oldcattish's books

Non-Reading Group Books

2008-08-31T14:20:34Z

I've been having the kind of year where, other than reading group books, I've mostly been re-reading books, often comfort books and so on. I seem to have lost some of my reading mojo at the moment, for various RL-related reasons. Anyway, here's some of what I've managed to read that's been new.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Another extraordinarily beautiful book by Marilynne Robinson. It's a Mary and Martha story again, about how to survive in the world when these are the only options offered you, and the world looks askance you, regardless of what you choose. And for once, it doesn't celebrate Mary at the expense of Martha.

The Ladies of Grace-Adieu by Susannah Clarke. Stories set in the world Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, some drawing on well-known stories like that of Rumpelstiltskin. Enjoyable, but nothing's really standing out in my mind from this collection as I look back.

Murder on the Ballarat Train, Ruddy Gore, Death at Victoria Dock, Blood and Circuses, The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood. More lovely Phryne Fisher books, as lent to me by the ever-generous altariel. They are the mixture as usual, but one thing that struck me as I was reading Murder on the Ballarat Train was how much love there is in these books, which is part of their charm. Phyrne rescues Jane and Ruth, and helps them, out of love and passion, and then lets Jane rescue a kitten, giving Jane the chance pass love on, and move beyond being a victim of circumstance. And I was reading Murder on the Ballarat Train on the train when the guard came to clip my ticket. He looked suspiciously at the book and asked me where Ballarat was. I told him it was in Australia, and he laughed and looked relieved.

Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones. I picked this up cheaply in a secondhand shop. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wynne Jones did a marvellous job of conveying the misery that some families can inflict on one another, against a background of the rivalries of the Norse gods (and it bugged me that I couldn't remember which one gave his name to Tuesday!). And I think she also did a great job of conveying the ambiguity of Loki, the light and the dark, the trickster hero and anti-hero.

Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones. I found the beginning and the end, when Sirius is himself to work less well than the rest of the book where Sirius is the dog, Leo, to use Kathy's name for him. Kathy's story is one of Cinderella, with two ugly stepbrothers rather than sisters, but it also reminded me of Enchantress from the Stars and The Far Side of Evil in the sense of worlds colliding and love not being enough, and the ending being inevitable because of who people are. But it's as happy an ending as it can be, and I hope Kathy and Miss Smith enjoy one another's company for a very long time. (And it's tempting to think that Miss Smith's first name might be Sarah Jane.)

The Broken Bridge by Phillip Pullman. It was ok - I'm finding myself without much to say about it. A family story, a mystery, even a little warning like that of Northanger Abbey and the danger of believing the stories one tells oneself about real people. I think that I wasn't convinced by the scenes between Ginny and her mother, when Ginny finally finds her mother, nor that Ginny would be able to put it one side just like that.

The first two books of The Sharing Knife sequence, Beguilement and Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold. It took me a while to get into these, partly because Beguilement was the book in my bag for a while, so I was reading it in quick snippets, and I don't think that was the best way to read it. But it was the right size to fit in my bag. I think I finally got into it when Dag declares to Fawn's family why he loves her, and then I was completely sold, and pretty much read the second book in an afternoon. Bujold has taken the older man/younger woman romance trope, set it in a future US, given them a believable* Montague and Capulet setting, and lets them go. I think one of the strengths of the book is that Fawn is clearly not a Mary-Sue; she's a heroine, not a super-heroine. And again, there's a good hard look at the misery and cruelty of family, on both sides. Bujold makes heroism into a very complicated thing, and while Dag's family are the unsung heroes, saving the world over and over, they're also very rigid and blind as a group, despising Fawn and her people. As usual with Bujold, there's a lot more going on than just the surface of the book, and all done with some lovely, clever writing. I'm looking forward to reading the next two.

* In the last two (I think) Serrano Legacy books, Elizabeth Moon also tries to set up a Montague and Capulet situation as a reason why Barin Serrano and Esmay de Suiza cannot get together after they've sorted out the military, chain-of-command problem, and I found it utterly unconvincing, which was a shame because there's a lot I like about the books and Moon's writing.

