Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Susan Cooper’s Over Sea, Under Stone, the first book in the Dark is Rising sequence, which I actually quite enjoyed. I went into it with such low expectations that I was pleasantly surprised to find it a family adventure story, a la Narnia or Swallows and Amazons or even the Boxcar Children. And with a magical twist, to boot!

I am very fond of this sort of story, although it seems to have fallen out of fashion in recent years. There are Hilary McKay’s books - I adored The Amber Cat, though for whatever reason I’ve had trouble getting into her other books - and Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwick series, which is absolutely charming. The fourth book should be coming out next year, I hope...they seem to come out at three-year intervals.

What I’m Reading Now

Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, because I was feeling gigantic French novel withdrawal. So far, everyone is jealous of Dantes and scheming against him and he has just been taken to the police station (gendarmerie?) on suspicion of being a Bonapartist agent.

Also Jaclyn Moriarty’s I Had a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes, which I am struggling with, because I want to smack so many of the characters. Of the three main adult characters, one just embarked on an affair with a married man, one schemes vaguely about cheating on her boyfriend - even though she’s happy with him! - and one is pettily unhappy about little things her husband does.

I have to keep checking the cover to convince myself that this really is a Moriarty book. The characters in her teen novels are so much more grown up than this.

What I’m Reading Next

The rest of the Dark is Rising sequence.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This makes me wonder if I would have liked Over Sea, Under Stone better if I'd come to it first, rather than after The Dark Is Rising.

I'll have to check out The Amber Cat.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I can see how Over Sea, Under Stone would be a huge disappointment if you read it after The Dark is Rising, because they have not only different characters but very different tones.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

I read Over Sea, Under Stone and really enjoyed it, and then bounced so hard off TDIR I never read the others--I gather most people who read TDIR first don't like OSUS much.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

This is somewhat reassuring, because I've been having some trouble getting into The Dark is Rising - because it's just so different. It's almost a pity the books are linked together in a series, because the tone shift is pretty jarring.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

OSUS hit me in my nostalgic sibling exploration fantasy place; TDIR...didn't, so tbh I'm not sure I personally would have gotten into TDIR regardless. I don't know how well they tie back together later, but I do think that marketing them as a series is a bit misleading.