recently read Candide I understood that reference.  Pangloss was a character to looked on the world with unfailing optimism, always believing that things will work out "for the best, in this best of all possible worlds."

I love how things like this come together unexpectedly and allow me to take more from a book than I originally expected to.

My Literary and Pop Culture Connections in The Thirteenth Tale

While listening to/reading THE THIRTEENTH TALE by Diane Setterfield I kept finding connections between her book and other books/movies/etc. I intended to include them in my review but the list got too long so I'm dedicating an entire post to it.

Here are a few things that came to mind (book titles link to my review if I've done one). Enjoy!

• Vida Winter, one of the main characters, says that truth is not comforting and that people much prefer stories (aka lies). This reminded me of LIFE OF PI and how the reader is given a choice of which story to accept as truth.


• She also says that "families are webs" and that it impossible to understand a person without understanding where he/she came from. This reminded me of MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN when the main character says "to understand me you must swallow the world" (or something like that). In both cases the characters are explaining that knowledge of one person alone isn't really knowledge of that person at all.


• On a more superficial note this book is set partially in Cambridge, which was also the setting for THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA which I listened to earlier this month.
  


• The secret twin language and the twin relationship reminded me of the movie NELL starring Jodie Foster. Although thinking about it now, I think their language was different because their mother had a stroke and they imitated her pronunciation. Darn, I guess it doesn't apply after all.
  


• When Margaret questions what happened to a minor character later in life, Vida Winter says "it does not do to get attached to these secondary characters." They come and go because this is not their story, she says. How different that is from the tv show Lost! All the minor characters in that show are important, although it may not seem that way at first. But Margaret clearly *is* attached to those minor characters and she tells us all about them in the final pages of the book.
  


• "Isabelle, in the library, with the violin." The game of CLUE, anyone?
  


• Of course there are also many direct references to literature (the books that Margaret reads, the stories Hannah tells to the twins, the books on Vida Winter's shelves). I didn't make special note of those because they were stated clearly.
  

I know there is nothing profound in this list, but I did enjoy the little "Eureka!" moments I had when I discovered these as I read.

I've heard that this book reminds people of works by Daphne du Maurier but since I've never read any of them I can't say. If you have read THE THIRTEENTH TALE please comment and tell me about some of the additional connections I might have missed.

The more I read, the more connections I find between different books ... have you found the same thing happening to you?

Alex & Me

Alex & Me:
How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered
a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence -
and Formed A Deep Bond in the Process

by Irene Pepperberg
226 pages

*** About the Book ***

This is the true story of Dr. Pepperberg's 31-year research project based on Alex, an African Grey Parrot. Her research showed that this particular bird (and likely many others) can communicate verbally in much the same way that chimps do through sign language. The book is the story of how her research began, stumbling blocks along the way, and the untimely death of Alex at age 31.



*** Why I Read It ***

I first heard about this book from At Home With Books (I recently blamed her for much of my TBR problem ...) and I immediately added it to my TBR list based on my own experience with parrots. I'll tell you more about that below. So when this book went on tour with TLC Book Tours I immediately asked to be included. My copy of the book came shortly thereafter.


*** My Thoughts on the Book ***

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was written in an engaging and personal way that I found very appealing. For much of the book the author writes about her own life and, surprisingly, this is integral to the story of Alex; Dr. Pepperberg's childhood experiences and the obstacles to her career make her work with Alex that much more remarkable.

As you know, I really enjoy finding literary connections in the books I read. This book had two great ones!

• Did you know that Margaret Atwood put Alex in her novel Oryx and Crake? In that book, a character named Jimmie watches a recording of a grey parrot identifying colors and shapes - that was based on video Atwood had seen of Alex.
• Near the end of the book Dr. Pepperberg mentions the movie Out of Africa (and the book it was based on) and uses it to make some comparisons to her relationship with Alex. I love that movie and the book was already on my TBR list.
  

On Twitter @niteswimming asked if I thought this would make a good book club selection. I immediately said that it would. There are questions in the back that aren't so great on their own, but they would be a good place to start a discussion; those questions ask mostly about the reader's own experiences with animals. What I think a book club would really get from this is the chance to discuss the idea of animal-human communication. Is is possible? Why or why not? Once you really dig into this topic it could lead to a discussion of environmentalism and even
religion. Now THAT would make for some great discussion!


*** My Parrot Experiences ***

When I was in high school an acquaintance of my mom's gave her a parrot that he could no longer take care of. In reality, this guy had never really "taken care" of the parrot. It came to us lonely and traumatized from neglect. It was a Conure and should have looked like the image at the right. Unfortunately, due most likely to neglect, the bird had developed a habit of plucking out all the feathers he could reach. He looked more like the bird pictured below, except that THAT bird actually has a tail.

Anyway, this bird obviously had issues. We named it Skipper, but friends often referred to is as Satan. Skipper LOVED my mom. He'd sit on her shoulder, preen her hair, eat seeds from her mouth, (try) to clean her teeth, nuzzle the side of her head, and lay across her chest with his wings spread out. However, if anyone else tried to come near her Skipper (aka Satan) would lunge off her should to bite them as they walked past. And if mom started talking on the phone Skipper would begin to chew the cord and bite at her cheek until she either got off the phone or put him in his cage, at which point he would scream like mad.

