I haven’t re-read many books this year, so I’m just writing one fiction post. I read 8 new to me books and re-read 5 books.
Rereads
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
Lady Susan
The first two Boxcar Children mysteries—Some childhood books stand up to rereading, some are better left to read to my children.
Rosemary Sutcliff Novels
Blood Feud—Blood “justice” is nothing more than vigilantism and revenge, and in this books is peculiarly horrible and sad. Despite the title, this isn’t the only main subject, and I don’t feel the title character is completely culpable. I felt that the writing quality and tone of this is more like more famous Sutcliff novels than the rest of the novels I read.
Bonnie Dundee—This is quite a different time than Sutcliff usually writes. I enjoyed it well-enough. The historical story is interesting, and I need to read (or re-read) Scott's poem of the same name.
Flame-colored Taffeta—This is tied to the same historical issue as the above, about a century later. I liked this better.
The Capricorn Bracelet—Tracing a family military bracelet through the centuries in a series of short stories. Interesting but less complex and interesting than the Eagle of the Ninth novels which do the same in more generations with Marcus’s father’s emerald ring.
Miscellaneous novels
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens—Well, I found this interesting but extremely violent for a Dickens novel. At the end, I was afraid Barnaby wouldn’t be saved! I found some things at the end dissatisfying (the duel and Hugh’s story), and the annoying couple got precedence over the romantic couple.
Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster—I knew the plot from Dear Mr. Knightly (and so consequently felt ripped off by that book and lowered my rating, I’d had no idea how unoriginal it was). This book is worth millions of that pathetic version (I disliked the adaptation's ending—if you must destroy the ending to fit it into our selfish, distrustful, revengeful, unforgiving culture, maybe don’t write the the modernized version?). How I laughed my way through this charming book. By the time this posts, I will have started Dear Enemy too.
Saturdays at Sea by Jessica Day George—I think I skipped Fridays with Wizards by accident. Oops. This is cute, but this series is my least favorite of hers.
The Laughing Cavalier by Emmuska Orczy—This had some hilarious parts involving the title character, but I didn’t care for much else. I meant to read the sequel of this prequel duology to the Scarlet Pimpernel, but I stopped that half-way through because it had no humor and so much pomposity and such a convoluted, boring, prolonged plot.
Labels: Book Reviews