What am I reading?
Jul. 24th, 2011 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushnerHollins' library has a wonderfully quirky Children's Books collection; in it I found:
THE BLACKSMITH OF VILNO by Eric P. Kelly (1930)
Yeah, it's the guy who wrote THE TRUMPETER OF KRAKOW, a book I loved when I was a kid, which my mom had also loved (one of the few things we could agree on; that, and THE SECRET GARDEN - which was the focus of the lovely student-run Francelia Butler (wotta gal! And also, it turns out, a Clevelander! and Oberlin grad) Conference here yesterday! So now I get to read speaker Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina's Norton Critical Edition of same, and get more gossip on FHB. At the Conference Silent Auction, I also managed to snag a copy of SARA CREWE, OR WHAT HAPPENED AT MISS MINCHIN'S [1895]. I already own at least one [courtesy of friends who know my passion for Sara], but this one is inscribed in a fine hand: "Margaret E. Schniehl, from Papa, Dec. 17th , 1896" and on the facing page, in another, I suspect later: "The Little Unfairy Princess" dramatized version of "Sara Crewe" - Milie James as "Sara Crewe". It's pretty beat up; but if you desperately need it, let me know. I like to keep spares for just such emergencies.)
My father's mother, my Grandma Rose, was from Vilna so I'm jazzed about reading this. It is the perfect summer's day lie around with a bowl of local peaches (which we also happen to have!) read - even though it does contain the sentence:
He could not vision it, but had he possessed that power of intuition which brings to man's imagination the pictures of actuality that pass upon the screen, he would have seen this drama evolve.
Can't win 'em all! And what he fails to vision is the teenage queen of Poland not wanting to marry him, because "It was her life, not theirs." Short, and to the point.
Books I acquired through other means:
LINNETS AND VALERIANS by Elizabeth Goudge (1964)
The most perfect book in the world. Found it in Malvern(? or was it Sussex?) school library when I went to daycamp there in 3rd grade, lost it for awhile, then found again and never let it go. This copy - deaccessioned library hardcover! - courtesy of my Cousin Els, who sent it here as a birthday gift to Delia. ETA: Els writes about it here for Tor.com.
WHAT WE KEEP IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT WILL STAY by Amanda Cockrell (2011)
Brand-new! By the director of the Hollins Children's Lit program! Sooooooo good! She wanted to call it THE UNTIED CHURCH OF DOG , but the publisher thought that might lead to confusion. Launched a discussion on the power of books that imply magic without actually crossing the line into hardcover fantasy.... And the family dog in it is named The Todal.
THE KINGDOM ON THE WAVES: THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION: VOLUME II by M. T. Anderson (2008)
2008?! Can't believe this has been out this long and I managed to miss it! I was wracked with cramps of unfulfilled yearning when I finished Book One! So distractable. Volume 2 has been stop-and-start for me, but when he hits it, he hits it hard & true. Some gorgeous passages in here that I'd love to type out and share with you in their entirety. But why don't you just go read the book?
And now, books you can't read yet but trust me you'll want to:
THE INQUISITOR'S APPRENTICE by Chris Moriarty (October, 2011)
Cory Doctorow told me I would love this, and he was so right! A middle-grade fantasy adventure about a Jewish kid from a working-class family on the Lower East Side (that includes Talmud scholars, radicals, playwrights & traumatized pogrom victims) ca. 1900 that is full of Big Love for old New York, and crazy magic, including powerful families named Morgaunt & Astral . . . and plays totally fair with the institutional bigotry that was the social norm then.
SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman* (2012)
I wish you could read this right now!! It is soooooo good! I don't want to torture you by telling you how good it is when you won't be able to read it til next year! But tomorrow I will pull myself together and write a blurb for it, and then maybe I will post that to whet your appetites.
*(Yes, she is also the author of the comix Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming and Return of the Mad Bun. Which I only just realized.)
