Book Stuff

I read a couple of books recently that I would like to reccomend. The first is I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (ironically, the author of 101 Dalmations). This was one of those rare and extremely well-written books that I wished were twice as long! Since I'm not good at writting compelling book summaries, here is one from Amazon:

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain wants to become a writer. Trouble is, she's the daughter of a once-famous author with a severe case of writer's block. Her family--beautiful sister Rose, brooding father James, ethereal stepmother Topaz--is barely scraping by in a crumbling English castle they leased when times were good. Now there's very little furniture, hardly any food, and just a few pages of notebook paper left to write on. Bravely making the best of things, Cassandra gets hold of a journal and begins her literary apprenticeship by refusing to face the facts. She writes, "I have just remarked to Rose that our situation is really rather romantic, two girls in this strange and lonely house. She replied that she saw nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud."

Rose longs for suitors and new tea dresses while Cassandra scorns romance: "I know all about the facts of life. And I don't think much of them." But romantic isolation comes to an end both for the family and for Cassandra's heart when the wealthy, adventurous Cotton family takes over the nearby estate. Cassandra is a witty, pensive, observant heroine, just the right voice for chronicling the perilous cusp of adulthood. Some people have compared I Capture the Castle to the novels of Jane Austen, and it's just as well-plotted and witty. But the Mortmains are more bohemian--as much like the Addams Family as like any of Austen's characters. Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmations, wrote this novel in 1948. And though the story is set in the 1930s, it still feels fresh, and well deserves its reputation as a modern classic. --Maria Dolan --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

The Universe (PaperbackSwap, Goodreads, Amazon) has wanted me to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows for a while now. It seems like every "recommended for you" or "must read" list included this book. I don't know why it took me so long to give in. I think some of it had to do with the title (too cutesy like "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood" - I liked that one but don't trust "spin off" titles).

Boy I'm glad I finally gave in and read it. It is written in letter format from the perspective of Juliet and is set in just-barely-post WWII England. Here is the Amazon description/review:

The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

On another not-hardly-at-all-related note: I discovered recently that the man who wrote my all-time-favorite children's book "The Paper Bag Princess" ALSO wrote my all-time-least-favorite (like hate, hate, thinks it's creepy and lame) book- Love You Forever:

I ask you- how can this be? Shouldn't the universe implode or something?