Book journal
Jan. 19th, 2004 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielI have fallen chronically behind in listing what I have been reading. Here's a quick overview of what I have read since September. My reviews are a bit slap-dash or even non-existent, I just didn't want to lose track of what I've been reading.
BTW, I did achieve my pointless self-set challenge of reading my own height in books this year, but only just. Which, given how short I am, is a bit depressing.
Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Attic Term; Cricket Term; Falconer’s Lure; Run Away Home by Antonia Forest
Thanks to the combined efforts of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katlinel and Girls Gone By Publishers, I was able to reread and read for the first time many of Antonia Forest’s books this year. Her school stories – about the Marlow twins, Nicola and Laurie – are without a doubt the best out there, but the other stories about the whole Marlow family (six girls and two boys) have turned out to be treasures as well. Run Away Home was my least favourite out of this batch, I think – competent older brother Giles takes over the plot too much at the end – but Falconer’s Lure has been my favourite so far, not just because of the hawks, but because of the beautiful handling of the friendship between Nicola and the son of their new neighbours, Patrick Merrick. I was sad to read that Antonia Forest died at the end of last year.
The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley
Very enjoyable children’s book, and thanks tokatlinel for the rec. It concerns the lives led by the characters in a children’s book when they are not being read. They spring to life and onto set when the book is opened – and woe betide them when the book is unread and damaged as the years pass by... Their humility before the Reader is as nothing compared to their self-abasement on the appearance of the Writer. As it should be.
My Friends the Miss Boyds by Jane Duncan
katlinel's recommendation again - excellent and absorbing account of a young girl's observations of life in a small Scottish village, interspersed with her re-appraisal of events as an adult. There are many more from this series, and I'm looking forward to getting back to them. Treasures, katlinel - thank you.
Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Not her best (and, let’s face it, the last four have been bloody brilliant), but enjoyable enough. But I Need More Gregor!
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Nobody told me this was so bloody funny.
The Gate to Women’s Country by Sherri S. Tepper
An extremely powerful read, and I challenge anyone not to have their breath yanked from them at the end. The more I reflect on it, the more I find it problematic on several levels (e.g. the plausibility of the structures of the society that she depicts, and the treatment of homosexuality), but I have no doubt I’ll go back and reread this, particularly when I have more knowledge of the various bits of Greek literature that she deploys throughout, and also because I want to see how she did it technically.
The Murder Room by P.D. James
I read this just after watching the TV dramatization of Death in Holy Orders with Martin Shaw, and it helped enormously to be able to plug in the actors’ faces to the book characters. Skipped through it quickly and it was enjoyable enough. Glad it was someone else’s hardback I’d borrowed though, and not one I’d paid for. And I can’t remember whodunit.
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
This is memoir by an Iranian professor of English Literature about teaching in Iranian universities before, during, and after the Revolution. After resigning her post over a refusal to wear the veil, she invites a group of female students to attend special classes in her home. The memoir follows their experiences, up to the point where Nafisi leaves Iran for the US. As the title suggests, Nafisi is an expert on Nabokov, but the chapters which I found the most satisfying concerned a classroom trial of The Great Gatsby (tried for being an imperialist American novel), and also on Daisy Miller (which acquired a wholly new significance in the context of these women’s lives). This was my last choice for my offline reading group, and we were largely in agreement that, despite occasional lapses into sentimentality, it was an absorbing and moving book.
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Started off vaguely enjoying it, ended up nearly throwing it across the room.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Up amongst my favourite reads of this year. A semi-autobiographical account of a summer spent on an island in the Gulf of Finland, and following the friendship between a motherless little girl and her elderly grandmother. Wise, beautifully written, and life-affirming. Highly recommended.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Big but a quick read. Slick and obvious. I think he’s angling for a film script. Clickety clock tickety tock prize winning book by numbers.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber
Thanks tocommunicatorfor the rec. Powers along a fair old pace, good page-turner, great evocation of the sights, sounds and stink of Victorian London. Perhaps some sag in the middle, but I think it raised its game again at the end.
Raising the Stones by Sherri S. Tepper
Slow moving, but involving and absorbing.
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
Mildly promising start, and then unengaging and disappointing.
