A Tangled Web: L.M. Montgomery. Read Books, 2017.

The title of this novel is a bit of a misnomer, because it makes you think of the saying/proverb ‘What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive’ and this isn’t a story about deception, per se. Referencing ‘Blood is thicker than water’ might have made more sense, although I think the best title might have been ( Read more... )

The Tower of Geburah: John White. Kingsway Publications, 1985

Rereading this book as an adult was a singular experience for me, as it had been read aloud to me as a child, so some names and phrases were ringing in my ears as I reread them now. ‘The Tower of Geburah’ belongs to the subgenre of fantasy children’s books that takes the Christian allegory of the Narnia books as its model. If you want to use shorthand, you might call it Narnia for the TV generation. ( Read more... )

I managed only four and a half rereads during the month of February, and I still haven’t completed the fractional! I intended to read more, but there you go. I needed something to drive me to reach for the ‘to reread’ pile, and this ventured did that. I reread and reconsidered a couple of books.

I also treated myself by rereading ‘The Blue Castle’ by L.M. Montgomery, which I love, although that didn’t blind me to some weaknesses. ( Read more... )

So, I don’t think Rereading February was a worthless exercise, and if I don’t reread more books, I’ll probably set aside another month like that in future. It was weird, though, to continue buying new books – as if I’d walk past a charity shop or second-hand bookshop and not browse! – whilst having to admit to myself that I wouldn’t be reading the book I’d purchased forthwith. It’s rare that I do, but normally there’s the possibility I might, so there was that change in perspective.

The Loyalty of Hester Hope: Bessie Marchant, Blackie

‘”She is a bundle of contradictions,”’ (p.179).

( Read more... )

Jane of Lantern Hill: L.M. Montgomery. Virago Modern Classics 2014

What a treat it was to read a new-to-me L.M. Montgomery book (and one that doesn’t disappoint as ‘Mistress Pat’ did). Of course, most of the Anne books are old, old friends and this has the touch of a fairy story, so you know there’ll be a happy ending, all of which led to a certain familiarity. However, I forgot quite how Montgomery’s phrasings transmit the characters’ rapture, and how can you not love words like ‘morningish’ and ‘foretokens’?

Victoria Jane Stuart is ( Read more... )

My next post will be a full review of a book, but over the past week or so I have spent a lot of money on books (really, a lot. I justified it with birthday money, discounts and REALLY, REALLY wanting the books). They will be read and reviewed in due course.

I've also read Mercy by Caroline B. Cooney is worth reading. For some reason, I wasn't expecting much of the author - I don't think I've read anything by her, but associated her with garish covers... The story of perhaps the most pragmatic girl in her settlement, brings out much of the complexity inherent in a situation in the turn of the eighteenth century in which Indians (gradually differentiated into Mohawks and other tribes), currently allied with the French, attack a whole Puritan English settlement and kidnap most of the residents they don't kill, who are mainly children. Over a long, cold and dangerous winter trek to Canada and new lives, some assimilate, some resist, awaiting ransom. Both writing and story-telling were of a high standard.

The Key to Rose Cottage by Margaret Baker features impetuous Margery, madcap Robin and their cousin Nicola. A series of coincidences mean that they have to keep house without any adults if they mean to have their holiday. I will say that the characters were lively.

Doris of Sunshine Ranch by Helen Dickson was obviously a sequel, but I had forgotten that I owned and had read the earlier book - I only discovered after checking an old list of books I own. One day I hope to have all said books in one place and be able to make an up to date list, or certainly all my Girls Own books. Doris and her family live on a Canadian ranch during the second world war. She's the eldest girl of the house and has to take on a lot of responsibilities when her mother goes away to meet her first grandson. The book is an odd mix of sentimentality (though it does manage not to pair everyone off as the opening chapters seem to suggest will happen), the kind of events you come across in a family on holiday story and exposition about the area. Its sentimentality mainly revolves around Doris being soft on all the young ones, except for brother Pat, whom she kicks on the shins a lot to shut him up when he is tactless, without ever explaining that to him. ( Read more... )

Over the holidays, I made the most of the opportunity to just sit down and read books from cover to cover. I started off with The Big Six by Arthur Ransome, which I really don't think I'd read before. ( Read more... )

I worked my way through The Woman in White - I believe I called every character a ninny at some junction.

