A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Title: A Little Princess

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Pages: 324

Finished: September 25, 2019

First Sentence: Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.

Summary: Sara Crewe, daughter of the rich Captain Crewe in India, starts Boarding School in England under the tutelage of Miss Minchin. There she becomes the star pupil and favorite of many of the younger students for her kindness. When she turns 11 (or 10?) disaster strikes. Her father dies, penniless. Infuriated, Miss Minchin turns Sara into a scullery maid. The little girl tries to imagine her way out of the drudgery, but things start looking up when an Indian gentleman moves next door.

Thoughts: Hm... This was a really quick read. Quicker than Secret Garden. That being said, it hasn't aged as well as The Secret Garden has. It seems there's been a shift in society in the last five or so years that has made a number of things seem really "of their time". And while I am educated enough to understand that that's what the time was and that's how things are, it doesn't make it any less problematic or frustrating to read/watch/listen to.

Basically, I wanted to like this story, but I find myself frustrated with it. Sara is so incredibly perfect. And while I don't mind Mary Sues as much as other people do (particularly because people don't have issues with men being perfect in media) I found her to be a bit too precious. She handled unfair criticisms with grace far above her years. She was incredibly intelligent.

 Kind to everyone. I mean, she's the person we aspire to be, but no one is faultless.

The classicism was tough to handle too. And I know that's my 21st century self talking, so I try to look past it, but it really doesn't age well.

I DID appreciate the ending though. I will admit, I'm more familiar with the 1990s movie and the Shirley Temple movie, both of which end in a dramatic search for her father who hasn't actually died while Miss Minchin tries to get her arrested as a thief... or something. In the book, it's her father's friend who lives next door. She's eventually found out because she returns the missing monkey and the story comes out.

I'm not sorry I read the book. It was a welcome reprieve from my current reading projects. And while I do appreciate it for what it was, I don't really feel much of a need to read it again.

Read for Classics Club Spin 21

Classic Club Spin 21

EDITED: Spin Number is Number 5! A Little Princess! I'm excited to read it even if it's not Daniel Deronda. Looks like my next 5-ish weeks of reading are cut out for me!

Woot! Another Club spin! For those who haven't seen a spin before, it's this fun game the Classics Club does to help inspire us to read our lists. Members who wish to participate list 20 books from their classic club list and put them in a blog post. Then, the Club pulls a number between 1 and 20 out of a hat. Whatever title that corresponds to is the book you then read between when the number is pulled and the deadline, in this spin, October 31st.

My list is a little weird. I have enough books on my list to make 20.However one of them is going to be next year's project, and three more are just super thick, so I plan to space them out due to the number of doorstops I have on my reading list this year. So, that brings my list down to 12! In order to fill it out, I added in six books from my Back to the Classics Challenge that aren't on my Club list, but that are still classics. List is categorized as follows: Books I Can't Wait to Read, Books I Keep Putting Off, Books I'm Neutral About, Books From My Back To The Classics Challenge.

Daniel Deronda is on there five times because it's taking me ages to read and I need inspiration to finish. Out of all of these, I would most prefer Daniel Deronda, though I'd be pretty happy with Return of the King or Emma as all three are started and then haven't actually been read.

Also, it's worth noting, I tried to take out most of my giant books because the next Book of Dust novel comes out in October and I plan on reading that right away. It's huge. I'm excited. So I wanted to make sure whatever I did have was something I could finish in the time allotted OR something that I had already started and just wanted to finish.

1. Picture of Dorian Grey
2. Peter Pan
3. Daniel Deronda
4. Daniel Deronda
5. Little Princess
6. Persuasion 
7. Daniel Deronda
8. King of Elfland's Daughter
9. Possession
10. Study in Scarlet
11. Daniel Deronda
12. Handmaid's Tale
13. Pride and Prejudice
14. Daniel Deronda
15. Northanger Abbey
16. Room with a View
17. Emma
18. Sanditon and Other Tales
19. Return of the King
20. Mansfield Park

SO. EXCITED!!!

Perhaps it's because my books have been so uninspiring this year. Or perhaps it's just because I adore his books. But I just found out today that Philip Pullman's second Book of Dust is coming out on October 3.

The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth.

Lyra is 20 years old. 

The couple reviews I saw all said it's amazing.

I made my coworker who orders fiction order it right away so I could put it on hold. I cannot wait for this book to fall into my hands. I'm so, so, SO excited! Now to muscle my way through my current reads.

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

Title: The Two Towers

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Pages: 398

Finished: September 10, 2019

First Sentence: Aragorn sped on up the hill

Summary: Beginning right where Fellowship left off, the story follows the various splits in the party. Merry and Pippin, kidnapped by Saruman's orcs manage to escape into the Fangorn Forest. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas follow their trail in hopes of finding their companions. Frodo and Sam ally with Gollum in order to attempt to get into Mordor. And a mysterious white rider shows his face.

Thoughts: Due to the way the chronology works, I've already dipped into Return of the King, so I'll try to keep my thoughts focused on this book and its form.

First, the book is formatted in two parts. Part 1 is the story of Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Part 2 is the story of Frodo and Sam.

I was very wrapped up in the first six chapters of the story. I enjoyed seeing Merry and Pippin try to solve their issues. I love Treebeard and the Ents so much. I really like the Rohirrim. But then the Battle of Helms Deep happened... Good Lord was that dull. Once that was over, things picked up. I enjoyed the reunion of the hobbits with the "big folk." I will say, I was a bit sad for them that the hobbits were split again due to Pippin's curiosity. But go Pippin for being fairly strong.

