(no subject)
It's been a good month for reading (for me) 8 books and all new to me! Admittedly it includes 2 Chalet fill ins, a YA book, a picture book and a novella but it also includes an Umberto Eco!
Freya of the Seven Isles- Joseph Conrad I bought this novella in Shakespeare & Co in paris <3 so it already had a fond place in my heart but it's a rather good little story. A romance that's obviously doomed but with a lot of beautiful descriptions and language on the way to the inevitable conclusion.
Matter of Magic- Patricia C Wrede This is an omnibus of two books about a wizard (Richard Merrill) and his... protege? apprentice? ward (in the second book) Kim. It's set in the early 1800s and in quite a lot of ways (though not all) it's like Heyer's These Old Shades only with bonus added magic! I really enjoyed it and, in fact, struggled quite a lot at remembering if I was reading it at lunchtime I had to go back to work *g*
Briar Rose- Jane Yolen A retelling of the Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty story in which a Becca tries to find out about her grandmother's past because all she has ever told her family is the story of Briar Rose as if it were about her... if I say the grandmother is Jewish and came to the US at some point before/during WW2 you can probably guess some of the plot but it's interestingly written and I certainly didn't guess it all and I really liked it. It's part of a series put together by Terri Windling of fairytale retellings which means I have a whole heap of new books to look for...
Cornelia of the Chalet School- Jackie Roberts I actually liked the story a lot more than I thought I was gboing to, Corney's a favourite of mine and I'm mostly happy with this being her life (except my Corney wouldn't be taken in by a fortune hunter) but OH GOD if she said "Gee" one more time I was going to stab something and there were all sorts of little details that got to me (why was RC Joey taking her Christmas decorations down at New Year before Christmas ended?!) I think if this plot had been written by EBD (unlikely) I'd probably have loved it.
Five Moral Pieces- Umberto Eco Basically what it says on the cover- 5 "essays" (some are really talks) on war, facism, the press, the "other" and tolerance. Really interesting and thought-provoking but written clearly enough that I could follow them even when reading in bits during my lunch hour. Ur-Facism was probably the most interesting though I think bits of all of them will be coming back to me.
A Concise Chinese/English Dictionary for Lovers- Xiaolu Guo When this book came out someone told me I should read it but I was worried it was too concept-y. It's a Chinese woman who has come to England to learn English and meets and falls in love with an older man and it's written from her POV so the language starts out very short sentences and wrong tenses and weird vocabulary and slowly improves (though never to the point of complete fluency). I picked it up in a charity shop recently thinking it was worth a try and it really was. Oddly I think I liked the concept more than the story... I love the first 2/3rds but towards the end I realised I didn't much care how it ended? But I'm glad I gave it a chance.
A Difficult Term for the Chalet School- Lisa Townsend It was so lovely to finally read this! I actually quite like the post-War Chalets quite a lot; Mary Lou as a Junior/Middle is more attractive than she is as a Senior and I always love Jacynth Hardy so seeing her as headgirl is lovely! It is strange to read Annis' first term knowing that the real drama is still to come but I though Lisa did a good job of balancing her liking the Chalet School and still wanting to leave. This is going quite a way up my "favourite fill-ins" list :D
Mr Bliss- JRR Tolkein This was a children's story Tolkein wrote pre-Hobbit and I finally found a copy that had his original pictures & handwriting plus a typed version in a secondhand shop and I was like this :D:D:D the person behind the counter was most amused. It's a very silly little story but lots of fun.
- Freya of the Seven Isles- Joseph Conrad
- Matter of Magic- Patricia C Wrede
- Briar Rose- Jane Yolen
- Cornelia of the Chalet School- Jackie Roberts
- Five Moral Pieces- Umberto Eco
- A Concise Chinese- English Dictionary for Lovers- Xiaolu Guo
- A Difficult Term for the Chalet School- Lisa Townsend
- Mr Bliss- JRR Tolkein
Freya of the Seven Isles- Joseph Conrad I bought this novella in Shakespeare & Co in paris <3 so it already had a fond place in my heart but it's a rather good little story. A romance that's obviously doomed but with a lot of beautiful descriptions and language on the way to the inevitable conclusion.
Matter of Magic- Patricia C Wrede This is an omnibus of two books about a wizard (Richard Merrill) and his... protege? apprentice? ward (in the second book) Kim. It's set in the early 1800s and in quite a lot of ways (though not all) it's like Heyer's These Old Shades only with bonus added magic! I really enjoyed it and, in fact, struggled quite a lot at remembering if I was reading it at lunchtime I had to go back to work *g*
Briar Rose- Jane Yolen A retelling of the Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty story in which a Becca tries to find out about her grandmother's past because all she has ever told her family is the story of Briar Rose as if it were about her... if I say the grandmother is Jewish and came to the US at some point before/during WW2 you can probably guess some of the plot but it's interestingly written and I certainly didn't guess it all and I really liked it. It's part of a series put together by Terri Windling of fairytale retellings which means I have a whole heap of new books to look for...
Cornelia of the Chalet School- Jackie Roberts I actually liked the story a lot more than I thought I was gboing to, Corney's a favourite of mine and I'm mostly happy with this being her life (except my Corney wouldn't be taken in by a fortune hunter) but OH GOD if she said "Gee" one more time I was going to stab something and there were all sorts of little details that got to me (why was RC Joey taking her Christmas decorations down at New Year before Christmas ended?!) I think if this plot had been written by EBD (unlikely) I'd probably have loved it.
Five Moral Pieces- Umberto Eco Basically what it says on the cover- 5 "essays" (some are really talks) on war, facism, the press, the "other" and tolerance. Really interesting and thought-provoking but written clearly enough that I could follow them even when reading in bits during my lunch hour. Ur-Facism was probably the most interesting though I think bits of all of them will be coming back to me.
A Concise Chinese/English Dictionary for Lovers- Xiaolu Guo When this book came out someone told me I should read it but I was worried it was too concept-y. It's a Chinese woman who has come to England to learn English and meets and falls in love with an older man and it's written from her POV so the language starts out very short sentences and wrong tenses and weird vocabulary and slowly improves (though never to the point of complete fluency). I picked it up in a charity shop recently thinking it was worth a try and it really was. Oddly I think I liked the concept more than the story... I love the first 2/3rds but towards the end I realised I didn't much care how it ended? But I'm glad I gave it a chance.
A Difficult Term for the Chalet School- Lisa Townsend It was so lovely to finally read this! I actually quite like the post-War Chalets quite a lot; Mary Lou as a Junior/Middle is more attractive than she is as a Senior and I always love Jacynth Hardy so seeing her as headgirl is lovely! It is strange to read Annis' first term knowing that the real drama is still to come but I though Lisa did a good job of balancing her liking the Chalet School and still wanting to leave. This is going quite a way up my "favourite fill-ins" list :D
Mr Bliss- JRR Tolkein This was a children's story Tolkein wrote pre-Hobbit and I finally found a copy that had his original pictures & handwriting plus a typed version in a secondhand shop and I was like this :D:D:D the person behind the counter was most amused. It's a very silly little story but lots of fun.