The Very Heart of Winter

Here is what author Jean Hersey has to say about February in her book The Shape of the Year (1967). 

These are weeks of fires, and friends, and indoor life. February is the scent of freshly ironed handkerchiefs in the kitchen on a gray and snowy day. February is beef stew for dinner and the fun of preparing the vegetables, shiny onions, firm potatoes, rich orange carrots, and crisp celery, then smelling the delectable aroma of simmering stew all afternoon.

Each month I am reading Ms. Hersey's corresponding entry in her  month-by-month chronicle of events in her country home in Connecticut. She writes that "February is the very heart of winter."

I can only agree. The sun rose this morning on ground covered with snow from last night's storm and a temperature of eleven degrees. 

That beef stew she wrote about is sounding better and better.

Motivation for my Month of Letters

In preparation for my Month of Letters which begins tomorrow, I checked a couple of books out of the library to get me motivated.

The Pleasures of Staying in Touch by Jennifer Williams

This book published in 1998 in conjunction with Victoria magazine is full of lovely illustrations of lettery things - stamps and stationery - and includes quotes from famous letter-writers such as Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, and Colette. There are also examples of wording for thoughtful thank you notes, sincere sympathy cards, and friendly connections.

Writing Notes with a Personal Touch by Daria Price Bowman and Maureen LaMarca

Also published in 1998, this wee book (70 pages) has photographs, quotes, and guidance on sending, among others, notes of congratulations, regrets, and how to word invitations. The final chapter, Extra Special Notes and Letters, outlines the many opportunities there are to write a personal handwritten note: words of welcome to a new neighbor or as an accompaniment to a gift rather than just a card with your name on it.

The Art of the Handwritten Note: A Guide to Reclaiming Civilized Communication by Margaret Shepherd

The author of this 2002 book goes into much detail about writing letters  - from what materials to use (good ones) to salutations (don't misspell the recipient's name) to the closing sentiments. For the sometimes difficult part in between the hello and the goodbye, she offers advice such as how to end a relationship, write a fan letter, request help, and say you are sorry. 

All three are easy and quick to read and offer some good advice for making slow correspondence a pleasurable habit. 

I will end with a quote from The Art of the Handwritten Note:

A handwritten note is like dining by candlelight instead of flicking on the lights, like making a gift instead of ordering a product, like taking a walk instead of driving. Handwritten notes will add a lot to your life. You can still use the telephone or the Web for the daily chores of staying in touch, but for the words that matter, it's courteous, classy, caring and civilized to pick up a pen.

Middlebrow Mysteries

Mirabile Dictu writes that she enjoys reading middlebrow fiction. I enjoy reading Middlebrow Mysteries. Nothing too gory, too psychological, or too creepy. No scary Scandinavian sagas for me. I just want my crimes stories to be witty and well-written.

Here is a sampling of a few Middlebrow Mysteries I have recently finished:

Why Me? by Donald Westlake (1983)

Oh dear. Poor John Dortmunder. In this caper, his fifth, he has unwittingly stolen the hugely valuable Byzantine Ruby while burglarizing a jewelry store. He doesn't even realize he has it. But now all of New York City's finest are after him along with the FBI. Not only that, but because the cops are shaking down all the street criminals, they in turn are trying to find out who stole the ruby so they can get the cops off their backs. And then there are the terrorists. Everyone one wants to get hold of him. John and Andy Kelp take to the sewers to avoid grievous bodily harm. Westlake has fun making fun of (at the time) new telephone gadgetry and paints a hilarious picture of the police chief and the two FBI fellows.

Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie (1937) 

Actually this volume contains four novellas or short stories by Dame Agatha all starring M. Hercule Poirot. In the title tale, a young woman commits suicide. Or was it murder? Only her roommate holds the clue that can help solve the mystery.

In the second, "The Incredible Theft", plans for a bomber plane go missing and M. Poirot is called into action in the middle of the night. It takes some snooping about in the Michaelmas daisies of Lord Charles Mayfield's stately home to discover who stole the missing blueprints.

"Dead Man's Mirror" presents another suicide-or-murder case for the Belgian detective at the country manor house of Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore. Sir G. summoned Poirot but by the time he arrives, the summoner is dead. This one has a classic "everyone assembled in the study" denouement.

