July Books
Aug. 6th, 2006 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeSize 12 is Not Fat - Meg Cabot
Gone With the Windsors - Laurie Graham
The Tiggie Thompson Show - Tessa Duder
Tiggie Thompson All at Sea - Tessa Duder
Schoolgirl Chums - Peter Glidewell
Tiggie Thompson's Longest Journey - Tessa Duder
The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street, Letters between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952-73
Consider the Years - Virginia Graham
Melted into Air - Sandi Toksvig
Gentlemen and Players - Joanne Harris
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Lucia in London - E.F. Benson
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
Heart of Darkness (and other stories) - Joseph Conrad
Killjoy - Anne Fine
Billions for Boris - Mary Rogers
I did enjoy the Tiggie Tompson books very much, but I was a bit disappointed, as I'd got the impression from the blurbs and things that it was about a fat girl who just got on with it, and became an actress. It is at the start, a bit, but she makes an effort to slim and sees her chubbiness as akin to her friend's anorexia, as a disease. In the later books, she starts referring to her fat self as another, less worthy, person. That aside, the books were really good, as she changes schools, starts to take up acting, and then on her way to being in an important TV show, takes a job as a boat hand. Billions for Boris is one of the sequels to Freaky Friday, and rather fun.
Size 12 is Not Fat was fairly enjoyable, but not terribly gripping, and somewhat annoying in places. But I think Meg Cabot's rather like that. Gentlemen and Players was pretty good, but having read The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler and Johnny, My Friend, the twist was not too difficult to spot. I wouldn't have got the twist in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, except that I had been told to read it because it was special, and once I saw it was first person, I began to wonder. Killjoy was absolutely creepy. Relationship between a student and a lecturer becomes controlling and abusive, told from the point of view of the controlling partner. Made me feel very uncomfortable, reading it. Brave New World was okay, but obviously lacking in subtlety, or depth. I did like Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and need to read more Orwell, I think. Heart of Darkness was something I picked up to read in Berlin once I'd run out of the books I took with me. I probably wouldn't have slogged through it if it hadn't been a last resort. I really liked On Beauty, which I mostly bought after devouring the chicklit thread on books set in academia (and picked up Lucky Jim recently for the same reason). Gone With The Windsors was really good. I like Laurie Graham a lot, having read The Unfortunates, which is a wonderful book about a privileged New Yorker who doesn't really get thinking about anyone except herself, but is terribly engaging despite it all.
Gone With the Windsors - Laurie Graham
The Tiggie Thompson Show - Tessa Duder
Tiggie Thompson All at Sea - Tessa Duder
Schoolgirl Chums - Peter Glidewell
Tiggie Thompson's Longest Journey - Tessa Duder
The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street, Letters between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952-73
Consider the Years - Virginia Graham
Melted into Air - Sandi Toksvig
Gentlemen and Players - Joanne Harris
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Lucia in London - E.F. Benson
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
Heart of Darkness (and other stories) - Joseph Conrad
Killjoy - Anne Fine
Billions for Boris - Mary Rogers
I did enjoy the Tiggie Tompson books very much, but I was a bit disappointed, as I'd got the impression from the blurbs and things that it was about a fat girl who just got on with it, and became an actress. It is at the start, a bit, but she makes an effort to slim and sees her chubbiness as akin to her friend's anorexia, as a disease. In the later books, she starts referring to her fat self as another, less worthy, person. That aside, the books were really good, as she changes schools, starts to take up acting, and then on her way to being in an important TV show, takes a job as a boat hand. Billions for Boris is one of the sequels to Freaky Friday, and rather fun.
Size 12 is Not Fat was fairly enjoyable, but not terribly gripping, and somewhat annoying in places. But I think Meg Cabot's rather like that. Gentlemen and Players was pretty good, but having read The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler and Johnny, My Friend, the twist was not too difficult to spot. I wouldn't have got the twist in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, except that I had been told to read it because it was special, and once I saw it was first person, I began to wonder. Killjoy was absolutely creepy. Relationship between a student and a lecturer becomes controlling and abusive, told from the point of view of the controlling partner. Made me feel very uncomfortable, reading it. Brave New World was okay, but obviously lacking in subtlety, or depth. I did like Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and need to read more Orwell, I think. Heart of Darkness was something I picked up to read in Berlin once I'd run out of the books I took with me. I probably wouldn't have slogged through it if it hadn't been a last resort. I really liked On Beauty, which I mostly bought after devouring the chicklit thread on books set in academia (and picked up Lucky Jim recently for the same reason). Gone With The Windsors was really good. I like Laurie Graham a lot, having read The Unfortunates, which is a wonderful book about a privileged New Yorker who doesn't really get thinking about anyone except herself, but is terribly engaging despite it all.
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Orwell
Date: 2006-08-06 02:41 pm (UTC)Re: Orwell
Date: 2006-08-06 03:04 pm (UTC)Re: Orwell
Date: 2006-08-06 04:35 pm (UTC)Yes, an essay called Boys' Weeklies, which is in Inside the Whale. In the same book is one of the best things ever written about Dickens. Orwell was a excellent critic.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-06 07:11 pm (UTC)I love Orwell -- I'm about to try Homage to Catalonia as I'm going to Barcelona next month. I'd try Down and Out In Paris and London next if I were you -- I really liked it.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-06 07:19 pm (UTC)On Beauty was somewhat odd in places, but I think it's definitely worth a read.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-06 07:42 pm (UTC)I like Laurie Graham too. The Future Homemakers of America is very good indeed, if you want to read more of her.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-06 07:45 pm (UTC)My sister read Roger for her degree, and has been bugging me to read it for about four years now. It was definitely worth the wait, really creepy, in that kind of airy voice.