The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Title: The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Author: Alex E. Harrow

Pages: 371

Finished: September 24, 2020

First Sentence: When I was seven, I found a door.

Summary: January Scaller, Ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke struggles to feel at place in his house of curiosities. In fact, she feels closer to a specimen rather than a human being. And though she struggles to be a good girl, she can't quite shake the memory of stepping through a door into another world when she was seven. And then she discovers a book. A book about doors, other worlds, and the people you find there.

Thoughts: While writing up my review of Piranesi, this book arrived at the library for me. This and Piranesi could be cousins. The plot is similar, the conceit of other worlds is similar though this one involves doors and many worlds and centers around a coming of age story as well as a love story. 

Harrow uses a double narrative. A book within a book. I found both stories so compelling that I just kept reading until it was suddenly midnight, the book was over, and I was crying as I came down from the reading high.

January is a little frustrating at times. At times seemingly helpless and overly whiny, though one understands as the story continues and discovers just how much she was gaslit in her upbringing. The book takes a bit of time to get going. We get a lot of backstory as January catches us up to the current moment. But once she finds The Ten Thousand Doors, things pick up. 

One of the things I'm discovering about myself is that I like books where things come out all right in the end. Even as the tale gets more heated and things look as though they'll never come through, if I know things will be OK, I'm pretty willing to keep going. All that to say, it's easy to infer everything will be all right as the story is written as though January were writing a history of events. 

This is a compelling though somewhat complex tale with a lush writing style.

Read-alikes - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, 

This covers a couple of challenges, though I'm not really following or entering anything into the forms anymore.

Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier

Title: Heart's Blood

Author: Juliet Marillier

Pages: 402

Finished: June 3, 2020

First Sentence: At the place where two tracks met, the carter brought his horse to a sudden halt.

Summary: After her father's death, Caitrin flees from an abusive homelife. She finds herself a position as a scribe at Whilstling Tor. A place full of mystery, Caitrin is set to transcribe the writings of the Lord Anulan's ancestors. Amidst her work, she finds out information about the strange ghosts who seem to haunt the Tor, the curse that surrounds the place, and how it all came into being even as Norman invaders threaten to take control of the area.

Thoughts: A vague retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This was a great book to start reading again. It was fairly quick to read with a subject matter I find fairly interesting. I've liked Marillier's other retellings that I've read. 

In general, I enjoyed this, though I found the writing somewhat weaker from some of her other novels I've read. I discovered the adversary early on in the book. I don't know if it was supposed to be obvious as it was. Some of the characters felt a little too much like they were filling a specific part. And I'll admit, the climax was... anticlimactic. But for an easy read that kept me interested, I definitely recommend it. 

A Room With a View by E. M. Forster

Title: A Room With a View

Author: E. M. Forster

Pages: 196

Finished: April 14, 2020

First Sentence: "The Signora had no business to do it," said Miss Bartlett, "no business at all."

Summary: Lucy and her cousin Charlotte visit Italy where they meet all manner of characters. Namely a rector named Mr. Beebe who they both know previously and who will be taking up the position at Lucy's hometown, a novelist named Miss Lavish who apparently writes terrible novels, and the Emersons, a father and son who society doesn't entirely find appropriate. Oh boy was that a run-on sentence. Anyway, while on an excursion, Lucy and George kiss and Lucy must hastily leave Florence to avoid scandal.

The second half of the book takes place back in her place at Windy Corner where she has just accepted the hand of Cecil Vyse in marriage. However, through all sorts of machinations, the Emersons end up there as well and Lucy finds herself torn between doing what is socially acceptable and following her heart.

Thoughts: For such a slim volume, this book took quite a bit of time to sort through. The main issue I had with it was, while I felt I understood the surface plot just fine, I felt I was constantly missing subtext clues. Not reading closely enough. It felt like the book was trying to say much more than I was picking up. Some of the social commentary I did understand quite nicely, but there was plenty more that just felt like, I knew Forster was making a point, but I didn't know what that point was.

Now, to be fair, this is my first ever Forster, and I'm fairly unfamiliar with Edwardian times. Also, I'm reading this in a really weird time in the life of our planet much less my own. I'm sure I could go look up notes and the like, but at 38 weeks pregnant in the middle of a pandemic... I have to admit I'm disinterested in doing that much work.

It's also important to note that my first experience with this story was watching the 1985 movie with Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy. And I seem to remember feeling much the same way, that the plot was fairly simplistic but there was much more going on that I was aware of.

