April Books

[slemslempike]

April
Marking Time - Elizabeth Jane Howard
...And then he ate my boy entrancers - Louise Rennison
Penguin by Design - Phil Baines
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
Our Hearts were Young and Gay - Cornelia Otis Sknner and Emily Kinbrough
Confusion - Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Beautiful Visit - Elizabeth Jane Howard
Mallory and the Trouble with Twins - Ann M Martin
Starring the Babysitters Club - Ann M Martin
Claire Gets Caught - Katherine Applegate
The Devil Wore Prada - Lauren Weisberger
Home Truths - David Lodge
The Millstone - Margaret Drabble
Avalon High - Meg Cabot
Boy Meets Boy - David Levithan
How to Run Your Home Without Help - Kay Smallshaw

Boy Meets Boy was just lovely, a really good romance, and while the writing's a bit too stylised for me to really get immersed, the characters and the story were more than enough to take me along anyway. Avalon High was okay, vaguely interesting, but kind of disappointing. The two babysitters club and the making out book were rereads when I was at my dad's and completely freaking out, and very comforting they were too. I regret giving the making out series to my sister, though she loves them too, so they are in good hands.

The Devil Wore Prada was GREAT. I love it the same way I love The Nanny Diaries, with horrified obsessiveness to see what awful thing is going to happen next, and how the heroine will manage a show-down and get her self-esteem back. Just great. The end of the Cazalets was sad, but mostly I felt that the end of the last book was a bit hurried to tie all the ends up and shove people together just to get finished. I really enjoyed The Millstone, and empathised with her rather too much, though I would not have had the baby at all, I can imagine getting into a state where I had to just because people said I shouldn't.

How to Run Your Home Without Help is a scary scary book. I do quite want one of our net curtains to rip so that I can try and mend it with rice water, but other than that I mostly got a devout thankfulness that I have a washing machine. Otherwise I think I would have just had filthy stinky clothes. Or been a naturist just out of convenience. I did like her determined assumption that of course husbands should help around the house. Our Hearts Were Young and Gay was somewhat like What Katy Did Next, only not as good. It was quite amusing, but seemed to have been written with an audience of people who already know then in mind, and then was distributed a bit too far. I mostly bought it because it was an old Penguin and I'd just finished rereading the design book.

Comments

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I like your list because there's so many books on it I haven't read. Have you read any other Drabble books apart from The Millstone? Jerusalem the Golden is one of my favourite books but that may be because I have so much empathy with Clara. Funny how Drabble's gone right out of fashion.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read A Summer Bird-Cage, The Garrick Year, A Natural Curiosity and The Radiant Way. When I first started working at UCLan in August I didn't have any of my books with me for another month or so, so I raided the library, and the most appetising section had Margaret Drabble. I've got another one out of the library at the moment - The Waterfall, which I will probably take to my bath in a short while. I've not yet read Jerusalem the Golden, I'll have a look and see if it's on the shelves.

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

I had that reaction to Marking Time and Confusion as well. I liked those characters and she sort of shuffled them off into boxes by the end. It was kind of disappointing.

And today is the release date of the new Louise Rennison book here in the States. Very, VERY excited. With double knobs, even. :)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Huh. We don't get it for another two months here. NOT FAIR!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Huh. We don't get it for another two months here. NOT FAIR!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

The Millstone is set just before the 1967 Abortion Act, so it would have been a lot more difficult, though not impossible providing you had about £100 and the name of a doctor, to get an abortion.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

The protagonists' friends are all fairly forthcoming with help - money and names, and I was mostly putting myself in her situation. But yes, not nearly as easy as I think.

[protoainsley.livejournal.com]

I read The Devil Wore Prada twice the week I bought it, and have read it twice more since then, IIRC. It's so much fun, though I'm driven batshit thinking about it much because there are some errors for which there is NO EXCUSE (misspelling names of brands).