March books

[slemslempike]

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.

Comments

[whatho.livejournal.com]

That's interesting about the Bob Monkhouse book. I probably wouldn't have thought to seek out his biography because I'm sure I'd find him politically infuriating but I do think he was a really talented crafter of comedy. I also miss his contributions to comedy documentaries and tributes: he was rather an astute analyst of the process as well.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Actually, I found myself warming to him. He writes about women as people in their own right (shocker!) and talks about their humour and talent in much the same terms that he does men. (He is also, somewhat oddly, wryly amusing about a couple of times he was sexually assaulted by men.) I genuinely recommend it.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Oh, I might then. I always quite liked his presentation as a comedian - his toryness turned me off him, but his gameshow host polish didn't, and I do think him a rather thoughtful commentator.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I cannot remember any politics in the book at all, other than general between-the-lines stuff, all of which was much, much better than I would have thought it. I can lent you my copy if you like?

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Thanks: I might take you up on that eventually (like next time I'm passing through or something), though I've a big list of stuff I'm meant to be reading at the moment. Maybe I made up his toryness. I could happily choose to believe that.

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

Random piece of completely irrelevant information: I went to school with Bob Monkhouse's great-niece. (Also the great-niece and great-nephew of George Bush Sr. This was Primary school, whereas BM's was Secondary, but they were all a few years younger than me.)

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.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Those are some impressive mini claims to fame. I was at school with Ainsley Harriot's nephew, briefly.

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

[jinty]

Hmm, Bob Monkhouse. I know he wrote comics early in his career - is there anything much about that in the book? Not that I'm single minded oh no.

Re: I was at school with Alex "Hurricane" Higgins' nephew

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

There is quite a bit - I'm afraid I can't remember much about it as my mind is single elsewhere, but I remember him talking about how he got into it and his various jobs.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I remember enjoying The Gender Delusion too. Also, apparently I read All Change when I was a child, though I don't remember a thing about it except the clubbing together to buy a cow.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I hope Cordelia Fine writes more popular science books like this, I would like to read more.

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

The Gender Delusion is FANTASTIC. I was nodding vehemently to almost every page. And how brilliant to have someone compare you to Nicola!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Oh no - she wasn't comparing me! Just that it was something Nicola might say, which it was, because I was quoting her.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Jill books (Ruby Ferguson)?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yes, many times, and I love them. Probably why I felt the P-Ts might be inferior, as nothing could hold up to that.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Ha! I couldn't remember! I too have not read the P-Ts, for exactly this reason, I now suspect...

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Margaret Powell was famous for writing books about what it was like to be a servant. I read and enjoyed Below Stairs a long time ago. Was her publisher trying to get more cash out of her by sending her to tour the states (presumably talking about being a servant) and then making her write a book about that as well?

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.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

She doesn't mention talkng about being a servant, I think the whole tour was just something she had to do in order to write the book to make money. Sometimes she is recognised from her voice, which pleases her, but mostly she just goes on coach tours and gets a bit cross about things. I shall look out for Below Stairs, I think it would be my thing, and the perfect antidote to the Diana Cooper autobiography I'm wading through at the moment. It certainly coudln't be worse written.

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.