Finally, in "Triangle at Rhodes", a vacationing M. Poirot cannot escape the tragedy of a poisoning and a lovers' triangle. Poor Poirot. He just can't seem to get away from murder.

I am currently reading the sixth Dortmunder novel, Good Behavior. While trying to escape from the police, John literally falls through the roof of a convent. He is rescued by the the nuns who have taken a vow of silence (which allows Westlake to have some fun working out the communication between sisters and burglar).  In lieu of turning him and his burglary tools over to the police, the nuns (whose names all are Mary...Mother Mary Forcible, Sister Mary Serene, Sister Mary Capable, Sister Mary Accord, Sister Mary Vigor...) want Dortmunder to rescue Sister Mary Grace whose wealthy father has kidnapped her from the convent and is having her 'deprogrammed' in his apartment on the 76th floor of his bank building. 

How will Dortmunder ever cope with hidden elevators, bodyguards with guns, and Mother Mary Forcible? 

First Lines

"Elmer Gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk."

Sinclair Lewis: Elmer Gantry (1926)

Picture: AP

There is a fun photo feast in the online edition of the UK newspaper The Telegraph. Here, according to culture editor Martin Chilton, are thirty of the great opening lines in literature. Some familiar, some not. The best part is seeing the wonderful photos of the authors paired with the covers of their books.

Of course there are Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) and Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities), but also Jean Rhys (The Wide Sargasso Sea) and Ken Kesey (One Few Over the Cuckoo's Nest).  I was especially taken with the above black and white photograph of Sinclair Lewis sitting at his typewriter dressed in a suit and tie. I guess the photo was not taken on Casual Friday.

Therefore, not to be outdone by The Telegraph, here is a sampling of first lines from books on my own shelves:

"Those privileged to be present at a family festival of the Forsytes have seen that charming and instructive sight -- an upper middle-class family in full plumage."
    ----The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of Ngong Hills."
    ----Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch."
    ----Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck

"On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition and Astrology."
    ----The Once and Future King by T.H. White

"Had one been a Prime Minister there would be every reason for talking of one's first tooth and devoting a chapter or two to its effect upon the history of our times."
    ----Twenty-five by Beverley Nichols

"There were several promising-looking letters in the pile laid on Mrs. James Kane's virgin breakfast-plate on Monday morning, but having sorted all the envelopes with the air of one expectant of discovering treasure-trove, she extracted two addressed to her in hands indicative of either illiteracy or of extreme youth."
    ----Duplicate Death by Georgette Heyer

What first lines are lurking on your shelves?

To List or Not to List

Your Life in Lists

To list or not to list, that is the question.

It seems as if book lovers are also list lovers. We list books to be read and books we have read. We record our favorite authors and those writers we would not likely give a second chance. We love to read books about books (another list); the Top Ten Favorite Reads compiled by other book lovers; and, keep lists of books we have purchased.

I have a book on my shelves entitled List Your Life: Listmaking as the Way to Self-Discovery. Authors Ilene Segalove and Paul Bob Velick offer 175 Topics for the reader to consider. At the top of each page is the topic or question and then 20 or so lines for your response. 

There are many of such List Books on the market. But even before they became popular, I thought that for a list lover as myself  making lists of the things in my life that I enjoyed or hated, places I had visited, and jobs I had had would make a great autobiography. I would call it My Life in Lists.

But where to start? Which is why I purchased this book, a guide and a source, as a way to begin. 

Here are a few of the prompts:

Heroic feats you have performed

Ways you have changed for the better

What's in your glove compartment

Things you have lent that have not been returned

Paranormal experiences you have had

Restrictions that you can't stand living with 

Oh, dear. I may need more than 20 lines for that last one.

As you can see, this goes a bit beyond just listing your favorite books, cities, movies, foods, and movie stars, although there is room for those as well. 

What lists do you keep? Do you have one of these List Books that offers suggestions on listing your life? Have you used it or like mine, has it been sitting on a shelf for a while?

I would love to hear from you. Leave me a list in the comments.

