A.S. Byatt: The Children's Book

One Word Summary: Poor Tom
More Words: I didn't enjoy this book, although it has given me some ideas to chew on. Byatt could have written a brief-but-not-compelling-history-of-the-arts-and-crafts-movement-in-England-from-1895-to-1915. A huge problem, for a simple person like me, was the vast number of characters. Then Byatt killed off everyone that couldn't have a snappy happy ending. Thank goodness for WWI, right? I feel guilty for not being remotely interested in any of the women characters, because... well I am a woman. I'm still unsure about one idea. Byatt writes somewhere near the beginning that the children of arts and crafts generation experienced childhood differently from all other children past and present. How asinine, I thought, at first. Of course now I'm wondering if I missed the point. Maybe Byatt meant that the romanticized childhood was invented during this period-like Olive creating Todefright with Violet manage it smoothly. Whatever she meant, I still don't get it.

Knopf Books 2009

Quotes:

She was thinking much faster than usual, and reflected sardonically that
those hungry-minded women, those frustrated female thinkers, of whome Marian
Oakshott spoke, would always need her, Eslie, or someone like her , to carry
coals and chop meat and mend clothing and do laundry, or they wouldn't keep
alie. Someone in the scullery carrying out the ashes. And if one got out of the
scullery, like a disguised princess in a fairytale, there always hd to be
another, another scullery maid to take her place.

Nevertheless, she would like to get out.

{and that half speach by Saraphita after Benedict Fludd is dead}

Tracy Chevalier: The Virgin Blue

One Word Summary: A Bag of Bones

More Words: This novel is not without merit but that doesn't mean I liked it. And just because I didn't like it a whole lot doesn't mean I could put it down. On reflection The Virgin Blue is a work of genius. Or Chevalier is a genius. Complete, Balance, True to itself, blah blah blah. But there's no happy ending and worse the story offers up no reasons or justifications. Stuff just happens, a lot of it horrific. It makes my head spin, just wanting to know Why? Why?! Why! It's a little like life- too complicated to attribute one reason to a whole slew of events. Anyhow, I think I must be Rick. I don't understand, I'm not interested enough to try, and I'm careful enough to withhold my condescending judgment.

Questions:

1. Who was the first girl under the hearth?
2. What's wrong with Ella's love analogy?
3. What would you do if you were Isabelle?
4. What do Jean-Paul, the wolf, and the shepherd have in common?
5. Is Ella a "woman who is lost, directionless, doesn't know what she wants so grabs at the idea of a baby as something to keep her busy. And she's bored with her husband so she XXXXX the first offer she gets"? Or is she more?
6. Why hasn't Disney princessified Little Red Riding Hood?

Other Books:
The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan

Censorship: This is not for little girls. It's a little bit horrific, and it's not really a book to read if you want to feel good about life and the world.

Diana Wynne Jones: Fire and Hemlock

One Word Summary: Tam Lin
More Words: The cover of this book was a little creepy and a huge deterrent to even touching it even though I'm in love with Diana. I sort of danced around it at the library for three years. However I read in Nancy Pearl' s Book Crush that this was a Tam Lin Story and so I had to read it. I enjoyed reading Fire and Hemlock, I'll probably read it again. But I have to admit it's not a great book.

List of what I didn't like: It was a little surreal at the beginning and took awhile to get used to. At first I didn't like or understand Polly's friendship with Tom. And the ending was a little confusing. Not only confusing it was... well I didn't like it. {What's the word for something that is too unrealistic even for fiction}

What I did like: I like how the stories Polly and Tom made up became true. And the Fairy Queen was one scary lady.

Other Books:
An Earthly Knight by Janet Elizabeth McNaughton

Edith Pattou: East

One Word Summary: cold, hungry, and tired.
More Words: I think fairy tales are great. I think fairy tales that feature a girl who must be silent or blind to pass some test involving their lover fascinating. I think this story was slow moving. I think the writing was affected and dull. I think it could have been better than boring. On the plus side, I think the trolls and their city were cool. I think Rose was admirable because she could make clothes from scratch. I think she could do anything. I think she could do anything even if she were cold, hungry and tired. I think I'll probably read this book a fourth and fifth time, despite not liking the style.
Summary: Troll Princess falls in love with a human boy. Before she can possess him a human girl of his choosing can rescue him by passing an improbable test. Rule number one: The girl can't know anything.