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slemslempikeMay Books
Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Michael Palin
False Colours - Georgette Heyer
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
Virginia Andrews - Flowers in the Attic
Graham Greene - The Heart of the Matter
Lee Child - The Killing Floor
Lee Child - Die Trying
Dara O'Briain - Tickling the English
Grace Allen Hogarth - The Funny Guy
Georgette Heyer - The Reluctant Widow
Georgette Heyer - The Foundling
Ruth Park - Playing Beatie Bow
Lee Child - Tripwire
Graham Greene - Our Man in Havana
Jill Stevens - Anita and the China Figure
AS Byatt - The Children's Book
Georgette Heyer - The Toll-Gate
Bridgid Lowry - With Lots of Love from Georgia
Margery Allingham - Police at the Funeral
Clement Freud - Grimble and Grimble at Christmas
Ian Fleming - Diamonds are Forever
Jane Duncan - My Friend Muriel
Natalie Joan - One Summer Holiday
Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street
Lee Child - The Visitor
Marcia Martin - Doinna Parker Takes a Giant Step
Wallace Steyner - Crossing to Safety
Julian Barnes - Letters from London 1990-1995
Anthony Buckeridge - Jennings Goes to School
Giles Milton - Nathaniel's Nutmeg
Julian Barnes - Letters from London 1990-1995
Edna Lake - The Merry Five and "Toronto"
Cynthia Harnett - Ring Out Bow Bells!
Noel Streatfeild - Ballet Shoes
Eliot Schreter - The School for Dangerous Girls
Isn't Michael Palin lovely? He also thinks that lots of other people are lovely, according to his diaries, but because he is lovely it doesn't come across as cloying, but rather... lovely. Interesting accounts of the relationships between the various individuals and subsets of Pythons, particularly John Cleese's dissociation from the groups, and an absolutely fascinating account of envisioning and filming The Life of Brian.
Georgette Heyer! Very good. I must, at some point, find one of those lists people make of which to avoid and avoid them when I want something nice and funny and good. In False Colours there are twins. One comes home unexpectedly and the other is missing, so Kit (the one who came home) pretends to be his brother so that there is not social disaster at his (the missing brother's) meeting of the fiancee's family. Exasperating mother in debt, but the love interest is cool. I very much enjoyed The Reluctant Widow's sarcasm for her love interest, who inveigled her into marrying a dying man and inheriting his fortune, nearly getting her murdered for state secrets in the process. And I have to say that my first instinct upon discovering the man who abducted me and tried to get my cousin to pay for my murder would not be to install him in my household or pay him off, but The Foundling hero differed. The Toll-Gate went all very murder mystery at the end, but better than the actual Heyer murder mysteries that I have read.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is deservedly talked about. Flowers in the Attic is NOT. What a horrible book. I felt rather disgusting after having read it, and I am very glad that I did not read it as a teenager as I think it would have rather captivated me.
I have never read any Graham Greene before this year, I think, and I am rather enjoying it. The Heart of the Matter was rather sad, things nearly coming right and then it all going wrong. I enjoyed the one-sided friendship between the crook and the policeman. I probably prefered Our Man in Havana, which is something I was surprised to learn was about a vaccuum salesman on a book quiz tv show a while ago. Apparently Greene divided his work into categories, and Our Man in Havana is an amusement/entertainment. I was.
OH JACK REACHER. Lee Child is a GENIUS. This unfortunately has the knock-on effect that his books are not all that easy to pick up secondhand here, and I quail at spending the equivalent of GBP 14 on a small paperback. I do not, however, quail at spending an entire afternoon of my holiday in a library reading the next one in the series to get my fill, which is how I read Echo Burning. Jack Reacher is an ex-Military Policeman, and he has a toothbrush and NO ROOF (anymore). I have been aware of Jack Reacher for a while because sometimes Jen talks about how awesome he is, and oh my god she is right. (That is not a surprise.) He is very tall and very big and I was in showers in hostels with sort of lids on, and I think about how that would not do for Jack Reacher, because mostly showerheads are not tall enough for him. It is quite difficult to think self-insert fantasies about Jack Reacher because I could not be of any earthly use to him, and so the only sensible thing for him to do in a situation (he spends most of his life in situations) is to jettison me at the first opportunity. He would be right to do so, he does what is right. In the last book I read he is sort of following the example of a man who never killed anyone who didn't deserve it, and then it turns out that that man was an amoral gun-happy fool, but the example of this given is that he once shot a man he was bunking with just because he didn't like him snoring. ENTIRELY REASONABLE.
