June Reading

June wasn’t that great a month for reading for me. I was busy with life and work (as I reported in the last post) and didn’t get to read much, as the list reveals:

The Sagas of the Icelanders (Penguin Deluxe Edition)

I am still in the middle of the Saga of the People of Laxardal and haven’t continued at all. I just didn’t feel like it in June. My reading buddy is on vacation and therefore isn’t reading it either, so we’ll continue with the Sagas later, hopefully in July.

Italo Calvino, The Complete Cosmicomics

Didn’t read much of these stories, either.

Thomas Mann, Joseph und seine Brüder (Joseph and His Brothers)

I didn’t continue with the series. These are a lot of “haven’ts” and “didn’ts”!

Ann Leckie, Provenance

This novel is set in the universe of Leckie’s Imperial Radch series. It was a re-read (last read in January of 2019), but at first, I couldn’t remember anything. It’s set outside of the territory of the Radch and so we learn a bit about some of the other civilizations. It’s quite intricate, with at least three main settings and quite a lot of characters. One of the main characters is Ingray, who is involved in sibling rivalry with her brother Danach for the favour of their mother. The rivalry is encouraged in order to find the sibling most suitable to take on the role of the head of the family – naturally this causes a toxic relationship between the siblings. There’s a lot of cultural stuff about roots and belonging and the importance of “vestiges”. The vestiges are historical icons which are very important for the foundational identity of Ingray’s society, but we soon learn that these icons aren’t as valid as they seem (their provenance is questioned). There’s also a murder committed on an off-worlder for which another person is framed. In addition, there’s a person fleeing their home world, where they feel excluded because of a kind of handicap. And then there’s a military invasion of Ingray’s society’s territory by their neighbours… lots of plotlines.

It’s complex. Maybe too complex. There’s a lot of information dumping (mostly in the form of characters explaining things to each other, but still). There are a lot of hidden agendas, politics, and scheming by various characters and a lot of self-doubt by Ingray, which, frankly, grew annoying, as it was quite clear to the reader and some of the other characters that she was actually quite resourceful and competent (if a bit weepy). I still enjoyed it (some parts more than others) though not as much as the Ancillary books, and will eventually read Leckie’s new novel Translation State, but I wasn’t in the mood for picking up the new one straight away (especially as it also seems to be about someone with low self-esteem – I couldn’t face it right away).

M. G. Leonard, Clutch

As often when in need of relaxation, I felt like escaping into some children’s lit. This is the third book in the Twitchers series, about a boy and his love of birding and the adventures resulting thereof. I read the first two books in March, when I had Covid 19, and loved them, so I took note then that a third installment was coming out this year. This time, Twitch and his friends must find and foil someone who’s stealing bird’s eggs in their nature reserve. There are some red herrings and Twitch himself falls under suspicion. There’s action and a bit of violence at the end, but of course, the kids save the day. It’s fun and I loved it. I hope the author will continue the series.

Craig Johnson, Another Man’s Moccasins

This is the fourth in the Walt Longmire series that I started in May. The series is set in rural Wyoming. The protagonist is a sheriff nearing retirement called Walt Longmire. In this installment, we get a lot of retrospectives about Walt’s time in Vietnam, where he was a member of the Military Police trying to investigate drug smuggling (and getting nowhere). In the present, it’s about the murder of a young Vietnamese woman who was apparently trying to reach Walt… It was good, but not as good as the previous novels – I didn’t appreciate the extensive backflashes to the Vietnam period that much and having two mysteries in one novel, one set in the past and one in the present, felt like both didn’t get the space they needed. So, it’s not a favourite, but won’t stop me from continuing with the series.

Orhan Pamuk and Maureen Freely (translator), The Black Book

I’ve been wanting to read something by Pamuk, who is a Turkish winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, for some time and picked this one for my next book club read at the end of July. I chose it because it contains a mystery. The novel is set in Istanbul and the protagonist is searching for his wife, who has left him, maybe for his older cousin, who writes columns for a newspaper (and who has also disappeared). The structure of the novel is quite strange. There’s always a third-person narrative about Galip, the main character, followed by a chapter that consists of one of his cousin’s newspaper columns in the first person. These columns (or essays – they are far too long for columns) are about anything under the sun, except that it’s usually about Istanbul, in some form or other. The novel is quite dense, with lots of flashbacks and weird tales from the columns. Galip reads the columns to find clues to the whereabouts of the missing characters. The columns seem to take on a reality of their own, and Galip gradually seems to “become” his cousin. It also seems to be about the nature of narrative and stories people tell each other and the different identities and meanings both people and stories (and objects!) adopt. I’ve only read about three-quarters of the novel so far. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not an easy read. I am almost sure that it won’t be a hit with the book club, despite the mystery.

That was it for June – 3.75 books read. Not very many but considering the numerous things on my plate in June, quite decent.

I obviously still haven’t managed to write more detailed reviews of the books I read. Well, maybe in July?