Mystery Madness

Bridge can be deadly!

Today I sampled two of the tales in the 2012 Best American Mysteries introduced by Robert Crais. The first one, "The Hit" by Tom Andes, was a bit too over-written for me, but the puzzle was good. A fellow hires a hit man to kill his wife but who is the hitter and who is the hittee?  

Here is a slice:
    Her life no longer seemed to be happening to her but to someone else. 
    She ran a bubble bath before the kids got home, luxuriating in the folds of steam, scraping the dead skin from the balls of her feet. The flakes drifted away on the water, softened to opacity. She wondered what her life would seem like if it were on television, what some anonymous viewer in a faraway living room or den would think. She felt alienated from her own experience, atomized, like the molecules of steam rising from the water in the tub.

The second tale begins in the genteel atmosphere of the Moss Harbor Bridge Group.  Genteel, that is, until Mattie's new partner, Olivia, mouths across the bridge table: I will kill you.

Was Mattie's card playing really that bad?

Mattie, who is a meek little woman to begin with, becomes even more terrified as Olivia begins to stalk her. The suspense rises: When will Olivia strike? And where?

Here is a bit from "The Bridge Partner" by Peter S. Beagle:

    On the whole, after sixteen years of marriage, Mattie liked Don more than she disliked him, but such distinctions were essentially meaningless at this stage of things. She rather appreciated his presence when she felt especially lonely and frightened, but a large, furry dog would have done as well; indeed, a dog would have been at once more comforting and more concerned for her comfort. Dogs wanted their masters to be happy - Don simply preferred her uncomplaining.

Of course, these selections give nothing away as I wouldn't dare spoil any surprises or twist the authors have in store. 

Of the twenty writers represented here, I am only familiar with one - or is it two: Charles Todd, the mother and son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd, who write the Inspector Ian Rutledge series and the Bess Crawford mysteries. I have heard good things about both but have not read any of them. They are on my list.

Since I mostly read classic British mysteries I am hoping to discover one or two modern authors to add to my mystery madness.

Do you have any favorites?

The Idea of Writing Letters

I am a big fan of the Idea of Writing Letters. Therefore, I am waiting patiently (sort of) for my name to come up on the library's reserve list for The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting by Philip Henscher in which he writes about the joy of slow communication.

I would also love to get my hands on a copy of For the Love of Letters by John O'Connell. It was published in Great Britain but, alas, it is only available here in an e-book edition which doesn't seem quite right. (Update 27 Jan 2013: The O'Connell book is now available in hardcover from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.)Another book along the same lines and also published in Britain is Ian Sansom's Paper: An Elegy which I see won't be released here until May 2013. 

Of course, that would be reading about writing letters and not actually writing them. 

How does one get inspired to do the writing part?

Well, I see there is a Month of Letters challenge afoot to write and send a letter or postcard every day in February which was mentioned on "A Work in Progress" (here). It looks promising but I don't want to have to register to participate. Another site that encourages the art of snail mail is Postcrossing - which has been on my radar for a while but I haven't signed up - in which you send postcards to random people around the world and receive postcards in return.

Like I say, I love the Idea. But actually sitting down and writing is another thing entirely. I do a pretty good job of writing thank you notes. And, I don't buy greeting cards but do send birthday cards and sympathy cards with my own handwritten messages. 

All this comes to mind because I received a letter from a friend recently. Over the years we have kept up a fairly inconsistent correspondence (she is more consistent than I). The envelope's postage stamp is a photo of my friend and her two dogs. I laughed out loud when I saw it. How fun! That is something you don't see every day.

And I have another friend who sends postcards on a very random basis, but I rarely reply in turn although we do keep in touch by phone. 

To cut to the chase:
I went to the post office today and bought stamps both for 1st class letters and for postcards. The good news is I have plenty of note cards, postcards, and stationery in my stash so I don't need to buy any...unless I just want to. 

So I will attempt to write a letter or postcard each day in February. That actually turns out to be only 23 pieces of mail as Sundays and the one holiday, Washington's Birthday, don't count. 

What are your correspondence habits? Do you write letters or just like the Idea of Writing Letters? Are you willing to write a letter a day in February?