Summer Reading - The World of Downton Abbey

I know, I know, summer is over and I'm still posting about my summer reading list, but I wanted to let you know what I thought of each of them in case you might be interested in reading them. I especially wanted to write up my review of The World of Downton Abbey (by Jessica Fellowes) as I know there are lots of other Downton Abbey fans out there.

Sources: 1   2  

I really enjoyed this book and the information it provided about the world of Downton Abbey.  It covered life in country homes during the early part of the 20th century and the changes that World War 1 brought about to that lifestyle. There were interesting facts about what daily life was like for the wealthy homeowners and also for the servants. There were details on what one was to wear and when and the rules of etiquette.

Fun fact:  Did you know that married women were served breakfast in bed rather than having to go down to the dining room.  This meant they could relax while eating breakfast and more importantly could avoid having to put on a morning dress which meant one less dress change.

The book also gave interesting tidbits about the filming of Downton Abbey.  There are details about how they built the kitchen and servant's level (it wasn't filmed on location), and how the costumes were designed and sourced.

Fun fact:  Did you know that the costumes for Downton Abbey came almost equally from three sources - some were created for the show, some were vintage items, and some were rented (and sometimes had been used in other movies or TV shows).

Some of the information in the book comes from intimate knowledge of the TV series and life in a country home gained by the author Jessica Fellowes as she is Julian Fellowes's neice.  Not only does Julian Fellowes have the inside scoop on Downton Abbey being the creator, executive producer, and writer of some of the episodes, but he also grew up in country homes so has first hand experience of what life is like there.

The book is full of beautiful photos of country houses and scenes from Downton Abbey.  For me personally it was all about the dresses (check out the details in the gowns in the photo below. Gorgeous, right?)  It is hard to ogle the dresses while watching the TV show as they go by too quickly and there is far too much drama happening to also take in fashion so it was wonderful to have great big glossy photos to pour over.  

The World of Downton Abbey is a definite must-read if you are a fan of the TV series.

This is the last book in my summer reading list (Yay me! I read all six books I had planned on reading).  In case you missed the others, they are:

• The Help
• The Garlic Ballads
• The Great Gatsby
• Walden
• The Snow Leopard

What have you been reading lately?  

p.s.  Want to go on a virtual tour of the Downton Abbey house? Click here to have a look.

Linked to Literary Friday at Art @ Home

Summer Reading: The Snow Leopard

The Snow Leopard is a book about how the author Peter Matthiessen does not see a snow leopard. Yep, you read that right. His traveling companion, zoologist George Schaller, was luckier and did see one near the end of their stay in a remote region of Western Nepal. 

The purpose of their expedition was to study the rare Himalayan blue sheep or more specifically the mating habits of the blue sheep (and they are a little kinky if you ask me) in order to determine if the blue sheep are more closely related to sheep or goats (spoiler alert: they are closer to goats). 

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The book is predominantly a travel diary, but a travel diary of the highest calibre since this is a remote and fascinating part of the world and Mattiessen is no ordinary story-teller. He has a wonderful ability to capture the essence of the changing rugged landscape, the animals and birds, the local people he meets, the villages he travels through, and life as it unfolds. Matthiessen has a great way with words and really makes the trip come to life.  

While The Snow Leopard is largely a travel diary, it is also about Matthiessen himself. The trek for Mattiessen is not only to accompany his friend Schaller in studying the blue sheep, but also is a time for him to ponder the recent death of his wife and reflect on their years together and a spiritual quest for him to gain knowledge about Buddhism. The Buddhism sections were complicated and detailed and dealt with many ideas and names I didn't know anything about. Even without being able to absorb the details from these pages, I still found the book an excellent read.

Matthiesen is a tough fellow for taking part in such an adventure. Thankfully, although the trek is long and difficult and dangerous, Matthiessen isn't a whiner. He was only eight years younger than I am now when he did the trek and it was done under very difficult conditions (there was a prolonged monsoon season that year as well as early snows and he had hiking boots didn't fit well and a tent that leaked).  