I should have said the same thing about Family Playbill by Pamela Brown, ( Read more... )

I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, which was recommended by callmemadam among others.

And then I read a Bessie Marchant, A Girl of the Northland, ( Read more... )

The latter was an interesting precursor to reading A Cousin from Canada by May Wynne, ( Read more... )

I'm posting this so that I have a clean slate for the next book that I want to review. Here’s what I’ve been doing lately that might be of interest…

The Youngest Sister is typical Bessie Marchant, a girl’s coming of age in an exotic local with a smidge of romance and an attempt at Romance in the old-fashioned sense. Although her heroine criss-crosses across the vastness of Canada, you’d think that only half a dozen people lived there because she keeps coming across the same folks. There’s some mildly interesting character stuff about the eponymous heroine’s attempt to make up for a life where she let her (apparently) more capable sisters do everything for her, but BM feels the need to have peril or disaster strike in EVERY. SINGLE. CHAPTER. Which gets tiresome.

I have forgotten everything I ever learned about Canada and flying in the 50s or 60s, which is a shame because teaching me that stuff was the sole point of Shirley Flight, Air Hostess in Canadian Capers. Spectre Jungle by Violet Methley featured a bunch of really hard-to-like snots, racing against an American adversary in Borneo to find a mysterious simian - the spectre of the title.

More PC was Tangara by Nan Chauncy, which didn’t quite pull off its rather familiar trick of having a twentieth-century girl be able to slip through time and relive the experiences of another white girl, who befriended a Tasmanian Aboriginal girl, just before her people were massacred. Speaking of history, The Wind Blows Free teaches us what use can be made of cow pats (it’s a bit Little House on The Prairie).

I’ve also been reading The Crackerjack Girls’ Own. I don’t normally like these annuals – I like longer stories, where narrative covers up perfunctory writing, but it was cheap and featured a story by Anne Bradley. It turned out to be a pleasant enough collection to read before going to sleep – which isn’t how I normally read books, I’m far too likely to end up reading until the wee hours otherwise.

I read Mistress Pat, the sequel to Pat of Silver Bush. Poor Jingle. Montgomery had to do something REALLY, REALLY DRASTIC to get Pat out of her stubborn rut. I think one of the problems with these two books is weird choices in terms of the passing of time. (They’re also overshadowed by better things she’s done – the Annes, Emilys and Blue Castle.)

Angela Brazil’s Schoolgirl Kitty features an arty family that loses a mother and goes to France. This gives AB a chance to lecture on Art, and provide some ‘exotic’ drama (this being quite a few decades before Spectre Jungle and Shirley Flight).

I read four Miss Silver mysteries in quick succession; I have a fifth to read but I’m a little tired of the formula, so I’m putting it off. It’s always like that with the Miss Silver books, either feast or famine in terms of seeing them on the shelves of shops.

Blue for a Girl was a (somewhat scattershot) account of the Wrens’ history in world war 2. While writing about the Admiralty et al’s sexism, the male writer displays his own chauvinism. I felt that the book was written for people in the inner circle too. I’d have preferred it if it had been more rigorous chronologically, instead of having chapters based on theme, with the writer changing direction unexpectedly every few paragraphs.

Cinemawise, I watched The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was based on a book that was influenced by other fantasy books. A modern family, flirting with dysfunction, meets old-fashioned (but well-rendered) faerie folk – although the troll was rubbish. There were problems of scale. I hardly ever believed that the whole wide world as the kids knew it was in danger, and I couldn’t but compare it unfavourably with The Neverending Story

Nim’s Island could have been based on a book – I don’t think it was – with its theme of a storyteller lying within us all and it being a lonely person’s way of reaching out. It wasn’t a very good film though.