osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2018-06-20 08:23 am
osprey_archer) wrote2018-06-20 08:23 am
Wednesday Reading Meme
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
Dorothy Sayers’ Clouds of Witness, the second Peter Wimsey book, which is jolly interesting though tragically lacking in Harriet Vane. Should I start swooping through all the rest of the Wimsey novels, or should I ration them out and make them last? A quandary.
I also finished Frances Little’s Camp Jolly, in which three young boys camp in the Grand Canyon and have even grander adventures. The book ends with a hook for a sequel - next they’re going to have adventures in the Great War! - but as far as I can tell the sequel never materialized. Possibly contemporary reaction to this novel was as lukewarm as my own.
I also finished A. A. Milne’s Once on a Time, which I wasn’t sure about at first because it’s so very light that it practically floats - but sometimes you need something very light and in the end its winsome charm did indeed win me. It’s a… I’m not sure what genre to call it exactly. A gentle fairy tale parody?
What I’m Reading Now
Clemence Dane’s Regiment of Women, a book set in a girl’s school in the early twentieth century, focusing more on the teachers than on the girls.evelyn_b, I recommended this to you in a letter, and I feel that I ought to qualify this recommendation now that I am farther into it with the note that this book causes SO MANY EMOTIONS, there are moments when it’s like death by a thousand pinpricks.
And also one of the characters has done something so vile - particularly vile in its absolute pettiness - that I have begun to root for her to be utterly routed and destroyed, because here is a person who ought not to have power over anyone, ever, even the diffuse kind of power that comes from any particularly strong friendship.
Fortunately Alwynne has temporarily escaped her sway and gone to visit relations in the country, which also incidentally turns into a visit to one of those peculiar new coeducational boarding schools with socialist leanings: you can tell because they let the children go on rambles unsupervised rather than marching sedately two by two, with a teacher patrolling to ensure they don’t link arms.
I found the school stuff really interesting, but unfortunately it has been supplanted by A Man. He and Alwynne are clearly going to end up together, which will at least save Alwynne from her seemingly nice but secretly vile Machiavellian friend, but as much as I deprecate vile human beings in real life, their Machiavellian machinations do make for far more interesting reading than “Alwynne just compared this dude to Mr. Darcy. Clearly wedding bells are on the horizon.”
What I Plan to Read Next
We met our Summer Reading sign-up goal at work, so all of us staff members got to pick a summer reading prize, and naturally I got a book: Nancy Farmer’s House of the Scorpion. It looks - potentially scarring honestly; this is why I never read any of Farmer’s books in my youth, when they were a big deal (I remember seeing A Girl Named Disaster everywhere), they all looked potentially scarring. Possibly they are so good that it’s worth it. But still.
Dorothy Sayers’ Clouds of Witness, the second Peter Wimsey book, which is jolly interesting though tragically lacking in Harriet Vane. Should I start swooping through all the rest of the Wimsey novels, or should I ration them out and make them last? A quandary.
I also finished Frances Little’s Camp Jolly, in which three young boys camp in the Grand Canyon and have even grander adventures. The book ends with a hook for a sequel - next they’re going to have adventures in the Great War! - but as far as I can tell the sequel never materialized. Possibly contemporary reaction to this novel was as lukewarm as my own.
I also finished A. A. Milne’s Once on a Time, which I wasn’t sure about at first because it’s so very light that it practically floats - but sometimes you need something very light and in the end its winsome charm did indeed win me. It’s a… I’m not sure what genre to call it exactly. A gentle fairy tale parody?
What I’m Reading Now
Clemence Dane’s Regiment of Women, a book set in a girl’s school in the early twentieth century, focusing more on the teachers than on the girls.
evelyn_b, I recommended this to you in a letter, and I feel that I ought to qualify this recommendation now that I am farther into it with the note that this book causes SO MANY EMOTIONS, there are moments when it’s like death by a thousand pinpricks. And also one of the characters has done something so vile - particularly vile in its absolute pettiness - that I have begun to root for her to be utterly routed and destroyed, because here is a person who ought not to have power over anyone, ever, even the diffuse kind of power that comes from any particularly strong friendship.
Fortunately Alwynne has temporarily escaped her sway and gone to visit relations in the country, which also incidentally turns into a visit to one of those peculiar new coeducational boarding schools with socialist leanings: you can tell because they let the children go on rambles unsupervised rather than marching sedately two by two, with a teacher patrolling to ensure they don’t link arms.
I found the school stuff really interesting, but unfortunately it has been supplanted by A Man. He and Alwynne are clearly going to end up together, which will at least save Alwynne from her seemingly nice but secretly vile Machiavellian friend, but as much as I deprecate vile human beings in real life, their Machiavellian machinations do make for far more interesting reading than “Alwynne just compared this dude to Mr. Darcy. Clearly wedding bells are on the horizon.”
What I Plan to Read Next
We met our Summer Reading sign-up goal at work, so all of us staff members got to pick a summer reading prize, and naturally I got a book: Nancy Farmer’s House of the Scorpion. It looks - potentially scarring honestly; this is why I never read any of Farmer’s books in my youth, when they were a big deal (I remember seeing A Girl Named Disaster everywhere), they all looked potentially scarring. Possibly they are so good that it’s worth it. But still.
no subject
I burned right through the Wimseys, totally out of order, in a couple of months. I don't know if it was the best way, but it was inevitable at the time. But I felt compelled to catch up in my new favorite genre after decades of inexplicable neglect. Since you're already familiar with the Extended Murderverse, it's probably better to relax and read them whenever.
FAIR WARNING, though: Five Red Herrings really is that bad. It's right after Strong Poison, the better to drown all your accumulated fondness at once. You may think, as I did, "Bad Sayers is still a party I want to attend; bring on the misguided ambition and the failure!" but this is a mistake. The nature of the failure is that it's boring.
(Equally fair counter-warning: some people still like it).
no subject
My mad dash through mystery novels totally out of order came when I discovered Ngaio Marsh (but then I don't think order matters as much with Marsh anyway), so I think I'll try to be good and space out the Wimseys at least a little. Is Five Red Herrings the one with the Thrilling Train Time Table action? Because I've been warned about that one.
no subject
That's the one! No matter how bad the warnings make it sound, it's worse. But not in the fun way you might expect.
Ngaio Marsh would make an excellent mad-dash author! She has so many books and so few bad ones.