SylviaC's Facts and Fiction for 2014

My first attempt at keeping a reading thread proved to be quite satisfying, so I will continue this year. Putting my impressions into words is helping to keep my brain stretchy, and I enjoy the comments, recommendations, and friendly visits.

I read roughly equal amounts of fiction and nonfiction. I read for pleasure, and am quite willing to abandon any book that I'm not enjoying. I only write a proper review if I really have something to say about a book, but I'll always give at least a brief reaction. My preferred format is good old-fashioned print on paper, but I'll read ebooks if I can't find a hard copy. I read audio books when I walk the dog, or when I'm working alone in the barn. In audio books, I prefer nonfiction, because I want to set my own pace when reading fiction.

These are the books I'm currently reading:

My Brief History by Stephen Hawking - from the library

Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher - in the car for when I'm waiting

The Secret Life of Dust by Hannah Holmes - briefly set aside

London: A Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World by Robert Bucholz - audio when I'm walking the dog

The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski - bedside table

Toscanini's Fumble by Harold L. Klawans - in truck for when I'm waiting

I'm also continuing to reread all of the Chalet School books. For anyone who is interested in the Chalet School series, we have a group here: LibraryThing Goes to the Chalet School

Starred. Good luck for 2014. Happy reading.

Thanks, @pgmcc. I hope you have a good year, too!

I started my year with Waking Kate, a very short story by Sarah Addison Allen, which was released free as a teaser for Lost Lake, her new book due out later this month. It also included an excerpt from Lost Lake. Short and sweet. I'm looking forward to the new book.

Starred! Best of luck with your reading this year.

Starring! Have a wonderful, word-filled 2014!

My Brief History by Stephen Hawking. I think this is the most impersonal autobiography I've ever read. I read his first wife's autobiography last year, so I was eager to read this to try to form a balanced view of Hawking and his life. The only new information that I learned about him was the birthplaces of his parents, and that he liked toy trains as a child. The book is, indeed, very brief, and well over half of it is physics. There is no glimpse at all of his personality and emotions, and major life events are glossed over with no details or depth.

Starred!

Noted and starred! Will be watching.

I'm so glad you're going to keep doing this, but I just added another of your books to my wishlist. ARGH! ;o)

I've starred you too, although I was looking for "2014" and almost missed this. I enjoyed your real "2013" thread even though my reading interests don't include the Chalet School. Glimpses of your farm life, so distant from mine, form an interesting backdrop to your comments on your reading.

I'll be following you again this year and hoping not to add too many more books to my wishlist. And I very much enjoy your observations on the Chalet School books, so will be looking forward to more of them.

Matthew fixed the title of my thread, so all is well with the world now. Welcome to all of you. It is so nice to see you here.

>10 clamairy: @clamairy: Serves you right!

>11 Meredy: @Meredy: Don't worry, I promise to intersperse some other books amongst the Chalet School books. And it is nice to know that someone finds bits of my everyday life interesting. I grew up in the city, and even after 17 years on the farm, there are times when I feel like I'm in a foreign land.

>12 Sakerfalcon: Sakerfalcon: Ta-Da! . . .

The Chalet School and the Lintons and A Rebel at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (both Armada versions). These books were originally published as a single book, also titled The Chalet School and the Lintons. The two books really should be read together, as the Joyce/Thekla storyline extends across both. Furthermore, they pick up the Thekla storyline that was dropped halfway through Exploits of the Chalet Girls. I like this pair of books, although they are not among my very favourites. We get to see the staff chatting with each other, and their personalities are becoming more established. Jo is gradually maturing, and starting to develop more of a sense of when she should speak up, and when to keep quiet. But honestly, how can a seventeen year old girl not notice that her sister is six months pregnant?

Hi Sylvia, I'm along for the ride, too!

Goderich: Winds of Change by Gordon Strathdee. I got this for Christmas and actually read it on Christmas Day, but forgot to record it until now. It is a photographic tribute to the town's ongoing recovery from a 2011 tornado.

The Beauty & Bounty of Huron County by Telfer Wegg, David Bishop, and Bonnie Sitter. An absolutely spectacular photographic look at our rural county. The book contains aerial, nature, agricultural, and scenic photos, all beautifully detailed, crisp and clear. I bought it as a Christmas present for my husband because of this cover picture:

He owns that kind of combine. He also bought me the same book for Christmas, but we are quite happy to each have our own copy. I wish I could send a copy to everyone I know, so they could see what a beautiful place I live in.

>16 MrsLee: It wouldn't be complete without you, MrsLee!

Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart. One of my SantaThing books. An interesting guide to plants that poison, addict, intoxicate, injure and irritate. It includes historic and literary instances of harm done by plants. I don't know how I managed to survive my childhood. Until I was about five, I put everything in my mouth, and used to go around the garden taking bites out of things. The only serious reaction I ever had was a very nasty case of hives from eating gladiolas.

That sounds like a really interesting read. I think I'll add it to my ever growing list.

#17

That cover photograph look great. The book sound fascinating.

I enjoyed Wicked Plants but it did quench my desire to be out in the garden. It seems like EVERYTHING is out to get you! I'm going to be reading Wicked Bugs soon, so then I really will be paranoid.

>17 SylviaC: - That's a very beautiful cover! I find it very cool that you and your husband bought each other a copy for Christmas.

@catzteach and @MrsLee, it is an interesting book, but it can definitely feed a person's paranoia. Even the most innocent seeming plants, like celery and tulips, have their dark sides. I'd better wait a while before looking for Wicked Bugs, or I could turn into a gibbering mess.

@pgmcc and @sangreal, I wish I could post more pictures here, but can't because of copyright. But at this tourism blog, there two of pictures from the book: http://ontariotraveldivas.com/2013/06/10/coming-soon-huron-county-photo-book/
The picture of the eagles is one of the best in the book, and the beach at Black's Point is about 5 miles from my place.

Oh - must get Wicked plants, it sounds like a book I'd enjoy!

15> That whole not noticing someone is pregnant scomes up a lot in older books. I know that for a long time in certain societies, clothing was arranged to hide a pregnancy, but I am quite amazed in how many books teens and pre-teens are surprised by a baby's arrival.

17> That looks like a very cool book. I love that you got it for each other. My Dad and I used to do that sometimes. There are so many beautiful places in this world, on this continent and even in each local area, I think. I love the Pacific Northweast and when I flew back from Vancouver last year, I was glued to the plane window looking at the beauty of British Columbia. Funny thing, when I got to my own local scenery, which is much less majestic, I got a little teary. I live in suburbia, but my county is still about 10% farmland, and there are plenty of green spaces reserved in addition to that. When I was furloughed, I enjoyed driving around the area and looking at the farms and green space and historical architecture. Mind you, the farms are a completely different scale than where you are. I haven't been to Ontario, but I've seen fields in Alberta that I think were bigger than my county.

>15 SylviaC:: One of my favourite aspects of the series is the glimpse into the lives of the staff, their actions and motivations and what they think of the girls. They are every bit as significant, well-rounded characters as the girls. Perhaps this is one reason why so many adult readers still enjoy the books? (But I agree, the obliviousness to pregnancy is ridiculous even if, as MDGentleReader says above, it was a common feature in older books. Elsie J. Oxenham takes it one step further when a set of twins appear, seemingly out of nowhere to judge from another character's shock!)

I do want to read some of Amy Stewart's books; I see so much praise for them on LT. *goes to check UK availability*

26: When I was in sixth grade, my friend Donna asked me, "Is your mother pregnant?" I didn't know the word, and she had to repeat the question: "Is she going to have a baby?" I said I didn't know. A few months later, my brother was born.

Donna was worldly-wise and the eldest of six. I was so sheltered and naive that I was in college before I learned (from dorm talk) how "it" was actually done. In those days, parents were supposed to keep their daughters pure and innocent (a standard reflected in many of those older novels), but I think mine overdid it because they didn't know much better themselves.

I do think that books reflected what people had experienced. We have a very unusual picture in an album that seemed to show a pregnant woman around the turn of the 19th/20th century. Perhaps part of it was there were so many more miscarriages and stillbirths? If an actual sibling was not guranteed to result, why have the other children involved? Aside from the whole not wanting to talk about particulars of how the baby got there... I would imagine that children brought up to be part of caring for livestock were always much more clued in to the facts of life. Others, well, before there was TV or when TV tried to protect children from knowledge and experiences they were not equipped to handle, I bet many children were pretty clueless.

When my mother was pregnant with my brother, I started coming home from Nursery School and telling my upcoming sibling about my day. I remember one day feeling guilty that I wasn't telling Mom about my day any more. I comforted myself with the fact that she could listen in if she wanted to and carried on. I am still a very odd combination of observant and completely clueless. Some things just don't seem to alter much with age.

I'll be lurking. I might just add Wicked Plants to my Druid section of my library.

I was a generation later and, therefore, when I was 7 and my mom was pregnant with my brother, I got the basic birds and bees lecture including the book Where Did I Come From? which had just come out.

And I got the Agatha Christie yesterday. Thanks so much, Sylvia! I love that it's an older version. MrMorphy was laughing at me as I cooed over it.

>29 MDGentleReader:: That's a really good point about the higher risk of miscarriage and other problems at that time. And I agree that writers of books for impressionable young girls probably wanted to avoid the details of what occurs between the wedding day and the birth ...

>26 MDGentleReader: MDGentleReader: Huron County farms aren't on the same scale as those in Alberta, but you wouldn't call them small, either. My husband and I enjoy just driving around, looking at the farms and scenery. I enjoy when people on LT post pictures of their own beautiful parts of the world.

>the pregnancy thing
It is pretty common for babies to suddenly appear out of nowhere in older fiction. I agree that MDGentleReader made a good point about the high rate of miscarriage and infant mortality. Oddly enough, in this particular book, just a few pages before Jo's niece suddenly appears, Jo and her friend Frieda have a conversation that implies in a rather roundabout way that Frieda's older sister is pregnant. So Jo doesn't appear to be completely clueless about the process.

Being of the same generation as Morphy and MDGR, I had a pretty good grasp of the baby in the tummy part of the process from an early age, and grade 5 health class explained the biology of it. I didn't catch on to the actual mechanics of things until about grade 8, when I was reading more adult books.

Well, if nothing else, the crummy weather is giving me lots of time for reading.

Dawn's Early Light by Elswyth Thane. This is the first book of the Williamsburg Series, which is one of my all-time favourite series. I love these books, and have the best parts almost memorized. It has been a long time since I read the entire series from start to finish, so I decided to do that this winter. The series follows the lives of four interconnected families from 1774 to 1941. Each of the seven books takes place during a war, or leading up to one, and the war is always very much part of the story. Most of my early knowledge of the various wars came from this series. Each book also features the romances of various members of the families. Unlike many family saga type books, almost all the family members are nice people who really care about one another. And the men are just dreamy (sigh).

Dawn's Early Light begins in 1774 with Julian Day's arrival in Virginia, and follows him through the American Revolution until 1781. I don't usually like historical fiction in which famous historical figures play a role, but such personages as Washington, Jefferson, and Lafayette fit seamlessly into the story, without straining credulity. There is a lot of historic information about politics, various battles, and the living conditions of the soldiers, which is leavened by the story of Julian and the families with whom his life becomes entwined. Elswyth Thane's characters are wonderfully drawn, and it is a joy to see them grow and develop over the course of the story. Strong friendships are as much a part of the book as the romances are. A wonderful book.

If you are in the UK, this book is available free for the kindle from amazon.uk. The rest of the books in the series are also available at very reasonable prices. Unfortunately they are not available as ebooks in Canada or the US.

14: Sylvia, how did a city girl come to choose life on a farm? Is that a story you could share with us?

