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Wednesday Reading Meme
Mar. 2nd, 2016 09:02 amWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Betsy In Spite of Herself, which is just as good as all the other Betsy-Tacy books. I feel like I’m becoming a Betsy-Tacy evangelist. One of my high school friends is a Betsy-Tacy friend and I struggle not to bombard her with texts like “OMG BETSY BAGGED PHIL BRANDISH, THIS WILL END BADLY.”
Phil Brandish is a handsome classmate with a red auto. Betsy is more in love with the auto than Phil, but as she’s only fifteen I think she’s not quite aware of that until they’ve actually been dating for a while, at which point she realizes that Phil is a pill.
One thing I love about these books is that when Betsy decides that she wants a boy, she goes after him - to the point that she actually asks Phil Brandish out (after setting up a Leap Year Dance to make this socially acceptable, of course, February 29th traditionally being the one day when women can propose to men). Even in modern YA books, it doesn’t seem to be all that common for the heroine to pursue her desires so straightforwardly (or sometimes even to know what her desires are), so it’s a nice contrast to read a book that’s practically a step-by-step manual on “This is one way to get what you want, and get rid of it when you find you don’t want it anymore.”
I also finished David McCullough’s 1776, which was interesting, although McCullough is not answering the ranks of my must-read nonfiction writers; of course this is partly because he writes military history, which is not high on my list. Mostly it made me aware just how little I know about the American Revolution.
What I’m Reading Now
Betsy Was a Junior, in which Betsy sets her sights on Joe Willard… only to discover that he’s been snapped up by another girl! Oh well, I’m sure she’ll have a delightful junior year despite this setback. Betsy generally seems to have a talent for finding the fun in whatever’s going, even if it isn’t going quite how she wished.
I’ve also been reading Henry Beetle Hough’s The Country Editor (a memoir about being a newspaper editor on Martha’s Vineyard), because it was mentioned in When Books Went to War as a book that World War II soldiers particularly enjoyed, and I liked one of their other favorites, Chicken Every Sunday.
The Country Editor isn’t quite doing it for me, though. It’s very episodic - not that I mind episodic, but it’s so very episodic that it feels like it doesn’t quite come together at all. But I’ll keep on a bit longer and see if perhaps I start feeling better about it.
What I Plan to Read Next
Eva Ibbotson’s Madensky Square, for the 2016 Reading Challenge “a book that you own but have never read.” I should note that I am totally failing at the challenge “a book that intimidates you.” This may have been the wrong year to try and tackle War and Peace.
Betsy In Spite of Herself, which is just as good as all the other Betsy-Tacy books. I feel like I’m becoming a Betsy-Tacy evangelist. One of my high school friends is a Betsy-Tacy friend and I struggle not to bombard her with texts like “OMG BETSY BAGGED PHIL BRANDISH, THIS WILL END BADLY.”
Phil Brandish is a handsome classmate with a red auto. Betsy is more in love with the auto than Phil, but as she’s only fifteen I think she’s not quite aware of that until they’ve actually been dating for a while, at which point she realizes that Phil is a pill.
One thing I love about these books is that when Betsy decides that she wants a boy, she goes after him - to the point that she actually asks Phil Brandish out (after setting up a Leap Year Dance to make this socially acceptable, of course, February 29th traditionally being the one day when women can propose to men). Even in modern YA books, it doesn’t seem to be all that common for the heroine to pursue her desires so straightforwardly (or sometimes even to know what her desires are), so it’s a nice contrast to read a book that’s practically a step-by-step manual on “This is one way to get what you want, and get rid of it when you find you don’t want it anymore.”
I also finished David McCullough’s 1776, which was interesting, although McCullough is not answering the ranks of my must-read nonfiction writers; of course this is partly because he writes military history, which is not high on my list. Mostly it made me aware just how little I know about the American Revolution.
What I’m Reading Now
Betsy Was a Junior, in which Betsy sets her sights on Joe Willard… only to discover that he’s been snapped up by another girl! Oh well, I’m sure she’ll have a delightful junior year despite this setback. Betsy generally seems to have a talent for finding the fun in whatever’s going, even if it isn’t going quite how she wished.
I’ve also been reading Henry Beetle Hough’s The Country Editor (a memoir about being a newspaper editor on Martha’s Vineyard), because it was mentioned in When Books Went to War as a book that World War II soldiers particularly enjoyed, and I liked one of their other favorites, Chicken Every Sunday.
The Country Editor isn’t quite doing it for me, though. It’s very episodic - not that I mind episodic, but it’s so very episodic that it feels like it doesn’t quite come together at all. But I’ll keep on a bit longer and see if perhaps I start feeling better about it.
What I Plan to Read Next
Eva Ibbotson’s Madensky Square, for the 2016 Reading Challenge “a book that you own but have never read.” I should note that I am totally failing at the challenge “a book that intimidates you.” This may have been the wrong year to try and tackle War and Peace.
