slemslempike (
slemslempike) wrote2012-05-01 07:56 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
March books
March Books
It's OK If You Don't Love Me - Norma Klein
Crying with Laughter - Bob Monkhouse
The Cheer - Norma Klein
The Swap - Norma Klein
The Queen of the What Ifs - Norma Klein
Just Friends - Norma Klein
The Gender Delusion - Cordelia Fine
Man Overboard - Monica Dickens
Trouble at Skelton Hall - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
That's My Baby - Norma Klein
Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta
Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson
The Lark in the Morn - Elfrida Vipont
All Change - Josephine Pullein-Thompsom
Margaret Powell in America - Margaret Powell
I think I am a little Norma Klein-ed out. The books all feel rather similar read too close together. Quite a few of them have women getting pregnant unexpectedly, and the male protagonists really irritate me, especially since I can't work out whether they're written to be annoying or whether I'm supposed to find their slightly awful attitudes to women exciting and attractive.
I cannot ever remember deliberately watching Bob Monkhouse in anything, and never really accidentally seeing him, but obviously I know what he is like anyway. None of this knowledge led me to think I would enjoy his autobiography, but people at the judgey comedy forum recommended it, so when it ended up on the bookswap shelf at work I took it. And it was really good. It's very interesting about his career and how he worked to get his comedy better, about his early life and his family (I especially liked his writing about his eldest son, who is disabled). The stories he told made me realise how good he is at crafting narratives and making things funny (or sad, sometimes, without being mawkish). I also recommend it.
The Gender Delusion was GREAT. I had been looking forward to reading it for a while, and it was just so nice to be reading something that was SENSIBLE and UNDERSTOOD, and SHOWED HOW STUPID BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM IS. I am sure that if I weren't already of the same mind that I might find some of her asides a little annoying, but as I am I found them funny and helpful and GREAT.
Man Overboard is about a man who has to leave the navy when they're downsizing post-war, and how he tries to deal with being a civilian again. He is in love with a TV actress who only really wants him for the respect he brings her, and when he ends up getting a job as a waiter she is disgusted and leaves him. But it all ends happily. (For him. She seems pretty miserable.)
Trouble at Skelton Hall, yay for GGBP reprints, and even more yay for people selling them more cheaply on ebay and Amazon marketplace. (Incidentally, does anyone else think that people are using Girlsown books to launder money? Some of the prices are RIDICULOUS and not in a normal way.) I have read The School at Skelton Hall, but ages ago so I had no idea of the backshadowed story of why the group were in trouble and what they were Forbidden to Speak Of. There is a secret passageway in the walls of the school that someone gets stuck in, and a girl who has clearly been Very Ill who eventually gets to join the school.
I read Saving Francseca before Looking for Alibrandi, and it has always had more of a place in my affections. I lent it to Jess while she was staying with me, and then wanted to remind myself of it. It still made me cry a great deal, and I heartily recommend it to everyone.
My aunt often gives me books for Christmas and birthdays, which I greatly appreciate because very few other people do (unless I give them a specific list), which is fair enough I guess because they don't know what I have already read. Anyway, I probably wouldn't have bothered to read this without her giving it to me, and I very much enjoyed it.
I liked The Lark in the Morn, which is about Quakers and singing, and features a boarding school that there is not nearly enough of. I am now reading the sequels, which my colleague Alison lent to me. We discovered we were both girlsown fans when I recommended that she think "this time tomorrow it will be over" and she remarked that that sounded like Nicola Marlow. Yay!
Alison also lent me All Change after I remarked that I'd never read any Pullein-Thompson. I wasn't expecting very much from it, as I apaprently had decided on no evidence whatsoever that they were all rubbish. But I quite liked this! I am quite accustomed to girls' story characters buying horses ill-advisedly, but this is the only time I've come across children banding together to buy a cow, leading to the reflection that "I was quite certain that it was irresponsible to encourage your younger brothers and sisters to take out their life's savings to buy a cow." But it all turns out well in the end.
I'd never previously heard of Margaret Powell, who seems to have been some sort of radio commentater ages ago. I mildly enjoyed her tales of travelling around America, being packed off on coach tours by her publisher who wants time to himself, and having to sit next to bores.
It's OK If You Don't Love Me - Norma Klein
Crying with Laughter - Bob Monkhouse
The Cheer - Norma Klein
The Swap - Norma Klein
The Queen of the What Ifs - Norma Klein
Just Friends - Norma Klein
The Gender Delusion - Cordelia Fine
Man Overboard - Monica Dickens
Trouble at Skelton Hall - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
That's My Baby - Norma Klein
Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta
Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson
The Lark in the Morn - Elfrida Vipont
All Change - Josephine Pullein-Thompsom
Margaret Powell in America - Margaret Powell
I think I am a little Norma Klein-ed out. The books all feel rather similar read too close together. Quite a few of them have women getting pregnant unexpectedly, and the male protagonists really irritate me, especially since I can't work out whether they're written to be annoying or whether I'm supposed to find their slightly awful attitudes to women exciting and attractive.
