Wednesday Reading Meme
Apr. 29th, 2026 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I Just Finished Reading
Michiko Aoyama’s Hot Chocolate on Thursday, which begins with a woman who goes to the cafe every Thursday to have a hot chocolate and write letters. “OMG TWINSIES!” I shrieked. “I also go to the cafe once a week (my day is Saturday) to have a hot chocolate and write letters!”
The book continues its gentle meander from character to character: from the cafe manager to the mother of a kindergartner who often gets a hot chocolate at the cafe, to the kindergartner’s teacher, to the teacher’s supervisor, and so forth and so on, all the way to Sydney where a young artist gets a kiss from what appears to be the spirit of the Royal Botanic Garden. (The book is not exactly fantasy but also not not fantasy.)
Continuing the fantasy theme, I read William Bowen’s Merrimeg, a 1920s children’s fantasy, largely in the nonsense fantasy mode that was so popular at that point. I largely thought it was fluff, but then the final chapter (each chapter is pretty much a short story) featured the nymph who lives behind the waterfall taking Merrimeg on a journey in a glass carriage, asking the driver to stop at “15, 30, and 80,” which turns out to be those years in Merrimeg’s life - and Merrimeg is not merely looking at her life in those years, but actually being that age briefly… I found it unexpectedly moving. So well played, William Bowen.
What I’m Reading Now
I’ve begun Simon Sebag Montefiore’s The Romanovs, having decided that it would behoove me to learn more Russian history pre-1890. So far I’ve pretty much just read the introduction, but already learned that Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov were both pre-Romanov tsars. (I must confess to my shame that I previously had the vague impression that Boris Godunov might be fictional, probably because I knew Pushkin wrote a play about him, but this play was clearly in the tradition of Shakespeare’s Henriad rather than his King Lear.)
What I Plan to Read Next
Michiko Aoyama’s The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park.
Michiko Aoyama’s Hot Chocolate on Thursday, which begins with a woman who goes to the cafe every Thursday to have a hot chocolate and write letters. “OMG TWINSIES!” I shrieked. “I also go to the cafe once a week (my day is Saturday) to have a hot chocolate and write letters!”
The book continues its gentle meander from character to character: from the cafe manager to the mother of a kindergartner who often gets a hot chocolate at the cafe, to the kindergartner’s teacher, to the teacher’s supervisor, and so forth and so on, all the way to Sydney where a young artist gets a kiss from what appears to be the spirit of the Royal Botanic Garden. (The book is not exactly fantasy but also not not fantasy.)
Continuing the fantasy theme, I read William Bowen’s Merrimeg, a 1920s children’s fantasy, largely in the nonsense fantasy mode that was so popular at that point. I largely thought it was fluff, but then the final chapter (each chapter is pretty much a short story) featured the nymph who lives behind the waterfall taking Merrimeg on a journey in a glass carriage, asking the driver to stop at “15, 30, and 80,” which turns out to be those years in Merrimeg’s life - and Merrimeg is not merely looking at her life in those years, but actually being that age briefly… I found it unexpectedly moving. So well played, William Bowen.
What I’m Reading Now
I’ve begun Simon Sebag Montefiore’s The Romanovs, having decided that it would behoove me to learn more Russian history pre-1890. So far I’ve pretty much just read the introduction, but already learned that Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov were both pre-Romanov tsars. (I must confess to my shame that I previously had the vague impression that Boris Godunov might be fictional, probably because I knew Pushkin wrote a play about him, but this play was clearly in the tradition of Shakespeare’s Henriad rather than his King Lear.)
What I Plan to Read Next
Michiko Aoyama’s The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park.
no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 12:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 12:41 pm (UTC)There's a piece of Elizabeth Goudge's The Valley of Song (1951) that affects me like that. Thus making me want to read this book.
no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-29 03:43 pm (UTC)Godunov
Date: 2026-04-29 05:55 pm (UTC)https://rockyandbullwinkle.fandom.com/wiki/Boris_Badenov
Re: Godunov
Date: 2026-04-29 06:01 pm (UTC)