Wednesday Reading Meme
Apr. 17th, 2024 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Hilary McKay’s excellent collection of fairy-tale retellings, Straw into Gold: Fairy Tales Re-spun. This last batch included “What I Did in the Holidays and Why Hansel’s Jacket Is So Tight (by Gretel, aged 10),” an extremely funny Hansel and Gretel retelling in the form of a “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay. An excellent collection overall if you’re fond of fairytales.
I also finished D. E. Stevenson’s Mrs. Tim Christie, an omnibus of the two books originally published as Mrs. Tim of the Regiment (Mrs. Tim’s everyday life as the wife of an officer in a Highland regiment) and Golden Days (Mrs. Tim goes on a Highland holiday). The first book is based on Stevenson’s real-life diary as an officer’s wife, which may go some way to explaining why I found it hard to get into: as in a real life diary, you are pelted with a plethora of names, often with little to no context, so it’s sometimes difficult to follow just who is who and what’s going on.
But the second half of the book was written from the outset as a novel in diary form, and has all the charm of Stevenson’s other novels. I do particularly enjoy her Scotland novels: there’s just something special about her feeling for the countryside.
What I’m Reading Now
Barbara Leonie Picard’s The Lady of the Linden Tree. I had mixed feelings about Picard’s One Is One, but nonetheless leaped at this fairy tale collection when I saw her name on the spine. So far the stories are pleasant but not greatly memorable.
What I Plan to Read Next
Inspired by the book list at the back of Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry, I’ve acquired two more items from the New York Review Children’s Collection: Russell Hoban’s The Marzipan Pig (you may know him for the Frances books, as in Bread and Jam for Frances) and Palmer Brown’s Beyond the Pawpaw Trees (fantasy? Maybe? I got this one entirely because the title intrigued me).
Hilary McKay’s excellent collection of fairy-tale retellings, Straw into Gold: Fairy Tales Re-spun. This last batch included “What I Did in the Holidays and Why Hansel’s Jacket Is So Tight (by Gretel, aged 10),” an extremely funny Hansel and Gretel retelling in the form of a “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay. An excellent collection overall if you’re fond of fairytales.
I also finished D. E. Stevenson’s Mrs. Tim Christie, an omnibus of the two books originally published as Mrs. Tim of the Regiment (Mrs. Tim’s everyday life as the wife of an officer in a Highland regiment) and Golden Days (Mrs. Tim goes on a Highland holiday). The first book is based on Stevenson’s real-life diary as an officer’s wife, which may go some way to explaining why I found it hard to get into: as in a real life diary, you are pelted with a plethora of names, often with little to no context, so it’s sometimes difficult to follow just who is who and what’s going on.
But the second half of the book was written from the outset as a novel in diary form, and has all the charm of Stevenson’s other novels. I do particularly enjoy her Scotland novels: there’s just something special about her feeling for the countryside.
What I’m Reading Now
Barbara Leonie Picard’s The Lady of the Linden Tree. I had mixed feelings about Picard’s One Is One, but nonetheless leaped at this fairy tale collection when I saw her name on the spine. So far the stories are pleasant but not greatly memorable.
What I Plan to Read Next
Inspired by the book list at the back of Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry, I’ve acquired two more items from the New York Review Children’s Collection: Russell Hoban’s The Marzipan Pig (you may know him for the Frances books, as in Bread and Jam for Frances) and Palmer Brown’s Beyond the Pawpaw Trees (fantasy? Maybe? I got this one entirely because the title intrigued me).
no subject
Date: 2024-04-17 08:03 pm (UTC)*clicks your D E Stevenson tag*
That sounds like something I would enjoy! Which of her novels would you recommend starting with?
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Date: 2024-04-17 09:36 pm (UTC)There's lots of Scotland in Mrs. Tim Christie, too, but only in the last third of the book or so. Until then it's mostly about everyday life for a British army officer's wife in the interwar years, which might or might not be up your alley.
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Date: 2024-04-18 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-18 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-18 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-18 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-27 05:02 am (UTC)That's good to know about Mrs. Tim of the Regiment. I didn't get very far at all into it before I got distracted with other books, and I haven't felt any desire to pick it up again. Instead I've read two or three other Stevenson novels since then. Clearly I should give it a proper chance.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-28 02:34 pm (UTC)Yes, it took me a while to get into Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, but in the end I was glad that I persevered. I believe the other three in the sequence all originated as novels, so they shouldn't have the same issue of the meandering beginnings.