Read for basically all my challenges. Let's see where it fits in...
- Beat the Backlist
- Virtual Mount To Be Read
- Classics Club List
- Reading Classic Books New To Me Author
- Back To the Classics - 20th Century Novel

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Starless Sea

Author: Erin Morgenstern

Pages: 491

Finished: March 29, 2020

First Sentence: There is a pirate in the basement.

Summary: Zachary Ezra Rawlins finds a lost book in his University Library. It's an interesting enough read, so he takes it home, only to find himself in existential crisis when one of the stories ends up being about him. How can that be? He begins to research the book and finds himself on a journey to the Starless Sea weaving in and out of stories, myths, and Time.

Thoughts: I recall reading The Night Circus while pumping in the supply closet at work 4 years ago. It had been a surreal time. The birth had been traumatic due to some serious complications. Maternity Leave was three months of unpaid time at home in the middle of summer. And then I was back at work hoping to pump out enough milk to feed my baby when I was at work. The Night Circus really fit in with the surreal feelings through all of this.

It seems fitting that I read The Starless Sea a month before my second child is born while sheltered at home during a worldwide pandemic. It's another incredibly surreal experience that I don't know how to explain. And the book was just the type of book to fit with it.

This is a book where you really have to just let it take you and trust you'll get where you're going. You think you know what's happening... but you're wrong.

This is a book about stories. About books, and libraries. About fantastical worlds and beginnings and endings. Of myths and tropes. Of language.

This book stole my breath away. It's rare for me to get in a post-book hangover, but this was one of those times. I spent my entire afternoon in a bit of a funk after finishing it.

I wish I could write more coherently about it. Perhaps I'll be able to later. But mostly, this is a book that I know will have to be read again (as will the Night Circus) and digested.

Counts for challenges Beat the Backlist, Virtual Mount to be Read, and Library Love

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Title: Northanger Abbey

Author: Jane Austen

Pages: 241

Finished: March 9, 2020

First Sentence: No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.

Summary: Young Catherine Morland gets a chance to travel to Bath with her neighbors the Allens. There she meets all sorts of people including the greedy, false Thorpes as well as the good, gentile Tilneys. Due to a misunderstanding, General Tilney invites Catherine to visit them in Northanger Abbey where Catherine mistakes everything for one of her beloved Gothic Novels.

Thoughts: I really enjoy this novel. I know it's considered one of Austen's weakest, likely due to it being her first full written novel, but that doesn't make me like it any less. The tone of the story is incredibly light and sarcastic which is really fun.

Of course, her characters are all a little heavy handed, yet somehow they still feel quite real. I feel like every woman knows a man like John Thorpe who refuses to listen to what a lady says as he practices his designs on her, inflates her worth, and generally makes her life miserable. Still too, many women know the Isabella Thorpes who say one thing as they mean another.

I also appreciate that Catherine is one of the few heroines who really acts her age. She's 17/18 in the novel and absolutely reads as an impetuous 18 year old. She's very naive and completely taken in by those who show her early friendliness. She finds things in novels that she conflates in real life - things I KNOW I did as a child and teen. And her immediate crush on Mr. Tilney is super believable.

Mr. Tilney himself is an interesting hero. I'll admit, I feel the reason I like him so much is due to J. J. Field's portrayal of him in the 2007 film adaptation. Still, he's kid and attentive. I like the aspect of him being more flattered of her attentions which then turn into a real regard.

Definitely a fan and this still ranks high in my esteem.

Northanger Abbey Counts for the following challenges: Beat the Backlist, Virtual Mount To Be Read, Austen Challenge, and Back to the Classics (Classic with a Place in the Title.)

The Guernsey Literary and potato Peel Pie Society

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Author: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Pages: 274

Finished: February 22, 2020

First Sentence: Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder.

Summary: While on tour for her Izzy Bickerstaff essays, Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a man named Dawsey Adams. Dawsy, a resident of the Channel Island of Guernsey, mentions how reading saved him and many of his friends during the Nazi Occupation during World War II. This spawns a rampant curiosity in Juliet who finds herself not only corresponding with the residents of Guernsey, but also traveling there to write a book.

Thoughts: Full confession, this book has been on my radar since it came out, but my first actual experience with the story was through the adaptation on Netflix. I remember the title and the cover catching my eye when I was a shelver, but for some reason, the story never caught my attention enough to convince me to check it out. So I have seen the movie now three or four times and felt it time to read the book. Thus, many of my reactions to the novel are in relation to how I compare it to the movie.

