Category Archives: The C P R Book Group

A category dedicated to neglected authors and books.

Ice Palace by Edna Ferber

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I’ve been neglecting my CPR Book Group recently so I thought it was about time I got around to reading another book by an author in need of a bit of a boost. Edna Ferber was a very successful author in her day, which was the 1920s and 30s but she had a long career and her last book was published in 1963. She was a Pulitzer prize winner. I hadn’t even heard of Ferber when Anbolyn at Gudrun’s Tights mentioned her as a possible candidate for The CPR Book Group which is a place where people can nominate authors whom they consider to be neglected or even particular books which they think deserve more attention than they are getting.

I read and enjoyed Show Boat which was made into a musical of course but Ice Palace was written in 1958 and was her second last book.

It’s set in Alaska in the 1950s, a time when Alaska was a territory and not a state, which meant that they were suffering from that old bugbear taxation without representation. Although Alaska was being plundered for all her minerals, fish and such goodies, it wasn’t getting any benefit from all the industrialisation which was going on around the territory. The workers all came from ‘Outside’ and they didn’t even receive their pay until they got back to the States so the wealth was being taken out of Alaska in all ways.

I must say that it took me a wee while to get into this book but after about page 60 I did begin to enjoy it and I learned a lot about Alaska along the way.

Quite a lot of characters seemed to be thrown at me in the beginning but the main ones are Christine Storm and her two granfathers who are completely different from each other. Czar Kennedy is a rampaging capitalist whilst Thor Storm is a conservationist, naturalist, historian and anthropologist, well educated and decent.

Christine’s upbringing is shared by her two grandfathers who have her for three months at a time and Bridie Ballantyne helps out too. Christine is an orphan, in fact according to this book the female mortality rate in Alaska must have been very high!

It’s a book about greed, ambition, murky politics and dodgy people as well as decent ones. In some ways it was way before its time as Christine has no ambition to be the First Lady which is Czar Kennedy’s wish – she wants Alaska to get statehood and plans to become the Governor one day. Fortunately she’s not at all like Sarah Palin!

All in all it’s well written and an entertaining informative read, for me anyway as I knew very little about Alaska but it did seem to end very abruptly with things left up in the air, as if there was going to be a sequel, but I don’t think there was although Ferber did write another book after this one. Definitely one to be given a bit of a boost.

If you have a favourite author or book which you feel should be more widely read don’t hesitate to mention them.

The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett

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It was Susanne who recommended this one for the CPR Book Group which is a place for neglected authors or books. The only books by Arnold Bennett which I had previously read were all set in The Potteries and this one is completely different from them, as far as I can remember anyway because I think I was a teenager when I read them, which wasn’t yesterday! I don’t know how widely read his books are nowadays, I certainly haven’t come across many people reading them but this one is certainly worth reading.

I really enjoyed this book which was first published in 1902 but my copy is a 1954 Penguin, orange. It could just as well have been in their green vintage crime livery because that is what it is.

The Grand Babylon Hotel in London is the sort of discreet but oppulent place that if you have to ask the price – you can’t afford it. The American multi millionaire Theodore Racksole is staying there with his daughter Nella and he isn’t pleased by the way the head waiter, Jules is looking down his nose at them. On the spur of the moment Theodore decides to buy the prestigious hotel, at least then he’ll be able to get the steak and bottle of Bass which he wants.

Things aren’t what they seem to be and it isn’t long before Theodore and Nella realise that there are nefarious goings on behind the facade of quiet classiness.

This was originally published as a serial and Bennett wrote the 15 installments in 15 days and sold it for £100. It was described as the most original, amusing and thrilling serial written in a decade.

Arnold Bennett lived at the Savoy Hotel in London and it was the chef there who came up with the dish which became known as Omelette Arnold Bennett because he was so fond of it. You can see Sophie Dahl whipping one up if you’re interested.

There aren’t many people who have had dishes named after them. The only others that I can think of at the moment are Peach Melba and Melba toast, named after the opera singer Dame Nelly Melba and Pavlova after Anna. Eggs Benedict too, Lemuel Benedict was an American stockbroker. There must be others though.

The CPR Book Group Ceilidh

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An informal ‘challenge’ open to bloggers and non bloggers.

Niranjana thought it might be a good idea to have a wee bit of a CPR Book Group informal challenge, and as I’m Scottish it’s going to have a slight Scottish flavour. I’ve decided to make it so informal that it’s a bit of a ceilidh (kailie). You might know that a ceilidh is a Scottish dance and a social gathering – for those who might not be up to the dancing! I wish I could make some tea and coffee too, and hand round the cakes and shortbread, but you’ll just have to imagine that yourself.

So no pressure whatsoever, just a bit of fun and if people feel like nominating books or authors in need of a bit of TLC then more can be added. Or you may feel free to jump in and out with links to reviews or leave comments, they don’t have to be anything fancy.

Edited to add:- Niranjana has suggested that perhaps people might want to do a guest post on authors or books they like. Or have one of their reviews (re)posted here.

Don’t feel the need to give a blow by blow account of the whole book as that sometimes puts people off reading it as there are no surprises. A brief sketch of the setting and main characters and whether you think other people would enjoy the book will be fine unless you want to elaborate further.

Any non bloggers can still participate. Please leave comments and I will transfer them. Bloggers, please leave links or comments.

Authors and books already nominated are below.

Arnold Bennett

The Grand Babylon Hotel
Susanne recommends this one. She says: Do read ‘The Grand Babylon Hotel’ which is amusing and has a very forceful heroine. (I now have this book and hope to read it soon – Katrina)

The Old Wives ‘ Tale
Karen at Books and Chocolate has written about this book here.

A J Cronin
Robertson Davies
Edna Ferber
Show Boat
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Audrey Erskine Lindop
The Singer not the Song
Mary de Morgan
Miss Read
Mazo de la Roche
Jalna
D E Stevenson
Miss Buncle’s Book
Mrs Tim of the Regiment
Angela Thirkell
Mildred Walker

The CPR Book Group

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I’ve decided to set up a ‘Book Group’ for books and authors which should be more widely read and for some reason they just aren’t, so they’re in need of a wee bit of a boost, or maybe they’re out of print. CPR obviously stands for Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation.

The sidebar widget has a girlie, pinkish purple foxglove (digitalis)on it, the significance is of course that digitalis is used to make some heart medications.

If you have a favourite book or author which you think is a bit neglected you can nominate them via the comments and I will add them to the list. If there are any reviews which I can link to, so much the better. If you don’t have a blog of your own which you can post reviews on you can either e-mail me your review or just add it to the comments and I’ll link it to the relevant author or book.

Joan Kyler recommended the author Angela Thirkell as one that I might like to try and after reading one of her books I’m now chewing at the bit to get my hands on some more of them. That was what gave me the idea because Thirkell’s writing doesn’t seem to be terribly well known and this is just a way of trying to spread the word about her and others.

I have a few authors which I could add to the list. A.J. Cronin and Lewis Grassic Gibbon are a couple which spring to mind. In fact most of the ones which I can think of are Scottish. How very parochial of me! Maybe other people have their own ‘local heroes’ in need of some tender loving care.

The CPR Book Group List – so far.

Arnold Bennett – specifically The Grand Babylon Hotel
Marjorie Bowen
A J Cronin
Robertson Davies
Edna Ferber
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Audrey Erskine Lindop
Mary de Morgan
Miss Read
Mazo de la Roche
D E Stevenson
Angela Thirkell
Mildred Walker
Oswald Wynn