Favorite novels: Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog; Roberto Bolano, Nazi Literature in the Americas; Stanley Crawford, Some Instructions to my Wife Concerning the Upkeep of the House and Marriage, and to my Son and Daughter, Concerning the Conduct of their Childhood; Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies; Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows.
Favorite SF: China Mieville, The Kraken.
Favorite mysteries: Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog; Iain Pears, Stone's Fall.
Favorite historical fiction: Richard Flanagan, Wanting; Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies; Julia O'Faolain, The Women in the Wall; Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships.
Completely unclassifiable: Louise Sheck, A Monster's Notes.
Least plausible romantic outcome: A tie between Reginald Hilll, The Woodcutter, and Dara Horn, All Other Nights. Obviously, your mileage may vary.
Best warning against the danger of writing about obscure Victorian authors: Mark Samuels, "The White Hands."
Novel most approved of by students: John Updike, Gertrude and Claudius.
Proof that writing talent is not genetic: William Gilbert's The Inquisitor, which most certainly does not foreshadow any of his son's lyrics.
Most readable religious novel: Mary Murray Gartshorne, Cleveland: A Tale of the Roman Catholic Church.
This novel will self-deconstruct in thirty seconds: Gartshorne, Cleveland; Elizabeth Hardy, The Confessor. (Both are controversial novels about the danger of engaging in religious controversy.)
Worst Protestant poem: "The Living Dead."
Most appalling religious novel: Mme. Brendlah, Tales of a Jewess.
Best modern antidote to Tales of a Jewess: Lillian Nattel, The Singing Fire.
Religious novel above and beyond the call of duty: Martin Shee, Oldcourt.
Religious NOVEL most ADDICTED to CAPS for EMPHASIS: Robert Wood Kyle, The Martyr of Prusa, or the First and Last Prayer; A Tale of the Early Christians.
Has anyone seen the plot?: The Vicar of Iver: A Tale, which, despite the subtitle, had no storyline whatsoever.
Three-story houses constructed on quicksand: Martin Shee, Oldcourt; William Gilbert, The Inquisitor. Both novels contain a lot of material clearly intended to make length.
Something tells me that this title doesn't quite translate to the twenty-first century: Nicholas Whitestone, The Priest and His Pervert, as Illustrated in a Recent Case of Romish Proselytism.
Least truth in advertising: The True Catholic (an anti-Catholic periodical).
Most disappointing novel: Kate Grenville, The Lieutenant.
Most "well, that figures" ending: John Burnside, The Glister.
Most essential scholarly purchase: The second edition of John Sutherland's Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (originally the Stanford Companion).
Favorite publisher of pre-twentieth century novels: Valancourt.
Best novel about the Bronte sisters: Jude Morgan, Charlotte and Emily.
Novel most closely following the "Rules for Writing Neo-Victorian Novels": Elizabeth Newark, Jane Eyre's Daughter.
Life imitates literature: Sheila Kohler, Becoming Jane Eyre.
X Meets Y: Michael Dibdin, The Last Sherlock Holmes Story (Holmes & Jack the Ripper); Earl Lee, Drakulya (Dracula & William Gull, one of the popular candidates for Jack); Elaine Bergstrom, Blood to Blood (Mina and a Jack the Ripper copycat); Jeanne Kalogridis, Lord of the Vampires (Dracula & Elisabeth Bathory); Kim Newman, Anno Dracula (Dracula &...um...just about everybody).
Best Dracula knockoffs: Fred Saberhagen, The Dracula Tapes; Caitlin R. Kiernan, "Emptiness Spoke Eloquent"; Kim Newman, Anno Dracula.
Bad vampire sex prize: "At that moment, both ends of me exploded with staggering pleasure, as if my body had been ripped in half and my skull cracked wide-open, letting in the heavens" (Karen Essex, Dracula in Love, 279).
That's an awful lot of vampire you've got there: James Malcolm Rymer, Varney the Vampyre (the whole thing!).
Most bizarre POD trend: Selling Wikipedia entries. Seriously?
Found book: Transit of Venus, which finally turned up after three years in, er, transit. (It was hiding in a suitcase.)
Longest title: John Hersey, The Child Buyer: A Novel in the Form of Hearings before the Standing Committee on Education, Welfare, & Public Morality of a certain State Senate, Investigating the conspiracy of Mr. Wissey Jones, with others, to Purchase a Male Child.
Favorite antiquarian purchase: A first edition of Emily Lawless, With Essex in Ireland...
Best free book: Richard D. Altick, The Shows of London: A Panoramic History of Exhibitions, 1600-1862.
Doorstop purchase of the year: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years.
Best bargains: Anglican Magazine for the Young (15 volumes of it!); Emily Sarah Holt, Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the Marches; Hilary Morgan and Peter Nahum, eds., Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelites and Their Century; Josef L. Altholz, Anatomy of a Controversy: The Debate over "Essays and Reviews" 1860-1864; Leopold von Ranke, The History of the Popes, of Their Church and State, and Especially of Their Conflicts with Protestantism in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
Thanks so much for including me!
Posted by: Lilian Nattel | December 02, 2010 at 09:39 AM