Wednesday Reading Meme
Feb. 1st, 2023 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
littlerhymes and I have finished Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped! A reread for me, but the fact that I’d read the book before improved the book for me, as this time around I knew to wait patiently for the Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour buddy act to begin. It’s some chapters before they meet, and then they’re torn apart for a few chapters more, but when the book finally reaches their flight through the heather the wait is all worth it.
My exploration of Mary Stolz’s oeuvre continues with A Dog on Barkham Street, in which young Edward yearns for a dog and also to defeat his neighbor Martin Hastings, a bully who picks on all the younger kids. Then Edward’s Uncle Josh, a hobo, appears with a beautiful collie dog in tow! One thing I admire about Stolz’s writing is her deftness at exploring mixed feelings, as here with Edward’s fascination with Josh’s wandering life and his growing realization that Josh is not at all reliable.
The bullying storyline ends on an equivocal note. I’m not convinced that it would help that much for Edward’s dad to have a man-to-man talk with Martin, but OTOH given that Martin’s parents clearly don’t give a fig about him (over the course of the story multiple adults attempt to convince the Hastings to do something about Martin, and the Hastings’ response is basically “Could not be bothered to try to correct our horrible son’s behavior, how dare you interfere”), maybe it actually would make a difference for an adult to take a kindly interest in him.
I also read James Herriot’s All Things Wise and Wonderful, a memoir a little bit about his time in the RAF (because of medical issues, he never flew against the enemy, so this is mostly nutty training hijinks) but mostly full of his wonderful veterinary stories and character sketches of the people and animals he meets. Wonderful. Every time I planned to read just one chapter I ended up reading at least five.
What I’m Reading Now
In The Yellow Poppy, the Duc of Trelan has fought a DUEL with his second in command, the comte de Brencourt. Brencourt spent weeks trying to provoke the duc into it, because he ran into the duchesse (whom the duc thinks is dead), told the duchesse that the duc is dead, and is hoping to make that lie a reality so that Brencourt can win her for himself. BRENCOURT, YOU FOOL.
Awkwardly, Brencourt merely wings the duc, and now has to stew in the fact that the duc is sure to learn from another source that his lost duchesse is in fact alive.
What I Plan to Read Next
The Bully of Barkham Street, the companion piece to A Dog on Barkham Street.
littlerhymes and I have finished Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped! A reread for me, but the fact that I’d read the book before improved the book for me, as this time around I knew to wait patiently for the Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour buddy act to begin. It’s some chapters before they meet, and then they’re torn apart for a few chapters more, but when the book finally reaches their flight through the heather the wait is all worth it. My exploration of Mary Stolz’s oeuvre continues with A Dog on Barkham Street, in which young Edward yearns for a dog and also to defeat his neighbor Martin Hastings, a bully who picks on all the younger kids. Then Edward’s Uncle Josh, a hobo, appears with a beautiful collie dog in tow! One thing I admire about Stolz’s writing is her deftness at exploring mixed feelings, as here with Edward’s fascination with Josh’s wandering life and his growing realization that Josh is not at all reliable.
The bullying storyline ends on an equivocal note. I’m not convinced that it would help that much for Edward’s dad to have a man-to-man talk with Martin, but OTOH given that Martin’s parents clearly don’t give a fig about him (over the course of the story multiple adults attempt to convince the Hastings to do something about Martin, and the Hastings’ response is basically “Could not be bothered to try to correct our horrible son’s behavior, how dare you interfere”), maybe it actually would make a difference for an adult to take a kindly interest in him.
I also read James Herriot’s All Things Wise and Wonderful, a memoir a little bit about his time in the RAF (because of medical issues, he never flew against the enemy, so this is mostly nutty training hijinks) but mostly full of his wonderful veterinary stories and character sketches of the people and animals he meets. Wonderful. Every time I planned to read just one chapter I ended up reading at least five.
What I’m Reading Now
In The Yellow Poppy, the Duc of Trelan has fought a DUEL with his second in command, the comte de Brencourt. Brencourt spent weeks trying to provoke the duc into it, because he ran into the duchesse (whom the duc thinks is dead), told the duchesse that the duc is dead, and is hoping to make that lie a reality so that Brencourt can win her for himself. BRENCOURT, YOU FOOL.
Awkwardly, Brencourt merely wings the duc, and now has to stew in the fact that the duc is sure to learn from another source that his lost duchesse is in fact alive.
What I Plan to Read Next
The Bully of Barkham Street, the companion piece to A Dog on Barkham Street.
