Before we go back and get caught up on a few books read earlier this year, I thought we’d cover the one I finished yesterday:

The Painted Garden: A Story of a Holiday in Hollywood, by Noel Streatfeild

From the jacket: “Most children, you might think, would look forward to a holiday in California. But at first he Winter family didn’t want to go at all. For Rachel it meant giving up her first real job as a dancer; for Tim it meant missing the chance of being taught the piano by the great Jeremy Caulder; and for Jane, the middle one, the difficult one who didn’t shine at anything in particular, it was worst of all — she had to leave her dog, Chewing-gum, behind. Yet they couldn’t make a fuss, for their father had been ill and needed to convalesce in the sunshine. When they arrived so many exciting things happened they forgot their black moods of disappointment. Rachel met Posy Fossil, now a famous ballerina, and her sister Pauline; Tim found a piano; and Jane, who behaved rather badly because she was missing Chewing-gum so much, had the biggest adventure of all…”

My take: Better known as Movie Shoes, this story follows the three Winter children from their London home to the shores of Santa Monica in order for their father to recuperate from a nervous breakdown in the warm climate of his sister’s home. Like in Ballet Shoes (a favorite of mine as a girl), the youngest and the eldest children hold the recognizable talent and looks in the family and the middle child is prickly and difficult.

The story opens with Tim, Jane, and Rachel eavesdropping on the doctor’s conversation with their mother, trying desperately to learn if their father will ever recover from the shock of accidentally killing a child who runs in front of his car. The doctor’s advice of sending him to a sunny climate for the winter holds little hope, but a letter is sent to the children’s aunt, who has lived in California for many years. A positive response from her — inviting the whole family to visit — and a surprise inheritance for their mother’s friend and the children’s nanny to fund the trip set the stage for an international adventure.

First there’s travel — on trains and an ocean liner; then there are the cultural differences. And then when they reach California, they find their aunt is unbearable, prone to taking to bed with nerves and sick headaches, and unwilling to share much beyond room and board (which the adults agree is still terribly generous of her). Plus, she seems to stand in the way — intentionally or otherwise — of what each child wants most out of the California trip: for Rachel, a chance to meet with the famed Posy Fossil and to take dance lessons; for Jane, a friendly dog to hang out with; and for Tim, a piano upon which to practice.

Luckily, what the children seem to learn in America is that generally its inhabitants are friendly and inclined to help you out. Posy tracks Rachel down, gets her an audition, and takes her under her wing; Aunt Cora’s cook, Bella, helps Tim track down a piano upon which to practice and generally counsels him to keep a positive outlook on things; and Jane encounters a sympathetic dog owner who also happens to be a director about to film The Secret Garden, but whose star suddenly became unavailable. The family’s six months in the U.S. offers up wild adventures — but will these be enough in the end to keep them on this side of the Atlantic?

[A couple notes:

• One, I bought my copy second-hand, and all but the first page of Chapter 16 is missing.
• Two, I believe I own this book back at my folks’ as Movie Shoes but was lured into buying it again because of the title difference. (For what it’s worth, Movie Shoes is the later, American title.) It was totally the mention of the return of the Fossil sisters that grabbed me and made me buy it.
• Three, in looking into the title question, I have learned that this is a revised and abridged version of the book. I had been surprised by how casually they worked food parcels into the story. Had I not read/watched 84, Charing Cross Road, I certainly wouldn’t have realized how long food shortages and rationing went on in England and recognized the reference. Apparently some of the other things they cut referred to similar bits of British post-World War II restrictions.

Although the book wasn’t nearly as good as I remember it being, nor as good as Ballet Shoes remains, it was still an enjoyable read. I’d recommend it to those who an enjoy a Pollyanna-type ending to their stories.

Pages: 303 (although I missed five of them…)

I’m terrible about writing book reviews. I love having written them, love being able to refer back to them later. But I tend to procrastinate on producing them, with draft posts languishing in my blog’s back end or at GoodReads and books piling up around the apartment, awaiting my having what I deem is the time to write them. So let’s see if I can stand against the tide and make a change in that regard. Let’s start with the book I finished tonight Wednesday, shall we?

The Sorceress, by Michael Scott

From the jacket: “… Sophie and Josh Newman show every sign of being the twins of legend, and Flamel had to protect them and the pages [of the book of Abraham the Mage] from the Dark Elders. But Nicholas grows weaker with each passing day. Perenelle is still trapped on Alcatraz, and now that Scatty has gone missing, the group is without protection. … If he hopes to defeat Dee, Nicholas must find someone who can teach Josh and Sophie the third elemental magic — Water Magic. The problem? The only being who can do that is Gilgamesh, and he is quite, quite insane.”

My take: Amongst the reviews that aren’t finished are Michael Scott’s first two books in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series, which I read hungrily last summer. (The Alchemyst, the first book in the series, is featured on my also unpublished Best of 2009 list.) I then picked this book up at a used bookshop shortly after it was released, started it, got interrupted in some way, and neglected to come back to it.

But Grey Kitten and I were talking about the first book and how the fourth book was due out this week, and I thought I’d better pick this up again. I’m glad I did.

