April's Books

[slemslempike]

April
Cherry Ames, Boarding School Nurse - Helen Wells
Helen's Inheritance - Dora Joan Potter
The Wanderer - Sharon Creech
Autumn Term - Antonia Forest
Saturday Night - Caroline B. Cooney
Bachelor Girl - Roger Lea MacBride (Rose Wilder)
Annie on my Mind - Nancy Garden
Good Girls Don't - Claire Hennessy
Strangers in Paradise: High School - Terry Moore
The Letters of Nancy Mitford
More Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
Joanna Godden - Sheila Kaye-Smith
The Flying Feeling - Hilary McKay
Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary - Ruby Ferguson
The Village - Marghanita Laski
The Home-maker - Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Highland Fling - Nancy Mitford
Christmas Pudding - Nancy Mitford
Pigeon Pie - Nancy Mitford
Sharpe's Gold - Bernard Cornwell
The Way Things Are - E.M. Delafield
Jean of the Fifth - Winifred Darch
The Friendly Young Ladies - Mary Renault

I'm doing better for reading adult fiction this month. I really, really liked The Friendly Young Ladies, and would highly recommend it to everybody. Deceptive pace - it seems a little like a vague stroll in places, but is actually a very purposeful stalk. I didn't like the three Nancy Mitfords all that much; amusing, but rather a let-down after The Pursuit of Love. Joanna Godden was interesting, but not particularly enjoyable. Cold Comfort Farm makes a bit more sense now I know what it was parodying.

The Wanderer I'd put off reading for some reason - I bought it in New York last year, and thought that the sailing looked a little dull. But it's very good, and sad. A few of the children's books are rereads - Autumn Term and Jean of the Fifth. Of the others, Helen's Inheritance is not very good, but has a character whose mother got a medal for bravery in the SOE, and is evpected to be rave constantly as a result. Annie on my Mind was lovely, and Good Girls Don't was also great, and interesting to read them close together, thinking about the publishing gap of 22 years and the changes and otherwise in gay rights.

I'm reading Sharpe's Devil at the moment. I get a bit confused when I read Sharpe because they're written exactly like fanfiction in places, and then the sex takes place off-screen, and I wonder why it's so coy.

Comments

[debodacious.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd already posted so I hope you don't get a strange sense of deja vu here.

Have you read The Blessing or Don't Tell Alfred? They are less
frothy early Evelyn Waugh-lite than Highland Fling and Christmas Pudding. Although for me nothing comes close to The Pursuit of Love, which is up there with I Capture the Castle as my all time comfort reads.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yup, I've read all her fiction except Wigs on the Green. I do like the later four a great deal, and I think that perhaps read further apart these wouldn't have been so bad.

[dagnycat522.livejournal.com]

I saw you read "Bachelor Girl" which I believe is the last in the "Rose" series. I was so disappointed that she didn't wind up with Paul, of course. That book kind of shattered the innocence of the previous books in the series, but on the other hand, is possibly more "true to life." (if you can call any of the Little House books true to life...)
Have you ever read her book "The Discovery of Freedom: Man's Struggle Against Authority"? It's out of print, and can be expensive, but I highly recommend it if you're at all into political theory.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I was kind of pleased, because I didn't much like Paul. Especially in Bachelor Girl, where he didn't want Rose to work, even though she enjoyed it and wanted to.

I haven't read that - hadn't even heard of it before! I'll definitely try to get hold of a copy, thanks for the rec.