June Books

[slemslempike]

The World My Wilderness - Rose Macaulay
No More than Human - Maura Laverty
Tea at Gunter's - Pamela Haines
The Convert - Elizbeth Robins
The Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossman
The Twins at School - Evelyn Smith
Does My Head look Big in This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah
The Ladies of Lyndon - Margaret Kennedy
Do-Over - Rachel Vail
Becoming Bindy Mackenzie - Jaclyn Moriarty
Landscape with Dead Dons - Robert Robinson
There and Back Again - Sean Astin
The Boyfriend List - E. Lockhart
Queen Lucia - E.F. Benson
Rock N Roll - Tom Stoppard
Tea for Mr Dead - Maria Donovan
'...startled by his furry shorts' - Louise Rennison


The only re-read was Do-Over, which I was relieved to find I still liked. I rather thought The Twins at School was going to be a reread, but it turns out that what I thought was that was something completely different. It does have the same cover as The Castle School, which is probably what confused me about it. I didn't enjoy it as much as the other Evelyn Smiths I've read - I think I've said before that there was a character with a phonetically described permanent headcold, but even apart from that it wasn't as enjoyable as usual. I was slightly ambivalent about Does My Head Look Big in This? before reading it - it's about a teenager's decision to wear the hijab full time, and as I am almost entirely unreligious, I thought it might be a bit much for my delicate atheist sensibilities (like the eveangelical school stories), but it was actually really interesting about Islam, and the role of religion in her life. (Also, is there a non-religion-specific version of "evangelical"?) Becoming Bindy Mackenzie was great! It rather unexpectedly (to me) turned into a mystery half way through.

Probably the only book I didn't really like this month was Landscape With Dead Dons, which sadly failed to live up to its book-flap blurb. I really liked The Diary of a Nobody, which I think had somehow got mixed up with the Opium Eater book. I also liked Queen Lucia, but probably because I've been hearing praises sung for so long, I felt a little flat about it. I also realised that ages ago I read the sequel by Tom Holt, and I've only just twigged that that's what it was. Tea for Mr Dead is a Leaf Book of short short stories, and it was excellent.

Comments

[rudelypinioned.livejournal.com]

There's a new Louise Rennison book out?? *dances*

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yus! I found it a leetle annoying because I found Georgia more obtuse than usual, but still vair funny. Also I can now scale down my annoyance that the USA has had the book for at least two months before us.

[rudelypinioned.livejournal.com]

WHAT? Why? Oh come on, that's silly - Lousie lives in/comes from Brighton so we should get it first! (I should get it first!). But yay, I was wondering when another would come out. Now I must buy it.. Ack, money spending.

And is Weedon Grossman REALLY a real name?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think so - it doesn't appear to be a pseudonym. There wass something about it in the introduction to my copy, but I'm not with my book, so I can't look it up.

[rudelypinioned.livejournal.com]

Haha, if it's real; that's fantastic. What a name!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Grossmith, not Grossman. One of them (George, I think) had been in the Doyley Carte Co and sung in Gilbert and Sullivan (I think he was the one who was a morphinomaniac in Topsy-Turvey, shooting up before the performance), also wrote very sub G&S comic opera himself.

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

She did seem very spacy in this one, but still funny. And I am even more in love with Dave the Laugh than usual.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Dave the Laugh is brilliant.

Also I am getting more and more sympathetic towards the dreadful Lindsey.

[lakester.livejournal.com]

I think proselytize/ing is more wide ranging term than evangelical.

ages ago I read the sequel by Tom Holt
Which of his books was that? What did you think of it?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think it was Lucia in Wartime - I'd picked it up because I'd enjoyed the fantasy ones a lot, and not having read any Lucia before, found it utterly bemusing, and couldn't work out what I was missing. I think I'll try to read all the Benson Lucias, and then possibly go back to Holt's continuations to see if I like them better now I know what's going on.

[lakester.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've stuck to the fantasy ones of his being not sure if he'd be able to handle the more normal settings well. Though Song for Nero has been calling me from its library shelf. Have you tried any of his more straightforward historical set books?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember once reading something about a goat, which I think I remember enjoying, but this was about 9/10 years ago, and I'm afraid I don't recall any details about it! I think I'd give it a go for a reread, as I think his writing style translates pretty well across the genres.

[morganmuffle]

Sorry to jump in but Song for Nero is a great book, my favourite of his historical books is Alexander At The Worlds End (or soemthing liem that, brain has melted) I like Tom Holy a lot but his books can get a little samey and when I founf the histories they made me very gleeful about his writing again.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Is there one about a goat or have I made that up?

[morganmuffle]

There is one about a goat, or with a goat in it you're right though I've been trying desperately to remember which that is, possibly it is the Nero one but I have apparently forgotten. Which is odd. You don't read too many books about goats... or at least I don't!

[lakester.livejournal.com]

Adds books to to-read list

Amazon tells me Tom Holt wrote Goatsong, about a Greek poet/playwright who lived with his father's goats until war and plague and other stuff happened. Possibly this is the one that made an impression?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Goat Song, if I recollect correctly, about a comic dramatist in classical Athens, published in an omnibus with the sequel under the title The Walled Orchard. Unless I'm hallucinating the entire thing. Worth reading, anyway.