Liberation by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore
By far the best book treatment of Blake’s 7. Loads of helpful production detail and excellent research, and with many very interesting analyses of individual analyses. I’m not persuaded about one or two (e.g. Gan-was-a-sex-murderer) and also I don’t agree with the analysis of Power, but these are very minor points in an otherwise indispensable book.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Read chiefly so that I could catch up with Mr A’s tally on the Big Read list (yeah, I’m that sad).
Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Claire Morrall
One of those small press books that suddenly finds itself in the spotlight, this by getting shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is the story of a woman whose mother died when she was a very small child, and who is unable to have children herself. She is the youngest sister of five older brothers (Lost Boys – the title of the book is a line from Peter Pan). It reminded me a great deal, thematically, of Gregory Maguire’s Lost, but was much better executed. I thought it was a very good portrait of bereavement, and the displacement that comes from depression and early loss. It was very touching about the fragile bonds that people who have been damaged try to make between themselves – but then that’s my favourite romantic story: you’ve been hurt, I’ve been hurt – let’s fix each other together. I think the plot falls apart a little at the end, but otherwise it was very affecting.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
She never disappoints. This was great.
Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd
A splendid reprint from Persephone Books. It concerns a woman who is shipwrecked just before WW2 breaks out – when she is rescued, she comes back to London in the Blitz. Obviously it’s a bit of a contrived situation, but this is a book written with a great deal of candour, intelligence and compassion, and with universal themes: endurance, dignity, the continuance of life and meaning after death through investment in the generation that follows. (Interestingly, it was rediscovered and brought it to the attention of Persephone Books by someone who is in my local reading group. And yes – Barbara Euphan Todd is the creator of Worzel Gummidge. But don’t hold that against her.)
The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart
Charming Victorian children’s novel in which the child’s flights of fancy are treated with respect. Another Persephone reprint.
The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham
And yet another Persephone reprint, this time the story of a family of four children whose parents are suddenly called away to look after a sick relative, and then are lost in a plane crash. The money runs out, and the children move into a barn. It follows their attempts to stay together, while well-meaning and not so well-meaning village folk attempt to intervene in various ways. Solid rather than enchanting, and while the burdens fall mainly on the older girl (particularly household burdens), that’s a function of the period in which it’s set, and as her POV is the one primarily followed, her extra worries are drawn to the fore, I think. (FI-COAT [1]: Eleanor Graham was the founding editor of Puffin Books, and Worzel Gummidge was the first book that Puffin published.)
The Eyre Affair; Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
I found the first of these a little too clever and self-conscious for its own good, but the second was much better plotted, and the characterization improved markedly too. I notice the third one, The Well of Lost Plots, is now out in trade paperback.
Honest Doubt; The Edge of Doom by Amanda Cross
The last two of her books about literary detective Kate Fansler. Honest Doubt has a particularly good new character, who tells the story (and provides commentary on Kate Fansler throughout). In The Edge of Doom, a elderly man arrives claiming to be Kate’s father. The plots are not the strong points of these books, but they’re very readable and enjoyable nonetheless. (But why did they decide to change the B&W spine uniform to one with colours?)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
One of my very favourite stories. I reread it every Christmas.
The Silent Speaker by Noel Streatfeild
One of her books for adults, and a very clever take on the whodunit – the death in this book is a suicide (we know this from the start), but family and friends of the dead woman still have to determine the nature and extent of their guilt. A little dated, but a strong and interesting narrative.
The Marlows and the Traitor by Antonia Forest
A solid and exciting adventure story, and the girls get to do stuff in this one. Particularly Laurie (kind of).
Return to Gone-Away by Elizabeth Enright
This is a follow-up to Gone-Away Lake, which I haven’t found yet. It won’t displace the Melendy books in my heart, but it has the dry wit and generosity that I love from those books.
A Coronet for Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney
Another from Girls Gone By, and a version of The Princess Diaries, really – young girl discovers that she is in fact a Duchess. Lovely and lots of fun.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Entertaining, funny, touching, and easily as good as The Crow Road, which is what it made me think of (and which is one of my favourite Iain Banks books). Thanks,katlinel, for making me fill what was a gaping hole in my reading!
Slow River by Nicola Griffith
And yet another excellent recommendation from the excellentkatlinel! A great book to finish the year on – near-future scenario, strongly and well-plotted, with smashing writing and imagery and a terrific set of (mainly female) characters. Thank you once again, katlinel! This is one I’ll be coming back to.
