Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

My second-to-last Newbery book, Jeanette Eaton’s Leader by Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot, which is also my second Newbery George Washington biography, which should tell you everything you need to know about the importance of American history in the Newberys. (Maybe that should be a Newbery post in itself.) I don’t actually remember the other one that well, but I’m fairly sure that it didn’t feature George Washington’s tragic doomed lifelove for the already-married Sally Fairfax nearly as prominently, or possibly indeed at all, as I was quite surprised to hear about it in this book.

(Eaton’s Daughter of the Seine also dwelt on Madame Roland’s tragic doomed love for a man not her husband, so this may just have been an Eaton thing. Admittedly, there was no tragic doomed love in her Gandhi biography, except perhaps Gandhi’s unrequited yearning for a united India?)

I also finished Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill. I really enjoyed the ancient Roman Britain stories in the middle of the book: truly they are so Sutcliff! Or rather, Sutcliff is so Kipling!

But then the last story is Kipling’s attempt to create an inclusive vision of England by making the Jewish people an integral part of the story of the Magna Carta, by having a Jewish moneylender force the king to terms by refusing to lend him any more money, and “by refusing to lend him any more money” I mean our hero actually tosses an entire gold treasure into the sea.

I believe that Kipling is trying to be anti-anti-Semitic here, but he also has the moneylender character describe sitting under a table as a child listening to Jewish moneylenders decide which king shall rise and which shall fall, so, like, maybe he needed to workshop this one a bit.

What I’m Reading Now

Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. I listened to an audiobook version of this a few years ago and really didn’t like it, but had a suspicion that it might be due to the narrator’s gravelly monotone, so I bought a copy and am reading it with my two eyes and now I’m loving it! An important reminder that an audiobook reader can make or break a book.

I just finished the Almanac portion of the book, which are just monthly musings on plants and animals in the environs of the sandy farm Leopold owned in Wisconsin. It makes me want to write a Hummingbird Cottage almanac. Maybe I’ll do monthly posts next year starting in January.

What I Plan to Read Next

I’ve been intending to read Ben MacIntyre’s Operation Mincemeat ever since I read Max in the House of Spies, but despite the fact that I’ve loved the other two MacIntyre books I read, I keep putting it off and off and off. Why is it sometimes so hard to read a book that you really do want to read?

Comments

[luzula]

Oh, I love A Sand County Almanac! It's got some of the best nature writing I know.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, it's so good! I've been parceling it out a chapter at a time so I can really savor it.

[anna_wing]

Kipling's poem " The Peace of Dives" comes to mind. A paean to the value of international trade, and mutual deterrence.

[mme_n_b]

Don't you just love Kipling's conviction that there's no longer anti-Semitism in England because a Jew - even a loud, vulgar Jew! - can hunt with gentlemen as a gentleman? He's adorable.

[osprey_archer]

He accidentally shoots one of the beaters, but it's fine because he gives the guy a sovereign! The Edwardian Age sure was a time.

[mme_n_b]

He shoots one of the bearers because that's how Kipling shows us that a) he's a Jew and hunting is not part of his heritage the way it would be for a real gentleman but even so - he hunts with gentlemen, behold how accepting our England! and b) the beater is not above him by virtue of being a Christian, behold how liberal our England! I love it that Kipling wants England to be liberal and accepting unlike, say, Sayers.

[ethelmay]

That letter about Einstein, though, hoo boy.

[mme_n_b]

Eh, this is mild. I find it funny that he thinks of Einstein as a "Boche" but uses a respectful "Hebrew". Kipling did write (mainly privately, in letters) a number of significantly worse things about Jews.

That's not the point though. The point is that although Kipling disliked, distrusted, and was disgusted by Jews he still thought we ought to be equal in law and social position to any other person with a similar balance sheet. Compare this to other writers of his time who were appalled at the idea that a Jew, however rich, may want to act like their equal in society. To me there's a lot of merit in a person who is personally anti-Semitic standing up for our rights and attempting to sell the concept of "Jew as a vital and noble part of England".

[ethelmay]

It's more that the letter is SO BONKERS.

[mme_n_b]

Totally. Even for a generation that didn't really go in for rationality.

[asakiyume]

Why is it sometimes so hard to read a book that you really do want to read? --I've said elsewhere that I have this problem, or appear to have it, with third and/or final books in series--series I love, even! Like I unequivocally, no holds barred loved the first two Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time books (Children of Time and Children of Ruin), but somehow just haven't read the third, Children of Memory. And it's not that I think it'll disappoint or that I don't want the series to be over, which are the usual reasons given. IDK. And I have other series that I love where the same is true.

So--yeah! Why is it so hard?

Kipling attempting to be anti-anti-Semitic: so, like, maybe he needed to workshop this one a bit 🎶understatement🎶

[osprey_archer]

Yes, there are some books where I can give a definite reason why I'm resistant to reading it despite really wanting to read it, like I'm concerned what is going to happen to the characters or I'm afraid it will be a disappointment or sometimes even it's just so long and intimidating... but there are also books (like this) where I clearly have some kind of mental block and I don't know why. I've been meaning to read this book for YEARS and haven't managed it!