Quickly, the premise of the series: Immortals Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel (who are also referred to in the first Harry Potter book) own a bookshop in modern-day San Francisco. Teenager Josh Newman works for them and his twin sister Sophie works at the coffee shop across the street. One day a limo pulls up, Elizabethan magician and political advisor John Dee steps out, and all hell breaks loose. Perenelle and a rare and valuable book are captured, and Nicholas and the two kids (and a yoga instructor) are suddenly on the run with creatures out of mythology, lore, and fairy tales hot on their trail. The first two books travel from California to Mexico and on to Paris as the twins discover they may have magical powers, a crew of “gods” want to return to earth and destroy humanity, and their existence has been foretold as the one thing that might prevent this. This third novel picks up the trio’s adventure five days later as they get off the train in London.

(This novel, as the others before it, is told in the third person, but from rotating perspectives — Josh, Sophie, Nicholas, Perenelle, John Dee, Machiavelli, and Billy the Kid. It’s an effective device that permits the story to operate in multiple spheres simultaneously.)

With the twins still reeling from battling Dee and Macchiavelli in Paris, Josh’s newly awakened powers still overwhelming all his senses, and Nicholas’ powers dwindling by the moment, what the trio needs most upon arriving in London is to avoid detection by Dee’s web of spies and get some rest before they find Gilgamesh, who Nicholas hopes will teach them how to control the element of water. Alas, the undead are waiting for them in the station and every evil magical creature in England seems to be headed their way. Luckily, they are rescued by cab driver and Saracen Knight, Palamedes, who takes them back to his junk yard fortress.

At the same time, Perenelle has escaped the Sphinx (at least temporarily) and regained some of her powers. Yet, although she has befriended a Spanish ghost and allied with the Old Spider, she is still stuck at Alcatraz, unable to reach land safely. It is only a matter of time before the Dark Elders send someone else with strong magic to deal with her on a permanent basis. She has to figure out a way to escape The Rock — and soon.

Back in London, Nicholas and the twins accidentally alert Dee, who has been sent an old and dangerous weapon to help him capture Sophie and Josh, to their whereabouts, wreaking havoc on the peaceful life Palamedes, William Shakespeare, and the Gabriel Hounds had eked out for themselves.

How the story unfolds makes for a page-turning tale with a twist at the end so clever it left my head reeling. I can’t wait to read the next installment.

Pages: 502

This is one of the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

There is still plenty of time to book your tickets to come to D.C., where we’ll be hosting the 10th annual National Book Festival on Saturday, Sept. 25.

Authors are still being added, but include Martha Grimes, Jane Smiley, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, Jules Feiffer, and Katherine Paterson.

I can’t wait!

At last! A post!

This week’s Booking through Thursday asks:

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

I just finished The Sorceress tonight, so I am shockingly without any book in progress at the moment. I have no idea what I’ll read next — possibly another fantasy story for the Once upon a Time challenge or maybe something nonfiction for the Nonfiction 5 Summer Challenge. Or one of those top kids’ books I’ve missed out on.

Next to my bed are a rather dusty pile of books:

• L. Frank Baum’s Queen Nixi of Ix (a fairy tale finished last week and awaiting a review)
• The Hobbit (read)
• Love, Rosie (put down part-way through over the winter)
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (re-read at Christmas)
• Revisions Of (unread)
• Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three (read)
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard (unread)
• The Olive Farm (unread non-fiction)
• A Moveable Feast (unread)

Elsewhere in the house are similar commingled piles of read and unread tomes, waiting for me to sort them out.

How about you? What are you reading?

This list of Top 100 Children’s Books from the School Library Journal offers plenty of inspiration for summer reading. Bolded are the ones I’ve already read:
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Surprise, surprise, it was not all reading all the time here at the Burrow this weekend.

This morning Rudi and I headed to the market where there were carrots, nettles, asparagus, and ramps to be had, amongst other things. We used every dollar we took with us, down to the last one that I used to buy a single yellow tulip to cheer our kitchen. It looks great atop the fridge nestled next to (but not in the same container as) the asparagus.

We spent midday up in Columbia Heights where Sarah was kind enough to invite us to celebrate her birthday with brunch and some hanging out. Everyone agreed that the food was quite tasty even if our waitress seemed a bit … distracted.

We came back home where I laid down for a teeny before we headed to the garden to dig. We weeded our plot, turned over the soil, envisioned where our square-foot garden sections might go, improved the soil, and planted cabbage babies, which despite sitting in my gardening bag for a week, did not seem to be too worse for the wear.

It’s been a quiet night at home since then with lentils and ice cream (although not together; that would be gross), Chuck and Bones (we’re still a week behind on the latter), and knitting. Shortly, we’ll be taking some ibuprofen (hoeing is hard on the back) and heading to bed.

Seems like a nice way to finish a weekend to me…

What did you get up to this weekend?

A few final thoughts on Saturday’s readathon:

After writing the last book review and leaving a few encouraging comments for fellow participants, I did take my book to bed to try to read there, but decided within minutes that it’s hard to read through closed eyelids. I turned off my book light and went to bed — probably sometime around 4 — and didn’t wake up again until after the 24 hours had concluded.

In the end I completed three books and the first three chapters of a fourth book for a total of 1,072 pages. I probably only read for 12 of the 24 hours, but it did prove that I would not like to read all the time, despite what I always thought as a kid.