sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

March 1, 2006


into the stacks
posted by soe 10:57 pm

February was a quiet book-buying month, coming on the heels as it did of the heavy book acquisitions of January (and frankly, the month was filled with Winter and Knitting Olympics — who has time to hit the bookstores properly?). In fact, the only book that came to me was a birthday present from Rudi:

The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde

From the book jacket: “Meet Detective Jack Spratt, family man and head of the Nursery Crimes Division, long suffering under the shadow of the flashy Detective Friedland Chymes with his astonishing number of published cases in Amazing Crime Stories. Spratt is fresh from a spectacular failure to see convicted three wily pigs for the murder of a certain wolf. the media and tide of public opinion are set squarely against him. Now, new trouble is brewing.”
Why this book? Because Rudi knows how much I loved Fforde’s earlier books, the Thursday Next series. Because Rudi and I have both met Fforde. Because Fforde got some of his inspiration for the aforementioned series from a Monty Python skit. Because Fforde is cleverer than almost anyone else out there but not so clever that you groan at his jokes or hate him for flaunting it.

But lest you think I neglected my reading for tv or knitting too much, I am pleased to report on where my bookmarks have been stuck in over the last two months (in no particular order):

  • Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes
  • My take: This was an incredible book. I was piqued by it when it started raking in critical reviews in England and lucked into a copy at the D.C. Public Library the day it was released in the States. The concept is a strong one — the real-life story of a lawyer in England appeals to Sherlock Holmes’ creator to help clear his name when he is wrongly convicted of a hideous crime and a libelous letter-writing campaign. The letters and essays Barnes included were the actual ones written by the players involved and Barnes fills in the backstory inventively and realistically. The characters are gently treated, with both main and secondary characters filled in roundly and realistically. And the vocabulary periodically encouraged even this wordsmith to pick up her dictionary, which is always a treat. (This book will likely make my top ten of the year.)

  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis
  • My take: I’d been wanting to re-read this series for a while, but had been putting it off until after the movie came out. I’d learned from the Harry Potter series that movies rarely compare as favorably to their book counterpart when read just before seeing the film. In this instance, there is the possibility that I may have worried in vain. The movie did seem to be a faithful interpretation of the book. In fact, I was surprised by the battle scene in the book when I re-read it because it’s actually nearly non-existant, most of it happening off-screen while Aslan tromps around the countryside with the girls.
    I have a fond place in my heart for TLtWatW because I remember being in elementary school when a public librarian came to read it as a teaser to the idea of getting a library card.

    I enjoyed it so much I went on to read a good part of the rest of the series, including Prince Caspian (I found a piece of paper in it that makes me know I read it), but I really don’t have the vaguest recollection of it. As with many fantasy series, PC was good, but not nearly as good as the original.

  • Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • My take: More re-reads from my childhood. I find the Little House books an interesting look back at farming/settlers in the plain states and always learn little nuggets, whether about farming or buggies, from reading her books.

  • The Sunday Philosophy Club, by Alexander McCall Smith
  • My take: I enjoyed this book much more than his first book. I don’t know if it’s because I found the setting more familiar (Scotland vs. Zimbabwe) or whether the crimes were less horrific or whether it was just a better book. But it worked for me, which was nice to discover.

  • Bowery Girl, by Kim Taylor (due out April 6)
  • My take: A nice historical novel set in New York City at the advent of the settlement house era.

  • The Wizard, The Witch & Two Girls from Jersey, by Lisa Papademetriou (due out in May)
  • My take: A sweet fantasy story about two teenage girls (one a Latina nerd, the other a popular blonde) who accidentally get sucked into a book assigned for a high school essay. The concept is strong, but the delivery lacked a little (one of the races that populates the fantasy world are Kiblar elves who, you guessed it, are noted for baking fantastic cookies in trees). The author was clearly well versed in the fantasy genre and works, with her enthusiasm for certain authors and books coming through via her protagonist.

  • The Safe-Keeper’s Secret, by Sharon Shinn
  • My take: You know you’re a big geek when you get on mass transit with a former coworker, sit down across the aisle from her, and then spend most of the 45-minute-ride in tears as you come to the sad portion of the novel. Unfortunately, this former colleague probably thought I was in need of strong medication. Fortunately, she is a former colleague and not a current one, so I don’t care if she does think that.

    Luckily, the sad part of the book comes in the middle — and the characters, two children raised by a single-mother Keeper of Secrets, face it as a normal part of life and go on to grow up into lovely people. I believe this will be the first in a series, and I’m looking forward to continuing on with these characters in their future adventures.

  • One Writer’s Beginnings, by Eudora Welty
  • My take: I re-read this book because my online book group was reading it, and I was as unimpressed by it the second time as I was the first. I just couldn’t get into the author’s musings on “Listening,” “Learning to See,” and “Finding a Voice.” I don’t know if it was because she’s dated or if it was because of a failure on my part to bridge the divide, but I know that if the fault was mine, then many women in my book group had similar problems.

  • Harry and the Wrinklies, by Alan Temperly
  • My take: I picked this book up used in a bookshop in Hay-on-Wye last September. The story, about an orphaned boy named Harry sent to live with his aunt, sounds familiar, but the similiarities between that other Harry and this one ends there. His aunts, a pair of spinster sisters who live with some other senior citizens in a manor, end up being the coolest guardians a kid could ask for. They house him in his very own tower, drive souped-up cars and motorcycles, offer him chocolates, and generally encourage independence and innocent mischief-making. A delightful read for the pre-teen set (or those who think like them).

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