Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

I picked up James Otis’s Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus because Betty MacDonald included it in a list of childhood favorites in Nancy and Plum, and now I am wondering just what young Betty MacDonald saw in the book. The ratio of “fun circus hijinks” to “running away is miserable, actually” tilts definitively toward misery, and moreover, in the penultimate chapter Toby’s pet monkey is accidentally shot by a young hunter! Toby has escaped from the circus and is on his way home and the book gratuitously slaughters his monkey! Why? WHY? Truly the unkindest cut of all.

I’ve also finished Mary Renault’s Return to Night (less harrowing than expected! Or perhaps I’ve become inured?) and Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway (MORE harrowing than expected). But those will be getting posts of their own.

What I’m Reading Now

Halfway through Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword. This book is the only thing standing between me and finishing the 1980s Newbery Honor books so I WILL PERSEVERE, even though “after six weeks of training, hero/ine is magically better than people who have been training at this thing their whole lives” is my anti-trope. I’m sorry, Harry. It’s not you, it’s me.

In cheerier news, I’ve been super enjoying Spike Carlsen’s A Walk around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About), which offers brisk histories of various everyday objects that you see on an everyday street: alleys, garbage trucks, the asphalt in the street itself. My only complaint is that sometimes I want yet more detail, but then, if Carlsen went into great depth he wouldn’t have space for such breadth. I’m just about to start the pigeon chapter!

And I’ve begun Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave! Merlin has just discovered said Crystal Cave and had his first scrying lesson.

What I Plan to Read Next

After The Blue Sword, I’m going to take a break from the Newbery Honor project till I feel like taking it up again. This year’s crop of winners will be appearing at the end of this month, which may inspire me… or may not! We’ll see.

Comments

[philomytha]

The Crystal Cave is one of those books I absolutely adored when I was about twelve, but now cannot remember a single thing about. I know I reread it a lot, and The Hollow Hills too, though I think I didn't enjoy the third one so much.

The everyday objects book sounds amazing, please share any interesting pigeon facts! I did a bit of reading websites about urban pigeons for writing Squadron Leader Pigeon, and they're surprisingly lovely little animals really.

[regshoe]

A Walk around the Block—what a great idea for a non-fiction book! I hope there's plenty of good information about pigeons.

And looking forward to your thoughts on Return to Night! Yeah, of the three Renault novels I've read it is definitely the least harrowing, though very strange.

[sovay]

The ratio of “fun circus hijinks” to “running away is miserable, actually” tilts definitively toward misery

May I recommend as an antidote Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Sawdust in His Shoes (1950)? One of my mother's favorite books as a child, out of print for decades, I was finally able to get her a copy a few years ago and I do not recall it containing any kind of gratuitous monkey harm.

[asakiyume]

Man, I remember when The Blue Sword came out. I was juuuust exiting the period in my life when those sorts of stories spoke to me directly (as opposed to reacting to them at a remove), and I remember liking it very much, but nothing particular about it. I even wrote the author! And she wrote back... but I found that interaction less satisfying than I had with other writers... maybe I was just closer to her, by that time, in age, or maybe it was a personality thing, or who knows....

The Crystal Cave! I remember liking that too--I drew fan art for it. But really I only liked the beginning parts. When they got to be grownups and doing grownup things, my interest flagged.

The Spike Carlsen book sounds very cool.