Wednesday Reading Meme
Mar. 14th, 2018 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Land of the Blue Flower is - wait for it- about the soul-restoring power of gardening. In this case, the gardens (planted with the titular blue flowers) save not only a cranky girl and a neglected boy, but an entire kingdom which has fallen into the ways of anger and mistrust. Their young king declares that everyone must plant a blue flower, and the outdoor exercise and interest of watching their flowers grow restores everyone so that the entire kingdom is reformed.
Also Gil North’s The Methods of Sergeant Cruff, which ended more or less as I expected, although the woman who murdered Jane Trundle did so not out of sexual jealousy but in order to frame her own neglectful husband (who was having an affair with Jane) for the murder, which would not only send him to prison but ruin his good name by making the affair come out - which she gloatingly confesses to him, and then he murders her, while Sergeant Cluff stands outside the door and listens.
Cluff insists that she never would have been convicted (and therefore it was just and right for him to listen as her husband beats her to death with his walking stick), but I don’t know, man. The jury might not believe the husband, of course - he’s got lots of reason to make up such a confession - but a confession overheard by a police officer? They might go for that.
I also read the first Dork Diaries book, because I see them coming through circulation all the time (though not nearly as much as Diary of a Wimpy Kid!) - but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I hoped. The narrator, Nikki, is not nearly as dorky as the main character of a book called Dork Diaries ought to be, and the other characters aren’t fleshed out at all: for instance, Nikki’s two friends Zoey & Chloe appear to be interchangeable.
On a cheerier note, I also finished Susan Coolidge’s Clover, in which the characters do their best stay cheerful and uncomplaining even when they find themselves saddled with an unbearable old lady. But don’t worry! They manage to have a good time despite her, enjoying their train trip out West, marveling at the beauty of the mountains, riding horses at a charming ranch, taking wagon rides up the mountains to have picnics, etc. etc.
You know what is wrong with modern-day books? Not enough picnics. It’s like at some point someone said “You know, people find it really boring when the characters have a good time,” and therefore good times were banished from books FOREVERMORE, even though really picnics and tea parties and canoe excursions is often exactly what I want.
What I’m Reading Now
I’ve almost finished An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, which is a compilation of English food writer Elizabeth David’s magazine work. It’s not terribly useful in the direct sense of having recipes I want to try, although there is a intriguing recipe for sardine butter - mash together sardines, butter, salt, & pepper, and serve on crispy hot toast - but it gives an interesting glimpse of not only English but also French & Italian food culture in the mid-twentieth century. And there are some articles about earlier recipe books, which I found fascinating.
But speaking of fascinating, I’ve been listening to Cary Elwes’s As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, which is exactly as delightful as the title leads you to expect and heartwarming in the best possible sense. I’ve just finished the chapter that is basically 100% stories about how great Andre the Giant was.
What I Plan to Read Next
Let the great Newbery Honor read commence! I’ve made it a habit to read all the honor books since 2015, so I’m kicking it off with a 2014 honoree, Vince Vawter’s Paperboy. What will await? Sublime works of genius? Endless pits of despair? A whole lot of historical fiction?
That last at least is 100% inevitable. Otherwise - we’ll see!
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Land of the Blue Flower is - wait for it- about the soul-restoring power of gardening. In this case, the gardens (planted with the titular blue flowers) save not only a cranky girl and a neglected boy, but an entire kingdom which has fallen into the ways of anger and mistrust. Their young king declares that everyone must plant a blue flower, and the outdoor exercise and interest of watching their flowers grow restores everyone so that the entire kingdom is reformed.
Also Gil North’s The Methods of Sergeant Cruff, which ended more or less as I expected, although the woman who murdered Jane Trundle did so not out of sexual jealousy but in order to frame her own neglectful husband (who was having an affair with Jane) for the murder, which would not only send him to prison but ruin his good name by making the affair come out - which she gloatingly confesses to him, and then he murders her, while Sergeant Cluff stands outside the door and listens.