There's a pretty simply answer to that, Meredy: I married a farmer! My best friend from university lived in a town a couple of hours away from Toronto, and I used to go visit her on weekends. She met a farmer in a bar, and he had a friend, and one thing led to another... Actually, it was a little more drawn out than that, since he and I were equally shy and quiet, but that's the gist of it. My friend married her farmer, too, so she lives nearby, and the rest of my family followed me out here after my mother retired (both my parents have passed away since then, but my brother is still near). The move out here is something that I've never regretted. Actually it is almost like coming full circle, since I lived on a farm for the first few months of my life.

The Williamsburg Series sounds wonderful! Alas, another series to add to the list. :)

37: Go for it! The books don't really have to be read in order. It would help to keep track of the family relationships, but each book tells a complete story with no need for prior knowledge. The only warning I might give to potential readers is to remember that this is a 70 year old historical fiction series, so it does contain some things that might not agree with modern sensibilities.

Yayy! I hadn't know there was another Sarah Addison Allen coming out. I'm listening to The Peach Keeper right now, and I've loved all her other books. And also a free short story to hunt for and enjoy? Makes me happy :o)

I've read Wicked Bugs which was fun (put me off eating for a bit, lol), but I need to find Wicked Plants. Sounds just as good.

Hi @sandragon! Lost Lake is due to come out around Jan. 20th, I think. She is on my short list of "Buy it new in hardcover" authors.

If Wicked Bugs put you off eating, you might want to avoid the book I'm reading right now: The Secret Life of Dust. It might put you off breathing.

Amy Stewart is brilliant. I need to finish The Drunken Botanist before I get any more of her books though.

The Secret Life of Dust sounds awesome! I quite enjoy natural history books that make me go 'yick!'

I know I've mentioned it before, but the reason why I enjoyed Peeps so much was because of the info-dump on parasites between each chapter.

The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things by Hannah Holmes. It's surprising just how interesting dust can be. Holmes looks at cosmic dust, global movement and climactic implications of dust, and the more localized and human problems caused by dust. This is one of the most frightening books I've read. Dust is EVERYWHERE, and it is full of bad stuff. I'm glad I'm not a clean freak, because this would have turned me into a basket case. "Thus, even in the world's cleanest air, any given cubic inch might host 1,500 specks of various pedigree." And those specks are full of irritants, toxins, chemicals, bacteria and molds. No matter where you live, or what your job, you can't escape. "These days workers in the United States are so well protected by antidust regulations that . . . well, actually, thousands of them still keel over each year, their lungs jammed with dust." Our attempts to clean up just stir up the particles, making them easier to inhale. And the smallest particles are the most deadly. In the final chapter, the author describes in some detail how we will all eventually turn into dust.

The first few and last few chapters of this book are the most interesting, especially the last three, about interactions between dust and the human body. It drags a bit around the middle, though. Having one chapter about dust going up into the air, one about dust floating in the air, and one about dust coming back down, means that this section is rather drawn out and repetitive. Still, I felt that the good parts made it worth the slog through the middle. My only complaint about the style is the obsession that journalists seem to have with providing a physical description of every person they interview. At least Holmes limited it to a line or two each, but seriously, I just don't need to know that a scientist was not wearing socks.

The book had its faults, but it contained a lot of fascinating information. I would recommend it to readers who like to scare the bejeebers out of themselves with science.

I live in a very dusty area. I don't know if I could handle this book. But if our attempts to clean it just stir it up, does that mean I should just leave it alone? ;)

That's my preferred strategy! :)

That is a great review, Sylvia. I am trying hard not to add the book to my wish list. My TBR pile would only end up gathering dust.

;)

@pgmcc: The dust will still be lurking there, whether it is on your TBR pile or not. Don't inhale.

43 - Love your review. I'm pleased with the author's last name. Didn't Sherlock write a monogram on dust? Or was it only tobacco ashes?

48: I gave my son a complete Sherlock Holmes omnibus for Christmas, so maybe he'll be able to tell us.

#47 Don't inhale

Sylvia, your comment reminded me of a sign a colleague had in his office some years ago, before the ban on smoking in the work place was introduced. It stated: I do not mind if you smoke in my office. Just do not exhale.

50: I wish I could figure out some way to make that work for people wearing perfume.

>51 SylviaC: You mean the ones marinating in it?

#51 I suppose you could stand them out in the sun for a few hours, until it evaporates off.

#53 - LOL! I think that would work for people stinking of tobacco smoke as well; I might suggest it next time someone stinks ;-)
Only, not much sun here, atm. More like sleet. Should work to discourage usage...

Sleet should work better than sun.

I did some sorting of my TBR pile, and made two discoveries:
1) My shortlist of books that I want to read immediately is over 30 books long;
2) No matter how hard I try, I cannot modify the space/time continuum to fit all of my books onto the available shelves.

#56 No matter how hard I try, I cannot modify the space/time continuum to fit all of my books onto the available shelves.

Never give up! Never surrender!

I love it! A shortlist of more than 30 titles that she wants to read immediately.

*Chortles in delight*

Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher. Excellent. Takes place from December 1935, when Judith Dunbar is preparing for boarding school, until December 1945, after the end of the war. I like it almost as much as Winter Solstice. Or maybe as much—I'm not sure yet. At 826 pages, it takes a bit of digesting. Judith was a thoroughly nice, sensible girl, and I really cared about what would happen to her, and to her friends and family. I don't have a lot to say about it, just that I like it.

I've been having a really good run of books this month. The only dud so far has been the Hawking.

So glad to hear you liked Coming Home, because I'm almost certain I will if you did! I'm not up to starting that big of a book right now, but sometime this year.

MrsLee, so far, we seem to be in agreement on the Pilchers that we've both read, so hopefully you'll like it. It does take a bit of a time commitment. At first I had it in the car to read when I was sitting around waiting for people. That worked alright for the first half, but by the time I reached the war years, I was eager to keep going. Then I just wished everyone would LEAVE ME ALONE TO READ!

That is a very familiar progression of reading to me. :)

The New House at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. I compared the Armada abridgement of 1980 with the 2008 Girls Gone By edition, which contains the original 1935 Chambers text.

I had forgotten how good this book is. The increasing maturity of the characters, and also of Brent-Dyer's writing, is evident. It is the last term at the Chalet School for Jo and her friends, and they are growing up. The girls are looking towards their futures, which are mostly limited to teaching, music, marriage and babies. Jo in particular is concerned about her lack of meaningful occupation once school is finished. A new character is introduced, who is recovering from the consequences of a bad marriage and the deaths of three of her children. It should be noted that these more mature themes are toned down slightly in the abridgement. The only notable weakness in this book is the recycling of the nasty matron plot.

While the cuts in the abridgement are not extensive, a few are fairly important, although they do not affect continuity. This is the first abridgement in which I've noticed a "dumbing down" of the story. My overall impression is that the Armada edition was aimed at a slightly younger audience than the original. It also seems like there was an attempt to make the abridged story more self-contained by limiting the number and extent of references to previous books in the series.

There were far more changes in vocabulary than I've seen in the other Armadas. There are updates, like "pi-jaw" to "lecture", and "recked nothing of that" to "cared nothing for that", and there are many simplifications, like "bisects" to "cuts in two", "abode" to "home", and "scrutator" to "examiner".

The most important cuts were:

•some of the details from Margot Venables' story, including reference to her husband drinking;
•information about the death of the Russell parents and Margot's estrangement from them;
•almost a page about the plans of the girls, and Jo's concerns about her own future.

Some other cuts were:

•several references to events in previous books;
•most references to religion;
•Jo's reflections on her new accommodations;
•Matey warning Jo not to mess with her skin;
•the first telling of Margot's story;
•Jem's lecture to Jo at the beginning of chapter 5;
•discussion between Jem and Margot about her children and immediate plans;
•a later passage about Margot's health;
•Gillian trying to convince Margia not to follow through on her plan;
•long description of dormitory layout;
•a couple of paragraphs about Matron Besly's thoughts;
•Jo's wakefulness before the storm;
•almost two pages of Freda telling a Tyrolean legend;
•part of Jo's performance at the concert.

Castle Waiting, Volume 2: The Definitive Edition by Linda Medley. Oh, my. This was . . . Well . . . It . . . Goodness. I liked the first volume, but this one was just special. In the very best way. Volume 2 has more of a single coherent narrative than the first volume did. The flashbacks all fit seamlessly into the story. The illustration is beautiful, especially the drawings of the castle itself. The story is gentle, kind, and humourous. They are both lovely, lovely books, beautifully bound and intricately drawn, with ribbon bookmarks.

The Toy Sword by Elizabeth Cadell. Light and fun. A fairly typical Cadell. It has several of her stock characters: eccentric elderly ladies, quirky boarders, and a pompous uncle. Quite enjoyable, with one particularly hilarious scene near the end.

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen. This is a very quiet book. While her other books seemed to have themes of expanding circles, this one has more of a feeling of narrowing in and sheltering. As usual, it is pleasant and light, with some dark undercurrents. I enjoyed it, and read it in a few hours, easily becoming immersed in the characters and their world. I don't know how well it will stay with me, though.

I also enjoyed Coming Home when I read it years ago. If MrsLee doesn't agree, well... we shall look at her askance for a day or two at the very least.

Maybe I should start practising my skances, just in case. But hopefully I won't have to use them.

Hahaha! Careful, your face might freeze that way! :) I won't be ready to read it until later this year, but having loved Winter Solstice, I'm sure I will like this.

Jo Returns to the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. This one is good, too. It is very much a "staff" book, as much of it focuses on Jo as an acting member of the school staff. As Jo writes her first book, it is interesting to get some insight into a writing process that was probably similar to the author's.

I'm hiding in the long grass watching your thread. :)

Don't get buried in the snow, @majika.

I haven't managed to find a copy of Jo returns to reread yet; I'm hoping that GGBP will reprint it soon. I must have been about 13 when I last read it, which is long enough ago that my memory of it has completely faded! I do like the stories that focus on the staff.

73: @Sakerfalcon, I'd like to see it in GGB, too. Apparently the Armada version has "minor frequent" cuts, which I've seen can still be pretty extensive. But it feels complete when I read it—no gaps in the timeline or continuity issues. I think you would like the amount of staff coverage in this one.

I look forward to reading Lost Lake when I get to it. I want to read The Peach Keeper and The Girl Who Chased the Moon first though.

I like them all, Morphy, but The Sugar Queen is my favourite.

London: A Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World, a Teaching Company course on audio by Professor Robert Bucholz. I enjoyed it. I liked his voice and his pacing.

What did you take away from the course, Sylvia? Any aspect of London that you *hadn't* known prior to listening to the audio that you can share? It seems to me that there would be some interesting nuggets in a course about a single city.

Oh! I love those TC audios. I really need to request a few more through the library. That one sounds wonderful.

I meant to write more when I posted last night, but I fumbled, and then it was too late to try again.

London: A Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World, a Teaching Company course on audio by Professor Robert Bucholz, covers the history of the city from early settlement (there wasn't much there before Roman times) until the present. In each era the professor presents the historical events that played out in London, describes the physical appearance of the city, and compares the living conditions of different classes of residents. Several times during the course, he takes us on walking tours of the city from the perspectives of authors like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Pepys, Johnson and Dickens. The lectures were tied together well, with that literary thread running throughout.

I liked the walking tours, because they helped me visualize locations, but that would naturally have worked much better in the DVD version, with maps. I hadn't realized how frequently Londoners and the reigning monarch were incompatible with each other, and was surprised to learn that much of the current pageantry connected with royalty only originated in Victorian times. As usual, I got a bit bogged down in the 17th and 18th centuries, but I'm gradually working out how various events fit together. I had no problem at all keeping things straight in all the other eras.

