In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blond classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, Cal has inherited a rare genetic mutation. The biological trace of a guilty secret, this gene has followed her grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Detroit and has outlasted the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Cal is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.

Beautifully written with an opening sentence that hooks you in and a compelling storyline.

Welcome to the Middlesex bookring.
We now have 10 members. I am sending the bookring to weebly on Fri 15th April and hope it reaches you all safely :-) Happy Bookring Reading!

Any problems, please PM me.
The list is as follows:

weebly, Northamptonshire
katie1980, Poole, Dorset
catrionamoore, Coalville
GlasgowGal, Glasgow, Scotland
Amanida, Chertsey
coolboxuk, Egham, Surrey
blaisezabini12, Romania
adrienne10, Omaha, Nebraska US
Pookledo, Loughborough, Leicestershire
abrokenstarr, St Albans, Hertfordshire
caligula03, Hayward, California, USA
PinkManager, Athens, Greece
...then back to me

Please remember to journal the book BOTH when you have received it (so we all know where it is) and once you have read it (so we all know what you thought of it).

I am really looking forward to hearing your feedback, thanks for participating.

Caroline

Arrived in the post today - many thanks. This is next to be read as soon as I have finished the Piano Tuner.

Well, what a book. I started off not sure if I would enjoy it. It reminded me of the two John Irving books I have read, prayer for Owen Meany and World according to Garp. They are mainly narative about the life of a person or family and how the people relate to each other, and all have some twist - in this book the sexuality of Cali. Also I like the backdrop of real events, like Turkey burning Greece, and race riots in Detroit, as they make the book seem very real. When I finished the book today I just sat there contemplating how I felt about it - and I am really pleased I read it. The list of questions shipped with it made me feel just like an o-level English student again - and I love the bookmark. I am amazed I didn't manage to lose either item!

Thanks for sharing Caro, and I will post to Katie today - if I am quick!

Received in the post from Weebly today - thanks!
(I was popular this morning, I got this book and my dvd of Phantom of the Opera!)
I'll be reading this one after I've finished the second half of The Starter Marriage so I can send it on its way to Babs. I'm looking forward to it.

EDIT 2 May 2005: I've now finished The Starter Marriage, and am just starting this one. Only a few pages down so far, but I'm finding the writing style a little different to what I'm currently used to. I'm sure I'll get into it, though - the subject certainly interests me.

EDIT 23 May 2005: I'm almost at the end! I've only got a little bit to go - maybe 1-2 hours worth? So I'll try to finish it asap and pass it on to Catriona :) I struggled with it a bit at first, but I've now got into my stride!

Well, once I got into this, I did really enjoy it. I found the first section hard-going, though, and I'm not quite sure whether that's because I would have always found it hard going, or whether it was because I could only find little snippets of time to read it in, and so couldn't properly get into the flow of the book. If I hadn't found it quite such hard work at the beginning, I probably would have given it more stars - it certainly was a different story!
Whichever it was, once I got a good few hours reading in on the way to and from London for a business trip (how pleased was I when I discovered that I can now read in the car without feeling ill?! - I was in the back, I wasn't driving!!) then the story was much more enjoyable.
I also like the list of questions that came with the book, but I've not attempted any of them, though it was tempting, because I've had the book for a while and don't really have enough time at the momnt to sit and write a mini essay. It's a shame - I probably would have enjoyed that! Great idea, though, Caro1, as they did get me thinking about them when I read them :)
Thanks for sharing this book.

P.S. There's a programme called Middle Sex on Channel 4 tonight, if anyone is interested :)

RELEASE NOTES:

I've asked my boyfriend to mail this for me on his day off today, so it ought to be with catrionamoore soon :)

This book has only just arrived, accompanied by a couple of postcards which I shall pass on as someone is bound to be a postcard collector, a very legible and lovely letter and a packet of jelly babies which I may have got away with sneaking past the tyrannical toddler. Hopefully they will go unnoticed when the big kid goes on his nightly sweetie raid later.

I have almost reached the summit of Mt TBR, or at least it is in sight after last month. I have the book I have just started and two others ahead of this one but both look like they will be quick reads.