The Penderwicks and Other Children’s Books

… that I read while I had Corona a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, while I was sick, I didn’t feel so terrible that I wasn’t up to reading, but I did feel very tired (at least at first) and needed something pleasant and easy to read – so I recollected that I had been wanting to read the Penderwick books by Jeanne Birdsall, which I found on the blog A Book Owl’s Corner (where I also found that delightful series about owls that I read during my Christmas vacation in 2021). So, I got myself a complete collection on Kindle:

• The Penderwicks
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
• The Penderwicks at Point Mouette
• The Penderwicks in Spring
• The Penderwicks at Last

The Penderwicks collection

The novels tell the story of the Penderwick family, which at first consist of four girls, Rosalind, Skye, Jane and Batty, their initially single-parent father, and their dog, the Hound. In the first book, the family go on vacation to a lovely cottage in the country, where they meet and make friends with Jeffrey (rather to the displeasure of his uncongenial mother), who lives in a large stately home next door to their holiday cottage. The second book is all about the girls’ adventures at their own home, including their attempts to either prevent their widowed father from dating or to have him date a woman of their own choice. In the third book, three of the Penderwick sisters, as well as Jeffrey, go on holiday to the seaside, have adventures, and meet interesting new people. The third installment is again set at the family home and shines a spotlight on Batty, who goes through a bit of a crisis due to a misunderstanding with one of her sisters. Rosalind has gone away to college and there are complications with Rosalind and Skye’s boyfriends (or those who want to be their boyfriends). There are also new family members, Ben, who was already introduced in the second book, and Lydia, their half-sister. The fifth book focuses on Batty and Lydia, the two youngest sisters (although the older girls also make an appearance). They revisit the setting of the first book, but things have changed a lot…

I really enjoyed reading these books, they were perfect for my mood while I was ill. There’s a lot of normal family things going on in the books, with sibling rivalry and drama that resolves nicely. I especially liked the bits with the Hound, as they reminded me of my relationship with the dogs that were part of our family during my childhood (even, or in particular, the tragic bits). Some of the plot points, especially the relationship developments, I found quite predictable, but I still enjoyed how they were untangled. It was also nice to read about how the characters developed as they grew older throughout the series. At first it was a little jarring that the later books focus more on the development of the younger girls (while the older ones go off to college) but then it seems like a natural progression that keeps the books fresh and original.

After I had finished the series, it occurred to me that the books are in some of their themes like a modern retelling of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, especially in the family set-up and the relationship between the girls and Jeffrey. It’s a single parent family (at least at first) with four girls – Rosalind, the motherly one, rather like Meg in Little Women. Skye, the tomboyish one, like Jo (she’s also a science lover, which is a new aspect that’s not found in the earlier novel, as far as I remember). Jane, who is the would-be writer, also like Jo, but without the tomboy aspect. And Batty, who’s the baby of the family (at first), like Amy March, but who is also very musically gifted, rather like Beth. Then there’s Jeffrey, who has a relationship with the Penderwick girls very like Laurie does with the March girls. But there are also plot development that differ. For instance, the girls’ father marries again and so the family gains a brother, Ben, and a new sister, Lydia. Many other plot details differ from Little Women, but there are a lot of similar themes.

Counting by 7s

The series is lovely, and I recommend it for lovers of Little Women or wholesome family stories in general. I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this series.

I devoured the series in a few days and still didn’t feel like reading anything for adult readers and so continued with a few more kid’s books:

Holly Goldberg Sloan, Counting by 7s
In this book Willow Chance, a nerdy outsider genius, who likes counting things in 7, loves gardening, and is very intellectually precocious while not having any friends at all (I guess she may be on the autism spectrum), loses her adoptive parents in an accident and finds a very unlikely new family. The story shows how circumstances can cause people to transform their lives beyond anyone’s expectations. It’s good read and a lovely uplifting story despite the tragedy at the beginning.

Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie
A very nice, low-key novel about 10-year-old Opal who adopts a stray dog, who then causes her to become more involved in the new community that she and her preacher father have just moved to. She learns things about the people she interacts with that helps her to understand them better and to build connections. It is set in the South of the US and has a very slight feel of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (but without the racial discrimination themes and also it’s set in an indefinite time that seems more modern – but without computers and social media, so it’s probably not quite contemporary). It’s apparently been made into a movie, which it might be interesting to see.

Spark

M. G. Leonard, The Twitchers series: Twitch and Spark
This is a series of three novels (but only two have been published so far) about Twitch, a young boy who loves birds, bird-watching, and nature. At the beginning of the first book, he has no friends and is bullied, but eventually events lead him to become friends with his erstwhile enemies and together they solve a crime. In the second book, Twitch and some of his friends have formed a bird-watching club and they band together to prevent criminals from harming a rare vulture. I love how these books marry the bird-watching theme with the crime plots. These books are definitively set in the present and social media plays a marginal but pivotal role, which I think is very well done. The third installment is coming out in April and I’m definitively going to read it as well.

I also read The Horse from Black Loch, an old favourite from my teenage years, which I mentioned here.

After having read and very much enjoyed these ten children’s books, my hunger for this genre was assuaged and I returned to adult novels, but that’s a topic for another post. In any case, I loved all these books and highly recommend them for those that like children’s lit or have children that might like to read them.