Mandrake by Susan Cooper

2008-03-12T19:35:27Z

Bits of Mandrake were lovely (the scenes where the hero and sidekick are travelling over southern England, finding out what's going on, with the various outcasts from the towns, cast out by the land/towns themselves and what this says about the migration of people, gaia hypotheses and so on, the eerieness of staying in a hotel without power, finding food and so on), bits are risible (the confrontation with Mandrake in his lair, which make him seem the kind of villain that even Torchwood could take down without setting off another apocalypse, although the final confrontation by the nuclear power station was better) and bits are just WTF?!??!? (the meeting of the ~~Butch Lesbians of Doom~~The Women's Guild in the catacombs under Gloucester cathedral, centred on the weedy little male psychic).

I also liked the manuscript that could change the world so Mandrake had his people steal it and re-write it so it was harmless twaddle.

Mandrake also has a sinister German sidekick whose pale eyes the hero finds very disturbing. There never were any stickers saying 'Mandrake must go!', alas. But there's a enjoyable quote about academics early on.

"If lunatic intellectuals operated the law, no wonder Oxford was running mad."

Rule Britannia by Daphne Du Maurier

2008-03-12T19:30:16Z

The UK merges with the US and there's a rebellion in Cornwall. Emma wants everyone to just get along while her grandmother, and her grandmother's family of adoptees man the barricades. I quite enjoyed this and it was interesting to read this after Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now, because DuMaurier is very specific about the events that are triggering her characters actions, and her characters pursue those details themselves, while Rosoff's aren't and don't.

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

2008-03-12T19:29:07Z

Mildly enjoyable, but I don't find Moist van Lipwig, as a protagonist, as appealing or interesting as some of Pratchett's other protagonists.

A Winter Book, Fair Play and Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson

2007-11-21T12:00:51Z

I enjoyed reading A Winter Book, although none of the stories stood out especially. I'd probably rather re-read The Summer Book than this one.

I adored Fair Play, a series of linked stories about Jonna, an artist, and Mari, a writer and illustrator, and their relationship and companionship, and some parts of it made me dance with utter delight. I shall definitely be re-reading this with love and happiness. In fact, I think this has now become one of my happy books, particularly the ending where Mari realises the strength of their relationship is such that it doesn't matter whether they're separated by an attic or in different countries for a while. And they'd rather watch bad films together sometimes, than go out for dinner. What's not to love?

Moominland Midwinter was also a delight, particularly Little My, who might have a had a use for a sister for once, and Too-Ticky, who wants stories about the people who look after the heroes, like this book where the hero is alone because his usual caretakers are sleeping.

The Marlows and Their Maker by Anne Heazlewood

2007-11-21T11:51:49Z

An amiable wander through the Marlow books by Antonia Forest. I think I was expecting more biographical information, and I enjoyed those bits the most, but I'm guessing that a lot of that is being held back for the forthcoming biography.

It's basically a summary of the books and characters, grouped by family, with a separate section for the historical books, and some speculations and photographs of locations for the books. The author has also constructed maps for Trennels, the Marlows' home, and Kingscote, their school. I enjoyed the pictures, but I wasn't at all bothered about the workings-out and inconsistencies about the locations of various features of home and school in the books. If one character has to dash from point A to point B, I'm more interested in the role that plays in the story, and not whether I can build up an actual map in my head. But that's just me. I'm not sure I agree with all the character assessments either.

Still, some lovely stuff in it, that made it worth reading.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

2007-09-16T21:07:15Z

I spotted this book, re-issued as part of the Penguin Celebrations series, while I was browsing in Borders with birthday book tokens, because it was just below Marilynne Robinson on the bookshelves in Borders. (I also bought Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, having read and loved Gilead. I'm hoping that the former has been re-printed because of the success of the latter.)

This book has won awards, and is first person narrative of teenage American girl, sent to Britain by her father to stay with her cousins, and whilst she is there, war breaks out with a terrorist occupancy of Britain.

I didn't enjoy it that much, and I seem to be in a minority with that view judging by the many fulsome reviews I found while googling after finishing the book, and presumably by the juries of whatever awards it's won.

One criticism I've seen levelled at Cassandra, the narrator of I Capture The Castle both within and without the text is that the narrator is too self-consciously naive. And while I don't actually think that of Cassandra, I do find it to be the case with the narrator, Daisy, of How I Live Now.

The war pretty much fades into the background of the story - Daisy gives us no details of the war; all is very vague as to who the enemy is, and what their aims or plans might be. And while this might reflect the self-absorption of the narrator, and the limited communications, it does mean that the story is taking place in some vague neverwhen.

