Before selecting the books we will read and discuss for this course, I read--A LOT. And sometimes I really enjoy a book that, for one reason or another, doesn't quite fit the course, but is nevertheless worth "a read." Other times, members of the class recommend a book that they've found worthwhile. These "extras" go on this page.
The London House, Katherine Reay, (366 pps, 4.5 stars on Amazon)
This is both an historical novel based on the World War II network of female spies based in Britain, and an epistolary novel, based on the letters, journals, and diaries written by one of these women, unfairly condemned as a traitor.
From the Amazon blurb:
Caroline Payne receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian who has written an article that includes her great aunt, believed to have betrayed her family and country to marry her German lover. Caroline is determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation and so flies to her family’s ancestral home in London where she and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” The historical mystery unravels from there, including some interesting historical background on Elsa Schiaparelli, the famous French designer, for whom her great-aunt worked.
The Words, film
I don't usually do this, but I have to include this film as something worth watching. I looked for the book it was based on, but there isn't one, just the screenplay, written and produced by a couple of guys from Philadelphia. The premise is really interesting. A young aspiring writer has written a good book but can't get published. By accident, he finds a brilliant masterpiece of a novel in a forgotten, discarded briefcase which he publishes under his own name. So, he steals the novel, or plagiarizes. And then he meets the author of that novel who isn't angry or threatening, but wants him to know the story behind the novel. So, it's a story within a story within a story, somewhat complicated, but the actors help you keep the plots straight. They're excellent: Jeremy Irons, Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid. I just wish it had been based on a novel.