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Wednesday Reading Meme
Sep. 23rd, 2015 06:32 pmWhat I've Just Finished Reading
Maryellen: The One and Only, the first book of the new American Girl series, which never did transcend its lack of illustrations, alas. The illustrations aren't the only change they made with the format this time around: there are also only two books instead of six, which might have worked better if the first book didn't feel like three books smooshed together with no attempt to make an overarching plot.
Even that might have worked all right if they had at least labeled the separate pieces Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. But they didn't, so instead I was just puzzled by the jumps between chapters when one story ended and another began.
I feel like the shoddy construction is of a piece with a general shoddiness in the book's writing, too. The characters don't have much pop to them; I never did manage to tell all of Maryellen's brothers and sisters apart, for instance. It's all rather disappointing.
I also finished Eugenia Ginzburg's Journey into the Whirlwind, which turns out (I can't believe I didn't notice this before) to be only the first half of her memoirs, so I will have to tromp off to the university library to acquire the second half. I have rather a list, actually, of books that I mean to check out there; I'm finally going to get around to reading Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, and Oliver Sacks' continual mentions of A. R. Luria in his books have convinced me that I ought to read some of Luria's work, too.
What I'm Reading Now
Margaret Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks, which I'm enjoying so far, though it could do with slightly less repetition. I can see why Miss Marjoribanks herself informs everyone she meets that her only object in life is to be a comfort to her dear papa (otherwise they might suspect her of overweening social ambitions), but must the narrator repeat it too? I got the joke the first dozen times it was told.
What I Plan to Read Next
I'll probably read the second Maryellen book, if only in the interests of completeness. I was so looking forward to these: it's such a disappointment.
Maryellen: The One and Only, the first book of the new American Girl series, which never did transcend its lack of illustrations, alas. The illustrations aren't the only change they made with the format this time around: there are also only two books instead of six, which might have worked better if the first book didn't feel like three books smooshed together with no attempt to make an overarching plot.
Even that might have worked all right if they had at least labeled the separate pieces Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. But they didn't, so instead I was just puzzled by the jumps between chapters when one story ended and another began.
I feel like the shoddy construction is of a piece with a general shoddiness in the book's writing, too. The characters don't have much pop to them; I never did manage to tell all of Maryellen's brothers and sisters apart, for instance. It's all rather disappointing.
I also finished Eugenia Ginzburg's Journey into the Whirlwind, which turns out (I can't believe I didn't notice this before) to be only the first half of her memoirs, so I will have to tromp off to the university library to acquire the second half. I have rather a list, actually, of books that I mean to check out there; I'm finally going to get around to reading Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, and Oliver Sacks' continual mentions of A. R. Luria in his books have convinced me that I ought to read some of Luria's work, too.
What I'm Reading Now
Margaret Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks, which I'm enjoying so far, though it could do with slightly less repetition. I can see why Miss Marjoribanks herself informs everyone she meets that her only object in life is to be a comfort to her dear papa (otherwise they might suspect her of overweening social ambitions), but must the narrator repeat it too? I got the joke the first dozen times it was told.
What I Plan to Read Next
I'll probably read the second Maryellen book, if only in the interests of completeness. I was so looking forward to these: it's such a disappointment.