The professor's enthusiasm kept the lectures fresh, although occasionally he did sound a little too fanboyish. While he did a good job of balancing the positives and the negatives, you could still tell that he is a dedicated Anglophile. His singing and impressions were not highlights of the course, but fortunately those were rare. A funny little note was that a few times I thought he was quoting someone named "Buckles". It took me awhile to realize that Buckles=Bucholz. Sometimes I don't think there's any connection between my eyes and my ears. :)

I enjoyed this one, although I'm not as wildly enthusiastic as I was about the food history one I listened to last fall. I came away with a stronger sense of what fits where in English history, and a feeling of time well spent.

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. A reread of an old favourite. This time I read it to my daughter. It was a nice book to read aloud, except for some of the names and Damarian words. My daughter loved Harry, Aerin, and Narknon, the big hunting cat.

The Storm King: Stories, Narratives, Poems: Spoken Word Set to a World of Music by Pete Seeger and Jeff Haynes. A two hour and twenty minute audio collection from Audible. It was released last year, so is quite recent. It is kind of like having Pete Seeger sit in your kitchen and reminisce about his life, his music, and people he knew. He only sang and played a little bit, but did plenty of storytelling. The one thing I didn't care for was that during the musical parts, I often didn't know who was performing. But it made a fitting memorial as I listened to him share the stories of a long life well lived.

Fletchers End by D. E. Stevenson. Sequel to Bel Lamington, and I liked it better. I first read it so long ago that I couldn't remember it at all. Nothing much happens, and there isn't really a plot, but I didn't want to put the book down.

I've read a few McKinley books. The language is a little too frou-frou for me at times but, in general, I like them.

I've read Mrs. Tim of the Regiment by Stevenson and liked it enough that I think I will check out more of hers. I have Miss Buncle's Book on my Nook at them moment.

>84 Morphidae: Morphy: Miss Buncle's Book is generally considered to be one of her best. I need to read it again sometime, because I barely remember the details. I just remember that I enjoyed it.

I found both Miss Buncle's Book and Miss Buncle Married to be charming examples of domestic fiction. Light-hearted and humorous. They are very much in the same vein as Jan Karon's Mitford series. Maybe a little less facile in outlook.

"Domestic fiction" is a good description. I hadn't thought of that as a category before, but it fits. I like my domestic fiction with a good helping of humour.

I went back to Rivals of the Chalet School because I found a 1955 Chambers reprint to compare with the 1968 Armada abridgement. The book was originally published by Chambers in 1929. I was disappointed to discover that the original version sheds no more light on Miss Browne's character than the Armada version does. Most of the deletions really are minor, and anyone reading the Armada version is not missing much.

The most notable (but still minor) cuts are:

•reviews of Elisaveta's and Robin's backgrounds.

•a page-long discussion between Jo and Mary about how to end the feud.

•a couple of passages about Maureen Donovan, a St. Scholastika's student.

•a bit about what they did in the mountain village during their long hike after being marooned.

•details about Guides and Miss Browne's opposition to them.

•some details of the skating rescue.

•more about everyone's anxiety during Jo's illness

Yes, I like the term domestic fiction. I've also heard it called gentle fiction. When I'm not feeling well, physically or emotionally, it's nice to sit down with one of those. Either that or an old favorite, comfort re-read.

Morphy, I sometimes use the tag "pleasant" for low-stress books. My bookcases are loaded with gentle, pleasant, comfortable, domestic fiction favourites.

I call them gentle reads. Definitely my reading preference and a large part of the reason for my LT handle. I am willing to read about true stories of folks overcoming difficult situations, but I am not at all interested in fiction that showcases people behaving badly. I don't hang around with those folks in RL, why would I when I read?

87. Yes, I definitely need humor. In RL and in books. I need that release, without it, I can get a little too intense. Not good for anyone.

Okay, now I have to check out all of Sylvia's 'pleasant' reads. I too sometimes crave books like that.

91: MDGentleReader, I agree, I'd rather read about people I would like to spend time with.

92: Don't look, Clam! You'll regret it! Close your eyes now, before it's too late... Actually, you would probably get in more trouble in my nonfiction section than in my pleasant books.

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. An old favourite, and the magic is still there. This was another read-aloud with my daughter, who loved Menolly and her fire lizards. Now we've moved right along to Dragonsinger.

Bamboozled by David Legge. A fun picture book, with wonderfully mixed-up illustrations. @MDGentleReader, you are responsible for this one!

93: I saw Louise Penny speak a couple of months ago. She said that a high priority for her is that these characters with whom she has to spend all this time be people she wants to spend time with. Makes a lot of sense.

That does make sense. I hadn't thought if it from the author's perspective, but they have to be even more intimately involved with the characters than the readers are. Especially in a series that goes on and on.

I looked! I saw some stuff I'm familiar with, but also a bunch of stuff I've never heard of. I didn't run off and order anything, though. LOL

The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald. I've tagged this both "fiction" and "nonfiction". It is based on the author's time as a chicken farmer in the late 1920s, and is very entertaining. There were some parts that I could completely relate to, like her reflections on the nature of chickens and all the things that can go wrong with them. Having made a brief foray into the orchard business, I fully appreciated her description of her husband's pruning efforts. My strongest feeling as I read this book was a deep appreciation for all that I have: a farm with a well established infrastructure, barn mechanization, electricity, modern appliances, and running water. Even after spending together time with my husband tonight, trying to fix a broken feeder*, I would far rather be here and now than there and then.

*My part in the process mostly involved handing him parts and tools, and not making idle chitchat.

I was looking forward to your comments on The egg and I! Glad you enjoyed it and that your own experiences with chickens are more positive!

I read that when I was very young, and I remember it fondly. I think I might have to revisit it, though. And I should get a copy for my sister. She and her husband acquired a coop and three hens a few months ago from a friend who grew tired very quickly of the time and effort. So far all is well. She does not live in the sticks like I do, so they chose to put the coop behind her husband's office instead of in their back yard.

I hear you about that 'being grateful' feeling, Sylvia. I often try to imagine surviving a Winter here without central heat and hot & cold running water, not to mention electricity. I think it would be rather awful, and I'm not even raising livestock. I whine about having use snowshoes to go out and fill my bird feeders when the snow gets too deep!

Glad you enjoyed that book, it's one of my favorites! That is one of the ones my husband and I read aloud to each other eons ago. We giggled all the way through. The pressure cooker episode is one that has stuck with me.

clamairy - I sent a copy to my sister, who lives in a very remote area on a lonely farm (sans chickens). She didn't care for it. But then, her humor and mine are often not on the same track, either.

It seems you have given me recommendations from your pleasant tag because I have books like Thale's Folly and Henrietta's War in my LT Recommended collection. So I'll just try to remember after I have those read to go back and take another peak.

There were a couple of things I didn't like about The Egg and I, but I liked it enough that I am eager to read The Plague and I soon. Good thing I have it conveniently on hand!

Morphy, those recommendations could have come from @MDGentleReader or me. The two of us wander around LT making such recommendations. It's kind of a tag team thing.

I liked The Plague and I much better than The Egg and I, which I agree had some kinda rough spots.

Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation by Gregory Maguire. A beautiful review of Maurice Sendak's art. Some of the analysis went over my head, and some was enlightening. The real joy of the book is all the big, glorious Sendak illustrations.

The New Chalet School and A United Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. These two Armada titles were originally published by Chambers as The New Chalet School. Good, but nothing really outstanding. The students of St. Scholastika's join the Chalet School, and there is the usual collection of disasters, both natural and man-made. For me, the most notable thing about this book is that it is the last pre-war entry in the series, originally published in 1938. There is one passing mention of Hitler's name, but no other reference to any social upheaval in Europe.

95> Guilty as charged. Tried to find it in a local bookstore and failed. Ordered a copy from Amazon for my nieces - a bit pricey, but I figure it will only go up in cost as other folks have a chance to read it.

99> In other words, you played a vital role.

99, 101> I am very grateful for hot and cold running water, A/C, central heating, asthma drugs...

103> I think they were from me in this instance. However, as @SylviaC said, it could quite easily have been from her. We are definitely pleasant/gentle read pushers recommenders.

105> I agree. Everyone seems to know about The Egg and I, though and not The Plague and I. Even if I hadn't been interested because my grandmother spent time in a TB sanitorium, I would've liked it better.

108:
I got a pristine used hardcover version of Bamboozled from AwesomeBooks for all of $4.52.

La la la la la I can't heeeear you....

...couldn't even tell it was used...

* Turns radio up louder *

...free postage*...

*That has changed now--they've just started charging a flat rate.

Sylvia, were/are you the younger child in your family? Hmmm?

Older, actually. But I learned a lot from my brother. ;)

My brother was too much younger than me to have taught me anything. He was just this adorable baby/little kid hanging around, too young to be of any use as a playmate. He's quite good value now :-).

My copy arrived today. Looks pretty pristine, dust jacket intact.

Someone put a cute sticker over the price, so it must have been a gift at one point. In my family, the price corner was always cut off.

Will take it to my nieces Friday. I hope they like it as much as John and I did.

Ooooh . . . Mine doesn't have a dust jacket!

* prances.... Just a little bit *

It actually makes me a little sad. If it still has a pristine dust jacket, it clearly wasn't loved. It is a book that deserves to be loved. If the nieces don't love it, I'll bring it back home for my library.

The Fair to Middling by Arthur Calder-Marshall. A very strange children's fantasy. It has sort of a surreal vibe to it, similar to Roald Dahl or Lewis Carroll. I liked it, and immediately started re-reading it to try to pick up on things that I missed the first time through. It left me wondering what my reaction would have been if I had read it as a child. I think I would have loved it.

The story is about some children and staff from a school/home for orphans with disabilities. They are each changed in some way by their visit to the fair. The book is a mishmash of good and evil, humour and horror, religion and science, morality, miracles, friendship, healing, and, most prominently, acceptance. It is so full of wordplay that I was constantly looking for hidden meanings. I know that I missed a lot.

Something that intrigued me was a deadly game of cricket that was going on in the background. One of the players was (for quite obvious reasons) called Mr. De Ath. I had to wonder whether this was also a subtle nod to Dorothy L. Sayers, as it made me think of a scene in Murder Must Advertise. This suspicion was reinforced by a passing mention of Lord Peter Wimsey later in the book.

@MDGentleReader, I think you would find this one interesting.

That sounds very interesting!

119> Duly recorded in my obese TBR list.

One of the reviews I read of The Fair to Middling says its a combination of Roald Dahl, Edith Nesbit, Lewis Carroll and G.K. Chesterton. Would you agree with that? I really am intrigued.

>122 jillmwo:
Yes, there are aspects that I could relate to all of those authors. (In Chesterton's case, to his weirder stuff). I could also throw in some C. S. Lewis and some Louis Sachar. And sort of some edgy Lucy M. Boston. And Dante. (Not that I've read Dante, but it's there.) Some aspects seem to be intentionally derivative, but I think most of the comparisons arise from the reader groping for a way to describe the book. There is also something almost psychedelic about it, with an intense focus on colours and sounds. Yet at the same time there is a cohesive narrative.

If any else reads it, I would love to hear what you think of it.

The Plague and the Fire of London by Sutherland Ross. A short, older (1965) history. I think it may have been written for high school students. I picked it up at a library book sale because I'll read anything about a plague. The book was a nice little diversion, and gave a good sense of life in London in 1665-66. The author relies heavily on Pepys, and is remarkably lacking in references.

Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. This is the first book I've read by the author, as recommended by @Morphidae. A lovely romance between two social outcasts, set during World War II. At first I thought it was going to be a serious, depressing book, but it turned out to be full of joy and wonder, with plenty of unexpected humour. Yes, there were some dark, unpleasant characters and events that I didn't enjoy reading about at all, but the good stuff was so good! Of course, it helps that I find shy, quiet, kind men very attractive. I was surprised at how much I liked it, because many of Spencer's books don't look the least bit appealing to me. So I will follow Morphy's advice, and look for Years as my next Spencer selection.

