First five of the year
Slightly behind already. Yay, me.
1. A Little Love Song -- Michelle Magorian
A bittersweet coming-of-age story that works on pretty much every level. The background - a tiny seaside village in the early 40s - serves as a very well-drawn backdrop to the even more well-drawn characters. Most of them are largely archetypes, but they’re fully fleshed-out people for all that. As a young adult/teen book, it contains all the expected drama of nearly grown siblings who’ve never had a chance to get to know each other before they’re left on their own for the summer, but it’s also a surprisingly frank look at the sexual mores of the wartime era. There are two parallel stories of unwed mothers who lost their men at the front (one in WWI, the other in WWII), an immature glory-hungry young man who uses the “I’ll probably be killed soon, you know” sort of guilt to manipulate the main character into sleeping with him, one of those sweet and innocent wartime whirlwind engagements, and a meeting-of-minds type friendship that turns into the most satisfying sort of love affair.
2. Birds, Beasts, and Relatives -- Gerald Durrell
Sequel to “My Family and Other Animals”, the second of Durrell’s famed Corfu trilogy. It’s not quite as hysterical as the first one, but it’s exquisitely funny and a delightful read from beginning to end. Quite a lot of weird details about various insects, as well.
3. The Parent Trap -- Vic Clume (novelisation)
Scholastic used to have a range of books, particularly Disney novelisations, that they sold at incredibly cheap prices in schools. Some of them expanded the parent movie a bit, while some of them, like this one, are heavily abridged. There’s pretty much nothing that can make the adventures of long-lost identical twins Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick less than entertaining as they try to reunite their divorced parents, but this novelisation is so heavily abridged that it does leave out a lot of the more charming moments.
4. Travel Without the TARDIS: The Doctor Who Fan's Guide to England, Scotland, and Wales -- Jean Airey and Laurie Haldeman (1986)
It’s a shame this thing is so totally out of date. Some of the advice about the pitfalls of international travelling is undoubtedly still excellent, though, and there are a lot of nice stories about filming locations for the original Doctor Who series.
5. Doctor Who: Wooden Heart -- Martin Day (audiobook)
Not terrible, not great. The author seems to have drawn very heavily from the old series stories Castrovalva (a settlement that seems to suddenly exist where it didn’t before) and State of Decay (isolated, insular feudal-like village where the children are disappearing). There’s so little time spent on characterisation (with the exception of two or three of the villagers) that it’s hard to judge whether the Doctor and Martha are in character or not. Adjoa Andoh isn’t a particularly fabulous reader (particularly when doing the quasi-Russian accent of the villagers), but she’s plenty competent enough, and her voice is a real pleasure to listen to.
1. A Little Love Song -- Michelle Magorian
A bittersweet coming-of-age story that works on pretty much every level. The background - a tiny seaside village in the early 40s - serves as a very well-drawn backdrop to the even more well-drawn characters. Most of them are largely archetypes, but they’re fully fleshed-out people for all that. As a young adult/teen book, it contains all the expected drama of nearly grown siblings who’ve never had a chance to get to know each other before they’re left on their own for the summer, but it’s also a surprisingly frank look at the sexual mores of the wartime era. There are two parallel stories of unwed mothers who lost their men at the front (one in WWI, the other in WWII), an immature glory-hungry young man who uses the “I’ll probably be killed soon, you know” sort of guilt to manipulate the main character into sleeping with him, one of those sweet and innocent wartime whirlwind engagements, and a meeting-of-minds type friendship that turns into the most satisfying sort of love affair.
2. Birds, Beasts, and Relatives -- Gerald Durrell
Sequel to “My Family and Other Animals”, the second of Durrell’s famed Corfu trilogy. It’s not quite as hysterical as the first one, but it’s exquisitely funny and a delightful read from beginning to end. Quite a lot of weird details about various insects, as well.
3. The Parent Trap -- Vic Clume (novelisation)
Scholastic used to have a range of books, particularly Disney novelisations, that they sold at incredibly cheap prices in schools. Some of them expanded the parent movie a bit, while some of them, like this one, are heavily abridged. There’s pretty much nothing that can make the adventures of long-lost identical twins Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick less than entertaining as they try to reunite their divorced parents, but this novelisation is so heavily abridged that it does leave out a lot of the more charming moments.
4. Travel Without the TARDIS: The Doctor Who Fan's Guide to England, Scotland, and Wales -- Jean Airey and Laurie Haldeman (1986)
It’s a shame this thing is so totally out of date. Some of the advice about the pitfalls of international travelling is undoubtedly still excellent, though, and there are a lot of nice stories about filming locations for the original Doctor Who series.
5. Doctor Who: Wooden Heart -- Martin Day (audiobook)
Not terrible, not great. The author seems to have drawn very heavily from the old series stories Castrovalva (a settlement that seems to suddenly exist where it didn’t before) and State of Decay (isolated, insular feudal-like village where the children are disappearing). There’s so little time spent on characterisation (with the exception of two or three of the villagers) that it’s hard to judge whether the Doctor and Martha are in character or not. Adjoa Andoh isn’t a particularly fabulous reader (particularly when doing the quasi-Russian accent of the villagers), but she’s plenty competent enough, and her voice is a real pleasure to listen to.