I doubt I will ever get to such a remote area of the world, but I sure enjoyed reading about it. The Snow Leopard book was written back in 1978 and likely much has changed since then. George Schaller recommended the area become a National Park to protect the wildlife and that indeed has happened. 

Do you like reading travel books?  Personally, I love them so I was pretty sure I would enjoy The Snow Leopard.  It is a classic travel expedition book and one that I would definitely recommend if you like the genre.

Summer Reading - Walden

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Dear Mr. Thoreau,

I recently read your book Walden and wanted to thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Did you know that you would inspire millions of readers to want to re-create your experiment and build their own cabins to live in? There is just something so appealing about the simplicity of your life on Walden Pond.

Your cabin is perfect. I love the the small, but workable size; the windows on both sides to let light in all day long; the wood shingles covering the outside; and the pretty fireplace at the end. I must commend your great eye for purity of design.

I was looking over your furniture list (in your chapter on Economy) and may I be so bold as to make a few suggestions.  The three chairs would indicate that you could easily and happily entertain two guests, but you only have one cup and two forks and knives.  You need to have a set of three of all your dishes and cutlery. I know you don't drink tea or coffee, but do your guests not want at least some water or cider? You did mention that you rarely feed your guests or give them something to drink, but it just seems the hospitable thing to do especially since your guests will have walked at least a mile to visit you. I would urge you to be more generous in this regard.

You mention the solitude you experienced in your cabin, but I hate to break it to you that being one mile from town is not really that remote. Let's be honest a mile is a nice saunter, a daily constitutional, not a long bush-whacking hike into the deepest darkest forest. Also the fact that you are able to have your mother do your laundry and you could join your friends for dinner just points out how not remote you really were. And between you and me, I think you should do your own laundry. It's really not that hard.

Your chapter on clothing really got me thinking.  You mentioned that you like to wear comfortable, worn, drab clay coloured clothing and even things that are patched.  It seems that this is more something a man would write than a woman (or at least this woman).  True, in the woods having old, comfortable clothes feels just right so you don't worry about getting your outfit dirty or ruined in any way.  However, as soon as I have to mingle with other people in an urban setting then I no longer feel comfortable wearing old and worn clothing. In order to not feel self-conscious about my appearance and thus relax and enjoy interacting with other people I need to be wearing something that is comfortable, flattering, and classically stylish. I think it is a mark of maturity to know what to wear in different situations so your clothing suits the occasion. 

While I thoroughly (see what I did there - I crack myself up) enjoyed reading your book, I do think you go on about things too much.  Take the first eleven pages - I had to skip read them as they were just too dull. I totally agree that simplicity in living is a good thing and reading to educate yourself throughout your life is a worthwhile endeavor yadda yadda yadda, but do you need pages to tell us about it? I think you should practice writing a little more succinctly. Maybe more of your time at the cabin could have been spent editing your written work. I hope I didn't offend you with that. I'm just being honest and you seem the type to appreciate that.

While I had to skip read the parts where you rant about things, I loved your descriptions of life on the pond, building the cabin, and observations about the seasons. In fact, I think you should expand these sections of the book. To help you out I made a list of some topics you might consider including in the book. What about discussing how you spent your days at different times of the year (you did mention during bean-growing time and a summer morning, but what about during the winter).  Also more details on what you ate would have been really interesting. I was fascinated about your rye and Indian corn bread and would have loved more details on how you made it. I also enjoyed reading your description of winter on the pond with your observations about ice and your notes about the first signs of spring. I bet you didn't realize how important those records would be to scientists years later studying climate change. Good for you for being so thorough (hardy har har). I would love you to include chapters on your observations of life at Walden Pond during summer and autumn too. I bet the pond is beautiful in the fall.

