Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

By popular demand, I read Hilary McKay’s A Little Princess sequel, Wishing for Tomorrow, and I’m happy to say I quite enjoyed it! I read the whole thing in one evening: the narrative force tugged me along so fiercely that I almost forwent an ice cream excursion because I wanted so much to keep reading.

I don’t know that it’s quite the future Frances Hodgson Burnett would have given these characters (in particular, I strongly suspect that McKay is more forgiving toward Lavinia and Miss Minchin than Burnett might have been). But McKay’s interpretations are all reasonable extrapolations from the characters’ portrayals in A Little Princess - it fits with the other book (in a way that Maleficent, for instance, doesn’t fit with Sleeping Beauty). And I think McKay did a beautiful job showing that Ermengarde feels lonely and abandoned after Sara left, without villainizing Sara.

My only quibble is that I am pretty sure no one in A Little Princess ever called Ermengarde “Ermie,” and I disapprove very much of the fact that McKay inflicted such an awful nickname on her. Doesn’t Ermengarde have enough troubles without a nickname that rhymes with wormy?

Also Rachel Bertsche’s Jennifer, Gwyneth, and Me: The Pursuit of Happiness, One Celebrity at a Time. I really loved Bertsche’s earlier book, MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend, partly because Bertsche is a very personable writer, but also because I really connected with her topic: making friends is something I struggle with, and it is so validating to read this book and realize that my standards for friendship really aren’t impossibly high.

Anyway. Bertsche is still a very personable writer in Jennifer, Gwyneth, and Me, so I did enjoy the book, but I didn’t connect to it on the same personal level as MWF Seeking BFF. But probably I’ll read her next book when it comes out. (Especially given that the next book might be a parenting book. I have a strange weakness for parenting books.)

What I’m Reading Now

Hilary McKay’s Forever Rose, which is the fifth Casson Family book and is...not quite as charming as the earlier books. I really enjoyed the ensemble aspect of the earlier books, but this one is more all Rose all the time, and while I like Rose...that is really too much Rose.

Also Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Shield Ring. I think I should put Operation Read All the Sutcliff on hold, because I am really struggling to get through this book, and I think perhaps I’m just too accustomed to her narrative tics.

What I Plan to Read Next

I have gone on a Kindle binge in anticipation of my upcoming trip. I have Lia Silver’s Prisoner, and also a whole slew of ancient (well, pre-1923) books that are FREEEEEE. I'm also thinking about getting E. F. Benson’s David Blaize, but it is not FREEEEE, so I’m waffling. Has anyone read it?

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Ermie! Dear God.

my standards for friendship really aren’t impossibly high.

Let me tell you an anecdote that hopefully isn't too tl;dr.

When I was an undergraduate, which was exactly 20 years ago, I got in a fight with my then-best friend. I'd had some crisis (I forget what it was) and called her on an emergency basis, and she wouldn't come because she had a date. Particularly back then, it was extremely rare for me to ask anyone for the sort of favor that would seriously inconvenience them, and it may have been the first time I'd ever asked her for anything of the kind. So I was pissed off and felt abandoned when the ONE time I asked, she wouldn't help me with my giant crisis because it would have disappointed her boyfriend.

She told me that I shouldn't and couldn't expect a friend to drop everything and come to my rescue, and that that was the sort of thing that people only did for family or romantic partners. And it was particularly unreasonable to expect anyone to cancel a date with a boyfriend to help their platonic girlfriend.

I said, "But I'd do that for you."

She said, and I still recall how frustrated she sounded, "I know you would, but you're the only person who would! You can't expect other people to be like you! That's not a reasonable thing to expect from a friendship!"

Needless to say, I was completely crushed and not only felt abandoned, but like a freak.

That was 20 years ago. I now have friends who WOULD cancel a date if I was in trouble. I have very literally risked my life for my friends.

The moral of the story is that if you have high expectations of friendship, you will end up with friends who feel the same way.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm going to copy this message and send it to my younger daughter, who needs to see it. And osprey_archer she feels the same way you do about friendship.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I feel like I have better luck finding people who feel this way about friendship on the internet than IRL. It's a pity we can't all congregate in one place and befriend each other.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I don't know why canon characters with perfectly reasonable names so often get terrible nicknames in fic. I think the worst is in Les Mis movie fandom, where it has become a thing to shorten Enjolras to Enjy. Enjy.

Although Enjy is still not as bad as Ermie.

And wow, that was a wretched thing for your friend to do. Sometimes I feel like having expectations of friends - any expectations at all, not just high ones - is seen as asking too much. Because the point of friendship (as opposed to other family or romantic relationships) is that there are no obligations, or something like that.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I have David Blaize, and its sequel, when he forces David to fall in love with a woman--it is very, very homoerotic. (And unfortunately not as witty as some of his other writing.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

This is what I've heard about David Blaize. I will continue to contemplate... I've also heard good things about Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels, and the first two of those are free on Kindle, so perhaps I'll try one of those instead.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

The Mapp and Lucia novels are uneven; the Mapp ones are better overall, I think, than the Lucia ones, which are pretty good except for Lucia in London, which is one long story about humiliation and social climbing. (A great many of Benson's non-ghost short stories are about social climbers getting stung for their presumption.)

There is one great moment in the Lucia stories, about Georgie, that should not be missed, however.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think I'll give Lucia in London a miss, then, because humiliation is not my cup of tea. The Georgie moment is presumably in one of the other Lucia books?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes!