Book Quotes of the Week

"Reading is pleasure and happiness to be alive or sadness to be alive and above all it's knowledge and questions." Roberto Bolaño

"One of the pleasures of reading old letters is the knowledge that they need no answer." Lord Byron

"The books we read answer questions we didn't even know existed. They make us wiser. They make us better." Axel Marazzi

"Novels aren’t just happy escapes; they are slivers of people’s souls, nailed to the pages, dripping ink from veins of wood pulp. Reading the right one at the right time can make all the difference." Brandon Sanderson

"Seeing someone reading a book you love is seeing a book recommending a person." N.N. 

[If anyone can tell me the originator of this quote, I'd be very thankful and would happily include the name.]

Find more book quotes here.

Austen, Jane "Sense & Sensibility"

Austen, Jane "Sense & Sensibility" - 1811
The Motherhood and Jane Austen Book Club

This was the sixth book I read with this blog and the challenge to read and discuss Jane Austen's novels with a view of the mothers in the stories.

You can see my reviews of "Pride & Prejudice", "Mansfield Park", "Persuasion", "Emma" and "Northanger Abbey" here.

If you have not read this novel, I refer you to my more general review here because this one will contain spoilers.

There are a lot more mothers in this novel than in the last one, the whole book is full of mothers who all contribute a lot to the story. There is a lot of action in this novel, life is not without any challenges for our heroines, the Dashwood sisters and the location is changed several times, from their father's estate Norland Park in Sussex to Barton Cottage in Devonshire and then to London and back to Devon via Cleveland, the estate of the Parkers.

But let's have a look at all the mothers in "Sense & Sensibility".

Mothers:
Mrs. Dashwood, Fanny Dashwood (née Ferrars), Mrs. Ferrars, Mrs. Jennings, Lady Middleton (née Jennings), Charlotte Palmer (née Jennings)
Non-mothers:
Mrs. Smith, aunt to John Willoughby

Mrs. Dashwood
Mrs. Dashwood is the second wife of Mr. Henry Dashwood. His house is entailed so passed on to his son from his first marriage which leaves Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters in the position Mrs. Bennett from Pride & Prejudice is always dreading. However, same as Mrs. Bennett, despite being a totally helpless person herself, she seems to have been able to rise a completely sensible daughter, Elinor, who takes over all the worries and cares for the family.

She does want what's best for her daughters, or at least what she thinks is best for her daughters. She encourages Marianne in her pursuit of John Willoughby rather than following Elinor's advice to be careful.

But she probably was raised just the same, the kind of daughter who is supposed to marry well and then sit back and have others raise her children. That was the only option for women at the time, at least of a certain class.

Fanny Dashwood (née Ferrars)
Oh dear, can anybody be more selfish, manipulative, snobbish? She married John Dashwood only for the money, I am sure. And that's the main reason why she doesn't want a sister of her husband for her brother, because the sisters are penniless. And so, her brothers have to marry for money, as well. It's what people used to do in their circles.

I don't think she is very happy with her husband and I dare say she is not a good mother, either. She will say she loves her kids with all their heart but I am sure she would do just the same to them as her mother did to Edward in case they turn up with a non-desirable partner.

Mrs. Ferrars
Is there any "villain" in any of the Austen novels that is worse than Mrs. Ferrars? Disinherits her own son because he doesn't want to marry someone she chose for him. What kind of a mother is that? Well, nowadays that would be unheard of, at the time, for people with money, it was probably not as unusual but I still can't believe anybody doing that. In the end, she just opens his way to marry someone he really wants. Serves her right.

Mrs. Jennings
I know she is quite a chatterbox and gossips about everyone but you just have to like her, she means well, she loves her daughters, she even loves the Dashwood girls who have nothing to do with her. She takes them under her wings with the design to find them a good husband.

Of course, Marianne dislikes her but she really has a kind heart and is very helpful and supportive.

Lady Middleton (née Jennings)
Her husband, Sir John Middleton, is the Dashwood's relative who gives them Barton Cottage. He seems a very generous and caring person whereas his wife, Mrs. Jenning's daughter, seems to be more the fashion type of wife, the one who just presents her nice clothes to everyone, leaves the education of her children to the nurse and doesn't care at all about others. Again, probably something ladies were raised to do at the time. Still, there are others who show their heart more, including her own mother.

Charlotte Palmer (née Jennings)
Mrs. Jennings' other daughter who seems more talkative than her sister, a little more simple but a lot more kind-hearted. She might not be the smartest of the ladies in this novel but she is more like her mother than her sister, cares more for the Dashwood sisters than her sister, as well, and is one of the few who really wants to know how they are doing. She also cares a lot about her child, more than most of the other ladies in the novel. She seems to be a very good mother, especially if you look at the time and what was expected of people of certain standing.

