Wednesday Reading Meme on Thursday
Apr. 25th, 2024 01:18 pmYesterday I was stricken down by illness, and thus could not cope with Wednesday Reading Meme. Today I am slightly better (though still a bit foggy, so bear with me if this is not quite coherent), so I am posting one day late.
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
Chloe Cheshire’s A Gypsy at Almack’s, which I read because Chloe Cheshire is the pen name under which Laura Amy Schlitz published a Regency romance in 1993. She did not publish another book until 2006, by which I deduce that this book did not sell particularly well. This is puzzling, because it’s lots of fun and very funny, in a droll, deadpan way. At one point the hero, stricken with influenza but forced by circumstance to attend a party, vents his spleen on the only immediately available object: Ludwig van Beethoven.
Oh well! Regency romance’s loss is children’s literature’s gain.
I also scored two spectacular finds on the clearance shelf of a local bookstore! First, Gordon Korman’s This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!, which I promptly reread that evening, because the Macdonald Hall books are always a good time. After committing one prank too many, mischievous roommates Bruno and Boots are separated, and spend the rest of the book plotting how to get back together.
Second, Pam Conrad’s Stonewords, which I’ve been planning to read since![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija posted about it, at which point I commented “this sounds like just the kind of thing that I like.” And indeed it is! It is so much so the kind of thing I like that it is, in fact, also a reread, although I didn’t realize it till a couple of details tipped me off some way through the book.
Anyway, it was delightful to reread. This is a time-slip ghost story, about two girls who live in the same house decades apart and become best friends. But as she grows older, Zoe realizes that her name comes from the earlier Zoe Louise’s tombstone. As Zoe Louise becomes more ghostly and ghastly, Zoe wonders if she can save her friend… Deliciously atmospheric.
What I’m Reading Now
Continuing on in Barbara Leonie Picard’s The Lady of the Linden Tree. This week, there was a story about a man who lives alone on an island, who marries a wife to keep him company, only she gets so tired of the place she goes home after three months. But then the man saves a little elf-man who is about to be carried by a seagull, and the little elf-man who has always wanted to see the sea settles down on the island, and they live happily ever after.
What I Plan to Read Next
My next short story collection is Daphne Du Maurier’s The Birds, and Other Stories. I read “The Birds” in high school, and I have no idea if it’s representative of the stories in this book, but I am prepared to be fucked up.
There’s also a sequel to Stonewords, Zoe Rising, which I may or may not reread. I loved Stonewords, but it doesn’t really have any loose ends that call for a sequel, which often means that the sequel will not be as good.
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
Chloe Cheshire’s A Gypsy at Almack’s, which I read because Chloe Cheshire is the pen name under which Laura Amy Schlitz published a Regency romance in 1993. She did not publish another book until 2006, by which I deduce that this book did not sell particularly well. This is puzzling, because it’s lots of fun and very funny, in a droll, deadpan way. At one point the hero, stricken with influenza but forced by circumstance to attend a party, vents his spleen on the only immediately available object: Ludwig van Beethoven.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Lord Rune pronounced, was talented but doomed to obscurity. His music was not without merit, but he was too fond of novelty for novelty’s sake; he sacrificed beauty to singularity… It was a pity, but his music would almost certainly prove to be of no lasting importance.
Lord Rune delivered this speech in a rather hoarse voice, wondering, as he did so, why he was condemning a composer he admired.
Oh well! Regency romance’s loss is children’s literature’s gain.
I also scored two spectacular finds on the clearance shelf of a local bookstore! First, Gordon Korman’s This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!, which I promptly reread that evening, because the Macdonald Hall books are always a good time. After committing one prank too many, mischievous roommates Bruno and Boots are separated, and spend the rest of the book plotting how to get back together.
Second, Pam Conrad’s Stonewords, which I’ve been planning to read since
rachelmanija posted about it, at which point I commented “this sounds like just the kind of thing that I like.” And indeed it is! It is so much so the kind of thing I like that it is, in fact, also a reread, although I didn’t realize it till a couple of details tipped me off some way through the book. Anyway, it was delightful to reread. This is a time-slip ghost story, about two girls who live in the same house decades apart and become best friends. But as she grows older, Zoe realizes that her name comes from the earlier Zoe Louise’s tombstone. As Zoe Louise becomes more ghostly and ghastly, Zoe wonders if she can save her friend… Deliciously atmospheric.
What I’m Reading Now
Continuing on in Barbara Leonie Picard’s The Lady of the Linden Tree. This week, there was a story about a man who lives alone on an island, who marries a wife to keep him company, only she gets so tired of the place she goes home after three months. But then the man saves a little elf-man who is about to be carried by a seagull, and the little elf-man who has always wanted to see the sea settles down on the island, and they live happily ever after.
What I Plan to Read Next
My next short story collection is Daphne Du Maurier’s The Birds, and Other Stories. I read “The Birds” in high school, and I have no idea if it’s representative of the stories in this book, but I am prepared to be fucked up.
There’s also a sequel to Stonewords, Zoe Rising, which I may or may not reread. I loved Stonewords, but it doesn’t really have any loose ends that call for a sequel, which often means that the sequel will not be as good.