I also found that as I was going through it, I was thinking of other books with similarities to this one, notably I Capture The Castle (Dodie Smith), but also Carrie's War (Nina Bawden), Z for Zacahariah (Robert C O'Brien), and The Growing Summer (Noel Streatfeild). I was probably thinking about all these other books whilst reading this one, because I just wasn't that absorbed in this book. Several of the reviews commented on the originality of the book, and while I don't think originality necessarily makes a great book, since I was picking up elements of several other books, I'm not sure I'd claim originality for this one either.

The narrative style was occasionally jarring, and I did wonder at the end to whom Daisy was telling the story. The structure at the end of part one, with the phone call, and then part two, didn't seem to fit with the earlier style, even if Daisy is suddenly six years older. It's not a diary, and it doesn't have the framing of The Handmaid's Tale with the academic conference and the tapes. It's not as bad as Caps Lock HP, but there's fair amount of both CAPSLOCK and Initial Capitals, the latter usually representing the adult view as perceived by Daisy.

And despite the horror of the massacre as described by Daisy and witnessed by Edmond, as told us later by Daisy who hears it from a shell-shocked Edmond, the writing didn't draw me in, the way I've been drawn in in Carrie's War and for that matter, in To Serve Them All My Days.

It's also consciously playing with children's adventure narratives, like in The Growing Summer, and many other books when the adults are either absent or ineffectual, as happens in this book. There's an idyllic day, but it's heavily underlined that this is the last of the idyll. The children are separated, as evacuees often were, but the main problem.

The characterisation isn't very strong. All the children appear to have or develop some form of telepathy, and sense of each other's presence. Two of them have a rapport with animals (Isaac and Piper). One is mostly off with his friends (Osbert), and then there's Edmond who smokes, and falls in love with Daisy and Daisy falls in love with him. And that's about it. Stuff happens, the kids are traumatised, and they start to recover. Daisy and Edmond are split up by the fortunes of war and the later actions of her father in getting her back to America. And then they get together again, and Daisy's presence (mental and physical) cures Edmond. (Classic hurt-comfort, methinks.) I also found it inconsistent. When the war/occupation first starts, Piper is the one doing all the cooking, coming up with meals, and appears to be the practical Susan. Later on, when Daisy and Piper are on the run cross-country to find the boys (they have to eke out their food, make camp where they can etc, and not be spotted on the roads - I wonder if JKR read this), it's Daisy who's taking care of Piper, although Piper knows which mushrooms can be eaten safely, Piper becomes some kind of mystical child that every adult male in the vicinity wants to love and protect. Piper it turns out is only nine years old, although that wasn't at all clear to me in the early part of the book.

Oh yes, and Daisy has anorexia, but that is cured by her going on the run with very little food and becoming aware of all those who must also be starving at that time, which struck me as a rather glib way to solve her problem.

And I wondered if Rosoff was taking a crack at the young action hero genre with:

Osbert and his friends from school said they thought it would be amazing to live in London and be spies and duck around The Enemy trying to get information and I thought, right, Osbert and a bunch of his snotty schoolfriends would be the first people I'd fall back on to save the nation if I happened to be Prime Minister.

I'm also wondering if I should re-read The Young Visiters as this Daisy's spelling is fine, but she doesn't bother much with punctuation.

Maybe I'm just missing the point and the subtleties of the this book, but it didn't do much for me. I wouldn't say it was a bad read, just a 'so what' read.

Four British Fantasists by Charles Butler

2007-09-08T14:17:14Z

To give it its full title, which LJ doesn't allow enough characters in the subject line for, Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper was a book I couldn't resist buying, and I thoroughly enjoyed this in-depth study of these aspects of these writers. I also felt that the author liked the books, unlike some of the other critics he cites (Jacqueline Rose springs to mind), and reading a critical in depth study about books I like, and in some cases love, as written by someone who also likes them is a great joy.

It's a fascinating view of the books, mixing the authors own perspectives on their writing, from interviews, and critical views. The wartime heritage, the outsider view (Lively having grown up in Egypt, not the UK), the use of magic and myth, the concerns of colonialism, and briefly their relation to other works and authors (Lewis and Tolkien).

It's one of those critical books that enhances my enjoyment and understanding of why I read and re-read books by these authors.

