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Wednesday Reading Meme
Feb. 14th, 2024 05:18 pmWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
A couple more Rumer Goddens. The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle is delightful retelling of a folktale with enchanting illustrations by Mairi Hedderwick, including a cross-section of the “vinegar bottle,” that is to say, the cylindrical two-story cottage, one room on top of the other with a thatched round roof on top. I love cross-sections (one of my favorite ever Brambly Hedge illustrations is the cross-section of a tree trunk that is a mouse palace) and this one is infinitely appealing in the small perfect snugness of the house.
Also Mouse House, illustrated by Adrienne Adams, in which a little girl is given a little house with a couple of boring little mouse dolls… only eventually the mouse house ends up in the cellar, where a real mouse family moves in, and Mary sometimes goes to the cellar to watch them frolic. Cute! Will probably forget this book in its entirety.
I also read Doris Gates’ A Filly for Melinda, the sequel to A Morgan for Melinda, which suffers as sequels often do from a drop-off in quality from the first book… However, the drop-off is not severe here. I still enjoyed Melinda’s voice, and it was nice to revisit her and her family and her horses (now supplemented by Merry Jo’s baby filly, Little Missy); it just felt inessential.
What I’m Reading Now
In Sir Isumbras at the Ford, ( spoilers )
Meanwhile, in E. B. White’s One Man’s Meat, America has entered World War II. White seems positively relieved by this development, which I understand: it’s much easier to deal with an actual disaster than to live indefinitely in its impending shadow.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have Daphne DuMaurier’s The Flight of the Falcon, about which I know nothing except that Daphne DuMaurier wrote it. In fact I’ve been eyeing DuMaurier’s extended oeuvre, as you might say, by which I mean the books beyond Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn. Any recs or anti-recs?
A couple more Rumer Goddens. The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle is delightful retelling of a folktale with enchanting illustrations by Mairi Hedderwick, including a cross-section of the “vinegar bottle,” that is to say, the cylindrical two-story cottage, one room on top of the other with a thatched round roof on top. I love cross-sections (one of my favorite ever Brambly Hedge illustrations is the cross-section of a tree trunk that is a mouse palace) and this one is infinitely appealing in the small perfect snugness of the house.
Also Mouse House, illustrated by Adrienne Adams, in which a little girl is given a little house with a couple of boring little mouse dolls… only eventually the mouse house ends up in the cellar, where a real mouse family moves in, and Mary sometimes goes to the cellar to watch them frolic. Cute! Will probably forget this book in its entirety.
I also read Doris Gates’ A Filly for Melinda, the sequel to A Morgan for Melinda, which suffers as sequels often do from a drop-off in quality from the first book… However, the drop-off is not severe here. I still enjoyed Melinda’s voice, and it was nice to revisit her and her family and her horses (now supplemented by Merry Jo’s baby filly, Little Missy); it just felt inessential.
What I’m Reading Now
In Sir Isumbras at the Ford, ( spoilers )
Meanwhile, in E. B. White’s One Man’s Meat, America has entered World War II. White seems positively relieved by this development, which I understand: it’s much easier to deal with an actual disaster than to live indefinitely in its impending shadow.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have Daphne DuMaurier’s The Flight of the Falcon, about which I know nothing except that Daphne DuMaurier wrote it. In fact I’ve been eyeing DuMaurier’s extended oeuvre, as you might say, by which I mean the books beyond Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn. Any recs or anti-recs?