The Frodo/Sam chapters were not quite as thrilling. The most exciting would be the bit where they meet up with Faramir. Faramir is lovely. And strong. I love Faramir. But the rest of it is really frustrating. There's nothing like seeing One person get totally snowed by someone and not listening to their friend. I found myself super frustrated with Frodo.

Still, I do love Sam and how loyal he is to his master.

Overall, Two Towers suffers from the fact that it's the middle of the story. Things have to stay in a weird stasis so they can be wrapped up in the conclusion.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Title: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Author: Robin Sloan

Pages: 288

Finished: August 20, 2019

First Sentence: Lost in the shadows of the shelves, I almost fall off the ladder.

Summary: A millennial suffering from the Great Recession of '08 finds himself working for an eccentric old man in his eccentric used bookstore. Soon, our protagonist, Clay, discovers that this store is more than it seems. Clay, with the help of his friends and a computer uncovers a seeming cult.

Thoughts: First of all, I liked this. We read it for my family book discussion. It's an easy read. Easier than I usually choose for adult books. The story was simplistic and fairly predictable. Many people said it felt unrealistic, but to me it seemed like a typical adventure story. You have to suspend some of your disbelief for it to work. I was able to do that.

Many people complained that the protagonists friends had all the necessary skills needed to do what needed to be done. Again, that didn't bug me because I happen to know people who seem to "know people" who help them with shit. I figured Clay was one of those people who happens to be good at picking acquaintances with specialized skillsets.

Also, I like reading books about books. I know that's silly. I don't own a lot of books, and I get really annoyed at the reverential treatment of books, but I still really like books. So that was a bonus for me.

I guess the fact that I don't have much to say about this book would turn people off. Like I said before, it was a really nice break from what I've been reading. Easy, pleasant, quick... Fun. I wouldn't call it great reading by any account, but it wasn't bad.

Lastly, one of the biggest complaints I saw was that it's billed as an adult book but people felt like it was more of a YA book. It honestly felt like a weird in between. The main character is about my age. So almost like a "New Adult" or "Post-College" or even "Millennial" book. I don't know. Definitely worked for me.

Regarding the rest of my reading, this month has been largely taken up by the LoTR project and Daniel Deronda. It looks like, if I keep reading at the pace I'm working on, Deronda should be finished by end of September and LoTR by end of November. I'm also working my way through Emma at the moment which I hope to have done by first week of September. I'm excited about the rest of my books for this year. 

Lord of the Rings August Check-In

Wow! Hard to believe I've read another 145ish pages in this challenge. This month took me through all but two chapters in The Two Towers and one chapter in Return of the King. There was a short stint in the Unfinished Tales as well, but nothing that added much to the story.

In the Two Towers we learned of the aftermath of Helm's Deep. Merry and Pippin reunite with Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn as well as Gandalf at Isengard. Sadly, Pippin's curiosity gets the better of him. He looks into the seeing stone thrown down from the Tower by Wormtongue. Gandalf takes him and rushes to Minis Tirith.

Here the point of view switches to Sam and Frodo. We learn they are not very good at navigating mountains, and so are forced to capture and use Gollum as their guide. The journey is long and Frodo seems to be suffering much. Luckily, the fall in with Faramir, brother to Boromir, in Ithelien. After some rest, and some food and drink, they're off to the route that Gollum wishes to take them. Faramir is unhappy about it, but Frodo says he has no choice. While there's more to the story, according to the chronology I'm following, I then switched to Return of the King.

Upon switching, we bring up Pippin and Gandalf. I'm going to be straight here. I was super disappointed that the beacons of Gondor were mentioned in about two lines. Out of all the scenes in The Lord of the Rings movies, the lighting of the beacons is my absolute favorite.

I'm starting to see the end to this giant undertaking, and it's quite exciting. I find myself enjoying the character interactions far more than the battle scenes. I know last month, I mentioned Helm's Deep just about made me quit. I'm concerned there will be a ton of battle scenes in Return of the King as well which might slow the whole process down. But all the character bits are quite fun. 

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Title: And Then There Were None

Author: Agatha Christie

Pages: 247

Finished: August 11, 2019

First Sentence: In the corner of a first-class smoking carriage, Mr. Justice Wargrave, lately retired from the bench, puffed at a cigar and ran an interested eye through the political news in The Times. 

Summary: Ten strangers accept an invitation to stay at a house on Soldier Island. Upon reacing the island, they are informed, by recording, that they have all committed grievous murders and will suffer retribution. As each guest reacts to said information, people start dying. It quickly becomes apparent the murderer is one of the guests.

Thoughts: My first experience with this story was in it's theatrical form. My high school put on "10 Little Indians" in the early Aughts. I'm happy to see the title has been changed to "And Then There Were None." I picked up the novel now because my husband and I will be seeing the play again this upcoming Friday.

In general, I found there was really only one character I remembered. I don't know if characters were changed in the play or if that one just really stuck out to me. The character "stung by a bee," was the one I remembered.

I'm not much of a mystery reader, but I'll admit I couldn't put this down. I read it in the car as we road tripped up to a wedding. Suffered beastly motion sickness as a result, but it was worth it. The red herring completely caught me and tripped me up.

I liked the addition of the rhyme. I kept trying to figure out how that would play in (the bear in particular being a tricky one) to the deaths. And most of those I actually did have correct from what I remembered from the play.

Out of the two Agatha Christie books I've read, I prefer this one to Orient Express. I'm also really looking forward to the play on Friday!