soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2013-09-05 08:49 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-09-05 08:49 pm
Entry tags:
- anent: book thoughts 1,
- author: eva ibbotson,
- author: gene stratton porter,
- author: patrick o'brian,
- author: rosemary sutcliff,
- book theme: history,
- book theme: history (modernish when writ,
- book theme: kidlit,
- book theme: religion,
- book theme: reread,
- book theme: sailing,
- fandom: aubrey-maturin series,
- fandom: sutcliff,
- pub date: 1904,
- pub date: 1913,
- pub date: 1957,
- pub date: 1983,
- pub date: 2004,
- pub date: 2008,
- rating: ***,
- rating: ****,
- rating: *****
Books!
Okay now for other books! I just needed to get my The Secret Countess feels out first, because I had a lot of feels!
Treason's Harbour, by Patrick O'Brian
Amazing as always but agh NOOO PEOPLE TRUSTING WRAY NOOOOOOOOOO. This was a stressful book! And then the book ends with people STILL TRUSTING WRAY, THE TRAITOROUS GOOD-FOR-NOTHING, AGHHH how much longer will I have to endure the suspense of not knowing how badly Wray is going to fuck Our Heroes over???
Freckles, by Gene Stratton Porter
I STILL LOVE THIS BOOK RIDICULOUSLY MUCH. See my post from my first read for details (warning that there are a lot of A Girl of the Limberlost spoilers mixed in amongst my Freckles thoughts). I do want to mention, though, my biggest issue with the book Freckles -- which I did notice last time too! I was just too overwhelmed with feels that time to get around to discussing it.
The thing is that this book has some very definite opinions on the innate nature people's backgrounds give them. Freckles is said to be certain ways because he is Irish, for example. And the entire ending sequence is predicated on this, because everybody is convinced that Freckles's dead parents must be worthy sorts because of how wonderful Freckles turned out to be -- he couldn't be that gentlemanly if it weren't bred into him for generations!
And that all got to be really tiresome and frustrating.
But other than that (....and Freckles' driving need to find out about his Real Parents before he's willing to say yes to the Angel) this book is amazing in all the ways.
The Star of Kazan, by Eva Ibbotson
Chosen family feels!!! This book really makes it clear that it is love that makes people belong together.
Also the entire book is like a love-letter to Vienna and it is glorious.
Also I would NOT OBJECT to the existence of Ellie/Sigrid slashfic. Or Ellie & Sigrid friendship fic! Fic about that whole non-traditional household/family!
(Also whoops unexpected Franz Joseph feels? THANKS ELISABETH)
The Silver Branch, by Rosemary Sutcliff
Hmm, I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other Sutcliffs I've read. I never really felt like I connected to the two main characters (Justin and Flavius), although that might be at least in part because I knew a kid named Flavius when I was in high school and he was one of those obnoxious overconfident mansplainers who thinks he's God's gift to the world when he really isn't. Also he was a terrible trumpet player and I had to sit next to him in band. NOT THAT I'M BITTER OR ANYTHING.
Anyways, back to the book, because that's what I'm here talking about, right? Right. Anyways. There wasn't anything about Justin and Flavius I didn't like, I just never really felt like either one was his own individual person with his own individual personality.
Also I didn't get super captivated by the plot, so I couldn't just read around the uninteresting-to-me main characters for the plot.
What I liked best: AUNT HONORIA. ALSO PAULINUS. Now those were some characters I super loved! Too bad they got so little pagetime...
The other good thing of course is that just on a prose level this was a good book, because Sutcliff is good at prose.
Okay I have to mention Cullen. Sutcliff really likes the whole loyal-servant-is-his-master's-hound thing, doesn't she. And in Cullen she has taken this to the EXTREME. And it makes me very uncomfortable.
(ALSO this book contains the most egregious example of failing to name women that I've seen in Sutcliff yet. We meet the wife of a dude named Manlius, and someone ACTUALLY ADDRESSES HER IN SPEECH as "Manlius' wife." WHAT. SUTCLIFF. YOUR ISSUES ARE SHOWING. Sutcliff demonstrates elsewhere in this book and elsewhere in her oeuvre that she is on occasion capable of imagining female characters as complex people in their own right, but then she goes and does stuff like this and I'm just like AGHHHHHHH.)
The Dragonfly Pool, by Eva Ibbotson
I mostly adored this book! My one quibble was that I just didn't feel like the ending was satisfyingly ending-like after the events of the book -- though that might just be because I was tired and it was late at night when I was finishing this! :P
Anyways, I loved all the school stuff! And I loved all the multinational children getting together for a dance celebration and making lots of friendships willy-nilly across borders and languages despite the impending war between them all, and how the children were truly friends and truly supportive and trusted each other and helped each other and everything! And I loved Tally and how sure she is of herself and how she earnestly bowls people over into helping her Do Things To Improve The World. And I loved Karil and his dad and how their lives are not what they would have wanted but they do their best and they love each other. And I loved how Tally makes friends so quickly and easily and how Karil holds himself back from friendship because he doesn't want to be hurt when he is eventually left alone again, and how they become BEST FRIENDS so completely anyways.
Matteo I'm less sure how to feel about. He's apparently a good teacher and people love him and stuff? But I feel like we're constantly told what a wonderful/interesting person he is without ever making the reader feel similarly. And he's TERRIBLE at actually talking to people about important things! And he abandons his friend in a single moment of frustration and then NEVER SPEAKS TO HIM AGAIN FOR EIGHT YEARS!