I hope my suggestions are helpful. I did find the book inspiring and have been dreaming of how I would make a cabin in the woods for my husband and myself. Since there are two of us, our cabin has to be a little larger so I'm working on refining your ideas and possibly adding a sleeping loft. I'll let you know when I have pulled my ideas together.

Yours truly,


Linked to Literary Friday at Art @ Home

Summer Reading - The Great Gatsby

I recently read The Great Gatsby (by F. Scott Fitzgerald).  I feel like I have joined the ranks of the well-read now having completed one of the great American novels.

I'm glad I read the novel, but I can't say I loved it. Watching the Crash Courses (that I have posted links to at the end of the post) actually helped me understand and appreciate The Great Gatsby a lot more.  

I thought F. Scott Fitzgerald was wonderful at describing the setting of the novel - everything from the parties at the mansions on Long Island, to the desolate smoke and dirt in the valley of ashes, to the smoldering heat of summer in Manhattan.  By the way, I have always wondered what New York City was like before air conditioning during a heat wave and now I know - yikes!

I enjoyed reading all the details about the Jazz era - everything from the houses, and parties, to the cars, and the details of life back then. The 1920s were a glamorous age and it was fun to picture what everything would have looked like.  

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I did a collage of some of the things I imagined while I was reading the novel, like I did for the previous two books I reviewed (here and here).

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

If you really want to understand the Great Gatsby and its significance you should watch the Crash Courses that I have linked to below.  It helps you understand:

• how The Great Gatsby is a novel about the American dream 
• the importance of the colours gold, yellow, and green in the novel
• how the characters are obsessed with changing time in the novel

Have you read The Great Gatsby?  Did you like it?  The characters are interesting, but not very likable which can be a problem in liking the novel.

 

Summer Reading - The Garlic Ballads

I finished reading The Garlic Ballads (by Mo Yan) a few days ago and I'm here to tell you not to read it. It may have won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012, but it was such a bleak and depressing and yes, brutal, view of China that I didn't like it. 

When I first started reading the book I thought it must be set back in some ancient dynasty as life was very primitive with most of the farming being done by hand and the peasants being terrorized by the people in authority.  I was surprised to find out that the book was set in 1987.  The Garlic Ballads is based on a true story about an uprising by the farmers in Gaomi Township in Northeast China.  Although the government encouraged the farmers to plant garlic there ended up being a glut on the market resulting in the government not buying the garlic and the farmers rioting.

Although The Garlic Ballads was well written and the story was interesting, it was just too brutal. Is China really that brutal?  I have no idea, but I can't imagine there isn't kindness and love within families or between neighbours. I wasn't surprised that the officials and the police and the jail wardens were aggressive and brutal, but the villagers and family were fighting and mean to each other as well.  

Like I mentioned in my review of The Help, the book needs to have hope for it to be enjoyable for me.  I read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and I felt the same way I did about The Garlic Ballads.  I ended both books upset that they were just endless retelling of lives full of misery.  

So, while I can't recommend that you read this book, I did find it interesting to read about the homes in Northeast China.  I did some hunting on the internet and have become a recent expert in kang beds.  I've pulled together some visuals to illustrate what I think some of the images (the more pleasant ones anyway) from The Garlic Ballads looked like:

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

So what do you think? Can you read difficult books, books that are depressing or brutal?  Or do you need a little hope and kindness in the lives of the main characters in the stories you read?

Linked to Literary Friday at Art @ Home

Summer Reading - The Help

I just finished reading The Help (by Kathryn Stockett).  I know, I know, I'm pretty much the last person to read the book, but better late than never.  I really enjoyed it and kept drifting over to read parts of it during the day.  I kept wondering what was going to happen next and found myself thinking about it as I went about my day. I haven't been hooked by a book, like I was with this one, in a long time.  

I love a story that attempts to accurately portray a specific time period like The Help did. I like to learn something about another time and place and what life was like for people living then. I especially liked that even though this was a difficult time for the black maids, they were not left without hope that things would improve for them at the end of the story. I'm sentimental enough to need to have some positive outcomes at the end of a story or I'm left feeling upset and sad.