I was pretty disappointed with Tickling the English. It was kind of a lot of Dara O'Briain jokes transferred to the page, where they work less well. It was disjointed, just anecdotes not tied together other than a nominal following him around the country, but the observations were rather dull, and I wouldn't really recommend it. Though I gave it to someone for Christmas last year, I think, so hopefully they disagree.
The Funny Guy is an American children's book about a girl who is teased/bullied a lot at school and called the funny guy, but not in a friendly way. Her mom is ill in hospital, and she writes compositions for a magazine that don't get accepted. She gets a friend, which is great, and sort of accidentally ends up defrauding a hospital, which is less nice. Playing Beatie Bow was really wonderful. I desperately wanted it all to work out right at the end, but I was so glad that Beatie became a feared schoolteacher.Anita and the China Figure was not good. I found it on a hostel bookshelf and as it was girlsowny thought I should, but it was pretty dull, and predictable.
I thought that The Children's Book was simply wonderful. It has made me want to take up pottery (though emphatically not to make pervy pots of my daughters). I liked the structure of following the families through, and how they entertwined with each other and with real people and events from the time. It's a time I like to read about anyway, and the description of the summer schools made me want to attend. (I don't want to attend summer schools now, only in the early 20th century.)
With Lots of Love from Georgia has lists, I think, and a girl that gets a nice boy.
I don't like Margery Allingham much. I think it's that I don't read Campion as anything out of the ordinary until she claims that he says perfectly ordinary things "idiotically", and I don't know why that should be so.
Clement Freud is great. Grimble and Grimble at Christmas was absolutely his voice, with a silly yet logical story of absentminded parents and Grimble's life. Though a little sexist in several places.
James Bond swears in "-------"s! That was very entertaining. I haven't actually seen many Bond films, but I thought I should read a Bond book. I don't mind if I do again, and I don't mind if I don't.
My Friend Muriel - great! I am going to make a concerted effort to read all the My Friend books. I wish she was My Friend.
One Summer Holiday. Something really annoyed me about this book and I cannot remember what it was.
I really liked The House on Mango Street. It looked a little like short stories, which I am not drawn to, but was charming and sad and evocative and made me want to read more of her work.
The title of Donna Parker Takes a Giant Step is utterly misleading. It suggests that something might actually happen, and it doesn't, it drones on with her occasionally forgetting things and other people occasionally forgetting things and learning all about responsibility.
Crossing to Safety is about two male American academics and their wives, and how one couple flourishes, and how one somewhat falters.
I am fairly sure that I must have read at least one Jennings book before, and parts of Jennings Goes to School seemed familiar, but they were never part of my childhood. I enjoyed this very much - the patient intelligence of Mr Carter, all the boys' various plans and ignorances.
I wasn't expecting to be very engrossed in Nathaniel's Nutmeg and I wasn't. Self-fulfilling prophecy? or rather dull subject matter not helped by prose style?
Letters from London 1990-1995 is one of the best books about the UK I've read. Partly it helped that it covers a time when I mostly didn't live in the UK or wasn't really paying attention, so it was new and interesting. And it wasn't about how quaint or disgusting the British are, but about politics and explaining it to interested Americans. The index entries were delightful.
The Merry Five and "Toronto" was another hostel bookshelf girlsown find that turned out turgid. Toronto is their dog. Their father is missing, but their new next door neighbour in the big house knows where he is after they discover a pipe.
I should definitely read more Cynthia Harnett. Ring Out Bow Bells! was ace. It reminded me rather of AF's historicals, not really the style, but the use of real events and the telling of a story that doesn't seem at all anachronistic but is also not stuffy or stilted. I think I probably have unfounded prejudices against children's historical fiction that I should sort out.
I love Ballet Shoes. I remember my mum reading it to me as a bedtime story, and I loved it then. I like the illustrations, and the inclusion of the licenses and the contract with Mr Simpson for the necklaces. The detail is wonderful, and all the technical details about the running of stage schools and auditioning. I love the cut off names on the doors so that the girls go through the door marked "Children's Aca" (I don't remember the exact divisions, though I bet someone does). I can't wait to read The Witcharts.
The School for Dangerous Girls was really good. Bad girls are sent to a reform school, where they are watched and sorted. The gold thread girls get to go to school and have lessons and more freedom and friendships. Purple thread girls are locked in a hall with hammocks and pretty much encouraged to terrorise each other. One of the gold thread girls is borderlline, and gets herself sent to purple thread where she leads a rebellion and gets the school closed down.
Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Michael Palin
False Colours - Georgette Heyer
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
Virginia Andrews - Flowers in the Attic
Graham Greene - The Heart of the Matter
Lee Child - The Killing Floor
Lee Child - Die Trying
Dara O'Briain - Tickling the English
Grace Allen Hogarth - The Funny Guy
Georgette Heyer - The Reluctant Widow
Georgette Heyer - The Foundling
Ruth Park - Playing Beatie Bow
Lee Child - Tripwire
Graham Greene - Our Man in Havana
Jill Stevens - Anita and the China Figure
AS Byatt - The Children's Book
Georgette Heyer - The Toll-Gate
Bridgid Lowry - With Lots of Love from Georgia
Margery Allingham - Police at the Funeral
Clement Freud - Grimble and Grimble at Christmas
Ian Fleming - Diamonds are Forever
Jane Duncan - My Friend Muriel
Natalie Joan - One Summer Holiday
Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street
Lee Child - The Visitor
Marcia Martin - Doinna Parker Takes a Giant Step
Wallace Steyner - Crossing to Safety
Julian Barnes - Letters from London 1990-1995
Anthony Buckeridge - Jennings Goes to School
Giles Milton - Nathaniel's Nutmeg
Julian Barnes - Letters from London 1990-1995
Edna Lake - The Merry Five and "Toronto"
Cynthia Harnett - Ring Out Bow Bells!
Noel Streatfeild - Ballet Shoes
Eliot Schreter - The School for Dangerous Girls
Isn't Michael Palin lovely? He also thinks that lots of other people are lovely, according to his diaries, but because he is lovely it doesn't come across as cloying, but rather... lovely. Interesting accounts of the relationships between the various individuals and subsets of Pythons, particularly John Cleese's dissociation from the groups, and an absolutely fascinating account of envisioning and filming The Life of Brian.
Georgette Heyer! Very good. I must, at some point, find one of those lists people make of which to avoid and avoid them when I want something nice and funny and good. In False Colours there are twins. One comes home unexpectedly and the other is missing, so Kit (the one who came home) pretends to be his brother so that there is not social disaster at his (the missing brother's) meeting of the fiancee's family. Exasperating mother in debt, but the love interest is cool. I very much enjoyed The Reluctant Widow's sarcasm for her love interest, who inveigled her into marrying a dying man and inheriting his fortune, nearly getting her murdered for state secrets in the process. And I have to say that my first instinct upon discovering the man who abducted me and tried to get my cousin to pay for my murder would not be to install him in my household or pay him off, but The Foundling hero differed. The Toll-Gate went all very murder mystery at the end, but better than the actual Heyer murder mysteries that I have read.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is deservedly talked about. Flowers in the Attic is NOT. What a horrible book. I felt rather disgusting after having read it, and I am very glad that I did not read it as a teenager as I think it would have rather captivated me.
I have never read any Graham Greene before this year, I think, and I am rather enjoying it. The Heart of the Matter was rather sad, things nearly coming right and then it all going wrong. I enjoyed the one-sided friendship between the crook and the policeman. I probably prefered Our Man in Havana, which is something I was surprised to learn was about a vaccuum salesman on a book quiz tv show a while ago. Apparently Greene divided his work into categories, and Our Man in Havana is an amusement/entertainment. I was.
OH JACK REACHER. Lee Child is a GENIUS. This unfortunately has the knock-on effect that his books are not all that easy to pick up secondhand here, and I quail at spending the equivalent of GBP 14 on a small paperback. I do not, however, quail at spending an entire afternoon of my holiday in a library reading the next one in the series to get my fill, which is how I read Echo Burning. Jack Reacher is an ex-Military Policeman, and he has a toothbrush and NO ROOF (anymore). I have been aware of Jack Reacher for a while because sometimes Jen talks about how awesome he is, and oh my god she is right. (That is not a surprise.) He is very tall and very big and I was in showers in hostels with sort of lids on, and I think about how that would not do for Jack Reacher, because mostly showerheads are not tall enough for him. It is quite difficult to think self-insert fantasies about Jack Reacher because I could not be of any earthly use to him, and so the only sensible thing for him to do in a situation (he spends most of his life in situations) is to jettison me at the first opportunity. He would be right to do so, he does what is right. In the last book I read he is sort of following the example of a man who never killed anyone who didn't deserve it, and then it turns out that that man was an amoral gun-happy fool, but the example of this given is that he once shot a man he was bunking with just because he didn't like him snoring. ENTIRELY REASONABLE.
I was pretty disappointed with Tickling the English. It was kind of a lot of Dara O'Briain jokes transferred to the page, where they work less well. It was disjointed, just anecdotes not tied together other than a nominal following him around the country, but the observations were rather dull, and I wouldn't really recommend it. Though I gave it to someone for Christmas last year, I think, so hopefully they disagree.