Laddie: A True Blue Story, by Gene Stratton Porter
Meh. Charming enough in places I guess but too overwhelmingly Incidents In The Life of A Perfectly Christian Family with not a lot of plot and definitely a lot of Perfect Christian Familyness.
Treason's Harbour, by Patrick O'Brian
Amazing as always but agh NOOO PEOPLE TRUSTING WRAY NOOOOOOOOOO. This was a stressful book! And then the book ends with people STILL TRUSTING WRAY, THE TRAITOROUS GOOD-FOR-NOTHING, AGHHH how much longer will I have to endure the suspense of not knowing how badly Wray is going to fuck Our Heroes over???
Freckles, by Gene Stratton Porter
I STILL LOVE THIS BOOK RIDICULOUSLY MUCH. See my post from my first read for details (warning that there are a lot of A Girl of the Limberlost spoilers mixed in amongst my Freckles thoughts). I do want to mention, though, my biggest issue with the book Freckles -- which I did notice last time too! I was just too overwhelmed with feels that time to get around to discussing it.
The thing is that this book has some very definite opinions on the innate nature people's backgrounds give them. Freckles is said to be certain ways because he is Irish, for example. And the entire ending sequence is predicated on this, because everybody is convinced that Freckles's dead parents must be worthy sorts because of how wonderful Freckles turned out to be -- he couldn't be that gentlemanly if it weren't bred into him for generations!
And that all got to be really tiresome and frustrating.
But other than that (....and Freckles' driving need to find out about his Real Parents before he's willing to say yes to the Angel) this book is amazing in all the ways.
The Star of Kazan, by Eva Ibbotson
Chosen family feels!!! This book really makes it clear that it is love that makes people belong together.
Also the entire book is like a love-letter to Vienna and it is glorious.
Also I would NOT OBJECT to the existence of Ellie/Sigrid slashfic. Or Ellie & Sigrid friendship fic! Fic about that whole non-traditional household/family!
(Also whoops unexpected Franz Joseph feels? THANKS ELISABETH)
The Silver Branch, by Rosemary Sutcliff
Hmm, I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other Sutcliffs I've read. I never really felt like I connected to the two main characters (Justin and Flavius), although that might be at least in part because I knew a kid named Flavius when I was in high school and he was one of those obnoxious overconfident mansplainers who thinks he's God's gift to the world when he really isn't. Also he was a terrible trumpet player and I had to sit next to him in band. NOT THAT I'M BITTER OR ANYTHING.
Anyways, back to the book, because that's what I'm here talking about, right? Right. Anyways. There wasn't anything about Justin and Flavius I didn't like, I just never really felt like either one was his own individual person with his own individual personality.
Also I didn't get super captivated by the plot, so I couldn't just read around the uninteresting-to-me main characters for the plot.
What I liked best: AUNT HONORIA. ALSO PAULINUS. Now those were some characters I super loved! Too bad they got so little pagetime...
The other good thing of course is that just on a prose level this was a good book, because Sutcliff is good at prose.
Okay I have to mention Cullen. Sutcliff really likes the whole loyal-servant-is-his-master's-hound thing, doesn't she. And in Cullen she has taken this to the EXTREME. And it makes me very uncomfortable.
(ALSO this book contains the most egregious example of failing to name women that I've seen in Sutcliff yet. We meet the wife of a dude named Manlius, and someone ACTUALLY ADDRESSES HER IN SPEECH as "Manlius' wife." WHAT. SUTCLIFF. YOUR ISSUES ARE SHOWING. Sutcliff demonstrates elsewhere in this book and elsewhere in her oeuvre that she is on occasion capable of imagining female characters as complex people in their own right, but then she goes and does stuff like this and I'm just like AGHHHHHHH.)
The Dragonfly Pool, by Eva Ibbotson
I mostly adored this book! My one quibble was that I just didn't feel like the ending was satisfyingly ending-like after the events of the book -- though that might just be because I was tired and it was late at night when I was finishing this! :P
Anyways, I loved all the school stuff! And I loved all the multinational children getting together for a dance celebration and making lots of friendships willy-nilly across borders and languages despite the impending war between them all, and how the children were truly friends and truly supportive and trusted each other and helped each other and everything! And I loved Tally and how sure she is of herself and how she earnestly bowls people over into helping her Do Things To Improve The World. And I loved Karil and his dad and how their lives are not what they would have wanted but they do their best and they love each other. And I loved how Tally makes friends so quickly and easily and how Karil holds himself back from friendship because he doesn't want to be hurt when he is eventually left alone again, and how they become BEST FRIENDS so completely anyways.
Matteo I'm less sure how to feel about. He's apparently a good teacher and people love him and stuff? But I feel like we're constantly told what a wonderful/interesting person he is without ever making the reader feel similarly. And he's TERRIBLE at actually talking to people about important things! And he abandons his friend in a single moment of frustration and then NEVER SPEAKS TO HIM AGAIN FOR EIGHT YEARS!
Laddie: A True Blue Story, by Gene Stratton Porter
Meh. Charming enough in places I guess but too overwhelmingly Incidents In The Life of A Perfectly Christian Family with not a lot of plot and definitely a lot of Perfect Christian Familyness.