[oracne]

I saw a fairly recent Netflix movie about Operation Mincemeat a few months back - I am not sure how much they used that book in particular for reference.

[osprey_archer]

I think everything referencing Operation Mincemeat tends to go back to this book. He apparently had access to a ton of private papers, including a box of top secret files about the operation that Ewen Montagu just took home, because when you're Ewen Montagu you can do that kind of thing.

[oracne]

Makes sense! The movie wasn't bad, though I felt it had a bit too much romance shoehorned in (not that much, but it was annoying).

[troisoiseaux]

I’ve been intending to read Ben MacIntyre’s Operation Mincemeat ever since I read Max in the House of Spies, but despite the fact that I’ve loved the other two MacIntyre books I read, I keep putting it off and off and off.

Dooooo iiiiiiiit.

(Speaking of both Operation Mincemeat and putting off things you actually want to do, I finally committed and bought tickets to see the Broadway show in November!)

[osprey_archer]

I've started reading it! I have! A body just washed up on the coast of Spain!

Also HOORAY for tickets for the Broadway show!

[lucymonster]

I believe that Kipling is trying to be anti-anti-Semitic here, but he also has the moneylender character describe sitting under a table as a child listening to Jewish moneylenders decide which king shall rise and which shall fall, so, like, maybe he needed to workshop this one a bit.

😬😬😬😬😬

Remember that tumblr meme that used to be everywhere, with the wonky hand-drawn “you tried” star? I’m gonna be honest: I wouldn’t even award Kipling one of those for this.

[osprey_archer]

I think he DID try, but, like, maybe we would all have been happier if he hadn't.

[rosanicus]

Operation Mincemeat is great but I also remember not being grabbed by the first few chapters, it was kind of a snowball effect where I started very slowly but by about a hundred pages in when I was constantly going 'Hang on, there's no way this is going to get more insane.' and was consistently proved wrong.

[osprey_archer]

Oh, that's good to know! I've started it, and it didn't instantly grab me, and since everyone raves about it I was a bit concerned that I wasn't feeling it from page one.

[qian]

I loved the Roman Britain bits of Puck of Pook's Hill as a kid, and also the Stone Age? story with the wolves?? It's been a long time. But it was one of the books I reread obsessively as a kid and I had no memory of the Jewish moneylender story until I read your review, whereupon a string was plucked ... I think it was one of the ones where I simply didn't understand what it was about. (Probably didn't help that at that age I didn't know what either the Magna Carta or a Jew was.) But how very Kipling!

[osprey_archer]

There aren't any stone age stories or wolf stories in Puck of Pook's Hill, so maybe this was from a different Kipling book? The Roman Britain stories are super memorable, though!

[qian]

Hmm, the story I'm thinking of must have been in Rewards and Fairies then.

[genarti]

A Sand County Almanac is so good! I've honestly forgotten most of it, so I should reread it sometime, but I remember just luxuriating in the glorious musing nature writing of it.

Oh, Kipling. Sometimes it's so obvious how hard and earnestly he's trying, and how very short of the mark he's falling. You really do just want to reach through the pages to shake him and go WORKSHOP THIS ONE MORE! ARE YOU OPEN TO CONCRIT!!! at him, but unfortunately that opportunity vanished decades ago and the story marches inexorably on.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, A Sand County Almanac is so good! I'm having such a good time.

WAS Kipling open to concrit? Did he TRY to get concrit on these things? Questions that probably have answers but right now I'm not sufficiently invested to go looking.

[genarti]

Not concrit from 2025, at any rate, tragically. But yeah, I don't know enough about him to know how open he was to it in his day! Probably in any case he mostly received or at least heeded it from other white male Brits of the era, though, so... yeah.

[lokifan]

the importance of American history in the Newberys. (Maybe that should be a Newbery post in itself.)

I'd be fascinated! Especially since the Smarties prize (the big children's book award in the UK while I was growing up) didn't ever choose non-fiction, I don't think, even though there was a lot of popular kid's non-fiction at the time - especially the Horrible Histories series and its imitators.

I believe that Kipling is trying to be anti-anti-Semitic here, but he also has the moneylender character describe sitting under a table as a child listening to Jewish moneylenders decide which king shall rise and which shall fall, so, like, maybe he needed to workshop this one a bit.

Wow, yeah! The Jewish hero using his moneylending and more especially his power-behind-the-throning for good is... An Attempt. How incredibly Kipling.

Why is it sometimes so hard to read a book that you really do want to read?

I don't know but IT SO IS.

[osprey_archer]

The post about American history in the Newberies may founder on the fact that there is simply too much material (a difficulty also besetting The Problem of Tomboys), but I will consider possible approaches.