I'm glad you liked Morning Glory so much. My only warning with Years is that it has a May/December romance. Some people find that squicky.

>126 Morphidae:
I don't mind that.

What Will the Robin Do Then? by Jean Little. A book of short stories and poems for children. A couple were memorable.

Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson. I haven't read this since I was quite young. Still delightful.

I loved the moomin stories - I've just been looking at new releases of them to buy for my niece when she's old enough.

According to the list I made when I was a teenager, I read more of them, but all I really remember is the illustrations.

8 O'Clock Tales by Enid Blyton. Enid Blyton is an author who really doesn't stand up well to re-reading as an adult—at least not her short stories. But I loved it when I was seven!

>132 SylviaC: Uh oh. It doesn't quite sound like a visit from the Suck Fairy. Perhaps it was just the Imp of Mediocrity.

Mediocrity certainly comes into it! I think they are perfectly serviceable stories to entertain a seven-year-old, but there is no cleverness to them at all. They're a step up from Dick and Jane.

The House on Parchment Street by Patricia A. McKillip. (Re-read) This a children's ghost story, and a pretty mild one at that. It doesn't contain any of the fantasy elements that we expect in her books for adults, and is far less complex. But, wow, McKillip can write! I only meant to skim through it this time, but ended up getting sucked in for the evening.

The reason I'm reading so many children's books right now is that I'm trying to free up space in my bookcases, so I'm pulling out some of the books that I haven't read in decades, to find out whether I can bear to part with them. The strategy doesn't seem to be working out very well for me.

I agree about Enid Blyton's books not holding up to rereading as an adult. Even the Adventure series, which are probably her best, had been visited by the Suck Fairy last time I tried them. I think I imagined a lot of details that weren't actually in the books. But the Moomins will always be magical!

>132 SylviaC:, >134 SylviaC:, >136 Sakerfalcon: Guess I don't have to work so hard to get to Enid Blyton after all.

>129 SylviaC:, >130 Peace2: Moomin stays on the list, though.

>135 SylviaC: since when is enjoying reading a book a bad thing?

Enid Blyton does seem to have a best before age. I find that her school series have more staying power, but they aren't quite of the same calibre as Chalet School.

I'm having fun with the reading part, but not much success with the shelf clearing.

>138 SylviaC: I keep telling myself that it needs to be one book in, one book out. Hasn't happened. Too many books I like are not available at the library or in eBook format and are hard to find in the used book market. Right now I am trying to figure out where I can fit in another bookcase, the piles are getting out of hand.

Regarding Enid Blyton: I think I am still using some of her vocabulary; the words pop out at strange times. One of those times was during an argument C and I were having in which I told him he just couldn't do that: "It just won't fadge!" He accused me of making words up to confound him.

I'm pretty sure that was a Blyton word. Does anybody remember it? Or did I make it up?

It seems to be fairly old English slang--at least, it's in Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

ETA: Now that I think of it, I've also seen it in Georgette Heyer.

>140 nhlsecord:
I know that's a familiar phrase. I associate it with my schooldays, so it could have been something I read back then, or possibly a southwestern Ontarioism. I haven't heard it in a long time.

It's funny, my husband will sometimes comment on certain words or phrases I use, and I can usually connect them back either to my childhood reading or to my mother's Nova Scotian expressions.

I haven't read Enid Blyton and I know I've read it in books. Pretty sure I've never heard it said, though. I think most recently I read it in one of the Chalet School books. I am pretty sure it was only one of the CS books, though and I don't remember which one.

Well, as Marissa suggested, maybe I got it from Georgette Heyer. I love her expressions too. I remember saying to C "a diamond of the first water" and I got a similar reaction to saying "fadge". Lots of people think I'm weird for the way I talk and the books I read, but I don't feel weird with LT. Here, I feel like I still have lots to learn and I like that :)

>144 nhlsecord: Lots of people think I'm weird for the way I talk and the books I read,...

"...If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking"

Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood.

I think Murakami and Blyton go so well together. ;-)

>144 nhlsecord: I got around that by getting my husband addicted to Georgette Heyer too (reading in bed and giggling madly for several nights did the trick). Now he's worse than I am with Regency slang. ;)

>145 pgmcc: I like that quote!

>146 Marissa_Doyle: I can guarantee that won't happen in my house!

The Greatest Show Off Earth by Margaret Mahy. Typical Mahy nonsense. Her books for younger children are fun, but don't have the re-read value of her teen books.

>146 Marissa_Doyle: I've tried to get C interested in some of the more, shall I say feminine stuff, but even though it deserves thought because I like Georgette Heyer so much, he sort of feels like he's invading the lingerie drawer. Lord knows he's had enough nursing in his life that he should sort of feel at home with the more feminine stories but likely he resented the over-abundance.

>149 nhlsecord: Hmm. you could always try The Unknown Ajax on him--it's told from the point of view of the hero rather than the heroine...and it's one of her funniest, I think.

>148 SylviaC: I've only read one Margaret Mahy YA, The Changeover which was pretty good. Have you read that one?

>150 Marissa_Doyle: The Changeover is one of my favourite YA books ever. It's one that I re-read regularly, every year or two. I liked The Catalogue of the Universe, The Other Side of Silence, and The Haunting, too. I've read some others that didn't appeal that much to me, but I could see why some people would really like them.

>151 SylviaC: I love the Mahy novels that you list, and would add The tricksters as another of her best. I wasn't as keen on some of her later YA books, such as 24 hours and Alchemy though. But her best are good enough for me to rate her as one of my favourite authors.

>152 Sakerfalcon: I tried The Tricksters a couple of times, but I just couldn't connect with the characters. I don't know why, because characterization was really one of Mahy's strengths. I agree about 24 Hours, and Memory is another one. I haven't read Alchemy yet. She was an incredibly prolific author.

Farmer Giles of Ham by J. R. R. Tolkien. I think this is the book that has been in my TBR pile longer than any other--probably about 30 years. Given that it is only 78 pages long, I have no idea why I didn't read it sooner. It's a silly little story, fun to read, about an unlikely hero with a cowardly talking dog.

Summer of Discovery by Eric Wilson. 1980s children's book about kids with disabilities at summer camp. Just bad. Unlikable protagonist, one dimensional characters, stilted dialogue.

>155 SylviaC: Ick. Sorry you hit a bad one. At least >154 SylviaC: sounds fun.

* goes off to add Farmer Giles of Ham to Mt TBR. *

>154 SylviaC: I loved Farmer Giles of Ham. :o) Loved Smith of Wootton Major even more, though. That one would make a lovely animated film. I guess they both would.

Like clam above, I too love Smith of Wootton Major. Marvelous faery tale. I might go so far as to call it one of those 100 books you should read before you die.

I've just requested Tales from the Perilous Realm from the library so I can read Smith of Wootton Major. Because I don't already have enough to read.

Can You Promise Me Spring? by Alison Lohans. Children's/early teen book about a girl whose brother is diagnosed cancer. I really liked this one. It's the second book I've read by the author, the other one having been a favourite of mine back when I was a teenager. I think I'll look for more.

Having read Summer of Discovery and Can You Promise Me Spring? one after the other like this, the contrast is notable. Both were written in roughly the same era, both are about kids dealing with disabilities or medical issues, and both take place in the same province, but the writing is completely different. Spring has interesting characters (how can you not like a heroine who mentally reviews chemical structures when she's under stress?) with realistic interactions, and a well-formed storyline. It isn't great literature, but it's enjoyable. And Summer? Well, I expressed my opinion earlier.

(How many books take place in Saskatchewan? I haven't read many, but somehow I just hit on two in a row.)

Alchemy by Margaret Mahy. It seemed kind of unstructured at first, but by a third of the way through the threads were pulling together, and I was drawn right in. This book had some strong similarities to The Changeover, in characterization, imagery, and themes. The Changeover is a much more well-formed story, but I still found Alchemy quite enjoyable.

>150 Marissa_Doyle: Marissa, I am vey happy to report that C is reading The Unknown Ajax and although he is having trouble with the language, he likes the story and the characters and we have something to talk about. Thanks for the suggestion :))

Mary Poppins From A to Z and Mary Poppins and the House Next Door by P. L. Travers. Two very short Mary Poppins books. Nice enough.

>162 nhlsecord: Yay!! I'm very happy to hear that! Hugo is a simply wonderful character. :)

>162 nhlsecord: >164 Marissa_Doyle: Hugo is one of my favourites. I hope C likes him! Jack in The Toll-Gate is similar.

Yes, The Toll-Gate will be the next one. He's taking a break with the usual thriller before he tries another, and we're still trying to figure out what "wet boots" or "dry boots" refers to in The Unknown Ajax to do with somebody's character - either inexperienced or badly experienced. And he loved the Valets at war over Hugo.

Well, while you all are investigating boots (wet or dry) in the context of Georgette Heyer, I have another question related to regency garb. Does anyone know what a Flushing Coat might be? I can't find pictures of one and it's apparently a Rather Important Clue...

>166 nhlsecord: I am glad he is enjoying Unknown Ajax.

>167 jillmwo: Hmm. You might want to try the Almack's group - Almacks

I looked here, but didn't find anything, I though that it wa a pretty cool web-site, though: Fashion History Sitemap of Fashion-era.com

A search of Google Books brings up a lot of references to Flushing coats, but they seem to have been so common that there was no need to describe them. It is apparently a large, heavy, rough nautical overcoat. I also saw a reference to it as a "wrap-rascal".

http://books.google.ca/books?id=SDsBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=%...

The above is a very long url (I didn't know how to make it one line so it would be a link) after a google search of "flushing coat" which gets you a page of a book called Western Wanderings: Or, a Pleasure Tour in the Canadas, Volume 1 By William Henry Giles Kingston with a description of a flushing coat which sounds a lot like a hoody that he wore under various layers of warm and/or water proof coats. It actually sounds like what I would wear if the Wind of Long Knives is blowing and I foolishly decide I should go for a walk.

ETA well, it looks like it IS a link

169> I love the term wrap-rascal! It's presumably a comment on the likely wearers of flushing coats, but it just sounds like a brilliant starter for ten for evoking a character :)

You are all utterly amazing as a collective information resource! Thank you.

>172 jillmwo: You're welcome.

**Deep bow and elaborate flourish**

The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj by Anne de Courcy. This was a fascinating exploration of an aspect of the British empire experience of which I had been unaware. I knew about all those ladies in their stifling finery, living lives of ridiculous luxury amidst unthinkable poverty in a brutal climate, but I had never wondered how they got there, or why they went. I had certainly never heard of them referred to collectively as the Fishing Fleet. The girls fell into two main categories: those who were returning to parents in India after being sent to England for their education; and those born in England who hadn't found a suitable match at home (probably because all the eligible men were off building the Empire) and were shipped out to stay with relatives or family friends in India. They were all looking for marriage because, well, there were no other options. And those sex-deprived Empire-building Englishmen with their stiff upper lips were all too willing to oblige.

The book focuses on the period of the Raj, especially from the 1890s to World War II, because that was the period for which the author was able to get plenty of first-hand accounts, from letters, diaries, and even some personal interviews. The author does a good job of providing the historical context for the Fishing Fleet in the Raj, going back to 1671, when the East India Company paid young women to sail out to India and marry. The book has chapters on the women and the men, the voyage, physical and social conditions in India, courtship and marriage, as well as chapters spotlighting the experiences of individual women. Many aspects of the women's lives in India were explored, and they even had menstrual cycles! (It bugs me that basic inconveniences of human bodily functions are so often ignored in books.) Everything is described through the first-hand accounts, and there are dozens of photographs.