Neither my sister nor I liked this bird very much, but we could see that it COULD be a very kind and lovable creature. Ever since then I've known that although I don't want a parrot (or any bird) as a pet, these guys are very smart critters and they deserve the proper care from the start. Reading about Alex only made me realize how much was wrong with poor Skipper.

(In case you're curious, here's the rest of the story. My mom was later given 3 parakeets by another friend. Around that time I found two African Grey parrots in our backyard - in Maryland, where they definitely do not appear naturally. At this point there were 6 birds in a house that never wanted even one to begin with. Things were rapidly getting out of hand. After several years my mom eventually found a reputable bird rescue group and took all our birds there. The woman who took them in had a house full of birds in various states of "plucked". Skipper immediately bonded with another bird and snuggled up next to it on a perch. It made mom cry to see how obviously happy he was. From what I've heard, all the birds adjusted well to their new home.)


*** Your Thoughts ***

Are you a bird person? Why or why not? Are you intrigued by the concept of human-animal communication?

For more opinions on this book check out the following reviews. If you've reviewed it as well please let me know.

• Stuff As Dreams Are Made On was surprised by how much he enjoyed it
• Find Your Next Book Here loved it
• Bibliofreak enjoyed learning about Alex's achievements most of all
  
• your review could be here!
  

The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Tale

by Diane Setterfield
audio book (13 cassettes: 15 hrs, 45 min)

*** The Story ***

Margaret Lea, reclusive daughter of an antique book dealer, is invited to the home of the prolific author Vida Winter. Ms. Winter’s novels are widely read and loved but no one knows anything about her background. Upon arrival, Margaret learns that Ms. Winter is ill and wants to tell her life story to someone before she dies.

The rest of the book alternates between the fascinating story of where Ms. Winter came from and what is going on in the present day as Margaret records her story.


*** What I Liked ***

Oh how I loved this book! The story within a story, the deep love of reading, the strange characters … there is good and evil and everything in between. I’ve seen this referred to as a Gothic novel and I’d have to agree. It just has that *feel* about it, what with a dilapidated old mansion, numerous recluses, and mysterious happenings.

As Nymeth so aptly put it in her review, “It’s no wonder that The Thirteenth Tale is so immensely popular among book bloggers. It truly is a book for book lovers.”

And the narration on the audio book was amazing. There are two narrators, Bianca Amato and Jill Tanner, one for Margaret’s point of view and one for Ms. Winter’s point of view. Between the two of them they conveyed a whole passel of character voices. There was no confusion as to who was speaking at any given time. In fact, their narration really made the book for me.

And I loved the ending. Wait, that’s *not* a spoiler! I’m not talking about the ending of the plot here. What I’m talking about is the way Margaret tells us what happens to all the minor characters at the end of the story. She, like any book lover, always wants to know about the secondary characters in a book; what happened to the maid, the best friend, the old lover, and so on after the story concluded? So she tells us all those things after Ms. Winter’s story concludes. Aah … how I loved that.


*** What I Didn't Like ***

There is just one thing that I didn’t like about this book. And really, this is a very minor thing to gripe about. The rest of the book was so wonderful, creepy and suspenseful and intriguing, that I hate to even bring it up, but I will anyway.

Since this is a spoiler-free review I won’t spell out what it is; those who have read the book should be able to tell what I’m talking about anyway.

There is a part of Margaret’s story that heavily influences who she is. I don’t understand that part. I mean, I understand the facts but I don’t understand why it affects her the way it does. Granted, I have never had that experience but it did seem very foreign to me, almost contrived. For those who know what I’m talking about, did you have the same reaction or does it make complete sense to you?


*** Want More? ***

I have another post coming on Monday about the literary and pop culture connections I found while reading this book – be sure to come back and check it out!

In the meantime you can check out what other bloggers have to say about The Thirteenth Tale:

• Books and Other Thoughts
• Things Mean A Lot
• Valentina’s Room
• Books Lists Life
  

Want your review added to the list? Just post a comment with the link!

BBAW: Looking Ahead

Today's Topic: Future Treasures -We’ve been visiting each other and getting to know each other better…now is your chance to share what you enjoyed about BBAW and also what your blogging goals are for the next year! (Details on the daily topics can be found at the BBAW website.)

I enjoy BBAW every year even though I get complete computer burn-out by Friday.  I love the daily topics and seeing everyone's different takes on them. I haven't had a chance to visit all that many new-to-me blogs this week due to my work schedule, so ...

Goal #1 - check out the Mr. Linky posts on the BBAW blog and visit some new bloggers over the next few weeks

A lot of my time right now is focused on preparing for the two panels I'm moderating at the Baltimore Book Festival.  That leads me to ...

Goal #2 - continue to build connections between local (MD/DC/VA/PA etc.) bloggers via the new database and help bloggers work together to promote literary events in our general area

Once things settle down after the Festival I need to reevaluate the time I spend on the internet.  I need to make time to work on some other projects which means that I will ...

Goal #3 - establish a schedule of blogging time and (attempt to) stick to it - assign myself a certain number of hours during the week, on specific days, and do all my blog writing in that time

And one other thing I'm planning to do in the coming year, simply because I miss the pleasure it brings, is ...

Goal #4 - make re-reading books more of a priority

Those are my immediate and long-term goals as of today.  Do any of your goals match mine?