Exile for Annis, Cherry Tree Perch, Strangers at the Farm School by Josephine Elder

2007-09-08T14:06:38Z

I bought these three books because Clare Mallory dedicates Juliet Overseas to Josephine Elder. These three books are the story of Annis, a High School girl, who gets sent off to a small school in the country, because of ill-health. There she meets Kitty. The first book is Annis adapting to a very different school life, learning to ride (see, it's a pony book too) and feeling simultaneously welcomed and rejected by Kitty's family who have a secret. The second book is about Kitty and Annis falling out and making up over Kitty's attraction to an older woman who has moved into the neighbourhood, and the third about the expansion of the school, including two German Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.

I think the second book, Cherry Tree Perch is my favourite of these three.

Journey Between Worlds by Sylvia Louise Engdahl

2007-09-08T12:49:17Z

So, life on Mars. Melinda learns to adapt to it, and changes from a position of condescension that Mars can never live up to Earth to understanding that living on Mars is not about living up to Earth. She learns to love Mars for itself, and for Alex.

The "trapped and running out of air" scene is very funny - there's a lovely balance between the standard melodrama of that sort of scene, and the personal revelations that come about through it, and the fact that actually there's no drama at all because they aren't about to run out of air at all (there's a supply of canisters in the shed that our heroine doesn't know about).

I felt very sorry for her Gran though, left alone on Maple Beach, and not likely to see her grand-daughter ever again.

I enjoyed this book, although it's not going to become my favourite Engdahl.

Emily of New Moon by L M Montgomery

2007-09-08T12:39:07Z

Enjoyable, although I find as with Anne of Green Gables, that sometimes Emily can be a bit too precious.

Thursday's Children by Rumer Godden

2007-09-08T12:35:09Z

Thursday's Children does have elements of Billy Elliot in that Dorne is a boy who wants to dance, coming from a family who doesn't understand his need to dance, but it's as much his sister's Crystal story, too, as Crystal also wants to dance, and is a talented dancer, but is she talented enough? And Crystal's story is closer to Mrs Wintle's Wonders, although Crystal is a mix of Hilary and Rachel, rather than being one or the other, than it is to Ballet Shoes, even if Dorne has some Posy-like qualities.

As with all of Godden's novels I've read, there is some lovely writing, engaging characters, who have to solve problems thrust upon them by circumstance and need, so I'm continuing in my quest to read more of books.

Two Chalet School Girls in India by Priyadarshini Narendra

2007-09-08T12:21:54Z

Two Chalet School Girls in India is a Chalet School fill-in book, more specifically, for a book that Brent-Dyer had written but for which the manuscript had been lost. I think it's the most successful fill-in I've read, partly because it takes the some of the formulaic elements of the Chalet School novels, and sets them in a different context, and partly because there's a little irreverence too, whereas as some of the other fill-ins or extensions I've read have plodded along worthily enough, but haven't really added anything.

The formulaic elements I picked up on in this are the science/domestic science mishap, which in this case involves a coffee percolator in someone's living room, and the expedition. The irreverence comes of taking one of the central characters (Joey Bettany) and putting her in a different context where she's not the instant success that she always has been (I don't count Eustacia as Eustacia clearly falls in love with Joey but represses it), because she doesn't understand the rules that govern the society that she's now in. Narendra also emphasises 'different', rather than 'wrong', and gets Joey to see that too. (I suspect that this irreverence to both her and Mary-Lou is why I like The Chalet Girls Grow Up and ankaret's take on them in Giles Marlow's One and Only. Narendra also has one of her characters get Joey to wear her hair in something other than the earphone, Princess Leia style she adopts in the later books.

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

2007-09-08T11:34:19Z

Engaging read - a comedy of manners featuring dragons. The notes section says it owes a lot to Trollope. I enjoyed it as a book to read on the train, but I'm finding myself without much to say about it.

The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls: Lois McMaster Bujold

2007-09-08T11:30:08Z

The Curse of Chalion is the story of Cazaril, and how he saves the world, or at least the part of it that is Chalion, and himself. There's a lot of religion in it, but then a religion which has a god called The Bastard, so that characters end up screaming, "You bastard, Bastard!" tickles me enormously. Oh and there's politics too, and a wedding, and animal therapy and friendship between women. Generally, it's Bujold doing was Bujold does exceptionally well. And I was left wondering about the other women in the story, Ista and Sara, and lo and behold, that's what we get in Paladin of Souls.

In Paladin of Souls, Ista throws off life in a courtly household, who largely believe that she's insane, and goes on a journey, uncovers an invasion plot, gets god-ridden again, sets a dead man to rest, becomes friends with the messenger girl (the sword-wielding, hard-riding young girl who's escaped from the dullness of a country life limited by farming who would be the heroine in another novel when in this one it's the middle-aged Ista who is), and generally saves the world with both divine and human help. And it's also Bujold doing what Bujold does to my great delight again.

Fire and Hemlock, Howl's Moving Castle, The Pinhoe Egg, Conrad's Fate: Diana Wynne Jones

2007-09-08T11:16:42Z

Prompted by a conversation with gair and the fact I'd been re-reading some Diana Wynne Jones books, I decided to see if the bookshop had any more that I hadn't already read, and was fortunate enough to scoop these four books.

As usual with DWJ, I thoroughly enjoyed them without always understanding why, and finish them knowing I'm going to re-read them, and get more out of them each time.

I read Fire and Hemlock in bed one Saturday morning, and wasn't going to put it down or do anything else till I'd finished it. I really enjoyed Polly's re-visiting a life she'd been made to forget, memories of how it was being taken from her, and her determination to re-capture all of her past for her own sake.

At one level, it's a re-telling of Tam Linn and Thomas the Rhymer (and since I keep reading re-tellings, I should probably get round to reading the originals at some point), but as with the best re-tellings, it goes beyond that.

Looking back on the book, one of the saddest moments, for me, is Polly's realising that her father and his new partner have no room in their lives for her, and are indifferent to her and her struggles. And that's counterbalanced by Tom and his quartet helping her out.

I do need to re-read before I can come up with anything coherent about this book. Gah.

A couple of years ago, we got Howl's Moving Castle out from the video shop. It wouldn't play. I'm now quite glad of that, because I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I think I'd rather have read the book before seeing the film. I've heard the film made lots of changes, so I'd rather have read the original than come to it via the adaptation.

I enjoyed Sophie and her (lack of) wisdom in determining her sister's fates, and her practical magic (her craft with her hats), and how she dealt with being an old woman, her bargain with the fire demon, and her annoying Howl, and him annoying her right back. I enjoyed how playful it was was with the tropes of fairy tales, and bits of it reminded me of The Wizard of Oz too.

And I really enjoyed how, rather than being the lone hero, Lettie and Martha and Fanny (the not-wicked stepmother) all end up helping Sophie out.

Conrad's Fate is another book in the Chrestomanci series, and we get to see Christopher Chant as a young man, before he beomes the Chrestomanci. Most of the adults either lie to or neglect the children involved, but things work out in the end. I enjoyed how the notion of acting is spread throughout the novel (the players, Conrad being a spy, the charade of the upstairs/downstairs life, and the probabilities acting upon people).

The Pinhoe Egg is another book in the Chrestomanci series, this time looking upon Christopher Chant and his castle from the point of view of people whose magic is outside of theirs. I had much more of a sense of place, and people inhabiting that place than in some of the Chrestomanci novels which skip between worlds - this one takes place in a smaller space geographically, but travels in a different way. It still explores a relationship between children and adults that can be neglectful and exploitative, but also deals with freedom and imprisonment as well, and exploration and stagnation too.

I also thought that Marianne and Joe were rather like Nick and Maree Mallory in Deep Secret.

Of the four of these, I'm more likely to re-read Fire and Hemlock and Howl's Moving Castle sooner, for different reasons, the latter being a playful delight, and the former, to puzzle through some more of its layers, and the other two I'm more likely re-read in context of the Chrestomanci series as a whole. And it probably also has to do with having female central protagonists too.

Rent Girl by Michelle Tea and Lauren McCubbin

2007-06-10T21:27:00Z

I read this after reading In My Skin. This is also a memoir of a woman who went into prostitution, but this time told in the form of an illustrated novel. I'm not using the term graphic novel, because it wasn't in a comic strip format. And it's a lot better than "In My Skin", not least of which because I ended up trusting the narrator more in her portrayal of both events and herself.
The illustrations and writing were both sharp and to the point, and complemented each other very well.

