The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker

This book continues the stories of Dr. Rivers and some of his patients, especially Billy Prior, during World War I. Billy is put in the position of choosing between his government job and the family of the woman who raised him, a woman suspected of plotting to assassinate Lloyd George. Billy's position is all the more complicated due to periods of missing time where he doesn't remember his actions. This book continues Barker's explorations of the psychic wounds of World War I.

Regeneration by Pat Barker

This book presents life behind the lines at a hospital during World War I. In particular, it focuses on the friendship between Doctor Rivers and Siegfried Sassoon, who has published a letter insisting that the war is no longer morally justified. It really helped me understand what was happening (and the background behind) the third book in the trilogy. Next time I will try to read things in order!

Umbrella by Will Self

This complicated novel uses modernist techniques (such as stream-of-consciousness narration, and three distinct narrative threads that intermingle and change with dizzying speed) in order to insist on the continued value of difficulty in reading and the continued difficulty of telling certain types of stories in more conventional ways. Fortunately for the reader, the book presents a brief précis of each time period (Audrey Death's early life to the end of World War I, her encounter with Dr. Zach Busner--who's willing to try new techniques for a certain class of patients--in a mental hospital in 1971, and Dr. Busner's reflections on his practice at that time from the vantage of his (almost contemporary with us) retirement. The book more than repaid its challenges. I particularly enjoyed the playful attention to Audrey's last name. I also thought the World War I story (with its familial betrayals) and the role Dr. Busner played in the treatment of the patients with encephalitis lethargica worked very well together to raise the questions of what we owe each other as human beings, and then to examine the consequences of failing to fulfill these duties. Shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2012.

The Law is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons by Colin Dayan

This book examines the ways that the law has been used to manipulate the boundaries of the human--especially in the case of enslaved persons and prisoners. Dayan posits that forms such as zombies, ghosts, and dogs appear in literature and culture in response to the ways that the law can be deployed to take away someone's humanity. The book covers a broad time period (dealing with cases in US law from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first) and it combines sources and techniques from a variety of fields, including the law, history, and literature, to end in a stunning indictment of legal systems that take away people's humanity and an exposé of how the cruelest forms of punishment may be written off as administrative conveniences. All in all, a persuasive and useful monograph, and a model for a radical, engaged form of criticism.

Legion by Brandon Sanderson

This book is about a supposedly sane man, Stephen Leeds, who is surrounded by multiple personalities with extraordinary skills. Leeds and his team of aspects are called in to find the inventor of a camera which can take photographs of the past. There's a little bit of adventure and a lot of speculation in this story. I enjoyed it, and I have a feeling there's more to it--or rather more to the character Leeds, who has a mysterious woman who disappeared in his past. Unless you're a big Sanderson fan or entirely opposed to e-books, I'd recommend the e-book rather than the print version: the novella size seems more reasonably priced digitally than in hard copy.

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

This book starts with "the problem that has no name"--the ennui, depression, and discontent of housewives in the 1960s--and traces that problem to larger questions of social structure. While parts of this book seem dated (thank goodness!), the questions of not only the social structures that lead to this problem, but also how we allowed it to happen (after women had already earned the legal right to vote) still seem relevant today. Friedan supports her case with both anecdotes and statistics. Worth reading for historic interest, at least.

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

This book finds Harry dead--but his work is not done. He must face the same kind of problems he usually does (that is to say, insoluble ones) without the ability to practice his magic as usual. I really like the way Harry both learns to live with his limitations and the way that he learns about choices and his own moral abilities in the face of some scary (and overpowering) foes and allies. This series continues to grow in an organic and impressive way--things that happened earlier fit into a larger picture seamlessly. Can't wait to see what happens next!

The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi

I enjoyed this book, although I think the movie made a more compelling narrative. The book seems to be written as an attempt to capitalize on the interest generated by the movie. It uses both Logue's diaries and records and a variety of other sources to tell the story from the side of both George VI and Lionel Logue. While I think the claim that Logue saved the monarchy overstated (and indeed, the movie and the book both seem to exaggerate his friendship with George VI in different ways), the book gives a nice portrait of Britain and its king.

Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov

In this book members of both the first and second Foundations are concerned that the Seldon Plan is proceeding too well and with too little deviation. So both groups start to investigate what could be causing the lack of aberrations. I enjoyed watching the layers being peeled back, and I really enjoyed the character of Golan Trevise.

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

In this book we finally learn more about the Second Foundation, which Seldon established as a backup plan to the Foundation hundreds of years ago. Since the disaster of the rise of the Mule (and his near-discovery of the location of the Second Foundation), it has been operating with increasingly bad odds in order to set the Seldon plan back to rights. Meanwhile, the Foundation is hunting for the Second Foundation to put an end to it. This book gives a fitting conclusion to the original trilogy within the longer series.

Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov

This book chronicles the development of psychohistory on Trantor despite the increasing decline of the empire and the enormous personal losses that face Hari Seldon. The book picks key moments to demonstrate, so the effect is staccato. We get to infer years of happiness for Seldon in the middle of his life, but we see him in moments of crisis. The mathematics behind psychohistory, too, are sketchy, but this lack of direction, I think, helps keep the book from feeling dated.

The Manticore by Robertson Davies

The second book in the Deptford trilogy shifts its focus to Boy Staunton's son, David, who is undergoing a course of therapy in Switzerland following his father's death. This book tells us a lot about David, and could very well destabilize Dunstan's testimony in the first volume, although it doesn't seem to. I didn't like this book as well because I found the therapy sessions strange at times. Still, it was a pretty good conceit for going back over a lot of the same events--though it was helpful to see them in a new light.

The Group by Mary McCarthy

While this book follows the coming of age of a group of Vassar graduates mostly in New York City during the end of the Great Depression and into World War Two, it's really in some ways the story of one woman's unfortunate marriage and how that match affects the lives of her college friends. I read Joanna Smith Rakoff's A Fortunate Age a while ago for the Barnes and Noble First Look program, and at the time heard that she had written an homage to The Group--now I can see she straight up lifted the plot and set it forward sixty years. I enjoyed this book, although I think it would have been more striking if I were a contemporary and if I hadn't read the knock-off version first. Despite the large number of characters, I think McCarthy does a nice job of managing them so that the various scenes illuminate and fill in the inevitable gaps in the history far better than a more full chronology might.

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

In this mystery Maisie Dobbs gets called in to help Scotland Yard defuse a terrorist threat to London. I particularly enjoyed the back and forth between Scotland Yard and MI-5 and the introduction of Inspector MacFarland. I thought there was a bit more wrapping up after the mystery had been solved than was really necessary, although I liked the twist at the end.

Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear

In this mystery Maisie Dobbs investigates the sudden death of an artist just before he mounts a large exhibition. I thought the parts where Maisie shows mystic psychology were reduced in this book and that made the reading experience much more pleasurable for me. I had more trouble than usual assembling all the pieces during the course of the mystery, but as it finished, I thought the solution was elegant and moving (although quite sad). I thought Maisie's personal life was dragged into the story in odd ways. I was also intrigued by the growing interest in class issues (who deserves money? is it fair to spend a fortune on art?) and on the rise of Hitler (as indicated by patterns of art smuggling).

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

I enjoyed reading this novel. Although most of the action happens in the recent past (insofar as a psychologist's trips to talk to people to understand Robert Oliver, his patient and a skilled artist who attacks a canvas at the National Gallery and then refuses to talk constitues action), the real interest in this book, for me at least, was the story of Béatrice de Clerval, an Impressionist painter who cuts her career mysteriously short. Andrew Marlow, the psychiatrist who narrates the majority of the tale, wasn't entirely sympathetic to me, and I often felt that he was too self-absorbed, at cost to the interest of the rest of the story. Indeed, I'm not sure the set-up is ideal for the story that's being told. Still, I found the Impressionism story very good, as well as the stories told by the two women in Robert Oliver's life. Kostova handles the supense quite well, and the digging necessary to understand the story is quite pleasurable.

I heard Kostova read the Prologue and answer questions about this book. She spoke quite eloquently to the challenges of writing, both generally, and in writing about artists.

Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

The mystery plot in this book was better than the previous two Maisie Dobbs. Maisie must go to France to trace the disappearance of a WWI aviator in a case that becomes entwined with the search for the final resting place of the brother of one of her friends and a murder case in London. There was a bit too much work done by Maisie in this book--I felt like the author relied too much on Maisie's psychological insights (which I still don't buy) and on evidence that wasn't shared with the reader in time for the reader to make deductions on her own. Still, the bits about WWI are exciting and I liked the case itself.

Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers

There are moments in this mystery that clearly identify it as a first novel--places where Sayers hasn't quite hit her stride, or where she has hit, but hadn't expected to. Still, as far as mysteries go, this one is worth reading. Lord Peter as shell-shocked is a bit of a surprise, and there are unexpected moments of humor--like the examination of the unwitting medical student. Not the best mystery in terms of completely twisted plots, but something any Lord Peter fan will want to read.

The Death of Sigmund Freud by Mark Edmundson

This book is not entirely biography, history, or philosophy. Instead, Edmundson takes the specific moment of the Anschluss and its effect on Sigmund Freud's as a starting point in exploring the paradox of Freud as a patriarchal figure attempting to dismantle the patriarchy, based on his understanding of the appeal of the fascist. This book is very smart, and mostly well-written, although I found it a little repetitive at times. Edmundson does a lovely job of incorporating rich detail in significant ways.

Eros and Psyche by Karen Chase

This study contrasts three psychological novels: Jane Eyre, Bleak House, and Middlemarch. While all three write the character of the individual into the fabric of the book, Chase is careful to preserve differences and distances between the authors. The readings seem spot on, and Chase gracefully links her arguments together.