Dear reader, Please enjoy this book I've given you through bookcrossing. I hope that it will take you to my own beloved Mississippi Delta (My family is very Mississippi Delta. I was born in Memphis among my Mama's people and learned to speak and read in the Delta region). Even more, I hope dear reader that this will take you to new places in your reading life. Kate Chopin, the American translator of De Maupassant, was a master of the short story form. A Louisiana Creole woman, she is most well-known for her controversial book, The Awakening. This is ironic as the crticism she received over this book essentially ended her literary career which was profoundly multi-faceted and promised so much more. Chopin's works in this collection are remarkable to me because they still ring so true to me as a woman after the passage of a few generations. The stories are both regional and universal. I'm sending them on a bookcrossing journey to particularly honor New Orleans and Louisiana where I lived as a little girl. I love that dear city! You see her streets rendered here on the cover of this book.

This book is all dressed up and ready to go to Colchester England where it has been promised. May it have a good journey.

Just received today from Cordelia-Anne = 6 days by airmail.

I didn't know you were sending me this one so an extra thank you!!!

I very rarely read short stories so I was interested to see what I would make of these.

One difficulty I had was reading the dialect; I realised that it helps a great deal if you can hear the accent as you go along. This year I have read books with big helpings of Yorkshire and Scots dialects – no problem! But something like 'Den he go to de chimbly an' jerk up de quinine bottle an' po' a gre't boss-dose on to he han'. An' he swalla dat mess in a wink, an' wash hit down wid a big dram o' w'iskey w'at he keep in he room, aginst he come all soppin' wet outen de fiel.” is a bit tricky. It’s not that I can't work it out, but because it doesn’t 'flow' that spoils it a little.

The other thing I found interesting was the amount of French spoken. The publisher kindly added translations in the footnotes for some of the expressions so that was rather handy!

Some of the stories left me thinking "So?" or "And?", which was a shame. But my favourites were "A Gentleman of Bayou Têche" and "A Pair of Silk Stockings" (nothing new about retail therapy :-).

The most amazing thing though is that they were written by a woman in the 1880s - a woman well ahead of her times. I will certainly look out for "The Awakening" by Chopin. Thank you Cordelia-Anne for broadening my horizons!

RELEASE NOTES:

A slim book of short stories attractd me at the Ipswich meet-up on Saturday. AS I've recently read "Property" by Valerie Martin it will be interesting to compare and contrast a modern and 19th century view of Louisiana.

I think short stories have to have a little twist to grab the reader. Unfortuantely some of these stories didn't go anywhere for me, but others were so much better I began to think that there were two writers.
What didn't work for me were the stories with a lot of Creole dialect; like Pakasanelly they just didn't flow for me and ended with a "So what?".

I'd single out "Desiree's Baby", A Respectable Woman" and "A Pair of Silk Stockings" as those I enjoyed the most.

One thing it did confirm is how well Valerie Martin had captured the morals and values of the Old South in "Property"

RELEASE NOTES:

One for the Caffe Nero bookshelf.
If you find this why not let us know what you thought of it?
You can do so anonymously or if you do join say MrsDanvers sent you.

Given to me by MrsDanvers, after I'd passed "Property" on to her which deals with slavery from the other angle - thanks to you all for giving me a chance to read this.

This book is temporarily back with me... on its way to TurquoiseFloyd.

Passed to me from SemioticGhost via Pakasanelly at the Colchester Meet today. I'm told this makes a good accompaniment to Property by Valerie Martin!

I enjoyed this a lot. My favourite story of the selection was the title story, although I quite liked At The 'Cadian Ball as well. Kate Chopin's writing is as exquisitely detailed as delicate lace; I can imagine that lace at the cuffs of the fine ladies in the stories. On the strength of these stories, I would very much like to read The Awakening.

Have decided to save this one for Scatz, as she and I have similar tastes.

Thanks again to Cordelia-Anne for registering this book and sharing it with the BookCrossers of Suffolk, SemioticGhost for thinking of me and Pakasanelly for passing it onto me on SG's behalf!

RELEASE NOTES:

To be passed to Scatz :-)

Ooops - I found this book hidden in the depths of the book mine and realised that I hadn't journalled or read it!
It was a bit like the curate's egg but I really enjoyed The Dream of an Hour.
Thanks for passing it to me.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Released at Benson Blakes bar.