Wednesday Reading Meme
Jul. 10th, 2019 08:57 amWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Jessie Graham Flower’s Grace Harlowe’s Junior Year at High School, which![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
evelyn_b sent me lo these many moons ago. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s the third book in the series, so I might have had more luck keeping track of the characters if I’d read the first two - although on the other hand I might not; Flower isn’t that good at differentiating characters, even on the very basic level of giving each one a single distinguishing trait a la Enid Blyton’s school stories.
However, I did enjoy it in the sense that it’s super interesting from a historical perspective: there’s a scene where the boys of Grace’s acquaintance put on a skit mocking the suffragettes, to the merriment of Grace and her friends. (The book was published in 1911.) This is probably the most overt political content I’ve read in a children’s book from that era, and it’s striking that it’s on the anti-suffrage side: clearly the publishers weren’t concerned that supporting the status quo would hurt their bottom line.
What I’m Reading Now
Here’s your weekly quote from Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek. “What if I fell in a forest: Would a tree hear?”
Or this one, related, also about the consciousness of trees: “The trees especially seem to bespeak a generosity of spirit. I suspect that the real moral thinkers end up, wherever they may start, in botany.”
Upon reflection, I’m not sure that makes any sense, but it’s striking, isn’t it?
In Gay Life, Denis is sabotaging all his chances of future happiness by trying incessantly to present himself in the best possible light to Chrissie Challoner while actually just making himself look affected and fake. For instance, he attempts to pass himself off as the hero of a motorboat sinking, when in fact he panicked so hard that his rescuer had to knock him out so as not to be drowned by Denis’s flailing.
It’s clear that Chrissie would have been more impressed by a frank admission of that panic, but Denis just can’t bring himself to believe that (and to be fair, how many people really mean it when they say “I just want honesty!” Who hasn’t beta-read a story for someone who claims they want unvarnished criticism, but in reality can barely even handle notes on SPAG?) and their relationship is sinking almost as fast as the motorboat. Oh Denis. If only you didn’t have that streak of dishonesty on top of all your other problems!
I’m also barreling through Sam Eastland’s Berlin Red, which I am pretty sure is going to end with Pekkala reunited with his lady love! ...whose existence I’m afraid I had forgotten, but that’s okay, it turns out that in the years since the Revolution she has become a BRITISH SPY who is DEEP UNDERCOVER AS A SECRETARY WITH GERMAN HIGH COMMAND. Most recently seen: staring at her boss’s arm thinking about all the different arteries she could stab to kill him. In short she’s just as extra as Pekkala so clearly they’re perfectly suited.
I am a liiiiittle afraid that the book will end with the two of them getting shot, as it’s the last book in the series, but mostly I’m confident that Eastland loves them both too much and will probably smuggle them away to England somehow and they live quietly on a bee farm for their happy ending.
What I Plan to Read Next
More Ben Macintyre! Agent Zigzag is on the way.
Jessie Graham Flower’s Grace Harlowe’s Junior Year at High School, which
evelyn_b sent me lo these many moons ago. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s the third book in the series, so I might have had more luck keeping track of the characters if I’d read the first two - although on the other hand I might not; Flower isn’t that good at differentiating characters, even on the very basic level of giving each one a single distinguishing trait a la Enid Blyton’s school stories. However, I did enjoy it in the sense that it’s super interesting from a historical perspective: there’s a scene where the boys of Grace’s acquaintance put on a skit mocking the suffragettes, to the merriment of Grace and her friends. (The book was published in 1911.) This is probably the most overt political content I’ve read in a children’s book from that era, and it’s striking that it’s on the anti-suffrage side: clearly the publishers weren’t concerned that supporting the status quo would hurt their bottom line.
What I’m Reading Now
Here’s your weekly quote from Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek. “What if I fell in a forest: Would a tree hear?”
Or this one, related, also about the consciousness of trees: “The trees especially seem to bespeak a generosity of spirit. I suspect that the real moral thinkers end up, wherever they may start, in botany.”
Upon reflection, I’m not sure that makes any sense, but it’s striking, isn’t it?
In Gay Life, Denis is sabotaging all his chances of future happiness by trying incessantly to present himself in the best possible light to Chrissie Challoner while actually just making himself look affected and fake. For instance, he attempts to pass himself off as the hero of a motorboat sinking, when in fact he panicked so hard that his rescuer had to knock him out so as not to be drowned by Denis’s flailing.
It’s clear that Chrissie would have been more impressed by a frank admission of that panic, but Denis just can’t bring himself to believe that (and to be fair, how many people really mean it when they say “I just want honesty!” Who hasn’t beta-read a story for someone who claims they want unvarnished criticism, but in reality can barely even handle notes on SPAG?) and their relationship is sinking almost as fast as the motorboat. Oh Denis. If only you didn’t have that streak of dishonesty on top of all your other problems!
I’m also barreling through Sam Eastland’s Berlin Red, which I am pretty sure is going to end with Pekkala reunited with his lady love! ...whose existence I’m afraid I had forgotten, but that’s okay, it turns out that in the years since the Revolution she has become a BRITISH SPY who is DEEP UNDERCOVER AS A SECRETARY WITH GERMAN HIGH COMMAND. Most recently seen: staring at her boss’s arm thinking about all the different arteries she could stab to kill him. In short she’s just as extra as Pekkala so clearly they’re perfectly suited.
I am a liiiiittle afraid that the book will end with the two of them getting shot, as it’s the last book in the series, but mostly I’m confident that Eastland loves them both too much and will probably smuggle them away to England somehow and they live quietly on a bee farm for their happy ending.
What I Plan to Read Next
More Ben Macintyre! Agent Zigzag is on the way.
