Aw, this book was so sweet. I feel like I’ve been hearing about it everywhere I turn, but I think initially I read about it on Caribousmom – apparently ages and ages ago, as she reviewed it in July. My mother owns a copy, and I borrowed it from her and lost it, so I was in a panic about where it could be, and then the other night I was at home and I saw it on her bookshelf. Apparently I brought it over to my parents’ house to read and then left it there. I’m such a spaz.…
3 CommentsTag: World Wars
Recommended by: GeraniumCat’s great big list of children’s books you should have read as a kid Nothing as appealing as people mentioning things that you might have missed but they hope you haven’t. Unfortunately most of the books on the list weren’t at the library on account of, I assume, being wildly out of print and based in the United Kingdom, but I got Carrie’s War. It’s about two little Blitz evacuee kids (I love books about evacuee kids) who get evacuated to Wales and live with a family and the older girl, Carrie, does a terrible thing. I like…
Leave a CommentMy second try with Linda Newbery. I really want to love her! The covers of her book are always so appealing! This one had bits that were set in Chelmsford, and I lived in Essex for nine months! But still, the only strong reaction I had to her books – like last time – was, Jesus God, I’m so glad I’m not raising children in England. British schoolchildren are awful. They are awful. My flatmates thought I was from the scary ghetto because I have sketchy neighbors and got mugged one time; this in spite of the fact that they…
Leave a CommentRobin starts – after the “previously on Robin” bit at the beginning – right where Coombe left off, with the joyous happiness of Robin and Donal’s reunion. Good news: They still love each other. I wasn’t surprised by that, but I have to confess I was a little unsettled by the scene directly following it, where Donal goes home to tell his mother about his evening. I quote: Throughout his life he had taken all his joys to his closest companion and nearest intimate – his mother. Theirs had not been a common life together. He had not even tried…
4 CommentsRecommended by: A Life in Books, sort of, in that she said she loved anything by Sarah Waters and I randomly grabbed Night Watch when I went to the library. I don’t know if it’s just because I love Britain in World War II or what, but I really, really loved Night Watch. It was swell. I so much didn’t want it to end that I put it down and left it alone for ages before returning to it today and finishing it all up in one gobble. Basically it’s about four (Kay, Viv, Helen, Duncan – yes, four) people…
3 CommentsCecilia went to the kitchen to fill the vase, and carried it up to her bedroom to retrieve the flowers from the handbasin. When she dropped them in they once again refused to fall into the artful disorder she preferred, and instead swung round in the water into a willful neatness, with the taller stalks evenly distributed around the rim. She lifted the flowers and let them drop again, and they fell into another orderly pattern. Still, it hardly mattered. It was difficult to imagine this Mr. Marshall complaining that the flowers by his bedside were too symmetrically displayed. She…
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