Mrs. Smith
Mrs. Smith doesn't really appear in the novel but she is talked about quite often and has a huge influence on the whole story. She is Willoughby's aunt, the one he visits when he is in Devon and whose house and wealth he is supposed to inherit. Had she not heard of his mistakes (or had he not made them), he would still be her heir and could have married Marianne. But as it is, she does hear of it and disinherits him. And bravo for that. She stands up for her principles and shows the young man that he can't just do whatever he likes without feeling the consequences. Well, Marianne feels the consequences even more but we all know that that is going to have a happy ending, as well.

From the back cover:
"Compelled to leave Norland in Sussex for Barton Cottage in Devonshire, the two sisters are soon accepted into their new society. Marianne, whose sweet radiance and open nature charm the roguish John Willoughby, is soon deeply in love. Elinor, whose disposition is more cautious and considered, who carefully conceals her emotions, is suffering the loss of Edward Ferrars whom she has left behind.
Despite their very different personalities, both sisters experience great sorrows in their affairs of the heart: Marianne demonstrably wretched and Elinor allowing no one to see her private heartache. It is, however, the qualities common to them both - discernment, constancy and integrity in the face of the fecklessness of others - that allow them entry into a new life of peace and contentment."

I reread this book again in January 2025.

Find a link to all my Jane Austen reviews here.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

Hunter, Stephen "Night of Thunder"

Hunter, Stephen "Night of Thunder: a Bob Lee Swagger novel" - 2008

A friend of mine said some people had mentioned he was like Bob Swagger in this novel and would like mind reading it. I told him I am glad he is my friend and not my enemy. But I did understand why his friends saw him in this and they might be right. I haven't known this friend for very long, but I can see the resemblance.

Bob Swagger is a former soldier/FBI agent, whatever, something like the American James Bond, only married. You don't play with him and certainly not with his family. Because that means war.

I am not a big fan of thrillers because to me they are all the same and there is nothing much to talk about. So, I will just say that it was a nice novel, well written, suspension caused mainly by switching from one side of the story to the other. If you like thrillers, give Stephen Hunter a try.

From the back cover:

"Talk about a ride!

Woe unto he who crosses Bob Lee Swagger, especially when his daughter's life is at stake. Forced off the road and into a crash that leaves her in a coma, clinging to life, reporter Nikki Swagger had begun to peel back the onion of a Southernfried conspiracy bubbling with all the angst, resentment, and dysfunction that Dixie gangsters can muster. An ancient, violent crime clan, a possibly corrupt law enforcement structure, gunmen of all stripes and shapes, and deranged evangelicals rear their ugly heads and will live to rue the day they targeted the wrong man's daughter. It's what you call your big-time bad career move. All of it is set against the backdrop of excitement and insanity that only a weeklong NASCAR event can bring to the backwoods of a town as seemingly sleepy as Bristol, Tennessee.

A master at the top of his game, Hunter provides a host of thrilling new reasons to read as fast as we can. When Swagger picks up peeling where his daughter left off, and his swift sword of justice is let loose, we find a true American hero in his most stunning action to date. And -- in the form of Brother Richard, a self-decreed "Sinnerman" out of the old fire-and-brimstone tradition -- Hunter offers up his most diabolical, engaging villain yet. A triumph of story, character, and style, Night of Thunder is Stephen Hunter at his very best."

Baxter, Charles "The Soul Thief"

Baxter, Charles "The Soul Thief" - 2008

I saw this novel in the library and thought it sounded interesting. Well, the title caught my eye.

The book has an interesting narrative but is slightly weird nonetheless. There is a lot of psychology in it. Nathaniel Mason is a student who is more or less stalked by a guy called Jerome Coolberg. You get a strange feeling reading about his story. All the time, you are waiting for it all to come together but it remains strange until the end.

Charles Baxter is supposed to be a great writer but I'm not sure I will read any more of his novels anytime soon.

From the back cover: 

 

"During Nathaniel Mason’s first few months as a graduate student in upstate New York, he is drawn into a tangle of relationships with people who seem to hover just beyond his grasp. There’s Theresa, alluring but elusive, and Jamie, who is fickle if not wholly unavailable. But Jerome Coolberg is the most mysterious and compelling. Not only cryptic about himself, he seems to have appropriated parts of Nathaniel’s past that Nathaniel cannot remember having told him about. It is Jerome who seems to trigger the events that precipitate Nathaniel’s total breakdown, and Jerome who shows up 30 years later--Nathaniel having finally reconstituted his life--to suggest, with the most staggering consequences, that Nathaniel’s identity may in fact not be his own.

In The Soul Thief, Charles Baxter has given us one of his most beautifully wrought and unexpected works of fiction: at once lyrical and eerie, acutely observant in its sensual and emotional detail and audaciously metaphysical in its underpinnings. It is a brilliant novel--one that is certain to expand both his already-stellar reputation and his readership."

