February Books

[slemslempike]

February Books
The Chalet School Librarian - Pat Willimott
The New Feminism - Natasha Walter
Mediator 1 - Meg Cabot
Mediator 2 - Meg Cabot
The True Meaning of Cleavage - Mariah Fredericks
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths - Barbara Comyns
The Buccaneers - Edith Wharton
Biche - Stephanie Theobald
Daughter of Earth - Agnes Smedley
The Swallow Tale - K M Peyton
The Swallow Summer - K M Peyton
Women and Laughter
Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America - Dyan Sheldon
The Family at Misrule - Ethel Turner
The Blank Wall - Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
A Summer Bird-Cage - Margaret Drabble

First off, I love the Mediator books! I'd been avoiding them because I thought they were going to be children's futuristic sci-fi, which is not my kind of thing at all, but I really enjoyed them, more than I have been enjoying the recent Princess Diaries books. I was hoping to keep getting them from the library, but they're not on the shelves, so I'll have a look to see if Preston or Morecambe have them. I can't really remember The True Meaning of Cleavage. I suspect it was not particularly good, in that case. Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America was okayish, but not great. Sophie is from London (a background portrayed as a rather muddled mix of upper and middle class), and exchanges for a summer with her mother's friend's daughter in Brooklyn. I think it was supposed to be about how Brooklyn taught her to be less uptight, but it was very annoying. They called her Soph and didn't listen when she said she didn't like it, and her mum hadn't told her that she was going to be an unpaid babysitter all summer, so she did that while her counterpart walked the dogs every now and then. The Blank Wall is a Persephone book, and kind of crime based. It was really, really good, and I want to read more of her work now. I also really liked Daughter of Earth (which was a chicklit bookswap gain) and I'm going to try adn get hold of some of Agnes Smedley's non-fic about China, and political agitation.

Comments

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Heh. Daughter of Earth joined the bookswap because I ended up buying two copies - for about 30p each so no big deal, but it was a case of 'oh, a Virago I haven't read, better buy it *oops*'.

[chiasmata]

I read The True Meaning of Cleavage a couple of years back, I think, and it wasn't that good as I recall. :)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I always do grab at any viragos I see, but space issues means I';ve got better at putting them back unless they're really wonderful. I need to make myself an up to date list of books again so that I can make sure I don't buy duplicates.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I read it about three weeks ago, if I lose all memory of it in that time it's a little worrying! I remember nothing.

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

What did you think of 'Our Spoons Came From Woolworths'? I remember enjoying it but it was fairly forgettable, since I can't remember anything about it now except a rather miserable description of giving birth in a hospital populated by mean nurses.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Hi, this is Barbara D from Girlsown (where we don't see you any more?) and I recently joined LJ. I love looking at people's book lists. Wanna see mine?

[wonderlanded.livejournal.com]

What did you think of Misrule?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I missed Judy. I think I would have liked them better if I'd read them when I was younger; reading them for the first time now, they're not really my thing. I'm going to read Punch and Judy next though, as I remember really liking her.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Hello! I don't post on girlsown much any more because I can't follow the discussions as well now there are so many people, but I still read.

I've just been over to your journal - you have Pippa and James! I read Pippa in Switzerland a month or so ago, and I'm waiting until I am slightly more solvent and then trying to find Pippa at Home - I think they're fantastic.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I liked it, but like you found it a little less than memorable. It was interesting, and it hasn't put me off trying to read anything else she's written, but it wasn't what one might call uplifting.

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I adore the Mediator books. The premise sounds like a cheap knock-off of Buffy (snappily dressed teenage girl moves to new town, fights not-quite-dead people, acquires not-quite-dead love interest and makes geeky friends) but she's just so good at narrative voices, and the mediating thing only sounds like vampire-slaying.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I have a copy of Pippa at Home on eBay at the moment, in my shop. Sorry to tempt you.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I read the first page all "pfft, I've seen Buffy", but she's really great!