Incest, lesbians, hermaphrodites, does my depravity in reading pleasure know no bounds? I thought this was a fantastic book and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. I found Cal’s narrative about the all girl’s school rather poignant. “It was perfectly acceptable at Baker & Inglis to get a crush on a fellow classmate. At a girl’s school a certain amount of emotional energy, normally expended on boys, gets redirected into friendships. Girls walk arm in arm at B&I, the way French schoolgirls do. They compete for affection. Jealousies arose. Betrayals occurred. It was common to come into the bathroom and hear somebody sobbing in one of the stalls. Girls cried because so-ands- wouldn’t sit by them at lunch, or because their best friend had a new boyfriend……Nevertheless , the ethos of the school remained militantly heterosexual. My classmates might act cozy during the day, but boys were the number one after-school activity. Any girl suspected of being attracted to girls was gossiped about, victimized, and shunned. I was aware of all this. It scared me.” The paragraph sums up very well the biggest emotional difficulty I had for seven years of my educational life. It is an attitude that runs deep. Even now, despite all the publicity about her girl-on-girl activities, Abi Titmus will always be quoted as saying “I am not a lesbian” as if she has to clarify it in case she is tarnished with the brush from our school days.

In many ways I identified with the teenage Cal and found the book more and more difficult to put down. Cal, despite all the obvious differences is very like many adolescents, with their body and mind in perpetual turmoil. I liked the way the book changes in time from Cal telling the story of the past to the future giving us a real sense of future for Cal and that there is the hope of a happy ending for someone who has had a difficult life.

I will look out for The Virgin Suicides by the same author.

Popped in the post to GlasgowGal today.

18.06.05 - Received in the mail this morning, with impeccable timing as I'd just finished the previous book I was reading less than an hour before! I'm not sure how I'm going to get along with this book, but I'll be starting it today and journalling more once I'm done.

Thanks for passing it along catrionamoore and to Caro1 for starting the ring in the first place.


22.06.05 - I've had a couple of days off work with a bit of a bug so I've had time to really get into this book. Despite my original reservations I'm actually thoroughly enjoying the narrative. I should be done by the end of this week or the beginning of next, and have contacted Amanida for her address.

I finshed this on Saturday (25.06.05) but have only now managed to get round to journalling it due to a very ill PC all weekend and subsequently a very ill user!

I make a point of not reading previous journal entries before reading the book in question so that my views are not tainted by what others thought. In this case I'm really pleased I did that. I think if I'd seen comments about A Prayer for Owen Meany (a book I just did not get on with at all), incest, lesbians and hermaphrodites I may not have picked up this book at all and may have passed it along unread (for no other reason than none of those topics immediately attract me to the book). I was also concerned that Middlesex may end up being just another As Nature Made Him kind of book, which was another story I left unread earlier this year after failing to get involved in the writing.

However, Middlesex proved to be a more engaging story than I was expecting. I thought Eugenides' style of writing was very easy to read while it brought a depth to the story. The characters seemed realistic enough that I could care about them and the settings for the narrative struck me as being true to life. The only small niggle I had was that it seemed to be unclear in parts whether this was meant to be Stephanides' own memoirs, and discussing Callope's first love as "The Object" just irritated me and distracted from my reading.

Overall, though, this was a good read. However I'm not sure I'll rush out and get The Virgin Suicides by the same author just yet.

Thanks for sharing the book, Caro1. I already have Amanida's address so I'll pass it along as soon as I can get to the PO.

RELEASE NOTES:

To be sent sometime this week (29.06 to 01.07), 2nd class.

Sounds a fascinating read! I have a couple of rings ahead of it (they're all arriving this week!), but hope to get started on it soon.

It took me a while to get into it and a bit longer to read than usual, but by the end I was hooked. I think it's probably best to read it in larger chunks rather than small ones. I did find the teenage years a bit tedious, though.
Apart from Cal, the book was full of other characters that really make you think about their motivations and actions - I especially liked the descriptions of Desdemona.
Overall, I found it as fascinating as promised and I'll be looking out for The Virgin Suicides.
To be passed on to coolbox this coming week.