I was surprised to find it's an epistolary novel. The epistolary nature of the novel made it a fairly quick read. The only reason it took me so long to get through it is due to the general plague that has entered our household. 2020 starting out with a bang.

In general, I really appreciated this book. It was simple enough that I didn't feel I was analyzing. Having seen the movie already, it was a familiar story, though with the many understandable differences that come with a book vs. movie adaptation. Even though there was discussion about the WWII atrocities, most of the book was about the recovery which made it less horrific to read. And there was the general reverence for reading that was just lovely.

Though the movie version changed some of the characters around a bit and obviously took quite a few of them out, I found myself unbothered by the differences. A book is a book, and a movie is a movie. Movies tend to need more conflict than books do.

Really I just liked Guernsey. I loved that Juliet never felt the need to leave it in the book. I also liked how quickly she kicked Mark to the curb in the book too, though to be fair, his character was fairly different in the book vs. the movie.

I think the authors really touched on the humanity of war. That just because two countries are at war with each other doesn't mean that all humans on "the other side" are necessarily evil. That there's a lot of grey area. And that people are much more resilient than we like to give ourselves credit for.

In general, I really appreciated that Juliet got to know many of the Club members through letters before she met them. I felt that was fairly impetuous of her in the movie and am glad it didn't come across that way in the book. I appreciated all the stories about Elizabeth. What a remarkable character who we never meet in person! I absolutely will be adding Charles Lamb to my list of authors to read. This was a fun, diverting story through the last two weeks.

Counts for Beat the Backlist, Library Love, and Virtual Mount to be Read challenges.

Trader by Charles de Lint

Title: Trader

Author: Charles DeLint

Pages: 352

Finished: February 8, 2020

First Sentence: If dreams can be portents of what is to come, then I had my fair share of forewarning before my life was stolen away.

Summary: Max Trader, a luthier drifting through life, wakes one morning to find himself in the body of Johnny Devlin, a toxic, selfish man whose life is ruined. Suddenly, Max, in Jonny's body, finds himself having to deal with homelessness, people who hate him, and a whole host of other problems while trying to get his body back.

Thoughts: This one is really interesting. First, the story is told in many different points of view. Max's, then all the other people who surround his life. However, Max is the only one whose narration is in first person. Everyone else is in third person. It changes the way one sees the characters. Also, we never get Devlin's point of view.

Familiar characters come in and out. Jilly plays a side role. I feel like we've either met Bones or his partner Cassie before. Sophie's mentioned, though we don't see her. Geordie is of course busking. I even recognize Fitzhenry Park. I'd say this has been my favorite part of this project so far. I enjoy revisiting Newford. I enjoy seeing how it ages from the 80s to the mid 90s. I love the people who keep popping up.

As for this book, it was a very compelling story. I like how de Lint doesn't shy away from things not coming out perfect. The fantasy feels significantly more real. More possible. but even so, I still enjoy reading it. It's not as frustrating to read as realistic fiction is. The characters felt believable even if they frustrated me at times due to how realistic they are. All in all, happy to read this in my de Lint line up.

This book counts for the following challenges: Beat the Backlist, Virtual Mount To Be Read, Personal Newford Challenge, and Library Love. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Author: Oscar Wilde

Pages: 239

Finished: January 22, 2020

First Sentence: The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.

Summary: Basil Haliward paints a beautiful portrait of his new friend Dorian Gray. He also, reluctantly, introduces Dorian Gray to his friend Lord Henry. Upon conversing with Lord Henry, Dorian finds himself not exactly thrilled with the idea of growing up and wishes his soul into the picture. Oddly enough, it happens. Dorian stays young and looks pure forever while his portrait takes on all his sins and aging.

Thoughts: This was not what I thought it was. Not that I can even define what I thought the book was about, but this wasn't quite it. I think I've perhaps been influenced by how he exists in various pop culture.

Also, I'm realizing that if things in my life aren't going well, it bleeds over into what I'm reading. Two days after I started this book, my dog unexpectedly died and the book became the biggest slogfest. Perhaps I should have put it down, but I wanted to finish it for my spin.

So what is it that I objected to?

I think it was the slowness of the book. I knew it had something to do about a painting and that Dorian Gray didn't age but his painting did. I knew there were supposedly some homosexual overtones in it. I knew there was a painter named Basil who was fairly innocent, and who died (primarily because someone played him in an RPG I was in. I played Martha Jones from Doctor Who. She and Basil were good friends and used to drink tea together.) And that's all I knew. I had some vague inkling that he cheated death and kept his painting hidden.

