Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

This holiday weekend was SO cold that I basically spent it ensconced in a chair under a blanket, reading. In no particular order, I read:

Elisabeth Kyle’s Girl with a Pen, a 1963 children’s biographical novel of Charlotte Bronte’s life, lightly fictionalized (nothing to the excesses of many modern“biographical” novels, however) and wholly absorbing. I picked it up on a whim and zoomed right through in a day. It begins with a visit from Bronte’s school friend Ellen Nussey, to whom Bronte shyly admits she would like to write, and ends just after Bronte arrives at the publisher’s office to announce she is the author of the blockbuster hit Jane Eyre. An unusually triumphal arc for Bronte’s life! The secret of a happy ending is simply where you stop.

I also greatly enjoyed Carol Ryrie Brink’s Louly, a companion piece to Two Are Better than One, about a pair of best friends in early 20th century Idaho. In Louly, Chrys and Cordy are a little older and have expanded their friendship to include lively neighbor girl Louly, who is always coming up with fun ideas for pretend plays - especially after her parents go east to visit relatives, leaving the children to look after themselves for six weeks… Just a really fun mid-twentieth century novel about children having good times (mostly) without adults.

And I finished Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouche, a lengthy historical novel set during the French Revolution, which I cribbed off a list of “slashy books on gutenberg.org” many years ago. I didn’t think it was actually that slashy (your mileage may vary; maybe “main character motivated by best friend’s brutal premeditated murder-by-duel” does it for you), and Andre-Louis is an omnicompetent trickster figure always ready with a quip, which is a character type that I’ve soured on in my old age… but darn it if I didn’t like him! The book details his adventures in early Revolutionary France, as he moves from revolutionary orator to actor in an improvisational theater group (playing, of course, Scaramouche) to assistant at a fencing school, all strung together on the thread of Andre-Louis’s thirst for vengeance against the villainous nobleman who killed his best friend AND ALSO wants to marry Andre-Louis’s beloved Aline.

Last but not least, I went into a brief period of mourning when the daily Christmas Carol email came to its end on December 26th. Simply the perfect read-along experience. Excerpts just the right size to enjoy of a morning. The perfect infusion of holiday cheer. Plus the continuing enjoyment of comparing the original to The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is quite a faithful adaptation considering that it is full of Muppets.

What I’m Reading Now

I have decided that life is too short to read Moby-Dick twice, so I’ve dropped Whale Weekly, but I’m still trucking with The Lightning Conductor (a couple of installments behind however! Sorry Molly…) and quite enjoying Letters from Watson, which kicked off with a couple of chapters from The Study in Scarlet.

What I Plan to Read Next

Letters from Watson is focused on the Holmes short stories, and only did the first couple of chapters of A Study in Scarlet because they detail Watson and Holmes’ first meeting, but I’ve decided to read the novels off my own bat as we come to them in the timeline. So I’ll be finishing up the rest of A Study in Scarlet.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

And I finished Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouche, a lengthy historical novel set during the French Revolution

Ooh, I'll have to check this one out...

[osprey_archer]

I've had an accidental theme of "old books about the French Revolution and what came after" this year, and it's done pretty well by me!

[asakiyume]

The secret of a happy ending really truly is where you stop! Well said! ... I think about this about news stories a lot. Whether they're tragic or triumphant, I often wonder what happens next. AFTER the family home was destroyed by the tornado, AFTER the orphan won the Olympics 50m dash.

Louly sounds like so much fun! I love it when stories have kids putting on plays; it actually inspired me to try to do similar with some friends (never performed, but we started sets and a script) and to actually accomplish it with my kids. Having several children around the same age is great for amateur theatrics!

[osprey_archer]

In real life there are no endings! The story just goes on and on, with ups and downs, like ocean waves.

When I was a kid my friend Jessie and I liked to put on little plays. We were slightly hampered by the fact that there were only two of us and our entire wardrobe consisted of a bunch of colored capes and sashes, but NEVER FEAR, we put on a creditable retelling of Arachne with the capes doing duty as chitons.

[asakiyume]

OMG did your parents get photos? That must have been WONDERFUL.

[osprey_archer]

Not that I recall, sadly! Or if they did, I don't know where the photos are now. But it was quite an experience!

[landofnowhere]

Oh, good, I'm glad Girl with a Pen holds up! (I'm curious how the Belgium parts read to someone who has already read Villette -- I remember when I read Villette as an adult, I had a sense that I'd seen some bits before in Girl with a Pen.)

I loved Two Are Better than One when I was Cordy and Chrys's age, but have never read Louly, I should find it!

[osprey_archer]

Oh yeah, Kyle absolutely lifted the Ginevra plotline wholesale from Villette. I strongly suspect that it didn't happen that way in real life, but it made for fun reading.

I hope you find Louly! It's such a fun book. Carol Ryrie Brink has the magic touch.

[cyphomandra]

Ooh I never knew there was a sequel to Two Are Better Than One! My sister and I loved that book (although the first Ryrie Brink we read was Baby Island, a book that assumes that small girls dream about being shipwrecked on an hospitable island (true!) with a bunch of other people’s babies to look after (…)

I really like Scaramouche and the lead is so great.

[osprey_archer]

I loved Baby Island! Would I personally wish to be stuck on an island with a lot of babies to look after, absolutely not, but it was fun to read about how our heroines contrived.

[lucymonster]

My life has so far proved too short to read Moby-Dick even once, so I support this choice.

That Brontë bio sounds surprisingly heartwarming! And I look forward to hearing what you think of A Study in Scarlet since it’s one I’ve actually read recently.

[osprey_archer]

I only made it through Moby-Dick the first time because it was assigned reading in high school and I was grimly determined not to shirk. Perhaps that would have been the time to shirk! But I pulled through.

I read about half of A Study in Scarlet today! I reached the end of Part One and Holmes has solved the mystery but not explained his reasoning AT ALL, but perhaps he'll get around to it in part two??

[lucymonster]

Part two is WILD. He does explain everything eventually, but getting there is a hell of a journey, lol.

Somehow I managed to dodge Moby-Dick in high school, despite taking double English from as early as they let me pick. I think the worst thing they made me read was Madame Bovary, which I hated so much that I resorted to sparknotes for the first and only time in my life.

[osprey_archer]

I've never read Madame Bovary but the little I know about it makes it sound like it would be an incomprehensible slog for most high school students. What do high schoolers know or care about the ennui of married life?

[sanguinity]

Heh, I figure I might as well read Moby Dick once in my life, and I'm a lot more likely to do it this way than the other.

As far as Molly goes, if it helps: I took a look at the upcoming letter dates the other day, and most of January will be pretty slow, so there will be some breathing space to catch up.

I, too, have decided to read the Holmes novels where they go in the sequence, but I'm going to hold off on finishing STUD until the new year, just so all of Holmes canon goes on the 2023 list together, keeping each other company.

[osprey_archer]

If I had never read Moby-Dick I like to think I would have stuck with Whale Weekly, but I figure that sometimes once is enough.

Yes, I too plan to finish A Study in Scarlet only once 2023 has begun! There's just something very organized and impressive about reading all Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in one year, like a Pinterest-ready cabinet with everything stored in matching jars.

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

(Longtime lurker and new subscriber here-- thought I'd say hi) All these books sound super interesting--I do enjoy mid-century children's books where the protagonists get to have good times without adults. And (moderate) slashiness during the French Revolution-- excellent! :D

[osprey_archer]

Hello, and welcome! Louly isn't quite Swallows and Amazons levels of kids having adventures with no adults, but they're on the same sliding scale of that vibe.