My only complaint about the book was that it dragged a bit through the middle, with account after account of dances, clubs, protocol, lavish entertainments and unimaginably wealthy maharajahs. Towards the end I started to notice some repetitions.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in British India. It amazes me how they built such an exaggerated version of English society in a place completely different from their home, and managed to keep themselves so separated from the enormous native population, while at the same time relying on native labour for everything.

Some of my favourite lines:

Fresh water for washing clothes was in such short supply that many women who knew they were going to travel saved their most worn underwear and then discarded it overboard on the voyage leaving, one imagines, a trail of dirty, threadbare nightdresses and knickers across the Indian Ocean."

"I had about a dozen evening dresses. My favourite was a gorgeous gold colour one with a cowl neck that was backless — you couldn't wear a bra but one was very firm in those days."

Ummmmm... Er... Maybe...

I'm hemming and hawing over this one. I don't normally read much historical nonfiction. But I do enjoy social/cultural non-fiction, especially when it comes to the British.

>175 Morphidae:
Since this is based on letters and diaries, it is more about people's lives rather than a typical factual info-dump. We are given historical context for it all, but it isn't dominated by things like dates and politics.

Okay, fine. Book bulleted.

My job is done.

I got the unabridged hardcover version of Jo Returns to the Chalet School, so I went back to compare it with the abridged Armada version. I could get through this project faster is I didn't keep going back when I acquire another unabridged book. I'm all set for the next dozen books, though.

Almost all of the changes to wording were just to update vocabulary. Most of the cuts were relatively minor, usually single paragraphs about characters' illnesses or weak constitutions, or references to events in previous books. There was one really long cut, and a couple of shorter ones that removed interesting information:

•a five page phone conversation between Jo and Madge

•a segment on the qualifications of the three matrons

•a passage in which Stacie regrets the actions that led to her disability - this is actually a very rare insight into Stacie's post-accident thoughts.

Guess I'll have to wait for the GGBP version to get the additional material. You are certainly right about insight into Stacie's port-accident thoughts being very rare.

What exactly was meant by a weak constitution? I mean, I don't know if that's even a thing. Is it a euphemism for asthma or having a long-standing cold? Or is it just something that children who aren't allowed out in the sunshine to play get? (And because I've not read any of the Chalet school stories, what exactly is Stacie's disability? Is she in a wheelchair?)

Inquiring Minds Want to Know.

In these books, I think it often implies that they fear TB. For some reason, they often don't seem to know for sure, perhaps the TB test came later than the newer treatments? I think the term also includes folks we now say have compromised immune systems for one reason or another. Stacie spent, mmm, 18 months or so in a wheelchair due to an accident.

In my experience a weak constitution would mean one was not up to strenuous exercises such as long hikes, or even short ones. It would also imply one to be prone to illnesses and tummy troubles.

Of course, in fiction the characters claiming a weak constitution would often be using the phrase as an excuse to get out of some healthy outing being planned by the other characters.

I always understood "a weak constitution" to mean that they were "delicate"--the opposite of strong, robust, and hardy ("constitution" simply being the word for how something or someone is put together, what it's made of--constituted). They might get sick more easily than others and might have a worse case of something when they do get it.

We probably know people like that now. We just tend to use less vague language for their conditions because modern medicine has given us more precise terms for things and because we first-world folks tend to go get diagnosed for every little thing. There are people we'd call "sickly" or "sickness-prone" who seem to catch everything that's going around and be down with it for twice as long as everyone else.

I also recall that in older fiction we encounter a lot of characters who are "invalids"--who stay in bed or droop around on chaise longues for months or even years at a time, looking pale and fragile but not seeming to have anything very specific wrong with them. Some of them are young, romantic, and doomed, and others are long-suffering, saintly (and seemingly immobile) wives or bitter, complaining elders. These days such people would be given a prescription or two and sent back to work.

Yes, there have always been folks who seem to catch everything going and have it for longer. I think those folks are definitely included in the weak constitution category in this series. I do get the sense, though, that it often more specifically referred to folks like the Robin who were feared to have TB. In earlier times they would have been referred to as consumptives. Perhaps someone familar with the series can chime in here. This is something I've wondered about from my very first Chalet School book.

In this series anyone who doesn't have something medically wrong or is not under severe emotional strain who complains of illness is not given much sympathy. A very plain diet and lots of rest apart from everyone else is prescribed for any student in the school who complains of feeling sickly without any cause being apparent until the poor child can't take it any more and declares that she feels much better now.

Jo, the character who the series is built around, is prone to serious chest infections, and was the original reason for the school being established in the "clear, bracing air" of the alps. If she stands in an open doorway in the winter, without her coat, she is immediately rushed off to have a warm bath, then wrapped in hot blankets, and her chest and back are rubbed briskly with with various revolting mixtures, and she is given a dose of cod liver oil for good measure. And in all likelihood she will become deathly ill anyway.

In the last book I read, it said that the school of 150 pupils had three matrons, all of whom were trained nurses, as well as another nurse who was in charge of the infirmary. And the really "delicate" students were off at another branch of the school, attached to the TB sanatorium higher up the mountain. As in many books of the period, medical details are vague.

A lot of the medical concerns and treatments seem odd to us now, but the first chunk of the series was written before antibiotics, So illnesses that we take for granted now could, indeed have been deadly then. And illness was more a part of everyday life than it is now. I'm reading The Youngest Science by Lewis Thomas which is part memoir, and part history of 20th century medicine. The scientific revolution in medicine was occurring just as he was starting his career. Prior to that, doctors were mostly just guessing when it came to diagnosis and treatment of most illnesses. They didn't expect to find cures, just hoped to alleviate symptoms.

Tales From the Perilous Realm by J. R. R. Tolkien. This version contained four stories:

"Farmer Giles of Ham", which I read earlier.

"The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" - my favourites were "Perry-the-Winkle", about a troll and a hobbit, and "The Horde", about elvish gold and greed.

"Leaf by Niggle" - quite odd

"Smith of Wootton Major" - a lovely, quiet story. Given the title, I was expecting something along the same lines as "Farmer Giles of Ham", but this was completely different.

>187 SylviaC: Leaf by Niggle seemed to me like something C.S.Lewis might write in an uncharacteristically good mood. And he was, after all, an associate of Tolkien's.

>188 hfglen:
Yes, it does seem more Lewis than Tolkien. I haven't read much Tolkien beyond the big ones, and I was surprised to find such an obviously religious story.

The Rocket Book by Peter Newell. A picture book I read on the Library of Congress website. A naughty boy sets off a rocket in the basement of an apartment building. The book follows the rocket as it shoots up through all the apartments above, describing the trail of destruction in verse and illustrations. Fun.

You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney. Audio. About the tricks our minds play to manage all the data that we are constantly trying to process. It was quite interesting, but went on for too long. Anyone who has take an introductory psychology course will be familiar with most of the information presented. Around chapter 30 I started skipping ahead when chapters seemed repetitive. I think it would be better for dipping into, rather than reading straight through.

>187 SylviaC: I'm so glad you like Smith of Wooton Major. (I still think it would make a delightful animated film. I'd like to see it done in the style of The Secret of Kells.)

Doing a drive-by checking in and hug!

Empty World by John Christopher. YA apocalyptic fiction. So-so. I had some trouble believing that the mortality rate would be so high, but can accept it as a quirk of the genre. It was the last quarter of the book that brought it down for me. Lucy simply had no personality at all. Not that Neil had a whole lot either, but Lucy seemed like no more than a conveniently placed plot point. The book wasn't bad, but I expected better of John Christopher.

A Measure of Value: The Story of the D'Arcy Island Leper Colony by Chris Yorath. This came up recently on a Name That Book thread. It is not particularly well-written, but it does shed some light on an obscure bit of Canadian history. In 1891, the city of Victoria BC started a leper colony on a small island. The city provided food, clothing and shelter, and other than that, the men were just left on their own. Over the 15 years that Victoria ran the colony, the population ranged from 2 to 9 men, almost all Chinese immigrants.

The book is short, since there was little official documentation, and no accounts at all from the men who lived and died on the island. The author fills the story out with a fictionalized account of one of the inmates. This combination of fiction and nonfiction is a technique that I don't care much for, but I suppose some people might like it. The nonfiction sections sometimes read like lists of data, sometimes with the same piece of information repeated on two different pages.

Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, or, Why can't anybody spell? by Vivian Cook. Just a miscellany of spelling related lists, quotes and trivia, in no particular order and with little commentary. There are lots of quizzes. I love the title.

>196 SylviaC: I love the title - it sounds like the germ of a rather odd short story :)

Hee hee. That's something I would buy if I saw it just because of the name.

An Autobiography by Agatha Christie. For Morphy's April group read. It got off to a slow start, but I loved it. The broad categories that she included were her childhood and youth, WWI and her first marriage, her second marriage and travels in the Middle East, WWII, and sort of a post-WWII summary. Throughout the book she talks about her writing in a fair amount of detail, including spoilers—most notably for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

The childhood part was rather like listening to a grandparent telling stories of "the good old days", filling in every detail they can remember, and reflecting on how much better everything was, back in the day. This section went on for rather longer than necessary, but is full of fascinating remembrances of a Victorian childhood. She mentions such important subjects as lavatories and bosoms (and, later in the book, morning sickness and bedbugs). It took 200 pages for her to reach adulthood, but then things really got rolling. Once she reaches her late teens, the narrative becomes more continuous, although still with occasional digressions. By the time she got to the end of World War II, I think she was running out of things to say, because she covered the next twenty years in about 25 pages.

While Christie was quite candid about many things, it is not surprising that she leaves out others. She talks about her emotional turmoil at the breakup of her first marriage, but makes no mention of her famous disappearance. I was left wondering about her relationship with her daughter. They seem to have been apart for much of Rosalind's childhood, and Agatha mentions several times that their personalities were very different, yet there is no indication of any conflict. I suppose she wrote cautiously to protect her daughter's privacy.

There is so much that I like about this autobiography: her memories, her opinions, descriptions of the many places she's visited, and ways that she's traveled, her observations of social changes, her reflections on her writing. I guess my favourite thing about it is that I came away with the feeling that she really did share her life and personality with the reader.

I'm so glad you liked it. I'll be starting it today. As the originator of those threads, I really need to start the books sooner in the month!

>199 SylviaC: Uh oh... I tried to cover my eyes, but it was too late.

>199 SylviaC: I read it years ago and enjoyed it. One thing that struck me and stayed with me was how Max Mallowan decided that Agatha Christie could be the one for him. I agree that she was very circumspect about her daughter. I was glad for her daughter's sake that she was. I've read some memoirs and have wondered what family members of the author felt about what was said about them. I do recall that Gerald Durrell ran the books of the Corfu trilogy by his family before publication.

I read Come Tell Me How you Live recently and enjoyed that, although some of the attitudes in the book definitely reflected the times.

I also read The Grand Tour: Around the World With the Queen of Mystery and enjoyed it. It had lots of pictures. The last one made me really angry at Archie Christie, though. I felt that Agatha Christie was so more more adventuresome and open to life before he was done with her.

>200 Morphidae: You'll breeze through it in no time!

>201 clamairy: That'll teach you!

>202 MDGentleReader: I liked that no one was presented in an entirely negative light, even if some of their flaws were portrayed.

I've been trying to find a copy of The Grand Tour. It's been out long enough now that I should be able to get it through inter-library loan. But I don't really want to see more pictures of Archie. I would like to have seen more pictures of Agatha and Max in An Autobiography. After all, they were married for over 45 years.