Book Quotes of the Week

"Reading to small children is a speciality." Clifton Fadiman

"With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy." Haruki Murakami

"Books do furnish a room." Anthony Powell

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." Oscar Wilde

"Sorrows that she's but read of in a book weigh on her mind as if they had been her own." W.B. Yeats. 

Find more book quotes here.

Scott, Mary "Strangers for Tea"

 Scott, Mary "Strangers for Tea" - 1975

Another visit to Susan and Larry's farms in New Zealand. In this novel, Susan brings home a hitch hiker and so does Larry. Some new faces in the small community and a lot of young people that make the life in the backblocks more versatile. But one day, people miss money and everyone is afraid that one of their new friends might be a thief. An almost detective story this time but the two friends Susan and Larry solve this problem as well as they have solved any other obstacles thrown their way so far.

As always, a fun and easy read, sometimes very easy but the stories remind me of my youth and I love them.

This is the seventh book in the series by Mary Scott. And this is the list of all of them:
"Breakfast at Six" - 1953
"Dinner Doesn’t Matter" - 1957
"Tea and Biscuits" - 1961
"A Change From Mutton" - 1964
"Turkey at Twelve" - 1968
"Shepherd’s Pie" - 1972
"Strangers for Tea" - 1975
"Board, but no Breakfast" - 1978

Unfortunately, they are out of print and only available second hand. I have heard in the meantime that you can buy some of them as ebooks.

From the back cover (translated): "Te Rimu in the highlands of New Zealand is a peaceful area. Here three comrades have settled as farmers together with their wives: Paul with Susan, Sam with Larry, Tim with Anne. They lead a busy, sociable, yet quiet life. Until one day ...
Until one day, Susan brings a hitchhiker home, a young man with shoulder-length blond hair: David, who is looking for a job. And that's just life, a couple of days later Larry also picks up hitchhiker: Tom, a robust young man who is also looking for work.
The two strangers bring variety to the farmers' leisurely life. They gather other young people and found a youth club, the "gang". Suddenly, money is stolen everywhere, and when it is discovered that Tom has been in prison for car theft, suspicion falls on him. Cheerfulness and good humor have disappeared from the village ..."

Find all my reviews to novels by Mary Scott here.

Pamuk, Orhan "My Father's Suitcase"

Pamuk, Orhan "My Father's Suitcase" (Turkish: Babamın Bavulu) - 2007

The title of this collection refers to the first story in the book, the lecture Orhan Pamuk gave in Stockholm when he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature. I read the German translation ("Der Koffer meines Vaters. Aus dem Leben eines Schriftstellers") that does not only have the addition to the title "From the life of an author" but also has 344 pages as opposed to the English one with only 28 pages. There are a lot more stories in the German one. He has put them together in subcategories titled "Life", "Istanbul", "America", "Reading and Books", "My Books are My Life", "Pictures and Texts", "Politics and Citizenship" and "Paris Review" where he publishes his interview for Paris Review.

The parts of this book are more like articles rather than short stories. I learned a lot about one of my favourite writers. I had the feeling I got closer to Orhan Pamuk, the writer, but also to Orhan Pamuk the private man. He talks to us about Turkey, its history and its contemporary politics, Istanbul, as always, where Orhan Pamuk is, Istanbul is not far. But we can also learn what he thinks about writing and how to be a writer.

A great book, I am happy that it was translated into German. Even if they will never translate all of it into English, try to read at least "My Father's Suitcase", it is a wonderful story.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

Buchbeschreibung:

"'Two years before his death, my father gave me a small suitcase full of his writings, hand writings and notebooks.'

Orhan Pamuk gave a speech called 'My Father’s Suitcase' when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in December 2006. This emotional speech which sincerely conveys the spirit of Pamuk’s thirty two years of writing effort, had a deep, worldwide impact. This book combines 'My Father’s Suitcase' which is a basic text about writing and living with Pamuk’s two other speeches in which the same subjects and problems are discussed from other perspectives. 'The Implied Author', the speech that Pamuk gave when he received the Puterbaugh Prize given by World Literature magazine, in April 2006 is about the psychology of writing and the urge and adventure of being a writer. Pamuk’s other speech, 'In Kars and in Frankfurt' that was given when he received the Peace Prize given by the German Publishers Associations in October 2005 is investigating the power of the writer to put himself in another’s place and the political consequences of this very natural human talent. My Father’s Suitcase consists of three speeches that are seen as a whole by their writer.

It’s a unique, personal book on what writing is, how to become a writer, life and writing, the writer’s patience and the secrets of the art of novel (from the author's website)"

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

You can read more about the books I read by one of my favourite authors here.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.