I cannot ever remember deliberately watching Bob Monkhouse in anything, and never really accidentally seeing him, but obviously I know what he is like anyway. None of this knowledge led me to think I would enjoy his autobiography, but people at the judgey comedy forum recommended it, so when it ended up on the bookswap shelf at work I took it. And it was really good. It's very interesting about his career and how he worked to get his comedy better, about his early life and his family (I especially liked his writing about his eldest son, who is disabled). The stories he told made me realise how good he is at crafting narratives and making things funny (or sad, sometimes, without being mawkish). I also recommend it.
The Gender Delusion was GREAT. I had been looking forward to reading it for a while, and it was just so nice to be reading something that was SENSIBLE and UNDERSTOOD, and SHOWED HOW STUPID BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM IS. I am sure that if I weren't already of the same mind that I might find some of her asides a little annoying, but as I am I found them funny and helpful and GREAT.
Man Overboard is about a man who has to leave the navy when they're downsizing post-war, and how he tries to deal with being a civilian again. He is in love with a TV actress who only really wants him for the respect he brings her, and when he ends up getting a job as a waiter she is disgusted and leaves him. But it all ends happily. (For him. She seems pretty miserable.)
Trouble at Skelton Hall, yay for GGBP reprints, and even more yay for people selling them more cheaply on ebay and Amazon marketplace. (Incidentally, does anyone else think that people are using Girlsown books to launder money? Some of the prices are RIDICULOUS and not in a normal way.) I have read The School at Skelton Hall, but ages ago so I had no idea of the backshadowed story of why the group were in trouble and what they were Forbidden to Speak Of. There is a secret passageway in the walls of the school that someone gets stuck in, and a girl who has clearly been Very Ill who eventually gets to join the school.
I read Saving Francseca before Looking for Alibrandi, and it has always had more of a place in my affections. I lent it to Jess while she was staying with me, and then wanted to remind myself of it. It still made me cry a great deal, and I heartily recommend it to everyone.
My aunt often gives me books for Christmas and birthdays, which I greatly appreciate because very few other people do (unless I give them a specific list), which is fair enough I guess because they don't know what I have already read. Anyway, I probably wouldn't have bothered to read this without her giving it to me, and I very much enjoyed it.
I liked The Lark in the Morn, which is about Quakers and singing, and features a boarding school that there is not nearly enough of. I am now reading the sequels, which my colleague Alison lent to me. We discovered we were both girlsown fans when I recommended that she think "this time tomorrow it will be over" and she remarked that that sounded like Nicola Marlow. Yay!
Alison also lent me All Change after I remarked that I'd never read any Pullein-Thompson. I wasn't expecting very much from it, as I apaprently had decided on no evidence whatsoever that they were all rubbish. But I quite liked this! I am quite accustomed to girls' story characters buying horses ill-advisedly, but this is the only time I've come across children banding together to buy a cow, leading to the reflection that "I was quite certain that it was irresponsible to encourage your younger brothers and sisters to take out their life's savings to buy a cow." But it all turns out well in the end.
I'd never previously heard of Margaret Powell, who seems to have been some sort of radio commentater ages ago. I mildly enjoyed her tales of travelling around America, being packed off on coach tours by her publisher who wants time to himself, and having to sit next to bores.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
ANYWAY. I love discovering girlsown fans accidentally - I have just on Facebook discovered that someone I know likes similar kidslit to me, thanks to my having left status updates about Malcolm Saville and Susan Cooper and had her reply with evident knowledge and liking. (I'd go into detail about how I know her, except it is Unbelievably Dull.) I am SO happy about someone saying "Ooh, Nicola Marlow, much?" (or equivalent) to you, though!
I confess to being fond of Pullein-Thompson books, and in my completely uneducated opinion, I think Josephine is considerably the best (followed by Christine, and don't bother with Diana).
I also like people who are brave enough to try buying books for you despite knowing it is a Dangerous Pursuit.
no subject
So nice to find a kindred spirit. Apparently someone else at work also likes girlsown (and has enjoyed the EJO docs I sent her), so it feels very happy.
I don't know why I thought Pullein-Thompsons would be bad! I am clearly wrong, and now I have a source to borrow them from.
It's great! She's had a few miss-hits, but overall done pretty well. I must actually thank her properly.
I was at school with Alex "Hurricane" Higgins' nephew
Re: I was at school with Alex "Hurricane" Higgins' nephew
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I borrowed lots of P-Ts from my horsey sister but they all blurred into one after a while. However, I am sure I would have remembered the cow.
I want to read The Gender Delusion now.
no subject
You definitely should, it's ace, and very readable. I think it's quite cheap on the Kindle edition, if that's helpful for you.