>203 SylviaC: Wow, they were married that long? He was younger which made for quite the controversy at the time. I guess it still would. Now I wish that there was more wrriten about there marriage, Tell Me How You Live was just a small period of time at the beginning. I have Mallowan's Memoirs on my TBR, there are actually a few copies at Abebooks (just looked). Maybe I'll put it on my wishlist. In the Grand Tour she realizes that one person comes out in a pretty negative light, but she stresses that he is actually quite a good friend and she enjoys his company. I wonder if material that presented his more positive side was edited out? I have a feeling even if it had been, she'd be too tactful to say so. She didn't whitewash, but she was kind to the people she wrote about. I am big on kindness.

Oooh...Max's memoirs! What have you done to me, MDGentleReader?

I told you The Grand Tour: Around the World With The Queen of Mystery was a fun read! It's so nice when one's book bullets finally flower!!

>205 SylviaC: This is where you need to live a whole lot closer. I ordered Mallowan's Memoirs. I was SUPPOSED to be adding it to my Alibris Wish List, I have a birthday coming up in a few months... I'd feel much better if I could loan it to you. As it is, I'd have to pay the cost of the book in postage. There probably is no need for us both to own it.

>206 jillmwo: Aha! You're to blame! You're also responsible for Conundrums for the Long Week-End, which is sitting at the very top of my "Really Must Read Right Away" pile. I would say "Fie upon you!", but since I secretly enjoy the book bullets, I guess 'twould be a trifle unfair.

>207 MDGentleReader: Yeah, that distance thing is such a pain. Shall I start looking for a house near here with lots of room for bookcases for you to move into? You don't mind a bit of a commute, do you?

If I like her autobiography, I'll certainly add The Grand Tour to Mount TBR.

>208 SylviaC: I wasn't snowed in for days at a time this last winter. In fact, I can always walk to a grocery store if I need to and the major roads were open all winter. My county is still 10% farm land, I am sure you could find something down here.

>208 SylviaC: I'm reading Conundrums right now (not right now, you know what I mean). About 40-50 pages in and enjoying it.

I think Conundrums will be my next book, unless my ILL book comes in first.

>210 MDGentleReader: If only they would perfect that teleporter.

>212 SylviaC: My Grandmom was always saying that she wanted to be wafted somewhere. I am pretty sure I read the phrase in a book recently used in just that way. I figure that is where she got the phrase from. Didn't bother to note down the book and of course, forgot.

>208 SylviaC: jillmwo got a twofer on that book bullet for Conumdrums...

I'm nothing, if not efficient in such matters!

>214 Marissa_Doyle: >215 jillmwo:
Accurate, too, judging by the first few pages of Conundrums.

The Chalet School in Exile by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. I was hoping this one would live up to my memories, and it did. With lots of plot, and a huge amount of character development, Exile has more depth than any of the previous books. I was particularly pleased to see Robin developing a personality after so many years of just being a delicate angel-child.

It is really like two books in one, since it breaks sharply between the escape from Austria and the re-opening of the school on Guernsey. I find books written during wartime interesting, because the authors can have no way of knowing what the course of the war will be. (Of course, no one can ever know the future, but the stakes are higher in the midst of a major social upheaval.) For instance, EBD makes a good effort to establish a community and location on Guernsey for Jo and the school, clearly intending to settle in there for the duration. By the time the book was actually published in 1940, however, it must have become evident that Guernsey was not a safe retreat.

I compared the 1967 Armada abridgement with a 1950 Chambers reprint. While there was some major cutting in the middle of the book, the rest of it was much more intact than I expected. The first few chapters have several very minor cuts, which really don't affect the flow of the story, and next to nothing is removed from the final six chapters. The biggest, most glaring cut is the removal of the entire chapter immediately following the escape from Austria. While that chapter is not highly significant to the plot, is is quite significant as far as characters are concerned. Other cuts are:

•various mentions of former students throughout the book;
•a few brief political bits;
•several passages from the picnic near the cave episode;
•commentary on Grizel's personality;
•bits and pieces of the planning meeting for moving the school;
•scattered passages from the escape chapters that would add up to about 9 or 10 pages of text;
•parts of letters from Marie and Miss Stewart;
•a conversation between Jo and Marie;
•various passages of background of the Chester and Lucy families;
•a speech about the Chalet School Peace League;
•a few odds and ends of the opening day of the new school.

Was there any common aspect to the bits that got cut? For example, what types of things did they cut from the planning meeting for moving the school? Is it material that might need explanation because it is dated in tone or obscure in its social detail? What got cut from the escape chapters? Is it politically incorrect "stuff"? And what kind of political bits got eliminated? Is it clear why they might have excised those bits?

I'm wondering about the economics. Did they cut material from the books to bring a particular title down so that the thickness of the book appears uniform with other titles in a series and therefore less intimidating to a reluctant reader? It costs time and money to make cuts to a text because someone actually has to read this material. Where does the balance between saving money in re-printing these book titles come in?

(Please note I know you have no clear way of answering the questions in the above second paragraph, but I am hoping to clarify why greater detail in the nature of the cuts would be useful in thinking about the arcane practices of publishers...)

I've been considering the abridgement process a good bit, and have been drawing some tentative conclusions. Broadly, I would say that they are being edited for length and to tighten the stories up. There is no denying that Elinor M. Brent-Dyer could be repetitive, going back over the same information more than once in a book, and using certain favourite phrases across different books. A lot of bits that get cut are references to characters and events from other books in the series. This is a loss for followers of the series, but make the individual books more stand-alone for readers who only pick up the odd one.

Some cuts and vocabulary changes are made to modernize. The most notable would be references to "delicacy" and medical treatments that would not be relevant to readers in the 1970s and 80s, as well as occasional mention of current events, politics, and brand names. Those last three are rare, though, as only the wartime books are specifically dated. There are also a few cuts that reflect changing social attitudes. Only one of the ones that I've reviewed so far seems to have been edited to appeal to a younger audience.

A couple of books have so many tiny deletions of words and phrases that it looks like an editor was scrambling to meet a word count. Despite that, it doesn't seem like they were striving for a standard size. Many of the final Armada versions run between 150 and 180 pages, but some go well over 200 (all using similar font sizes and margins). Furthermore, a few originals were split up and published as two thin Armada books. And it should be noted that not all the books in the series were abridged. I haven't yet detected any pattern to the selection of books for abridgement.

The quality of abridgement varies from book to book. Despite the large amounts removed from The Chalet School in Exile, it was very well done. I would never have known anything was missing if I hadn't been told. The Head Girl of the Chalet School, however, seems choppy. In the abridged version, it was on of my least favourites, but on reading the original version, it moved up considerably on my list. Since very many of the people who read the series now first got hooked on the Armada versions, the abridgements can't have done too much harm, overall. But it is always nice to know the whole story.

Having spent far too much of my morning composing this considered assessment of the problem of abridgement, I'd better cross-post it in the Chalet School group, where there might be some interested readers.

Conundrums for the Long Week-End by Robert Kuhn McGregor with Ethan Lewis. Well, I've spent a lovely few days immersed in this. The authors combine history, biography, and literary criticism to provide context for The Lord Peter Wimsey novels and map the development of Peter's character. Next time I read the books I will be more aware of current events and social conditions during which they were written. I really enjoyed the analysis of each of the novels, even though they fail to appreciate the wonderfulness of Murder Must Advertise. Very highly recommended to any Wimsey fan. Just make sure you've read the books first, as every novel is reviewed in detail, including who, how, and why.

>219 SylviaC: Excellent discussion and response. Thank you!

The Scarlet Stockings : The Enchanted Riddle by Charlotte Kandel. My daughter wanted me to read this. There were a lot of adjectives.

>220 SylviaC: You got through this faster than I am. I've just finished the lovely section about Peter gaining a soul. Having read the novels out of order, I didn't see the progression that McGregor and Lewis describe, but as I read their book, I find myself saying, oh yeah repeatedly. I'm going to have to re-read them in the proper order and pay more attention to his development.

>223 Jim53: Yes, except for Whose Body and the Harriet books, I was never really aware of the sequence of the books. Some year I'll have to reread them in order, with Conundrums on hand for reference. I really liked the way they tied all all the books together.

I think I was more focused on reading the stretch about Peter and Harriet in proper order (so began with Strong Poison straight through to Busman's Honeymoon) so I picked up on Peter's development once I circled back around to read *all* of the books.

But yes, Conundrums for the Long Weekend did deserve its Agatha award that year. (Sorry, I checked after I posted. It was an Edgar, not an Agatha, that it won...)

>225 jillmwo: I actually read the Harriet books in reverse order. Busman's Honeymoon was the first or second Sayers book I read, and I've always had a soft spot for it, even though I know now that it is not as well executed as many of the others.

I just finished Conundrums, but don't appear to have liked it as much as you. I'll have to go write a review now. After supper. :)

>227 Marissa_Doyle: I'm looking forward to reading your review. Sometimes I get so caught up in the things I like in a book, that I overlook the negatives. Or vice versa. It's always nice to see a different perspective.

Rats, rats, RATS! I thought I was going to make it through today without getting hit by a book bullet. This was the second to last unread thread, but nooooooooooooo, >220 SylviaC: you had to go and ruin that for me.

I'm not sure I'll hunt this down, but it goes on my wishlist. I used to be a member of a Lord Peter/Dorothy L. Sayers fangroup, which read through the whole series every year and discussed each book thoroughly, so I'm really wondering if this book can add anything to my knowledge or understanding of the series. The people in that group, from around the world, were so intelligent, charming and generous with their information. Still, it's always fun to read a book where you can say "Oh yeah," repeatedly. :)

>229 MrsLee: I was thinking of you when I read it, MrsLee!

>229 MrsLee: Karma! I love it.

>231 pgmcc: - :P~~~~~

>230 SylviaC: That makes me feel warm and cozy!

The Chalet School at War by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. This was just a straight read, because I only have the Armada version. The only information I can find says that this one is unabridged. It was less complex than The Chalet School in Exile, and seemed to be aimed at a slightly younger audience. I suspect it was written in a hurry. It was okay, but nothing special.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. My son has been recommending this to me for some time now, and I finally got around to reading it. Tiffany is awesome and the Nac Mac Feegle are hilarious. I have to admire the nerve of an author who would name a character "Not-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-Jock", then use the entire name repeatedly, and not just as a throwaway joke. I'm in the early stages of my Pratchett journey, but I'm eager to keep going.

>234 SylviaC: Yay! Another Tiffany Aching fan! I listened to this one, and piddled myself (not literally) over many parts of it. Pratchett writes some kick-ass female characters, IMHO.

Yup, Tiffany had me from the moment she baited her trap in the first chapter.

The Infinity of Lists by Umberto Eco. For the purpose of this book, a list appears to be any work of visual art or literature that contains multiple items--which covers a lot of ground. The book is gorgeous, and I enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the poetry. I found Eco's commentary rather a slog, and gave up on reading that about halfway through.

The Youngest Science : notes of a medicine-watcher by Lewis Thomas. I expected this to be a collection of essays, like his other books. Instead, it morphed from history of 20th century medicine, to autobiography, to review of his research. Parts of it were very interesting, parts I didn't understand at all. Since it was first published in 1983, the science is dated, and Dr. Thomas' prediction of the end of cancer before the turn of the century has proven to be unduly optimistic. I liked it well enough, but I prefer his essays.

>237 SylviaC: That is one Eco book I have wondered about. Your comments have helped me keep it down the Eco priority list for the moment. Thank you.

>239 pgmcc: The book is gorgeous, and I would probably have appreciated the commentary more if I had a stronger grounding in classics. In my option, he was rather overthinking the concept of lists, but then, that was the whole point of the book.

>240 SylviaC: I think I would appreciate browsing the art, but if he is making too much out of a concept, then I might just leave it for now. I do have about five (i.e. six) other Eco books yet to read: Inventing the Enemy; Mouse or Rat; How to Travel with a Salmon; Faith in Fakes; Confessions of a Young Novelist; This is Not the End of the Book

This was the first of his books I've read, although I've come across him occasionally as a contributor in other books. I tend to confuse him with Alberto Manguel.

