Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Eva Ibbotson’s The Morning Gift, which I found sad, especially at the beginning. The heroine is a refugee, who has fled Vienna (by means of a marriage of convenience, which of course turns out to be true love after much travail) to England soon after the Anschluss, so probably I should have expected it to be sad. But it’s an Ibbotson book! Who expects an Ibbotson to be sad? And A Countess Below Stairs also has refugees (White Russian refugees that time), and it’s not melancholy.

But Ibbotson herself fled Vienna in the late 1930s, and her love for the city that was before the war is strong in this book. I’ve never even been to Vienna, and I want to weep for it.

What I’m Reading Now

Rosemary Sutcliff’s Rider on a White Horse.

What I Plan to Read Next

Edwidge Danticat’s Claire of the Sea Light, which I am reading partly because I’ve seen good reviews - asakiyume, I believe you wrote about it? - but also because the cover is gorgeous, which is a dangerous method for finding new books. Hopefully this will be a Crown Duel rather than a Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls situation.

Also Maureen Johnson’s The Name of the Star.

Comments

[ladyherenya]

I just reread The Morning Gift (I finished it today). I think of it as being a joyful book, which is a bit odd because it is sad, but it's the delight Ruth takes in things - her studies, her friendships, the ocean - that always stands out for me.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes! I did read it, and I liked it very, very much (and it really does have just about the most beautiful cover ever). There's lots of grim in it, as I'm sure you're discovering, but I guess I felt that there was a thread of the numinous? And a sense of the beauty and worth of life. But I'll be interested to read your take!

How's Rider on a White Horse?