But the amount of time it took for him to discover that the painting held his soul was tedious. Only to be followed by an even more tedious chapter going into great detail of how he spent eighteen years of his life in debauchery. I felt sorry for him in the beginning dealing with Lord Henry and his snake tongue. But the long decent was just... long.

I also had a really difficult time reading pages and pages of misogyny from Lord Henry. What an odious man!

I think my biggest issue with the book is that I don't tend to enjoy books about people's descent into evil. And I didn't have any idea that that was what this book was about. So I was expecting a vaguely fantasy/scifi book where Dorian Gray's soul is in this painting, and instead I watched a man thoroughly corrupt someone else. It wasn't what I signed up for, and it certainly wasn't what I shoudl have been reading just after losing my dog.

I suspect I'll be returning to this book in ten years or so. I feel like it deserves another chance. It's a book I was so excited to read. I was honestly shocked at how incredibly disappointed I was in it.

Book counts for lots of challenges:

Beat the Backlist
Virtual Mount To Be Read
Library Love
Reading Classic Books LGBT+ category (Oscar Wilde may have been gay? Half the research I find says yes, the other half says no. He did have male lovers.)
Back to the Classics: Person's Name in Title (Dorian Gray)
Classics Club AND Current Spin

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Title: Uprooted

Author: Naomi Novik

Pages: 438

Finished: January 5, 2020

First Sentence: Our Dragon doesn't eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley.

Summary: Agnieszka has always known her friend Kasia was going to be taken by the Dragon when they were of age. Everyone knows it. The Dragon protects the Valley from the dangers of the Wood, and in exchange, he takes one girl every 10 years. But when the time of choosing comes, Agnieszka is the one chosen. And upon entering the Dragon's tower, she finds out there's more at stake than just her Valley against the Wood. Her country is in danger, and only she and the Dragon seem able to do anything about it.

Thoughts: I read an ARC of Novik's Spindle's End a few years ago. I quite enjoyed it and made a mental note to come back to her work. This specific title kept popping up on various lists and hung out in the back of my mind for well over a year. I'm so glad I decided to start my year with this novel.

The story has shown up on many Beauty and the Beast retelling lists. And sure, one could call it that. But merely labeling it as a BatB retelling almost weakens the book. Because there's so much more to it. There's the story of the Wood and how it's intertwined into Polnya. There's corruption. And there's a mystery as to where the Wood even came from. How it started. Why it's so malevolent in the first place.

This is the type of fantasy I live for. The world building is balanced with the characterization. Polnya seems to be the fantasy version of Poland. And it's so rich. The fantasy creatures are creepy and real. The magic is stunning. And the characters have strong personalities. They grow. They learn. The story picks the reader up and sweeps them away. At least it did for me.

I enjoyed this one the way I enjoyed Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy. I definitely mean to come back to it in a few years time to digest some more.

This book counts for Beat the Backlist, Virtual Mount To Be Read, and Library Love challenges. 

2020 Goals/Challenges

I thought long and hard before committing to any challenges this year. The reason for that is that I'm pregnant with my second child! It's due in May. But with that being said, I have no idea just how things are going to go between time and brain power. I considered not joining any and just being directionless, but then decided I probably wouldn't end up reading at all if I did that. So I've signed up for a few and decided to continue my others. However, I'm not going to feel bad if pregnancy/new mom brain takes me completely off track. As long as I'm reading, I consider that a win.

1. Beat the Backlist / Virtual Mount To Be Read
   Last year, I participated in the TBR challenge from Roofbeam Reader. I did poorly in it, and it's not coming back this year. So I've found some others. Both Beat the Backlist and Virtual Mount To Be Read seem like they'll fit the bill. If you scroll down, you'll see twelve books I'm going to use to start, BUT books listed in the other challenges will count as they've been part of my Backlist / Mount To Be Read. However, the other challenges are a little more specific in their rules. For Beat the Backlist, I'm on Team Borrowers. For Virtual Mount TBR I'm starting at the Mount Crumpit level which is 24 books.

2. Read "half the books" remaining on my Classics Club list

    Half is in quotes because a number of the books on my list are SUPER long. So I added together the page lengths of the books and divided it in half. In 2020, I hope to read approximately 3000 pages from my list which comes out to either three chunky books or basically all the other ones. Hopefully I can fit these into some Back to the Classics Categories as well.

