Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Lynne Rae Perkins’ Criss Cross, a meandering series of vignettes about a loose group of friends growing up in the sixties. It’s pleasant, but I can’t help thinking that it won the Newbery Medal partly because the committee felt overcome with nostalgia as they read. “That’s exactly what it was like growing up in the sixties!” I imagine them saying, their eyes misty as they recall their youthful days. “Exactly what it was like!”

What I’m Reading Now

Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife, a novel about Hemingway’s first wife, which is good but, as you might expect in a book about two depressed people, quite depressing. I put it down every few chapters and test myself to make sure it isn’t infecting me. “True or false," I say. "The world is a terrible place full of sad, lonely people, who will always be sad and lonely because human connection is a myth.”

When I start answering “TRUE, SO TRUE,” then I know that the book is getting to me and I’ve read enough for the day.

And then I listen to Edward Eager’s Half Magic, which is quite soothing. I haven’t actually read E. Nesbit, but given that Eager’s book kicks off with the children reading Nesbit and pining for Nesbittean adventures, I’m pretty sure what he’s going for is “E. Nesbit, American style.”

What I’m Reading Next

It was going to be Avi’s Crispin: The Cross of Lead, which is the last of the Newbery books. But the library copy is missing its final disk, so not so much with that. I could always listen to some E. Nesbit...

My friend Micky suggested A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which I’ve heard is rather grim. But it can’t be too bad, surely, if Micky likes it; she’s the one who introduced me to Alcott and the original Winnie the Pooh. Has anyone read it? Thoughts on its grimness quotient?

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

All four of my kids had to read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for school. They were all pretty meh on it--not hugely against it, but not amazingly for it, either. The protagonist is a working-class girl with a gift for writing, who's told by her teachers that she ought to be writing about beautiful and uplifting things rather than about her life. Although it was radical at the time to write frankly (heh, and the protag's name is Frankie) about poverty, alcoholism, etc., it isn't now, which may have been part of why the kids had limited reactions to it.

Still, it seems to me that it might be very interesting as a portrait of the time period and what it was like to grow up then, in those circumstances.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'll give it a try and see what I think. It might be one of those books that is simply better when you read it outside of school? I think often, the fact that you can quit a book if you want (even if you don't want) makes any difficult aspects less unpleasant.

also

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I like your true-false test!

And Edward Eager got me to read E. Nesbit, whom I mainly enjoyed in exactly the way I'd enjoyed his books.

Re: also

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I find it is a useful diagnostic when I am feeling down even when it's not book induced. Then I can call a friend or my parents and prove to myself that at least the last part of the sentence is untrue...

Re: also

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Absolutely: it's a good protective measure if you're prone to depression.

[kikainausagi.livejournal.com]

I read oodles of E Nesbit and Edward Eager growing up. :) They were some of the books my mother had read growing up, and then she read them to us, and so on and so forth. On the whole I would say that Eager is more lighthearted, and his books do feel like they were written about a generation later. Nesbit is good fun too, though.

Have you ever read Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazon's series? It occurs to me that you might like them, if you like early 20th century children's literature. They've been reprinted relatively recently, which makes them easy to find.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I've heard of Swallows and Amazons but never read it. It's the one about messing about in boats, isn't it? I do like boat stories.

[kikainausagi.livejournal.com]

Yes, Swallows and Amazon's is All About Boats. It's one of those idyllic children's books where the adults hardly feature and the kids are off camping and sailing and having adventures. Being written in the 30s it also has some gender role stuff going on - as I recall the girls are always far more domestic, but at least they're also out there boating and camping and whatnot. I've been meaning to reread at least the first one, but the used bookstore keeps having the rest of the series but not Swallows and Amazon's itself. Sigh.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I really like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and I don't think it's particularly grim. It's really, really atmospheric. You get a great sense of what it feels like to be that particular child in that particular time and place and family. I'd suggest reading the first two chapters: if you're enthralled, you're good to go, and if you're bored, you won't like the rest either.

It contains poverty, alcoholism, and (briefly) an attempted sexual assault, but the protagonist isn't very angsty so it doesn't feel very dark.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

That does sound like the sort of thing I would like: it sounds a bit like a grittier All of a Kind Family. Admittedly, they may have nothing in common beyond being set in New York not long after 1900...but that setting is kind of a recommendation in itself for me.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It is exactly a grittier All of a Kind Family. Only Irish rather than Jewish.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Heh, glad to see you guys read each other's journals. Two of my best sources for book reviews, unite!