Wednesday Reading Meme
Jun. 1st, 2016 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I took Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree on my trip, and it was a delight as Mary Stewart books always are. (I have in fact started saving them for trips so I will be sure of a delightful read while I’m on the road.) I wasn’t quite convinced by the final twist, but in a way that doesn’t matter; I’m not reading Mary Stewart for the plot so much as the atmosphere, the surface coziness with the underlying hint of menace, and The Ivy Tree delivers that in spades.
I didn’t finish Dinner with Persephone, but I did give up on it; life is too short for depressing travelogues from someone who seems to remain forever firmly alien from her new country. I don’t require Storace to agree with her Greek hosts that there’s something inherently disrespectful about an ad campaign showing a bottle of Coke replacing one of the pillars of the Parthenon, but I feel like her book would be more interesting if she at least gave the possibility a sympathetic hearing.
I feel like I should start a category for books that I’ve abandoned, although that might encourage me to start abandoning more of them, so maybe not.
What I’m Reading Now
I’ve just started Enid Bagnold’s A Diary Without Dates, which is an oddly dreamlike memoir about her time working as a nurse during World War I. It’s strange and atmospheric and probably not very helpful if you’re looking for nitty-gritty war nursing details, but some of the images are unexpectedly captivating. Like this:
After a long walk down the corridor in almost total darkness, the vapour of the rain floating through every open door and window, the sudden brilliancy of the ward was like a haven.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have James Runcie’s Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death! This is the book that the first Grantchester series was based on, and I enjoyed that very much, so hopefully I will like the book as well.
And!!! Did you know that there’s a second series of Granchester? Netflix is getting the DVDs in June! I am excited!
I also need to decide which Mary Stewart books to add to my list - not to read immediately, mind, but for future trips. Aside from The Ivy Tree, I’ve already read Nine Coaches Waiting, The Moon-Spinners, The Stormy Petrel, and Rose Cottage; my library also has Thunder on the Right, This Rough Magic, The Gabriel Hounds, The Wicked Day, Touch Not the Cat, and of course The Crystal Cave, although I’m not sure I want to read another Arthurian retelling.
My goodness, she did write a lot of books. And I know there were lots more besides those; the library has a very incomplete selection. Anyway, of those books, are there any that you would particularly recommend? Or particularly warn against?
I took Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree on my trip, and it was a delight as Mary Stewart books always are. (I have in fact started saving them for trips so I will be sure of a delightful read while I’m on the road.) I wasn’t quite convinced by the final twist, but in a way that doesn’t matter; I’m not reading Mary Stewart for the plot so much as the atmosphere, the surface coziness with the underlying hint of menace, and The Ivy Tree delivers that in spades.
I didn’t finish Dinner with Persephone, but I did give up on it; life is too short for depressing travelogues from someone who seems to remain forever firmly alien from her new country. I don’t require Storace to agree with her Greek hosts that there’s something inherently disrespectful about an ad campaign showing a bottle of Coke replacing one of the pillars of the Parthenon, but I feel like her book would be more interesting if she at least gave the possibility a sympathetic hearing.
I feel like I should start a category for books that I’ve abandoned, although that might encourage me to start abandoning more of them, so maybe not.
What I’m Reading Now
I’ve just started Enid Bagnold’s A Diary Without Dates, which is an oddly dreamlike memoir about her time working as a nurse during World War I. It’s strange and atmospheric and probably not very helpful if you’re looking for nitty-gritty war nursing details, but some of the images are unexpectedly captivating. Like this:
After a long walk down the corridor in almost total darkness, the vapour of the rain floating through every open door and window, the sudden brilliancy of the ward was like a haven.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have James Runcie’s Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death! This is the book that the first Grantchester series was based on, and I enjoyed that very much, so hopefully I will like the book as well.
And!!! Did you know that there’s a second series of Granchester? Netflix is getting the DVDs in June! I am excited!
I also need to decide which Mary Stewart books to add to my list - not to read immediately, mind, but for future trips. Aside from The Ivy Tree, I’ve already read Nine Coaches Waiting, The Moon-Spinners, The Stormy Petrel, and Rose Cottage; my library also has Thunder on the Right, This Rough Magic, The Gabriel Hounds, The Wicked Day, Touch Not the Cat, and of course The Crystal Cave, although I’m not sure I want to read another Arthurian retelling.
My goodness, she did write a lot of books. And I know there were lots more besides those; the library has a very incomplete selection. Anyway, of those books, are there any that you would particularly recommend? Or particularly warn against?
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no subject
Date: 2016-06-02 02:32 am (UTC)For your re-read: The Wicked Day is part of the Mary Stewart Arthurian retelling, so that one sorts out with The Crystal Cave. It's been a really long time since I read it, but I vaguely remember liking Touch Not the Cat quite well.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-02 01:09 pm (UTC)I will probably end up reading The Crystal Cave and company eventually, but maybe after I've read all the others. I think someone else has recommended Touch Not the Cat to me, so probably I'll put that next on my list.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-02 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-02 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-04 09:10 am (UTC)I'd recommend Touch Not the Cat (telepathy!) and This Rough Magic (dolphins!), and advise against Thunder on the Right (Stewart said she wanted "to see it drowned beyond recovery", which made me feel better about disliking it).
It's 10+ years since I read The Crystal Cave, but I really liked it. I'm pretty sure that it is set before Arthur is born, so it's different from some Arthurian retellings in that regard.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-05 01:33 am (UTC)