Reading finally up-to-date
Sep. 2nd, 2004 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielOK, now I'm up-to-date on this year.
The Children of Green Knowe, A Stranger at Green Knowe and The Stones of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
I posted a little about the sheer gut-wrenching fear from rereading these here.
The Ready-Made Family by Antonia Forest
I’d been looking forward to this one from Girls Gone By, about Kay Marlow’s unsuitable marriage, and it didn’t disappoint. I think Peter’s Room is still my favourite, but this one was great in tracing how family irritations can explode into full-blown drama.
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor was a name that would come up whenever the INFJ list talked about favourite authors. Apparently she is famed for her short stories, so I read her novel first. Got to love American Gothic.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban; The Female Man by Joanna Russ; Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler; The Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
I had to do a bunch of reading for an essay on Blake’s 7 and the literary utopia. I really want to write up a longer post about all this reading, and some of the thoughts that emerged from it, but I’ve got too much on right now and any non-fiction inspiration is going to have to be channelled into TBT. Or spewed out as fiction one day. Suffice to say that the main secondary source (Utopia and Anti-Utopia by Krishan Kumar) irritated me for its sexism (oh, and taught me lots of things I didn’t know before). (I did post elsewhere about Riddley Walker, which is currently leading in the ‘Best Book Read This Year’ competition.)
Piratica by Tanith Lee
A fun read (about a girl who wants to be a pirate and makes it so), although I did think it sagged a little here and there.
The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
Devolution mythologized.
The Giant, O’Brien by Hilary Mantel
The Giant O’Brien, a poet and a scholar, travels from famine-stricken Ireland to make his fortune in London. The nearly insane Dr Hunter, grave-robber, wants his bones. The opening scenes in Ireland were sparse and heart-wrenching, but something it didn’t work for me as the story went on. My mind was turning around the matter of These Isles after The Merlin Conspiracy, so I was reading it through those lenses. Oh and industrialization and the subjectivization of aesthetics and that kind of thing. I think.
The Wave in the Mind by Ursula Le Guin
The essays on writing in particular were like balm.
The Illustrated Mum, Dustbin Baby, Vicky Angel, Girls in Love, Girls Under Pressure, Girls Out Late by Jacqueline Wilson
After she appeared so often on the Big Read list, I was curious to read some Jacqueline Wilson; also to see what the crazy kids are reading these days. The local library duly supplied me with a batch (although I’m sure it looks a bit weird for me to be hanging around the young adults section – never mind, I’m quite short and in a certain light can nearly pass for twenty-eight). Anyway, I was left a little puzzled about the fuss. They’re very accessible, but I can think of other readable and better versions of similar stories (e.g. Vicky Angel, is about bereavement, a theme which has a much better treated in Bridge to Terebithia). The last three – a series about three friends (fourteen-year-old girls) were more satisfying, although I’d rather read more of The Princess Diaries series. I guess if her books are getting people to read and feel confident about reading, that’s the most important thing.
Good Evening, Mrs Craven and Minnie’s Room by Mollie Panter-Downes
Two collections of Panter-Downes’ short stories, as published in the New Yorker between 1941 and 1965; the first collection is of stories published during WW2, the second is a smaller collection, all published in peace-time. All thematically concerned with class and social changes; crisp, precise, insightful. Another triumph from Persephone Books. I am trying to resist buying One Fine Day; if anyone can think of a persuasive reason why I shouldn’t resist, I’d welcome it.
The Children of Green Knowe, A Stranger at Green Knowe and The Stones of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
I posted a little about the sheer gut-wrenching fear from rereading these here.
The Ready-Made Family by Antonia Forest
I’d been looking forward to this one from Girls Gone By, about Kay Marlow’s unsuitable marriage, and it didn’t disappoint. I think Peter’s Room is still my favourite, but this one was great in tracing how family irritations can explode into full-blown drama.
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor was a name that would come up whenever the INFJ list talked about favourite authors. Apparently she is famed for her short stories, so I read her novel first. Got to love American Gothic.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban; The Female Man by Joanna Russ; Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler; The Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
I had to do a bunch of reading for an essay on Blake’s 7 and the literary utopia. I really want to write up a longer post about all this reading, and some of the thoughts that emerged from it, but I’ve got too much on right now and any non-fiction inspiration is going to have to be channelled into TBT. Or spewed out as fiction one day. Suffice to say that the main secondary source (Utopia and Anti-Utopia by Krishan Kumar) irritated me for its sexism (oh, and taught me lots of things I didn’t know before). (I did post elsewhere about Riddley Walker, which is currently leading in the ‘Best Book Read This Year’ competition.)
