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osprey_archerMerry Christmas! I thought I might break tradition and post Wednesday Reading Meme on Thursday on account of Christmas, but no, here I am.
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
P. G. Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves, which is not technically a Christmas book, but I feel that all Jeeves and Wooster stories are Christmas-adjacent in that they are very jolly.
Also Annie Fellows Johnston’s Miss Santa Claus of the Pullman, which is about two small children (Libby and William, seven and four) who are riding a Pullman car to be reunited with their father and meet their new stepmother… and while on the car, they meet a girl who they are convinced is Santa Claus’s daughter! She tells them a story that helps them bond into a real family. A sweet Christmas story.
And Sara Crewe; or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s original serialized story that she later expanded into A Little Princess. No Becky, no Lottie, a good deal less Ermengarde, but the bit about the starving beggar girl outside the bun shop to whom Sara gives five of her six buns is still the same, and the ending where the bun shop lady has adopted the beggar girl.
What I’m Reading Now
In The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Charlotte has just begun attending Roe Head school, where Mary Taylor just told her that she was very ugly which somehow cemented their friendship for life.
What I Plan to Read Next
Alas, I did NOT manage to read Janice Hallett’s The Christmas Appeal in time for Christmas. However I have decided that I would rather read it relatively close to when I read The Appeal rather than wait for next Christmas, so as soon as it returns to the library I’ll check it out this winter.
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
P. G. Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves, which is not technically a Christmas book, but I feel that all Jeeves and Wooster stories are Christmas-adjacent in that they are very jolly.
Also Annie Fellows Johnston’s Miss Santa Claus of the Pullman, which is about two small children (Libby and William, seven and four) who are riding a Pullman car to be reunited with their father and meet their new stepmother… and while on the car, they meet a girl who they are convinced is Santa Claus’s daughter! She tells them a story that helps them bond into a real family. A sweet Christmas story.
And Sara Crewe; or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s original serialized story that she later expanded into A Little Princess. No Becky, no Lottie, a good deal less Ermengarde, but the bit about the starving beggar girl outside the bun shop to whom Sara gives five of her six buns is still the same, and the ending where the bun shop lady has adopted the beggar girl.
What I’m Reading Now
In The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Charlotte has just begun attending Roe Head school, where Mary Taylor just told her that she was very ugly which somehow cemented their friendship for life.
What I Plan to Read Next
Alas, I did NOT manage to read Janice Hallett’s The Christmas Appeal in time for Christmas. However I have decided that I would rather read it relatively close to when I read The Appeal rather than wait for next Christmas, so as soon as it returns to the library I’ll check it out this winter.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-26 02:34 am (UTC)Somehow I'm not surprised to learn that the beggar girl was in the story from its earliest version. That part had such a big impact on me as a kid and it still gets me emotional when I re-read.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-26 07:24 pm (UTC)It was so interesting to see what was there from the beginning and what wasn't. I wasn't surprised that Lottie was a later addition, but I was surprised that Becky wasn't there from the start.