I borrowed this book, so I don't have it here to refer too, but I remember one illustration when the narrator is at work, and the look of sheer boredom on her face is priceless. And so is the last line of the book, which I won't even put a spoiler for behind this cut because it's just perfect.

I think that it works better for me than In My Skin because I didn't think I was being sold anything in this book, unlike the other one, which seemed quite desperate in its portrayal of life as a sex worker as being rather glamourous really, and not too unlike being in an Anais Nin story. Rent Girl had a more down-to-earth and pragmatic feel, and frankly, better writing, even though In My Skin gets praised for its lyrical writing, which I didn't find lyrical at all, but gimcrack, perhaps more like the life as it may have been.

Anyway, if you're in the mood for a memoir on this subject, I'd recommend this one over In My Skin, many times over.

Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright

2007-06-10T20:58:47Z

This was another one lent me by altariel.

I really enjoyed this one, the story of one summer in Garnet Linden's life, when she finds a thimble, the rain comes to stave off the drought, the neighbours help out with building a new barn, she listens to her friend's, Citronella's, grandmother tell stories, her family adopt Eric who's ridden the railroads looking for work after his father died, she runs away from home because she's so cross with her brother and ends buying the whole family presents, and their trip to the county fair. It reminds me a lot of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. It's a delight. So many thanks to altariel!

A Pony For Jean by Joanna Cannan

2007-06-10T20:54:01Z

Jean moves to the country because her father loses her job, and her wealthier cousins take pity on her, and let her have an old rescue pony of theirs that they call The Toastrack. She finds a new name for him, and together they take on the local Pony Club, a burglar, and go on to triumph at the local gymkhana. (Oh, and her Dad gets a new job, so they can build a nicer stable.)

It's very sweet. It isn't quite as engaging as Ruby Ferguson, not that I've read many of her books about Jill, but it's exactly what you might expect from a pony book about the underdog (underpony?), and none the worse for that.

Joanna Cannan also wrote Princes in the Land, republished by Persephone Books, and this is described as being the first pony book on their web site. (She was the mother of Christine, Diana and Josephine Pullein-Thompson.) This book dates back to 1936, and there was another book on the shelf next to it, that appeared to be a pony book, dated 1912 (or thereabouts), which I can't remember the title of, so I'm a little dubious about that specific claim, unless it relates to a particular type of pony book. I'm not familiar enough with the genre.

A Reckoning by May Sarton

2007-06-10T18:14:36Z

I've read a couple of other of May Sarton's books, and one of her journals, and I enjoy her books, not least of which because they deal with older women. This one's about Laura Spelman and her relationships with her sisters, her senile mother, her daughter, her nieces and cousins, the woman who nurses her in her dying, and ultimately, the bosom friend from whom her mother separated her when they were younger. It's great to read something that focuses on something other than women's relationships with men. Laura's relationship with her husband (who dies before the story in the book takes place), son and doctor (male) are much about the control that they exert over her, especially the latter two's determination on Laura should conduct her dying journey, and her own battle with her bodily strength and them to exert her will. It's contrasted beautifully with Ella's (the bosom friends), holding herself back from Laura, at Laura's request, until Laura is ready to see her again, and their final re-union made me cry.

Occasionally, I found the writing style awkward, but I'm not sure if this is one of Sarton's earlier works, and that's the reason why. And it's possible that in the scenes in question, it's deliberate and awkwardness in the text reflects the awkwardness in the scene.

Cocaine Blues, Flying Too High, Away With The Fairies by Kerry Greenwood

2007-06-10T18:05:24Z

The lovely altariel was kind enough to lend me three Phryne Fisher books.

You could fall in love with these books based on the covers alone. They're an absolutely delightful, Australian mystery series, with an enchanting heroine, Phryne Fisher, and a great ensemble cast, including a gruff female doctor who appears in the first two of these books, but not the third listed above (not the third in the series), a couple of cab drivers, a dancer who reminds me so very much of Sashie in Jane Duncan's My Friend books and others. Phyrne reminds me of a cross between Lord Peter Wimsey, and the Saint of the Leslie Charteris books (never saw the TV series, so I've no idea how the portrayal differed), although the book covers link her to Emma Peel. I think I enjoyed Away With The Fairies the most, but I don't know how much of that is down to the other two being the first two in the series.

I'll definitely read more of these, when I can get hold of them.