Cluff insists that she never would have been convicted (and therefore it was just and right for him to listen as her husband beats her to death with his walking stick), but I don’t know, man. The jury might not believe the husband, of course - he’s got lots of reason to make up such a confession - but a confession overheard by a police officer? They might go for that.
I also read the first Dork Diaries book, because I see them coming through circulation all the time (though not nearly as much as Diary of a Wimpy Kid!) - but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I hoped. The narrator, Nikki, is not nearly as dorky as the main character of a book called Dork Diaries ought to be, and the other characters aren’t fleshed out at all: for instance, Nikki’s two friends Zoey & Chloe appear to be interchangeable.
On a cheerier note, I also finished Susan Coolidge’s Clover, in which the characters do their best stay cheerful and uncomplaining even when they find themselves saddled with an unbearable old lady. But don’t worry! They manage to have a good time despite her, enjoying their train trip out West, marveling at the beauty of the mountains, riding horses at a charming ranch, taking wagon rides up the mountains to have picnics, etc. etc.
You know what is wrong with modern-day books? Not enough picnics. It’s like at some point someone said “You know, people find it really boring when the characters have a good time,” and therefore good times were banished from books FOREVERMORE, even though really picnics and tea parties and canoe excursions is often exactly what I want.
What I’m Reading Now
I’ve almost finished An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, which is a compilation of English food writer Elizabeth David’s magazine work. It’s not terribly useful in the direct sense of having recipes I want to try, although there is a intriguing recipe for sardine butter - mash together sardines, butter, salt, & pepper, and serve on crispy hot toast - but it gives an interesting glimpse of not only English but also French & Italian food culture in the mid-twentieth century. And there are some articles about earlier recipe books, which I found fascinating.
But speaking of fascinating, I’ve been listening to Cary Elwes’s As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, which is exactly as delightful as the title leads you to expect and heartwarming in the best possible sense. I’ve just finished the chapter that is basically 100% stories about how great Andre the Giant was.
What I Plan to Read Next
Let the great Newbery Honor read commence! I’ve made it a habit to read all the honor books since 2015, so I’m kicking it off with a 2014 honoree, Vince Vawter’s Paperboy. What will await? Sublime works of genius? Endless pits of despair? A whole lot of historical fiction?
That last at least is 100% inevitable. Otherwise - we’ll see!
no subject
Date: 2018-03-14 02:48 pm (UTC)sardine butter - mash together sardines, butter, salt, & pepper, and serve on crispy hot toast
//turns several different shades of green
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Date: 2018-03-14 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-14 03:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-14 05:08 pm (UTC)Noooooooooooooooope.
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Date: 2018-03-15 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-16 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-16 08:37 pm (UTC)I have to dash off to a social event, but I will be back to check out that post in hopes that it will have accrued piles of recommendations for picnic-type books. (Literal picnics not necessarily required, but always appreciated.)
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Date: 2018-03-17 04:47 pm (UTC)(Also, oh, god, that ending.)
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Date: 2018-03-18 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-18 12:19 pm (UTC)She's right, though--just that it isn't only gardening. It's anything that presents you with something new, takes you out of your establish mindset, and involves attention and care. This is why it doesn't matter whether your program for (for instance) at-risk youth is welding or theater or training for a 5K or learning Latin (all things I've actually heard people rave about)--all of those will work. It's not the thing itself, it's paying attention to people and getting them to pay attention to something ... says I.
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Date: 2018-03-18 02:40 pm (UTC)And yes! I agree with your second paragraph entirely.
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Date: 2018-03-18 07:04 pm (UTC)/children's lit nerdery
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Date: 2018-03-20 01:21 pm (UTC)Maybe the reason her children's books have endured is that we're more willing to accept that kind of earnestness in children's books than adult books, these days.
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Date: 2018-03-21 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 03:51 pm (UTC)Glad to hear you liked the CNV fics too. I've been listening to Roald Dahl's memoir about his RAF days in World War II and it's been giving me some CNV feelings.