There's always time for a book

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Here’s a sample from the diverse range of books that have been keeping me busy in my non-internet writing days of recent weeks.

Wives and daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. This novel follows the life of teenager Molly as she learns to cope with life beyond her sheltered home and her father’s remarriage. It’s a novel focussed around family relationships and growing up in a small town (including a sweet romance). I enjoyed it, but less so than North and South, perhaps because I found the social observations in the latter more interesting. When I read Wives and daughters I didn’t realise it had been written as a serial, but I wasn’t surprised as it definitely feels like a drama that has been stretched out further than is strictly necessary (however as I read it on a long train trip I certainly didn’t mind!). I also didn’t realise Gaskell died before completing the story and so was very shocked when I reached the last chapter and read “and here the story ended” with another writer finishing up the book!

Melusine by Sarah Monette was recommended to me by Checkers and other people and it was a very different type of book! (Lots more swearing for one thing!) The setting is a fairly typical fantasy world with magic etc but with an abundance of small details and interesting politics and social problems of its own. Melusine is very fast paced book and is narrated by two very different characters. I often find this type of storytelling difficult and want to keep skipping ahead to stay with one narrator but in Melusine I was interested enough in both stories to read it all in order! It finishes fairly abruptly with lots of preparation made for the sequel, which is already out (thank goodness!).

I only heard about Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks: a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits and a very interesting boy when I read a review of the sequel (not out yet) at Bookshelves of Doom. The references to Nesbit and Enright were enough to get me trotting around to the library. Having read the book, I agree that the story of a family’s summer adventures did have that lovely old fashioned and happy feel - I can see why it might be too cozy and sweet for some readers. For me, though, it was a really enjoyable read and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out later this year!

Tags: birdsall, books, fantasy, gaskell, monette, romance

	From: jade_sabre_301	Date: April 30th, 2008 02:51 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Wives and Daughters--I do want to give that one a shot. I actually didn't like North and South all that much--for one, Gaskell was not a mistress of serial writing, and even when she went back and added more stuff it still was...eh. And her prose was a little too distracting.

Melusine! Yay! I'm glad you liked it! :-D

	From: emmaco	Date: May 1st, 2008 06:23 am (UTC)		(Link)

So why do you want to read Wives and daughters then? Have you heard good things about it?

	From: jade_sabre_301	Date: May 1st, 2008 02:44 pm (UTC)		(Link)

The plot of it sounds better than the plot in North and South, and I've heard fairly good things about it.

What I find kind of amusing about the whole North and South thing is that while it's talking about England, it could very well be referring to the situation in American (sans slavery, but still, the whole lazy-agrarian-South versus the hardworking-industrial-North thing stands), and I always tend to get ticked off when people start going on and on about how even though life in the North kinda sucks it is still INFINITELY preferable to/better than life in the South, where people are lazy and have nothing to do all day long. So...yeah, that kinda helped me not like N&S very much. :-b

From: philia_fan	Date: May 1st, 2008 05:23 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Jade, I'm sure half the reason so many of us like North and South is that it has become inextricable in our minds from the TV adaptation and the oh-so-ogleworthy Thornton in that. I more or less read it and watched it simultaneously, so it is especially so for me.

	From: jade_sabre_301	Date: May 1st, 2008 05:25 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I suspect I would probably be fonder of it too if I had an actually attractive version of Mr. Thornton in my head. He kept acting too effeminate for my tastes in the book. (Also, he and his mother? We were making Oedipal jokes. Oops.)

	From: emmaco	Date: May 1st, 2008 08:47 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Although in England it's posh agrarian south while in the US it's (traditionally) poor agrarian, isn't it? Which seems worse for some reason. But I understand why it annoyed you :)

	From: jade_sabre_301	Date: May 1st, 2008 10:40 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Mm, not in the 19th-century American South. Which is when most of this was an issue. Nowadays it's poor agrarian, but back then it was mostly posh agrarian...and slaves. D:

	From: emmaco	Date: May 2nd, 2008 06:31 am (UTC)		(Link)

*hangs head in shame* of course.

In Australia, just like the seasons, the south is posh and developed and the north is the traditionally rougher poorer part. *snuggles her beloved Queensland despite its dismaying habit of producing nutty politicians (present PM excluded)*

	From: jade_sabre_301	Date: May 2nd, 2008 04:40 pm (UTC)		(Link)

haha that's okay. I don't know anything about Australian politics/society, so it'd be kind of presumptuous to expect you to know about us Americans. Especially, y'know, heading on two hundred years ago. (When did they start colonizing Australia? I know that that's where they send half the cast of David Copperfield in what's approximately 1840ish...) :-b

	From: emmaco	Date: May 2nd, 2008 06:44 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Scarily, I have studied US history (in my defense it was modern, but still). I think I was thinking of rich industrialists and poor slaves.

The first British settlement was in 1788, so yeah, just over 200 years ago. They kept transporting convicts until the 1860s so Dickens had plenty of scope to get rid of unwanted characters :)

	From: rosaleeluann	Date: April 30th, 2008 03:25 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I rather like the movie of Wives and Daughters, but I'm not sure that I want to give the book a try. Hmm.

	From: emmaco	Date: May 1st, 2008 06:24 am (UTC)		(Link)

I enjoyed it but it was just what I was looking for at the time, which always helps!

	From: checkers65477	Date: May 1st, 2008 01:13 am (UTC)		(Link)

The swearing in Melusine put me off, too. How did you feel about the violence in the beginning? I mean, no one would enjoy it (would they? hope not) but did it bother you? Which character did you prefer--Felix or Mildmay?

My colleague read The Penderwicks. She loves old fashioned books but found it a little too much so.

	From: emmaco	Date: May 1st, 2008 06:27 am (UTC)		(Link)

Actually I didn't mind the swearing, it helped me remember who was narrating, it was just strange reading the book at the same time as Wives and daughters :) The violence was horrible but I kind of squinted and moved on - I liked that, by the end of the book, the violence was acknowledged as being bad and destructive.

*snuggles The Penderwicks*

From: philia_fan	Date: May 1st, 2008 05:21 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I have The Penderwicks on my shelf but haven't gotten to it yet. I am less enthusiastic about it now that Bookshelves of doom happened to mention that one of the characters is always talking about books she's reading. My main character does this, you see, so I'm afraid that once again, I look as if I've swiped the idea when I really had it ten years ago!

	From: emmaco	Date: May 1st, 2008 08:49 pm (UTC)		(Link)

If it helps, I didn't really notice the character doing it. Although I suspect you'll notice every instance now :)

Your characters sound more interesting all the time!

From: philia_fan	Date: May 1st, 2008 11:42 pm (UTC)		(Link)

In my book it's actually central to both the character and the whole point of the book, so I really, really can't cut it, however derivative it may appear. *sigh*

	From: emmaco	Date: May 2nd, 2008 06:32 am (UTC)		(Link)

Nup, it's not pronounced enough to make another character doing it derivative in my opinion. So go forth and read and write without fear :)

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