3. Complete my Newford Collection Challenge
    This feels doable. I enjoy reading De Lint so I don't think this will be too difficult at all. Of course, since this is lower down on my priority list, and there are a lot of books to read, there's a fair chance that I won't get through this one. But that's okay.

4. Complete my Austen Challenge

    Last year I decided to read all of Austen's writings including novels, novellas, unfinished works, and juvenilia. Midway through the year, I added a modern book that someone had written a favorable review for. And then I dropped this challenge to low priority. It's low priority this year too, but I would like to finish it if possible.

5. Reading Classic Books
    It seemed as though Back to the Classics was not coming back this year, so I searched and found a similar challenge that I signed up for called Reading Classic Books. While I have gone ahead and fit some books I plan on reading this year into the categories, this is by no means a final list.

6. Library Love Challenge - January
    Natural challenge for me to join as 99% of the books I read come from the library. In fact, looking at the books listed below, at least 40 of them will be checked out from the library.

7. Back to the Classics
    Looks like it did come back. Categories listed below. My aim is to fit six of my books this year into the categories. I have an idea of what will go where... but of course, that depends on what I actually read! Books listed are completely subject to change.

Beat the Backlist / Virtual Mount To Be Read:

1. Nights At the Circus - Angela Carter 
2. Endless Night by Agatha Christie 
3. Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow 
4. The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang
5. Water for Elephants - Sarah Gruen
6. Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman
7. The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey 
8. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
9. Heart's Blood by Juliet Marilier
10. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
11. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley
12. The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer

Remaining Books on Classics Club List:

1. Atwood, Margaret - The Handmaid's Tale
2. Austen, Jane - Sanditon and Other Tales
3. Barrie, J.M. - Peter Pan
4. Byatt, A.S. - Possession
5. Cervantes, Miguel de - Don Quixote
6. Dickens, Charles - Martin Chuzzlewit
7. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan - A Study in Scarlet
8. Forster, E.M. - A Room with a View
9. Shakespeare, William - Twelfth Night 
10. Shakespeare, William - A Winter's Tale (folger shakespeare library ILL)
11. Steinbeck, John - East of Eden
12. Thackeray, William Makepeace - Vanity Fair
13. Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina
14. Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Grey

Remaining Books in Newford Collection:

1. Trader (novel)
2. Someplace to Be Flying (novel)
3. Moonlight and Vines (collection)
4. Forests of the Heart (novel)
5. The Onion Girl (novel)
6. Tapping the Dream Tree (collection)
7. Spirits in the Wires (novel)
8. Medicine Road (novella)
9. The Blue Girl (YA)
10. Widdershins (novel)
11. Make a Joyful Noise (YA) (available in Crow Girls)
12. The Cats of Tanglewood Forest
13. The Hour Before Dawn (IN Muse and Reverie)
14. Old Man Crow (In The Very Best of Charles de Lint)
15. Little Grrl Lost (Find somewhere (buy?))
16. Promises to Keep
17. Dingo
18. Muse and Reverie (collection)

Austen Challenge

1. Northanger Abbey
2. Persuasion
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Letters to Pemberley
5. Sanditon and other Stories

Reading Classic Books

1. Over 500 pages - Anna Karenina
2. POC author or main character ???
3. Set in country other than where I live - Peter Pan OR A Study in Scarlet
4. Translation - Don Quixote
5. New to you author - A Room With a View
6. Poetry ???
7. 1800-1860 - Persuasion
8. LGBT author or main character: Picture of Dorian Gray
9. Woman Author - Pride and Prejudice
10. Novella - Lady Susan
11. Nonfiction ???
12. Banned or censored: Twelfth Night

Back to the Classics

1. 19th Century Classic. - Martin Chuzzlewit
2. 20th Century Classic. - A Room With a View
3. Classic by a Woman Author. - Pride and Prejudice
4. Classic in Translation. - Don Quixote
5. Classic by a Person of Color. ???
6. A Genre Classic. - Peter Pan OR A Study in Scarlet
7. Classic with a Person's Name in the Title. - Picture of Dorian Gray
8. Classic with a Place in the Title. - Northanger Abbey
9. Classic with Nature in the Title. - A Winter's Tale
10. Classic About a Family - Anna Karenina
11. Abandoned Classic - East of Eden
12. Classic Adaptation. - Twelfth Night