Piratica by Tanith Lee
A fun read (about a girl who wants to be a pirate and makes it so), although I did think it sagged a little here and there.
The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
Devolution mythologized.
The Giant, O’Brien by Hilary Mantel
The Giant O’Brien, a poet and a scholar, travels from famine-stricken Ireland to make his fortune in London. The nearly insane Dr Hunter, grave-robber, wants his bones. The opening scenes in Ireland were sparse and heart-wrenching, but something it didn’t work for me as the story went on. My mind was turning around the matter of These Isles after The Merlin Conspiracy, so I was reading it through those lenses. Oh and industrialization and the subjectivization of aesthetics and that kind of thing. I think.
The Wave in the Mind by Ursula Le Guin
The essays on writing in particular were like balm.
The Illustrated Mum, Dustbin Baby, Vicky Angel, Girls in Love, Girls Under Pressure, Girls Out Late by Jacqueline Wilson
After she appeared so often on the Big Read list, I was curious to read some Jacqueline Wilson; also to see what the crazy kids are reading these days. The local library duly supplied me with a batch (although I’m sure it looks a bit weird for me to be hanging around the young adults section – never mind, I’m quite short and in a certain light can nearly pass for twenty-eight). Anyway, I was left a little puzzled about the fuss. They’re very accessible, but I can think of other readable and better versions of similar stories (e.g. Vicky Angel, is about bereavement, a theme which has a much better treated in Bridge to Terebithia). The last three – a series about three friends (fourteen-year-old girls) were more satisfying, although I’d rather read more of The Princess Diaries series. I guess if her books are getting people to read and feel confident about reading, that’s the most important thing.
Good Evening, Mrs Craven and Minnie’s Room by Mollie Panter-Downes
Two collections of Panter-Downes’ short stories, as published in the New Yorker between 1941 and 1965; the first collection is of stories published during WW2, the second is a smaller collection, all published in peace-time. All thematically concerned with class and social changes; crisp, precise, insightful. Another triumph from Persephone Books. I am trying to resist buying One Fine Day; if anyone can think of a persuasive reason why I shouldn’t resist, I’d welcome it.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 10:19 am (UTC)It has just dawned on me that A Good Man Is Hard to Find would be a pretty good title for a Mal/Simon story.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 10:25 am (UTC)My recollection is that I was enthusiastic about all except River, possibly disliking the shortage of Oldknowes, though I did like the "Goddess excellently bright" bit, which suggested the adults might be having quite independent adventures.
I don't think Susan Oldknowe is a classic Susan, if I'm guessing correctly at Katlinel's meaning... Don't remember her being the second of four, for a start.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 11:25 am (UTC)If you email me with your address (which I have managed to delete in some ill-judged PC purge), I'll pop Stones in the post to you. I liked it very much.
I was wondering about Susan as a classic Susan too. We'll need to get
no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 01:50 pm (UTC)I so adore Antonia Forest!
And it pleases me that I can follow Nicky's route in Oxford.
I love Peter's Room - I took it to England two years ago when I knew I was going to visit Haworth. :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-02 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-09 12:20 am (UTC)My uni had all of her books hidden in a dark corner of its 'stack' so I have read them all, but for some of them it has been a long, long time. I think 'The Marlows and the Traitor' is about top of my list to buy, partly just because it has been a very long time since I have read it and I have less of it memorised. From memory I didn't much like 'The Ready-made Family' - but then I never like it when the characters start to grow up.
Avon
no subject
Date: 2004-09-09 03:12 am (UTC)Avon
no subject
Date: 2004-09-09 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 12:12 am (UTC)I need to read this and Changing Planes
More Ursula LeGuin can only be a good thing.
I am trying to resist buying One Fine Day; if anyone can think of a persuasive reason why I shouldn’t resist, I’d welcome it.
Have you ever read anything that wasn't worth it from Persephone Books?
The books are beautiful and worth it for the endpapers alone.
You'll be helping them stay in business which means more beautiful books for you to delight in.
Minnie's Room was the one I found second-hand this summer. Lovely stories of change, and muddling through.
The Mavis Gallant stories I'm reading at the moment are similar, but often based in Europe.
I'm glad to read what you thought about Jacqueline Wilson's writing as she does seem to be a big name in children's writing at the moment.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 06:12 am (UTC)It's worse than that - it's published by Virago, and I can pick one up second-hand for a couple of quid on Amazon. I have to stop buying books. No more! No more, I say!
I'm glad you liked Minnie's Room too; I'll pass on Mrs Craven if you fancy it.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-22 11:00 am (UTC)