feather_ghyll

I see I'm getting round to this a day earlier than last year. Perhaps 'summary' is a better description than 'highlights.'

I read 49 books in 2023, a decent increase on last year, thanks in part to the Good Thing that happened at the end of April. The vast majority were by women and new to me, and had mainly been bought (mostly online) in 2020. But I returned properly to charity shops and bookshops, so I bought more random books, which have gone on my 'to be read' pile.

Most of the children’s books I read were Girls Own books, although a lot were mediocre and some subpar, and I didn’t bother posting about them (be grateful I didn’t review ‘A Girl Governess’ by A.E. Ward.) ( Read more... )

Here's hoping the best for 2024.

It's about time I posted this, as I’m now in the process of taking down the Christmas decorations.

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Here’s my annual round-up of highlights from 2018 posts. ( Read more... )

Last year's post.

Norah O’Flanigan, Prefect: Maud S. Forsey, Nelson

Tremadon House, a high school for girls on the outskirts of London has a peculiar school year. It seems ( Read more... )

I've mainly been reading:

To Davy Jones Below: Carola Dunn

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Under a Cornish Sky: Liz Fenwick

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Clover Cottage: Frances Cowan.

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The League of the Links: E. M. de Foubert

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And I got a bundle of Angela Brazil books for a reasonable price per book.

As I did last year, I thought I'd do a very subjective overview of things I posted about or should have posted about here. My favourite ( Read more... )

I’ll post an overview of a few books I’ve read over the holidays eventually, but this post is a look back at 2015, following a tradition started by my first post of 2015 when I said I looked forward to the next adventures of Wells and Wong. Well, Arsenic for Tea by Robin Stevens (in which the 1930s schoolgirls investigate another mystery, this time in Daisy Wells’s country house home) lived up to my expectations. I enjoyed Kate Saunders’s Beswitched, originally published a few years ago, but taking the reader back to a 1930s boarding school, a fraction more, even. I loved reading Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery and Gail Carriger’s Etiquette & Espionage.

Turning to hadrbacks, I enjoyed The Little Betty Wilkinson by Evelyn Smith, even though I think she’s written better books. I did read a book each by the ‘big four’: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s Chudleigh Hold, Sally’s Summer Term by Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Tomboys at the Abbey by Elsie J. Oxenham, which I didn’t review, and For the School Colours by Angela Brazil.

(In the first paragraph, I build up to my favourite and do the opposite in the second.)

Perhaps the best book I read this year was ‘Rose Under Fire’ by Elizabeth Wein, which is wonderful and harrowing, and I feel incapable of writing about it. I also really loved Helena McEwen’s Invisible River.

I reread Katherine L. Oldmeadow’s The Fortunes of Jacky, which stands the test of time, and now I have no more Oldmeadows to reread. I am, obviously, looking out for more by her in all the shops that sell second-hand books! I hope to read the next case Hazel Wong writes up and the second in the Finishing School series, but I expect to read EBD's 'Fardingales' as I have a copy in the depths of my 'to read' pile.

Collected over months (or longer):

A tribute to Elinor M. Brent-Dyer by nobodyjones

The thrill of the used bookstore hunt

Amanda Diehl talks about book hunting practices involving second-hand bookshops that I can partially sympathise with. I do have strange habits about books, but let’s focus on the euphoria of finding something you’ve long looked for at a reasonable price.

Daniel Dalton recommends 33 Books You Should Read Now, Based On Your Favourite Films. Having read and seen some pairs, I can see where he’s coming from and have found a cuple of recommondations.

There are a few Nancy Drew icons here by misbegotten.

Angela Brazil: dorm feasts and red hot pashes

Kathryn Hughes has been rereading Angela Brazil (spoilers for A Patriotic Schoolgirl).

Here’s a new blog about children’s books that I think will be worth keeping an eye on: homeintimefortea

The Princess of the School: Angela Brazil. Blackie.

This book is half school story and half family story, ( Read more... )