Been given this at the Chertsey Bookcrossers Meet tonight - thanks Amanida.

Must admit I took a long time reading this - okay, there's a lot of it; but that isn't normally the problem. I got into it all right - quite enjoyed the read: amusing style, interesting language. I just didn't find it
"unputdownable". Somehow, the beginning of the story failed to compel me, particularly in the flashback part about the parents and grandparents. And although I can see the concept of their stories being reiterated, I was more intrigued with the last chapters of the book with their excursion into the trials of hermaphrodite life.
I also liked the ambiguity of the title which only becomes clear in book three...

Picked up today from the post office together with 4 other rings/rays:) As usual they like to arrive at my place together in order to keep me busy:) Thank you Caro1 for another great bookring and thank you coolboxuk for mailing the book!

16 October 05:a brilliant read. I enjoyed the way in which the present and the past were combined. Also, the way in which some of the main characters of the book had to REINVENT their personality was really intriguing.My favorite bit was the time Callie spent at the girls school - the way in which she/he discovered her/his personality, feelings and instincts.

I have pmed the next reader on the list for the address.
caligula03 has asked to be skipped so I am pming the next person on the list.

mailed today!

Received today. Thanks so much for sharing this book! I will get to it as soon as possible. Have a bit of a mountain before it, though.

I apologize for having this book for so long. Life intervened, as is normal for bookcrossing. I already have Pookledo's address and will send ASAP (caligula and PinkManager already have copies of the book and asked to be skipped.)

I really enjoyed this book. I was a little put-off by it's size. I was worried, despite thinking it sounded interesting, that it would not be at all interesting. But I was engaged by the opening pages. It is not uncommon for me to take about 60 pages to get into a book. I was into this book at page 3.

I enjoyed the mixing of the current life just at the beginning of the chapters of the narrator with the past story he was telling. I loved Desdemona and she was probably my favorite character. In a way, this was all her story too. I liked the turns and paths this story traveled. I would highly recommend it to others. I do not think, however, I will add Mr. Eugenides' novels to my wishlist.

Mr. Eugenides writes a young girl very well. Or perhaps that it is that adolescent girls and boys are really not all that different in their thoughts. It is interesting to me that I had no troubles accepting the "I" of the present male narrator being the same "I" as the past female character, but I had a hard time accepting the transition when it occured in New York. However, by the funeral, I found myself seeing "Cal" as he was. Mr. Eugenides draws a story very well (which is probably why he won a Pulitzer Prize.)

Thanks so much for sharing this book, Caro1. Thanks also for including the bookmark. It was very interesting. I had never heard that story before.

This book came in the psot this morning. I've got a few bookring books to read first. What a great excuse for spending more time reading than I have been doing :o)

Bah. Life happened. I'm going to pass this book on to abrokenstarr so the ring doesn't get held up for longer than it has already.

Arrived in the post this morning, thanks to Pookledo for sending it on and Caro1 for organising.

Have got another ring before it, this will be next or one after on the TBR pile.

Well.. it's been three weeks since I received this book, and because life has been pretty stressful lately (two nights working until 11pm this week alone) I haven't had much reading time. I think I should get to this and finish it in the next three weeks (Easter hols should sort me out).

If this is too far in the future, Caro1, I'll forward this without reading, though I'd rather not because its an American posting. Let me know. I'm sorry I haven't had more time...

So, nearly two months after receiving it, I've got through it.

I'm glad I was given the chance to read this. I, as many others, found it a tough start, but really got into it in the first fifty pages.

I found it interesting that the end was not the present time - there was some of the story missing. I wonder why that is? Maybe the 15-42 age didn't seem as interesting as the growing up stage.

Anyway, will post this on later this week, thanks for not being pushy Caro1.

I posted this back to Caro1 second class today, as both PinkManager and Caligula03 have dropped out of the ring.

Arrived safely back home. Thank you to everyone who participated and your positive comments. I'm going to release it at a local meet and see if it will travel a little further.

RELEASE NOTES:

To be released at the Shefield BXers meet.

Picked up at the Sheffield meet to eventually read.

Thanks for sharing