Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

The latest Baby Sitters Club graphic novel, Boy-Crazy Stacey. The first time I read the BSC books, back in the days of my youth, my favorites were all the girls who I felt were like me in some way: Mary Anne, Claudia, Mallory. (Not that I disliked the others the first time round, I just didn’t super connect with them.) One of the pleasures of reexperiencing these books in this new form is that I’m now old enough to also enjoy Stacey, even though her tendency to fall in love at the drop of a hat still makes her feel like a space alien to me: now I can accept and embrace the alien-ness instead of just gazing on in incomprehension.

Jean Webster’s The Wheat Princess is an ungainly duck of a book, and yet I became very fond of it as I read. It gets off to a rocky start - the first chapter is all scene-setting, like reading a rather boring guidebook - but after that it slowly gains steam, and you can see Webster beginning to write the kind of exploration of intellectual growth that makes Daddy-Long-Legs such an excellent and unusual book: one of the few college books (Tam Lin is another) that is actually about the intellectual discovery of college, rather than just the emotional entanglements.

Webster is still learning how to do this in The Wheat Princess (it’s only her second book), which accounts for the ungainliness, but it’s so interesting to see her take her first steps in that direction.

What I’m Reading Now

I finished the first half of Edward L. Ayers’ The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America. The war is almost over! Reconstruction awaits! It sounds like we’re getting to the good part when I put it that way, but actually we’re getting to the “things will look up briefly and then all hope will be ruthlessly crushed” part.

I’ve also begun Judith Flanders’ The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London, because I acquired her earlier book Inside the Victorian Home lo these many years ago and read it so many times that the cover is peeling; it really began my Victorian obsession, my interest in English history generally. The Victorian City will undoubtedly not be so formative, but so far it seems set to be a good time.

What I Plan to Read Next

Reading Boy-Crazy Stacey awakened a desire to tear through a few graphic novels, so I’ve put a few on hold. Next up: Rainbow Rowell’s Pumpkinheads and Colleen A. F. Venable’s Kiss Number 8. And maybe it’s time to finally read the Phoebe and Her Unicorn series?

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

Re: The Wheat Princess

It's so interesting to go back and read an author's early works after having started with their later ones, and see how they grew and where they started from!

Also, super agree with your assessment of both Daddy-Long-Legs and Tam Lin :D

[osprey_archer]

I think Webster was wise after The Wheat Princess to move back to situating her books in America again: the attempt to engage with Italian politics is easily the less cohesive part of the book. It's especially interesting because the heroine spends part of the book attempting to convince the hero, an expatriate, to move back to America and put his reforming zeal to use there instead of trying to reform Italy, and it sort of feels like Webster is talking to herself about her own writing.

[brigdh]

Oh, the Babysitter's Club! I loved those books so much back in the day (my favorite character was actually Karen, though, of the Little Sisters spinoff). I hadn't even realized they'd been re-issued as graphic novels!

Have you heard of the podcast "The Babysitters Club Club"? Two 30-something men go through the entire series and read the books, one by one. It's not at all condescending or mocking, as you might guess from that description; it's a comedy podcast, but most of the humor is from how they get way overinvested in the books and spin off wild theories about the secret meanings of the text or the lives of the various ghostwriters. It's become my favorite podcast lately.

[osprey_archer]

Yes! They're up to book seven with the graphic novels, although it's worth noting that the graphic novel numbering is different than the original series because they skipped Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls. Also, even though they're only on book seven, they already did the plotline where Mallory joins the club??? So I guess they'll be skipping Hello, Mallory too, if the graphic novels get that far.

Unfortunately I don't listen to podcasts, but I love the fact that this podcast exists.

[brigdh]

Hmm, interesting choices! I wonder if they skipped Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls because the plot doesn't work as well with today's technology – caller ID and cellphones – or if the concept of a bunch of 13-year-old girls getting heavy-breathing stalker calls comes off as much more serious now than it did when originally published.

I understand adding Mallory early, though; I bet the book-nerd character has to be hugely popular with the intended audience.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, they might have decided the heavy-breathing stalker calls were a little out of keeping with the tone that the graphic novels are setting. It was one the second book published and I think later on that slightly creepier take on the BSC got shunted off into BSC Mysteries series.

And you're probably right about the importance of adding the book nerd character early (although she hasn't gotten much chance to book nerd yet!). And perhaps this will let them put more focus on Jessi when they introduce her: the two girls got introduced in one book originally, and it was Mallory's book, but now it could be Jessi's.

It's a little disturbing how well I remember these books that I have not read for at least two decades.

[evelyn_b]

Sometimes I wish I'd liked The Baby-Sitters Club a little better - I read a ton of them when I was the target audience, so I must have enjoyed them, but they haven't stayed with me at all - I doubt I could have told you my favorite character or remembered any plots, even at the time. Though I do remember that Claudia wore mismatched earrings and mismatched socks, and I tried to do the same but it wasn't as cool.

There's a part where Claudia's big sister, The Brain, butts in to demand to know where the apostrophe is going to be in "Baby-Sitters Club," because it changes the meaning and they all tell her to go away but I was like, THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION ACTUALLY.

I keep being reminded that I need to read Tam Lin. I think this is the third time this month.

[osprey_archer]

The universe is ganging up on you to make you read Tam Lin! Perhaps it has a reason.

I'm not sure that mismatched earrings ever looked cool on anyone except Claudia, but it sounded super cool when she did it. Maybe that's part of the magic of being a book character? Or maybe the rest of us just didn't do it with enough artistic conviction.

[silverusagi]

I started reading The Victorian City ages ago, and then set it to the side, lol. This is no way a reflection of the quality of the book, but more a simple fact that nonfiction is easy to set down and then pick back up months later. I get distracted easily. I also loved Inside the Victorian Home.

[osprey_archer]

It definitely feels like a book that you could put down and then pick up months later and open to a random page and get absorbed right back into it... without ever reading the whole thing in order.