feather_ghyll

Flowering Spring: Elfrida Vipont. Oxford University Press, 1960

I wish I’d read the books in this continuity in order. I read ‘The Lark in the Morn’ a while ago, and there are two books and several years between that and this. I was very muddled while I read the first few chapters as a result. ( Read more... )

Catherine, Called Birdy: Karen Cushman (Macmillan Children’s Books, 1996)

I recently saw a trailer for a film (or it could be a TV series) called ‘Catherine, Called Birdy’ written and directed by Lena Dunham, which reminded me I owned and had read this book from which it’s adapted. The trailer made me laugh and promisingly suggested that the adaptation catches the spirit and the humour of the book. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see it as it’s an Amazon production, but I could and did reread the book.

( It's the funny, sometimes poignant diary of a spirited young noble lady in medieval England )

A Pair of Red Polls: Mabel Quiller-Couch. Melson

I felt swindled out of the book that I expected this to be, if that's not putting it too strongly. Subtitled ‘A Story for Girls’, there’s an oval illustration of two teenage girls talking on the front cover. I thought they’d be the two ‘red polls’ of the title, perhaps two redheads named ‘Polly’.

In fact, ( Read more... )

Star and Company: Jean Vaughan. Nelson, 1947

I was looking forward to reading this sequel to Lone Star but having done so, ( Read more... )

Christmas at Nettleford: Malcolm Saville Armada 1970

This was better than I hoped for. I have another Nettleford/Owlers book but I don’t remember much about it. I think the attraction of ‘Christmas at Nettleford’ is ( Read more... )

Happy New Year! I wanted to post this before doing a 2017 round-up post.

[Lightly edited 4/8/18.]

Gratis, a lesson you'd think I would have learned: when buying a second-hand book, it is worth checking the last page, not to scan the content - I'm no advocate of that! - but to make sure that it's there. The last page of a story has to be the most irritating missing page. This lesson did not come about as a result of the book I'm about to review.

The Girls of Chequertrees: Marion St John Webb Harrap October 1925

This is a reread because I accidentally purchased a second copy of this book, having forgotten I already owned one, and I’d forgotten the story too. ( Read more... )

Assignment in Brittany is an early book by Helen MacInnes, set in occupied France during world war two, with one of her very competent heroes, although the challenges he has to face keep mounting. It’s a different setting to her usual Cold War stories, but certainly suspenseful.

Rules by Jane Beaton is the second in the Dorney House series, (I reviewed the first book Class here). It ends with a cliffhanger for the main character, which left me wondering where all the other books in the series the writer claims to have planned in the afterword are. This was published in 2009.

( Read more... )

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley is the latest Flavie de Luce book that I read. Looking back, I see that I haven’t posted anything about the previous books that I read. Flavia’s a rummy girl, isn’t she!? I kept putting this book down, which isn’t like me and I don’t remember finding the other books in the series such a slog. Apart from stumbling across crime scenes and ruining dresses with her intrepid investigating, Flavia has to deal with a lot of family drama - her relationship with her older sisters is particularly twisted - and her dead mother Harriet seems to be much more of a presence, and naturally (or supernaturally), a mysterious one, than in the previous books.

I see that I read much more traditional girls own books over last Easter. Hmm.

I have a habit of reading completely unseasonal books. I read this book before the snow first fell, but even so, the contrast between what was going on around me and the opening segment of this book was pretty stark.

The House By the Marsh: M. E. Allan Dent 1966

( 'Somehow Norfolk sounded cold and bleak,' said Tam, as they disentangled themselves from the back seat. 'I never thought it would be like this.' The sun was, in fact, extremely hot on the weed-grown gravel sweep before the front door, bees were busy in the overgrown masses of roses, phlox, marguerites, and stocks, and the big house basked in sunny peace. )

I saw that Greyladies has published Allan's only book for adults, which has a similar setting and is on my list to get/read.

To break up the blanket Wimbledon talk, here's a review of a book I read last week.

Red Herrings Unlimited: Winifred Norling
I'm too lazy to check the publishers, and I suspect no date was given).

Most of the Winifred Norling books, if not all, that I've read have been school stories of a certain ype. This is a mystery that a gang of village children solve, led by a girl named Lyntie, who came together to solve a previous mystery. All I could find out from Google was that Winifred Norling was a pseudonym of Winifred Mary Jakobsson (1905-1979).

( Read more... )