[1] FI-COAT: Fundamental Inter-Connectedness Of All Things
OK, lunchtime now.
BTW, I did achieve my pointless self-set challenge of reading my own height in books this year, but only just. Which, given how short I am, is a bit depressing.
Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Attic Term; Cricket Term; Falconer’s Lure; Run Away Home by Antonia Forest
Thanks to the combined efforts of
katlinel and Girls Gone By Publishers, I was able to reread and read for the first time many of Antonia Forest’s books this year. Her school stories – about the Marlow twins, Nicola and Laurie – are without a doubt the best out there, but the other stories about the whole Marlow family (six girls and two boys) have turned out to be treasures as well. Run Away Home was my least favourite out of this batch, I think – competent older brother Giles takes over the plot too much at the end – but Falconer’s Lure has been my favourite so far, not just because of the hawks, but because of the beautiful handling of the friendship between Nicola and the son of their new neighbours, Patrick Merrick. I was sad to read that Antonia Forest died at the end of last year. The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley
Very enjoyable children’s book, and thanks to
katlinel for the rec. It concerns the lives led by the characters in a children’s book when they are not being read. They spring to life and onto set when the book is opened – and woe betide them when the book is unread and damaged as the years pass by... Their humility before the Reader is as nothing compared to their self-abasement on the appearance of the Writer. As it should be. My Friends the Miss Boyds by Jane Duncan
katlinel's recommendation again - excellent and absorbing account of a young girl's observations of life in a small Scottish village, interspersed with her re-appraisal of events as an adult. There are many more from this series, and I'm looking forward to getting back to them. Treasures, katlinel - thank you.Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Not her best (and, let’s face it, the last four have been bloody brilliant), but enjoyable enough. But I Need More Gregor!
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Nobody told me this was so bloody funny.
The Gate to Women’s Country by Sherri S. Tepper
An extremely powerful read, and I challenge anyone not to have their breath yanked from them at the end. The more I reflect on it, the more I find it problematic on several levels (e.g. the plausibility of the structures of the society that she depicts, and the treatment of homosexuality), but I have no doubt I’ll go back and reread this, particularly when I have more knowledge of the various bits of Greek literature that she deploys throughout, and also because I want to see how she did it technically.
The Murder Room by P.D. James
I read this just after watching the TV dramatization of Death in Holy Orders with Martin Shaw, and it helped enormously to be able to plug in the actors’ faces to the book characters. Skipped through it quickly and it was enjoyable enough. Glad it was someone else’s hardback I’d borrowed though, and not one I’d paid for. And I can’t remember whodunit.
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
This is memoir by an Iranian professor of English Literature about teaching in Iranian universities before, during, and after the Revolution. After resigning her post over a refusal to wear the veil, she invites a group of female students to attend special classes in her home. The memoir follows their experiences, up to the point where Nafisi leaves Iran for the US. As the title suggests, Nafisi is an expert on Nabokov, but the chapters which I found the most satisfying concerned a classroom trial of The Great Gatsby (tried for being an imperialist American novel), and also on Daisy Miller (which acquired a wholly new significance in the context of these women’s lives). This was my last choice for my offline reading group, and we were largely in agreement that, despite occasional lapses into sentimentality, it was an absorbing and moving book.
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Started off vaguely enjoying it, ended up nearly throwing it across the room.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Up amongst my favourite reads of this year. A semi-autobiographical account of a summer spent on an island in the Gulf of Finland, and following the friendship between a motherless little girl and her elderly grandmother. Wise, beautifully written, and life-affirming. Highly recommended.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Big but a quick read. Slick and obvious. I think he’s angling for a film script. Clickety clock tickety tock prize winning book by numbers.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber
Thanks to
communicatorfor the rec. Powers along a fair old pace, good page-turner, great evocation of the sights, sounds and stink of Victorian London. Perhaps some sag in the middle, but I think it raised its game again at the end. Raising the Stones by Sherri S. Tepper
Slow moving, but involving and absorbing.
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
Mildly promising start, and then unengaging and disappointing.
Liberation by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore
By far the best book treatment of Blake’s 7. Loads of helpful production detail and excellent research, and with many very interesting analyses of individual analyses. I’m not persuaded about one or two (e.g. Gan-was-a-sex-murderer) and also I don’t agree with the analysis of Power, but these are very minor points in an otherwise indispensable book.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Read chiefly so that I could catch up with Mr A’s tally on the Big Read list (yeah, I’m that sad).
Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Claire Morrall
One of those small press books that suddenly finds itself in the spotlight, this by getting shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is the story of a woman whose mother died when she was a very small child, and who is unable to have children herself. She is the youngest sister of five older brothers (Lost Boys – the title of the book is a line from Peter Pan). It reminded me a great deal, thematically, of Gregory Maguire’s Lost, but was much better executed. I thought it was a very good portrait of bereavement, and the displacement that comes from depression and early loss. It was very touching about the fragile bonds that people who have been damaged try to make between themselves – but then that’s my favourite romantic story: you’ve been hurt, I’ve been hurt – let’s fix each other together. I think the plot falls apart a little at the end, but otherwise it was very affecting.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
She never disappoints. This was great.
Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd
A splendid reprint from Persephone Books. It concerns a woman who is shipwrecked just before WW2 breaks out – when she is rescued, she comes back to London in the Blitz. Obviously it’s a bit of a contrived situation, but this is a book written with a great deal of candour, intelligence and compassion, and with universal themes: endurance, dignity, the continuance of life and meaning after death through investment in the generation that follows. (Interestingly, it was rediscovered and brought it to the attention of Persephone Books by someone who is in my local reading group. And yes – Barbara Euphan Todd is the creator of Worzel Gummidge. But don’t hold that against her.)
The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart
Charming Victorian children’s novel in which the child’s flights of fancy are treated with respect. Another Persephone reprint.
The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham
And yet another Persephone reprint, this time the story of a family of four children whose parents are suddenly called away to look after a sick relative, and then are lost in a plane crash. The money runs out, and the children move into a barn. It follows their attempts to stay together, while well-meaning and not so well-meaning village folk attempt to intervene in various ways. Solid rather than enchanting, and while the burdens fall mainly on the older girl (particularly household burdens), that’s a function of the period in which it’s set, and as her POV is the one primarily followed, her extra worries are drawn to the fore, I think. (FI-COAT [1]: Eleanor Graham was the founding editor of Puffin Books, and Worzel Gummidge was the first book that Puffin published.)
The Eyre Affair; Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
I found the first of these a little too clever and self-conscious for its own good, but the second was much better plotted, and the characterization improved markedly too. I notice the third one, The Well of Lost Plots, is now out in trade paperback.
Honest Doubt; The Edge of Doom by Amanda Cross
The last two of her books about literary detective Kate Fansler. Honest Doubt has a particularly good new character, who tells the story (and provides commentary on Kate Fansler throughout). In The Edge of Doom, a elderly man arrives claiming to be Kate’s father. The plots are not the strong points of these books, but they’re very readable and enjoyable nonetheless. (But why did they decide to change the B&W spine uniform to one with colours?)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
One of my very favourite stories. I reread it every Christmas.
The Silent Speaker by Noel Streatfeild
One of her books for adults, and a very clever take on the whodunit – the death in this book is a suicide (we know this from the start), but family and friends of the dead woman still have to determine the nature and extent of their guilt. A little dated, but a strong and interesting narrative.
The Marlows and the Traitor by Antonia Forest
A solid and exciting adventure story, and the girls get to do stuff in this one. Particularly Laurie (kind of).
Return to Gone-Away by Elizabeth Enright
This is a follow-up to Gone-Away Lake, which I haven’t found yet. It won’t displace the Melendy books in my heart, but it has the dry wit and generosity that I love from those books.
A Coronet for Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney
Another from Girls Gone By, and a version of The Princess Diaries, really – young girl discovers that she is in fact a Duchess. Lovely and lots of fun.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Entertaining, funny, touching, and easily as good as The Crow Road, which is what it made me think of (and which is one of my favourite Iain Banks books). Thanks,
katlinel, for making me fill what was a gaping hole in my reading!Slow River by Nicola Griffith
And yet another excellent recommendation from the excellent
katlinel! A great book to finish the year on – near-future scenario, strongly and well-plotted, with smashing writing and imagery and a terrific set of (mainly female) characters. Thank you once again, katlinel! This is one I’ll be coming back to. [1] FI-COAT: Fundamental Inter-Connectedness Of All Things
OK, lunchtime now.