Flow : the cultural story of menstruation by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim. Very interesting. The influences of the feminine hygiene and drug industries are frustrating, but we wouldn't want to do without their products, either. My only complaint about the book is that the tone is excessively breezy at times.

>243 SylviaC: Does this mean that it won't surprise you to learn that there's an online Museum of Menstruation? http://www.mum.org/ I ran across it once in the course of some research. I think "horrified fascination" would be an apt phrase for my reaction.

>244 Meredy: They mentioned that in the book, so naturally I had to look it up. My main reaction was to wonder just how much time that guy has dedicated to his collection and research.

Oh, it's just too early in the morning for that...

The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski. I like books and bookcases, and I'm interested in the evolution of everyday items, so I really liked this book. Anyone who doesn't share those interests would undoubtedly find it tedious. Petroski does get a bit repetitive at times, and I think it would have been a slog to read the whole thing at once. I noticed in the reviews that several people objected to his personal anecdotes, but they were actually one of my favourite aspects of the book. The writing is easy to understand, with light touches of humour (and one excruciating pun). I particularly enjoyed the last chapter, "The Care of Books", which was really more about how people interact with their books and collections, and the appendix on ways of ordering the books on your shelves.

>244 Meredy: That reminds me of a story I heard about a man somewhere who has a collection of Ladies Tresses in his basement. In the thousands. I think the story said something like, "He loves women's hair, and if a woman visits and gives him a lock of her hair she can have a free tour." CREEEEEEEPPPPYYYY!!!!! I think I would rather visit a snake zoo. Ugh. Both ideas send shudders down my spine.

I'll admit to taking an interest in the physical and social aspects of some basic bodily functions. I often wonder when reading why the characters never seem to be inconvenienced by having their periods, or the need to go to the bathroom. A Museum of Menstruation is something that I can appreciate. But a Museum of Menstruation that is based in some guy's basement seems to cross the line to creepiness. Like MrsLee's tress man.

>249 SylviaC: I've wondered the same thing for a long time. I think I even asked my mother about it when I was a kid. One of the things I liked about The Clan of the Cave Bear was that Ayla had to deal with her period while alone and fending for herself, including doing her own hunting.

If I suddenly got trapped in an elevator, taken hostage, stuck on a stalled train, or forced to take cover from terrorists, I just know it wouldn't happen when I'd just had a bathroom break.

I've also wondered why a principal character never has to deal with a brutal cold. I just don't see how anyone could perform heroics while sneezing and blowing and dealing with clogged sinuses and feeling like you're going to die of it. Sure, a reader isn't going to enjoy a book-length description of virus miseries, but you never even see anyone drop out of the action with a cold or have it delay things. Characters in books (and movies) get all kinds of dramatic and socially acceptable illnesses, but not an ordinary bout of flu or a beast of a sinus infection.

>250 Meredy: Or a nasty rash.

Five Windows by D. E. Stevenson. I was delighted to finally get this one through interlibrary loan. I don't know why it wasn't reprinted more over the years, as it is very good. It follows the life of a young man from the ages of 9-25, as he grows up in Scotland, then moves to London. David is a delightful character, with a positive outlook on life. I thought that the romance aspect could have been dealt with a little better, but everything else was excellent.

>252 SylviaC: David is such a wonderful character. Yes, the romance had multiple issues... I really, really want this to be reprinted. I am delighted that I snagged a copy, it is not easy to find. I would've have like to have known David, but I feel that way about many of DES's characters. Maybe not Freda or Elsie, though :-).

>250 Meredy:, >251 SylviaC: I've read a couple lately about main characters having colds. It was unusual when I read it and played for humor, but it was there. Perhaps Gail Carriger?

>253 MDGentleReader: I felt sorry for the girls' mother. Think of her having to spend her life being beaten down by her husband and daughters. It was so nice to meet Nell and Barbie, prior to their own story.

Yes, I keep meaning re-read their story in conjunction with Five Windows, but haven't done so yet. The Tall Stranger annoys me a bit...

The TS is one of my middling ones. I don't think DES put much effort into it. Just a spin-off of Five Windows. Which bits annoy you?

>250 Meredy: I've just been listening to The Good Thief's Guide To Berlin by Chris Ewan in which the main character's allergy to cats interferes with his current 'job' and puts him at risk. Not quite colds and bathroom breaks, but certainly as an allergy sufferer, I can sympathise with the difficulties they can cause and to see it used here was amusing.

Not quite a cold, but in The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, a surgery and hospital stay is effectively used as a barrier to the detective, and forces him into other speculations. Seems like this strategy might be employed more in mysteries than other fiction, as it could be one of the hurdles the detective must overcome.

>258 MrsLee: But at least he was injured in the line of duty. If he was in the hospital having his hernia repaired, how much sympathy would he have got?

In that instance, @MrsLee, Tey positions the wonderful Alan Grant as being in the tradition of the Great Detective -- similar to Baroness Orkzy's Old Man in the Corner. A detective who never leaves his "place" but who manages to solve the mystery if provided with all the facts.

Still, @Meredy's point is valid. Grant still has full use of his brain (even if he isn't sufficiently mobile to be able to get out of bed). Someone with a real sinus infection might be incapable of thinking. He or she is too miserable to be bored, lying in bed. You can't lift your head off of the pillow.

Not entirely fiction, but at one point in In Search of England, Morton is confined to bed with a strep throat, which limits his exploration of Norfolk.

>261 hfglen: I think that sort of detail adds a humanizing effect. While I wouldn't want an author to whine for pages on end about his strep throat, or bring it up every chapter, it is nice to know that the author (or character, in fiction) is subject to the same inconveniences as the rest of us. That was one of the things that I liked about Agatha Christie's autobiography. She told us about morning sickness, bedbug bites, and the inconvenience of using the toilet.

>262 SylviaC: Mercifully he didn't whine on. That scene occupied half a page.

No Time For Romance by Lucilla Andrews. Lucilla Andrews is one of my top 10 favourite authors. She wrote several hospital romances, many of them set during World War II. This is her autobiography, written in 1976, but focussing on her wartime nursing experiences. Apparently, Ian MacEwan bases some of Atonement (which I haven't read) on No Time For Romance. With the exception of one chapter about her childhood, the book only covers her nursing years, ending abruptly in 1952 when she quit nursing to write full-time. I found it very interesting that this book was based on notes that she had been making throughout the war. It was fun to see that many of the events that she used in her books were based on her own experiences. She doesn't sugar-coat anything about her job—there's blood and grime and cockroaches, long hours and little pay. The one thing that she isn't straightforward about is the nature of her husband's mysterious illness. I only know from reading her obituaries online that it was very serious drug addiction, leading to his long term hospitalization shortly after the birth of their daughter. Her own love life was very different from that of a romance heroine.

The Scarlet Plague by Jack London. Not really special, except from a historical perspective. Written in 1912, set in 2073, looking back to 2013. The last remaining survivor of a virulent worldwide plague tells his savage grandsons the story of the plague and the loss of his civilization. It's always interesting to see how authors of the past imagined the future.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham. Audio. I'm glad that Audible has such a generous return policy. Maybe I would have appreciated more in print, but I found my mind wandering a lot, even though the narrator was good. I'm always skeptical of any book that claims that one single event or trait is what "made us human". I think that is an over-simplification of the evolutionary process. The author did make some very good points, and cited a plethora of research. I decided I'd had enough, though, about two thirds of the way through, when he got onto the development of division of labour according to sex.

The Charles Addams Mother Goose. I'm so happy I found this. I've been looking for it for years, and it has entirely lived up to my expectations. I'll never think of nursery rhymes the same way again. The standard text of nursery rhymes is accompanied by full-blown Addams creepiness. My favourite is "There was an old woman, Lived under a hill, And if she isn't gone, She lives there still." The full-colour, double-page illustration shows a happy little old lady in a rocking chair, knitting her cat a sweater. There is tea brewing on her potbellied stove. Nice and cozy, right? Except that her home under the hill happens to be a bomb shelter, and off in the background we see the decaying ruins of civilization. On some pages the creepiness is obvious, like the humongous, grinning spider frightening Miss Muffet. On others, you have to look at it for a moment before you realize what's wrong: What have Jack Sprat and his wife been eating?!? Then sometimes nothing is actually wrong with the picture--it's just kind of...off.

>267 SylviaC:
Didn't know this existed, but it is on my wish list now.

>267 SylviaC: Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun. Onto Mount TBR it goes!

Of course we know from Jasper Fforde that Jack's wife died of cholesterol poisoning...

>266 SylviaC:, I tried to read Catching Fire and couldn't get much past chapter three even though I usually love this kind of book. The writing was so strained and opaque that it made what should have been fascinating...well, not.

>271 Marissa_Doyle: Yes, the author would make his point, and then bludgeon us to death with it. I'm rather surprised that the ratings and reviews on LT are so positive.

>266 SylviaC: >271 Marissa_Doyle: Well that's just too bad. It sounds wonderful... other than the fact it stinks. LOL

>373 You can't have everything.

>266 SylviaC: & >271 Marissa_Doyle: thanks for finding out and saving the rest of us from it. It is exactly the kind of book I would read. Next time we need to work it out so that only ONE person suffers :-). You both get a pass for the next one.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Primary Phase. Radio play from Audible. Lots of fun, of course.

From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City : a historical geography of Greater Sudbury by Oiva W. Saarinen. We went to Sudbury, Ontario for our extremely brief annual vacation this spring, to take the kids to Science North and Dynamic Earth. We enjoyed our visit, and I was left curious about why and how this northern city was built on such rocky terrain. This book provided me with the why, but very little of the how. While far from light reading, it was never difficult, although I'll admit that I did skip the chapter on labour unrest, and skimmed some of the politics. The author presented a fairly objective overview of the city's geology, history, economy, and ecology for most of the book, saving his own opinions and recommendations for his summary in the final chapter. So now I know far more than I ever expected to know, about a city that I will probably never visit again.

I'm more curious about Science North and Dynamic Earth than the book.

Science North is a fairly standard science centre, with a focus on Northern Ontario.
These are some interior shots of Science North:




This is my son in a gyroscope:


Dynamic Earth is a branch of Science North, but focused more on mining and geology, and includes an underground mine tour. It is not a working mine, but one created for the tour. If there's one thing they're good at in Sudbury, it's blasting holes in rock.
This is Sudbury's most famous landmark, the Big Nickel, outside Dynamic Earth:


We're glad we went, despite the six-hour drive, and I loved seeing the very different terrain up there. We aren't about to make the trip again any time soon, though.

Looks like great fun, but not something that needs to be visited regularly anyway.

I've finished my comparison read of the Chambers and Armada versions of The Highland Twins at the Chalet School. This is another wartime entry in the series, originally published in 1942. It is one of the stronger books in the series, especially in the original version. The plot is distinctly war-related, and at times requires a firm suspension of disbelief.

In my earlier comparisons, I made lists of the most notable deletions in the abridgement. It is not possible for me to do that this time, because the deletions are so extensive that I just wouldn't know where to start. A rough calculation shows that about 40% of the text has been removed. The copyright page of my Armada edition doesn't give any indication at all that the text is not complete. The deletions run the gamut from single words, sentences, and paragraphs, to pages and entire chapters. A subplot concerning an important character from some previous books was completely removed, as well as big chunks of the main plot. Events and characters too numerous to list are missing.

There is, however, one significant improvement in the Armada version. The speech of the main characters is spelled normally, instead of in a horrible rendition of a Scottish accent. The Chambers version is full of such lines as: "I haf nefer peen so tired in my life pefore" and the startling "And you were nearly ass bad ass me, Robin." It is painful to read.