The Player's Boy by Antonia Forest

2007-01-16T22:23:26Z

I was going to start reading this on the train back from my Xmas visit to my parents, but I started reading some of the introduction, although I found them tedious going and gave up. I was slightly put off by the passages from the book included in one or other of the introductions, but when I came to read the book, I didn't find the language off-putting, as I had these quoted sections.

I enjoyed the book more than I expected too, given the lack of girls, and in the C20 Marlow books by the same author, I find all of the girls more interesting than the boys. However, I couldn't help but see Nicholas Marlow as Nicola Marlow. I'm not sure if Humphrey maps to anyone, but surely Nicholas/Humphrey is practically canon? I wish they'd re-published this with The Player and the Rebels as a single volume, as I found it quite frustrating that the story stopped where it did.

Doreen by Barbara Noble

2007-01-16T22:17:34Z

Doreen, by Barbara Noble, is another book from the wonderful Persephone books. Set during WWII, it concerns the eponymous heroine, and her mother's reluctant decision to send her to the country, long after other children have been evacuated. Rather than go through a government scheme, Mrs Rawlings sends her to the sister of a woman who works in the office that Mrs Rawlings cleans. And there we have set up, a careful and deliberate consideration of class, and in the case of Geoffrey and Francie, who take in Doreen, a very self-conscious consideration.

In some ways, this books mirrors a lot of children's books, with ineffectual adults, a villain (in this case, Doreen's father who disappeared after her birth), countryside adventures, illness, the cruelty of other children, but it also focusses on the concerns of the adults too, including Geoffrey's casual affection for Doreen, Francie's intense love, and Mrs Rawlings protective and possessive maternal love.

There's an ending to the book, but it's neither an unhappy or a happy one. The book doesn't attempt to answer the question of whether Doreen should stay with Geoffrey and Francie who can offer her security and comfort as well as love, and her own mother who can offer much the same but in a different way, with less luxury involved, where luxuries include a room of her own for Doreen. The book ends with what seems right, but right also involves unhappiness, and although Francie and Mrs Rawlings could meet briefly and awkwardly while sharing the nursing of Doreen, they can have no lasting relationship as neither of them can change, and their worlds, although both changed by war, don't meet.

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

2007-01-16T22:07:37Z

Wintersmith continues the story of Tiffany Aching, which books I believe are aimed at a younger audience. It was very engaging, although I assume the younger audience is why we now have boffo rather than headology. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg appear, although I miss Magrat Garlick since, being a bit of a wet hen myself, I tend to like wet hen characters.

I find I don't have a lot to say about it. I recall finding the end rushed (well, the bit about Tiffany in the Wintersmith's castle) and it didn't make a huge impression on me unlike the Tooth Fairy's castle in Hogfather. I'll probably re-read it at some point.

The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden

2006-12-30T18:05:06Z

The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Another story of adolescence, this time told through the eyes of thirteenyear old Cecil, and based on a true incident in the life of Rumer Godden.

Cecil, and her sisters and brother, are dragged off to France by their mother, to view the battlefields. Their mother becomes ill, and they are casually looked after by a man residing at the hotel, who turns out to be a nortorious thief. Cecil watches her sister move into adulthood and begin to know what power beauty can have, as she herself moves into next stage of her life. The villain is generous as well as ruthless (drugging Willmouse, the brother, who spends all his time designing dresses for his two dolls), and earns the loyalty of all the children.

The narrative is beautifully handled, interspersed with comments from the present, and from all the other children as to how Cecil should tell this tale.

The ending is abrupt, but I'm left with the feeling that I need to go back and re-read, to take more note of those comments and how well they work with the story.

It also reminded of Claudine at School by Colette.

In some ways, it's very typical of children's adventure stories. The parents/guardians are absent, and there's an unusual holiday setting. But the time in the story when they are at their most free, while the eldest sister is also ill, is the time when they do nothing, and certainly don't worry about tracking jewel thieves. The villain isn't villainous to the end, and the children don't want to think about any of the mysterious happenings, and possible explanations. They're not curious about what he's up to, they just want things to stay the same. And even when they find out what he's done, they remain loyal to their memories of him, and ignore the police inspector's exhortations to remember their duty.

I've recently been reading more Rumer Godden, and this one is another reason why I'll continue to do so. I hope to track down Black Narcissus next.