One of the things I liked about The Help was that it was set in Mississippi. I have always been intrigued by life in the Southern US - it seems so different to life here in Canada. We aren't raised to say "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" and have impeccable manners and we don't cook black-eyed peas on New Year's Day and have magnolia trees and cotton farms and ... I could go on and on.  Not only was the location intriguing, but I have always loved the fashion from the early 1960s so I spent the book imagining what they were wearing and how the cars and houses looked. It will be interesting to see how someone else portrays it in the movie.  

I've actually finished three books so far this summer and they couldn't be more different from each other. I thought it would be fun to find some photos to capture what I was imagining for each of the books. Although two of the three books have recently been made into movies, I haven't seen the movies yet so these are just the inner workings of my mind (scary, I know).  

So here are some of the images that struck me as I read The Help:

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10    

I'd give The Help a 9/10 and a must-read recommendation.  My only complaint was not finding out about Cecilia Foote's back story - I kept thinking it was going to be significant and maybe even had to do with Constantine's departure (if you get my meaning without revealing anything in case you haven't read the book).

Now I need to get my hands on the movie so I can see how the book has been interpreted. Have you read the book or seen the movie? What did you think? 

P.S.  For an interesting article about filming the movie and the set designs read here.

Linked to Literary Friday at Art @ Home

Summer Reading List

Schools almost finished which means just a few more weeks until summer holidays.  I love summer.  I love going to the cottage and relaxing, going for walks, swimming, having the time to get some things done, and reading books.  Yes, it's true - the summer is one of the few times I read anything apart from blogs.  Sad, I know.  

When I have a good book it is hard for me to put it down so I have to save reading for times when I can devote myself wholeheartedly to the task. I've had times when a book is so compelling that I look up hours after I started reading to realize that my head aches, I'm starving, I need to use the toilet, and I have a crick in my neck.  Ah, yes.  You know it is a good book when that happens.  I look forward to it every year.

It's a given that the best place to read is at the cottage with all the quiet and lack of distractions, but did you know that there is optimum reading weather.  Yep, it's true. The best reading of all happens when there is a long slow rain and you bundle up in a blanket and sit on the screened porch with a cup of tea (or a beer if you are my husband) and lose yourself in your book.

You can almost smell the dampness when you look at those pine needles below.  Perfect reading conditions!

So this summer I have six books I am looking forward to reading.  Here they are and the amazingly deep and thoughtful reasons I want to read each one:

1.  The World of Downton Abbey - because I love Downton Abbey and I love the guy who just bought this book for me (thanks thoughtful husband)

2. The Great Gatsby - because my youngest son has been urging me to read this book all year and I somehow missed reading this one when I was in high school and maybe, just maybe, I'll go and see the movie too.  

3.  Walden - again my youngest son has put this one on my list.  I love books about simple living so I'm not sure how I missed reading this one all my life.  I also want to read about a man who thinks he is living in a secluded cabin when in reality he is not even two miles from town (cracks me up every time).

4.  Crossing to Safety - Jonathan always gives me a few books at Christmas to read when I have time over the year and this was one of the ones I got last year.  I actually started it over the Christmas holidays, but haven't finished it yet.  I'm looking forward to reading it all.

5.  The Garlic Ballads - because I got this one for Christmas too and it looks interesting and I'm a sucker for books that have won prizes.

6.  The Help - because I keep hearing good things about it and I got it free from someone at work (I told you these were deep and thoughtful reasons).

What's on your summer reading list?  Need some inspirations?  Then join us over at Ricki Jill's blog, Art@Home, where we will be sharing our summer reading lists on Friday, June 7th.

p.s. Anyone understand dust jackets on hardcover books?  I usually take them off to expose the gorgeous spines and covers of the book underneath - much prefer the linen cover with beautiful lettering to the glossy photos on the dust jacket.  Maybe I'm missing something.