The Funny Guy is an American children's book about a girl who is teased/bullied a lot at school and called the funny guy, but not in a friendly way. Her mom is ill in hospital, and she writes compositions for a magazine that don't get accepted. She gets a friend, which is great, and sort of accidentally ends up defrauding a hospital, which is less nice. Playing Beatie Bow was really wonderful. I desperately wanted it all to work out right at the end, but I was so glad that Beatie became a feared schoolteacher.Anita and the China Figure was not good. I found it on a hostel bookshelf and as it was girlsowny thought I should, but it was pretty dull, and predictable.
I thought that The Children's Book was simply wonderful. It has made me want to take up pottery (though emphatically not to make pervy pots of my daughters). I liked the structure of following the families through, and how they entertwined with each other and with real people and events from the time. It's a time I like to read about anyway, and the description of the summer schools made me want to attend. (I don't want to attend summer schools now, only in the early 20th century.)
With Lots of Love from Georgia has lists, I think, and a girl that gets a nice boy.
I don't like Margery Allingham much. I think it's that I don't read Campion as anything out of the ordinary until she claims that he says perfectly ordinary things "idiotically", and I don't know why that should be so.
Clement Freud is great. Grimble and Grimble at Christmas was absolutely his voice, with a silly yet logical story of absentminded parents and Grimble's life. Though a little sexist in several places.
James Bond swears in "-------"s! That was very entertaining. I haven't actually seen many Bond films, but I thought I should read a Bond book. I don't mind if I do again, and I don't mind if I don't.
My Friend Muriel - great! I am going to make a concerted effort to read all the My Friend books. I wish she was My Friend.
One Summer Holiday. Something really annoyed me about this book and I cannot remember what it was.
I really liked The House on Mango Street. It looked a little like short stories, which I am not drawn to, but was charming and sad and evocative and made me want to read more of her work.
The title of Donna Parker Takes a Giant Step is utterly misleading. It suggests that something might actually happen, and it doesn't, it drones on with her occasionally forgetting things and other people occasionally forgetting things and learning all about responsibility.
Crossing to Safety is about two male American academics and their wives, and how one couple flourishes, and how one somewhat falters.
I am fairly sure that I must have read at least one Jennings book before, and parts of Jennings Goes to School seemed familiar, but they were never part of my childhood. I enjoyed this very much - the patient intelligence of Mr Carter, all the boys' various plans and ignorances.
I wasn't expecting to be very engrossed in Nathaniel's Nutmeg and I wasn't. Self-fulfilling prophecy? or rather dull subject matter not helped by prose style?
Letters from London 1990-1995 is one of the best books about the UK I've read. Partly it helped that it covers a time when I mostly didn't live in the UK or wasn't really paying attention, so it was new and interesting. And it wasn't about how quaint or disgusting the British are, but about politics and explaining it to interested Americans. The index entries were delightful.
The Merry Five and "Toronto" was another hostel bookshelf girlsown find that turned out turgid. Toronto is their dog. Their father is missing, but their new next door neighbour in the big house knows where he is after they discover a pipe.
I should definitely read more Cynthia Harnett. Ring Out Bow Bells! was ace. It reminded me rather of AF's historicals, not really the style, but the use of real events and the telling of a story that doesn't seem at all anachronistic but is also not stuffy or stilted. I think I probably have unfounded prejudices against children's historical fiction that I should sort out.
I love Ballet Shoes. I remember my mum reading it to me as a bedtime story, and I loved it then. I like the illustrations, and the inclusion of the licenses and the contract with Mr Simpson for the necklaces. The detail is wonderful, and all the technical details about the running of stage schools and auditioning. I love the cut off names on the doors so that the girls go through the door marked "Children's Aca" (I don't remember the exact divisions, though I bet someone does). I can't wait to read The Witcharts.
The School for Dangerous Girls was really good. Bad girls are sent to a reform school, where they are watched and sorted. The gold thread girls get to go to school and have lessons and more freedom and friendships. Purple thread girls are locked in a hall with hammocks and pretty much encouraged to terrorise each other. One of the gold thread girls is borderlline, and gets herself sent to purple thread where she leads a rebellion and gets the school closed down.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-04 12:44 pm (UTC)I have tried not to force books on the 8 year-old because it always put me off as a child too but then she comes and asks me to suggest things (we have the world's smallest library and the nearest bookshop is an hour's bus journey) and I tend to chuck a pile at her so the choice is still hers. Swallows and Amazons was "too full of like boats" apparently.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-04 03:07 pm (UTC)Offering a pile of books to choose from sounds like a good compromise. Wish my mother had thought of that!