I would recommend that anyone who can find a Chambers or Girls Gone By version of this one read it instead of the Armada. Unfortunately, they are very hard to find at any sort of reasonable price. And, of course, you will have to put up with that accent.

How many books are in that series? Seems like you've been reading them forever!

Oh, I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the "Scottish" dialect almost unbearable in Highland twins! Such a pity as it really is one of the best in the series.

>282 Morphidae: Morphy, there were 58 books originally, but a few were split into 2 volumes in paperback. The later books follow the children of some of the original characters.

>282 Morphidae: & 283: Yup, there are a lot of books, 62 by Armada numbering, and that was only #18. I'm spreading them out a bit to avoid overload.

>283 Sakerfalcon: And it isn't even real dialect (which would also be bad), because she isn't using Scottish phrases or expressions, just changing letters. They sound like they have speech impediments.

Hmm. I found the "dialect" a little annoying in the Armada version of The Highland Twins and the Chalet School. I can't even imagine what the unabridged version was like...

>285 MDGentleReader: It's in a whole different league of annoyance. As Sakerfalcon said, it's a pity, because it is such a good book.

Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute. I first read this as a teenager, and remembered nothing about it. I do recall that I liked it, but I probably wasn't old enough to fully appreciate it. It is about a quiet, humble man, content in his life, who finds himself in circumstances far outside of his experience. He has carved out a niche for himself in the world of miniature engineering hobbyists, and earns the respect of several men who go out of their ways to help him accomplish his mission. It is a quiet book, full of engineering detail, which seems like it might make it dull, but actually adds to the tone of the book and to Keith's character. I loved Keith, who just did what he decided had to be done, and couldn't understand why people were so willing to help him. This is a book full of kindness.

The Best of H.T. Webster: a memorial collection. Cartoons by the creator of Caspar Milquetoast.

Penelope's English Experiences by Kate Douglas Wiggin. A delightful froth of a book. It takes the form of a commonplace book, and much of it is quite silly, in a good way. There are three other books in the series, and they are all available as free public domain e-books.

>289 SylviaC: How does Penelope compare with, for example, In Search of England and Clarissa's England?

Well, reading about it here and quickly bringing it up on Project Gutenberg has convinced me that Penelope's English Experiences will likely be a soothing and charming read. What are the other titles in the series, @SyviaC ?

>290 hfglen: Nothing at all like those. Penelope is fiction, and sheer frivolity at that. Her experiences don't even involve much travel—at least not in this episode.

>291 jillmwo: I actually thought of you when I was reading it, Jill. The other titles are Penelope's Experiences in Scotland (which was also published as Penelope's Progress), Penelope's Irish Experiences, and Penelope's Postscripts. My impression so far is that they are probably best read in order.

>292 SylviaC: Ah. But if it's on Project Gutenberg I may yet try it. Thank you.

>287 SylviaC:. I think it's been decades since I read Trustee from the Toolroom, but I remember it fondly and it is on my list to acquire. I have an engineering degree and have engineering ancestors on both sides, so it is sometimes hard for me to recommend a book like this. I know that I am quite comfortable reading about engineering details, while other folks might find it extremely dull. As you say, the engineering details are key to understanding Keith. What a lovely man.

* reserved it via ILL *

>289 SylviaC:, downloaded the series to Kindle and iPad. I need a little more frivolty in my life right now.

>288 SylviaC: How was it?

>294 MDGentleReader: Trustee From the Toolroom certainly helps promote positive feelings about human nature.

I think you would probably enjoy Penelope.

The Best of H.T. Webster was good, especially the Milquetoast cartoons and the "Thrill that Comes Once in a Lifetime" ones. Some were too dated for me to fully appreciate, and there were a lot of bridge (as in cards—not spans) ones that were meaningless to me. I enjoyed it, but don't feel the need to keep it in my collection.

>289 SylviaC: Thank you for mentioning Penelope! I saw someone mention the books a while back and meant to get them but forgot. Onto my kindle they go!

What's Penelope about?

>297 Morphidae:
The Penelope books were written between 1893 and 1915. They are supposed to be the notes that Penelope makes about her travels with her two friends, Salemina and Francesca. They are quite humorous, almost farcical at times, with a strong sense of the time and place, and some fairly low-key romance. One chapter is about how they like to tour London on double-decker buses, their route selection based on the prominent advertisements (like Lipton Tea or Pears Soap) on the sides of the buses. They seem to move in fairly elite social circles, but Penelope's observations include characters from all walks of life. The writing style feels surprisingly modern. They are just fun, with no lessons to be learned, except maybe some history in the later books.

Penelope's Experiences in Scotland by Kate Douglas Wiggin. The second Penelope book. I would say that it is certainly preferable to read them in order. Like the first book, half of this one takes place in the city, and half in the country. The Edinburgh section is a little too heavy on Scottish theology, but other than that, the book has the same light, pleasant touch as the first.

edit: This one reads more like a (fictional) travelogue than the first.

Sigh. Right between the eyes with Penelope. And it's a series, yet. Too cruel.

Penelope's Irish Experiences by Kate Douglas Wiggin. "We are behaving precisely like characters in fiction, who, having been popular in the first volume, are exploited again and again until their popularity wanes." Er, yes. The section of chapter one that contains that sentence is one of my favourite parts of the book. The second two books are wordier and more rhapsodic than the first, containing more folklore and history and less of Penelope and her friends. While there is some sympathy shown for the poverty of the ordinary people of Ireland, they are fairly often shown in a negative light. Despite this, in all of the books Wiggin is at her best in the chapters when she goes around a village, describing each of the neighbours.

Penelope's Postscripts. This is a collection of short accounts of Penelope's travels, all but the last taking place prior to her English Experiences. They feel like they were written around the time of that first book. The last story takes place ten years after the rest of the series, and is basically a "Where are they now?" Although this book was more disjointed, I was glad to see a return of the humour that I enjoyed so much in the first book. I'm led to suspect that Wiggin's sense of humour started to deteriorate in middle age. Or possibly she was just too tied up with writing Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

I'm still interested enough in these books that I've downloaded A Cathedral Courtship, which was originally published with Penelope's English Experiences, and whose main characters are revisited in Penelope's Postscripts.

Listening Valley by D. E. Stevenson. This is the 46th D. E. Stevenson book that I've read. It was very good, and I wish I'd found it years ago. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending, as I felt there was one issue in particular that should have been resolved. Most of the characters were very likeable, except for the unpleasant ones, who were very unpleasant.

But the jacket flap! It had one of the worst blurbs I've ever read. Not because it was misleading—oh, no, it certainly wasn't misleading. It told exactly what was going to happen. Beginning, middle, and end. It was all there. Why on earth would they do that? grumble, grumble, grumble

>302 SylviaC: I've had the same complaint about a number of jacket blurbs recently. It's only recently that I've seen this. Jacket blurbs used to just be a teaser that gave you an idea of the main story line or premise along with genre so you could decide if you were interested; they didn't expose plot point after plot point. I can't imagine why they do it either.

>303 Meredy: My edition of this book was from 1973 (originally published in 1944), so not very recent. But if it is becoming a recent trend, it's a bad one!

>303 Meredy: >304 SylviaC:
It seems to me that trailers have picked up on this bad habit too. I want to be teased and tempted into watching a film or tv series - not told what's going to happen - or told everything except the last 10-20 minutes (which you can often guess from the rest). I'm equally annoyed by the 'Next time, on BLAH' tv teasers - no, no, don't show me the exciting bits of next week's show. I want to be excited by it at the time. With context and everything. Tch.

Ahem, sorry. Bit of a rant there.

>305 imyril: By the time you see five or six different ads for the same movie, there isn't really any need to actually go and see the movie.

>306 SylviaC: so true :)

Which is why I don't read jacket flaps, introductions or movie blurbs until after I've read/seen the story. :) They cannot be trusted.

Making it harder to choose well, of course.

But the purveyors don't, after all, really care if we like a thing. They only care if we buy it.

At least here on LT we have the decency (usually) to give spoiler alerts.

>298 SylviaC: Add me to the masses jumping on the Penelope train. They look like fun. I have to move the first one up the queue, though. Seems like a perfect Summer read.

I'm starting to feel the weight of responsibility for this Penelope thing! I'm just waiting for the mob to come after me for recommending that bit of fluff. At least it's free.

Where's my pitchfork?

Gotta find me first! :p

>304 SylviaC: I've always thought the blurbs for some of the Chalet School and other school stories from that era are really more of a plot summary than a teaser. Some of those I've seen definitely take any suspense out of the story!

I have no room to complain about book blurbs, spoilers, etc. I am an unashamed read last chapter first person.

>315 Morphidae: I've been known to peek at the last page of romances to make sure I'm cheering for the right guy. And sometimes when I can't get into a book, I'll skip ahead to see if I like where it's going. If I do, then I'll go back and fill in the blanks. But I don't want all the plot points dumped on me unexpectedly.

And I'll repeat here, Morphy: Do NOT read the end of The Westing Game before you read the rest of the book!

Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach. Audio. This is the first book I've read by Mary Roach, and I do intend to read others. I liked her breezy tone and humour, but not her frequent descriptions of the people she interviews. Note to science authors: I don't care what a researcher wears. (Sorry. That has become a pet peeve of mine.) It seemed like she spent more time on the "output" than on the "input", although this impression may just have been a result of listening to it over a period of several weeks. At any rate it certainly seemed like we spent a lot of time in the colon. The book was fun and interesting, and sheds some light on a subject that we don't tend to talk about. It also gets pretty gross in places.

>317 SylviaC: Ahh, Mary Roach is one of my favorite non-fiction authors. You must read (or listen to) Packing for Mars!

>318 clamairy: I have Stiff waiting on my TBR shelf. I'll have to get Packing for Mars. And after reading Gulp, I rather think I would like to read Bonk.

>317 SylviaC: - You and I must shop at the same store. ;) I bought that at Audible when it was on special and I'm looking forward to the read.

I just finished Packing for Mars and am looking forward to Gulp. Roach is hilarious, and I love how she's not afraid to poke fun at herself. Stiff was great as well. I wasn't sure about getting Spook or Bonk, but at this point I'll read anything by Roach.

One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw by Witold Rybczynski. Disappointing. While there was some interesting information, there wasn't enough to fill a book. The first half of it was about how he did his research. The second half was more informative, but ended abruptly.

My teenage son had some suggestions for what he considered better titles, but I won't repeat them.

>322 SylviaC: Imagination supplies a good laugh based on a fairly obvious double entendre, for which many thanks to your son. Pity about the book, though. I could imagine a good story waiting to be told properly hiding in there.

>323 hfglen: Nothing like having a teenager around to keep your perspective fresh!

>316 SylviaC: *grumbles*

>317 SylviaC: Most of her books are graphic and/or gross. I enjoy them because of that rather than despite that.

Yes, Spook and Stiff were also great fun. Bonk is still waiting on a shelf somewhere. Her sense of humor and writing style are sort of Bill Brysonesque, but with a hint of something else I can't put my finger on.

>326 clamairy: An appetite for the repugnant, perhaps? I haven't read her yet (working up to it), but she sounds like she takes a certain perverse delight in handling and dispensing the gross, like the nine-year-old who puts a slug down the back of your clothes.

I think she just has a hugely curious mind, and is not embarrassed or shy to ask the questions others are hesitant to ask. And I've very glad she does!

>328 sandragon: As am I.

>327 Meredy: I don't find her writing gross at all. Graphic, yes. Also fascinating.

But there was definitely an element of sensationalism in the section about Elvis' colon.

>330 SylviaC: Ah, yes. I think about that chapter often, sadly.

Since it is so close to the end of the book, it tends to stay with you.

Well, I think poop, vomit and dead body talk is gross. Fascinating, but gross.

On that high note, I have continued this thread at the link below.