THE BLACKSMITH OF VILNO by Eric P. Kelly (1930)
Yeah, it's the guy who wrote THE TRUMPETER OF KRAKOW, a book I loved when I was a kid, which my mom had also loved (one of the few things we could agree on; that, and THE SECRET GARDEN - which was the focus of the lovely student-run Francelia Butler (wotta gal! And also, it turns out, a Clevelander! and Oberlin grad) Conference here yesterday! So now I get to read speaker Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina's Norton Critical Edition of same, and get more gossip on FHB. At the Conference Silent Auction, I also managed to snag a copy of SARA CREWE, OR WHAT HAPPENED AT MISS MINCHIN'S [1895]. I already own at least one [courtesy of friends who know my passion for Sara], but this one is inscribed in a fine hand: "Margaret E. Schniehl, from Papa, Dec. 17th , 1896" and on the facing page, in another, I suspect later: "The Little Unfairy Princess" dramatized version of "Sara Crewe" - Milie James as "Sara Crewe". It's pretty beat up; but if you desperately need it, let me know. I like to keep spares for just such emergencies.)
My father's mother, my Grandma Rose, was from Vilna so I'm jazzed about reading this. It is the perfect summer's day lie around with a bowl of local peaches (which we also happen to have!) read - even though it does contain the sentence:
He could not vision it, but had he possessed that power of intuition which brings to man's imagination the pictures of actuality that pass upon the screen, he would have seen this drama evolve.
Can't win 'em all! And what he fails to vision is the teenage queen of Poland not wanting to marry him, because "It was her life, not theirs." Short, and to the point.
Books I acquired through other means:
LINNETS AND VALERIANS by Elizabeth Goudge (1964)
The most perfect book in the world. Found it in Malvern(? or was it Sussex?) school library when I went to daycamp there in 3rd grade, lost it for awhile, then found again and never let it go. This copy - deaccessioned library hardcover! - courtesy of my Cousin Els, who sent it here as a birthday gift to Delia. ETA: Els writes about it here for Tor.com.
WHAT WE KEEP IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT WILL STAY by Amanda Cockrell (2011)
Brand-new! By the director of the Hollins Children's Lit program! Sooooooo good! She wanted to call it THE UNTIED CHURCH OF DOG , but the publisher thought that might lead to confusion. Launched a discussion on the power of books that imply magic without actually crossing the line into hardcover fantasy.... And the family dog in it is named The Todal.
THE KINGDOM ON THE WAVES: THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION: VOLUME II by M. T. Anderson (2008)
2008?! Can't believe this has been out this long and I managed to miss it! I was wracked with cramps of unfulfilled yearning when I finished Book One! So distractable. Volume 2 has been stop-and-start for me, but when he hits it, he hits it hard & true. Some gorgeous passages in here that I'd love to type out and share with you in their entirety. But why don't you just go read the book?
And now, books you can't read yet but trust me you'll want to:
THE INQUISITOR'S APPRENTICE by Chris Moriarty (October, 2011)
Cory Doctorow told me I would love this, and he was so right! A middle-grade fantasy adventure about a Jewish kid from a working-class family on the Lower East Side (that includes Talmud scholars, radicals, playwrights & traumatized pogrom victims) ca. 1900 that is full of Big Love for old New York, and crazy magic, including powerful families named Morgaunt & Astral . . . and plays totally fair with the institutional bigotry that was the social norm then.
SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman* (2012)
I wish you could read this right now!! It is soooooo good! I don't want to torture you by telling you how good it is when you won't be able to read it til next year! But tomorrow I will pull myself together and write a blurb for it, and then maybe I will post that to whet your appetites.
*(Yes, she is also the author of the comix Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming and Return of the Mad Bun. Which I only just realized.)
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 03:17 am (UTC)Also, apparently Burnett is buried in my hometown of Roslyn; never knew that until I was long gone from there. Not entirely sure why, either.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 04:52 pm (UTC)http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/the-world-shot-through-with-magic-linnets-and-valerians
Clearly I must now find VALLEY OF SONG.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 03:29 am (UTC)My favorite Goudge is The Valley of Song (1951), but that never turns up for less than astronomical prices. Linnets and Valerians is terrific, though.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 03:14 am (UTC)Ever since the copy I grew up on was stolen from the Cambridge Public Library, I've had to get it out of a different library system every time. Someday I will find an perfectly affordable copy in a used book store somewhere, and I will read it joyfully for five minutes before the apocalypse occurs.
(It really is worth your time.)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 04:55 am (UTC)(oh, here's the post: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/the-world-shot-through-with-magic-linnets-and-valerians )