Anne's House of Dreams

Finished Anne's House of Dreams, the fifth book in Lucy Maude Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series. Anne and Gilbert are married. They move to a village near the sea where Gilbert takes over his uncle's medical practice. The cottage in which they live the first few years of their marriage is everything Anne has always dreamed of. They befriend several of the locals. Quite a lot of the story centers around these new characters. There are some unexpected serious undertones to this book. That's all I'm going to say...

Life With Mother

Finished Life With Mother by Clarence Day. It is the sequel to Day's Life With Father. This book focuses on the idiosyncrasies of Day's mother Vinnie. Anecdotes about this sweet, persnickety woman who contradicts herself and her husband at every turn, make this a charming read. Those who have seen the film version of Life With Father will recognize the story of the pug dog and the rubber plant.

Another List

Below is a list of the Top 100 Children's Novels compiled by New York Public Library children's librarian Betsy Bird from her poll of readers on Fuse#8. I have read those that appear in bold. I was surprised to see Star Girl on the list. It's a book I thought only I had read when I was 12. I'll have to re-read it soon.

1. Charlotte's Web
2. A Wrinkle in Time
3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
6. Holes
7. The Giver
8. The Secret Garden
9. Anne of Green Gables
10. The Phantom Tollbooth
11. The Westing Game
12. The Hobbit
13. Bridge to Terabithia
14. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
15. Because of Winn-Dixie
16. Harriet the Spy
17. Maniac Magee
18. Matilda
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
20. Tuck Everlasting
21. The Lightning Thief
22. The Tale of Despereaux
23. Little House in the Big Woods
24. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
25. Little Women
26. Hatchet
27. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
28. A Little Princess
29. The Dark Is Rising
30. Winnie-the-Pooh
31. Half Magic
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
33. James and the Giant Peach
34. The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963
35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
36. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
38. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
39. When You Reach Me
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond
42. Little House on the Prairie
43. Ramona the Pest
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
45. The Golden Compass
46. Where the Red Fern Grows
47. Bud, Not Buddy
48. The Penderwicks
49. Frindle
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins
51. The Saturdays
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
53. The Wind in the Willows
54. The BFG
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins
56. Number the Stars
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
59. Inkheart
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
61. Stargirl
62. The Secret of the Old Clock
63. Gone-Away Lake
64. A Long Way from Chicago
65. Ballet Shoes
66. Henry Huggins
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
68. Walk Two Moons
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society
70. Betsy-Tacy
71. The Bad Beginning
72. My Father's Dragon
73. My Side of the Mountain
74. The Borrowers
75. Love That Dog
76. Out of the Dust
77. The City of Ember
78. Johnny Tremain
79. All-of-a-Kind Family
80. The Graveyard Book
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
82. The Book of Three
83. The Thief
84. The Little White Horse
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
87. The View from Saturday
88. The High King
89. Ramona and Her Father
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall
91. Sideways Stories from the Wayside School
92. Ella Enchanted
93. Caddie Woodlawn
94. Swallows and Amazons
95. Pippi Longstocking
96. The Witches
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
98. Children of Green Knowe
99. The Indian in the Cupboard
100. The Egypt Game

Eat, Pray, Love

Finished Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a memoir divided into three parts. "Eat" takes place in Italy. Gilbert has ended her marriage and has moved to Rome to live for four months in a sensual haze of food and pleasure. This part of the book made me eat. A lot. It also reminded me that I have wanted to learn to speak Italian for years. This section is a gorgeous read.

"Pray" takes place in an ashram in India where Gilbert has gone to clear her mind and master the art of meditation. At no point during this section (or any other) did I feel pressured by the concept of God. Gilbert accepts God on her own terms in her own iteration. This section is an education. It grounds the book and the reader as well. There is a lot of self examination and humor here.

"Love" is set in Bali. It's pretty, whimsical and worrisome at times because the reader can feel Gilbert being pulled back into the stream of the "real world." This was a lovely book. I recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor who enjoys travel and self reflection.

Mariana

Finished Mariana by Monica Dickens. Another gem from Persephone Books. I adored this book. It's a coming of age novel in the same vein as I Capture the Castle and The Pursuit of Love. The moment Mary, the protagonist, revisits the site of all the happiness of her childhood and finds it smaller than she remembers, and changed by new owners, was so genuinely heart-wrenching that I will never forget it. Here is a character who thinks just like I do.

Monica Dickens was the great granddaughter of Charles Dickens.

Sophy Cassmajor

Finished Sophy Cassmajor by Margery Sharp. This is Sharp's fifth book, published in 1934. It's a novella, like The Nymph and the Nobleman, and is again illustrated by Anna Zinkeisen. Sophy is sailing to India with her uncle to be wed to a man she has never met. Sophy is young and foolish and fond of eating red current jelly right from the jar. Aboard ship she meets a young man and falls in love. Her life changes in many ways. Sharp's novellas seem like picture books for grown-ups. The stories are romantic and sometimes tragic. They are delectable little morsels.

The Invisible Man

Finished The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. A short and amusing book. It was much funnier than I expected it to be. The humor eventually dissipates as the irritable Invisible Man becomes an invisible madman. The sense of danger, adventure and running across the countryside was very reminiscent of The Thirty-Nine Steps. A good read for vacation or a rainy day.

Freaked

Finished Freaked by J. T. Dutton. This is a teen novel about Scotty Loveletter who longs for a normal, balanced family life, but is instead stashed away in a boarding school by his sex therapist mother who is between husbands. With no one tangible to turn to or lean on, Scotty leans on Jerry Garcia and The Greatful Dead. Their music and the hazy drug culture that goes along with it become the mechanism for Scotty's self discovery. Risky behavior, self loathing, irony and lots of humor are blended here in a poignant portrayal of a kid left to raise himself. I liked this book. Parts are emotionally hard to read, which makes it all the more genuine.

The Lost Flower Children

Finished The Lost Flower Children by Janet Taylor Lisle. Two sisters who have recently lost their mother are sent to live with their dotty great aunt. The sisters are very close and are not interested in playing with other children. The younger of the two, Nellie, has many odd habits and quirks, like walking up or down stairs backwards. They find a book written by a previous occupant of their aunt's house which tells the tale of a children's tea party long ago where a band of bad fairies turned all the children into flowers in the garden. If the various missing pieces of that tea set are found and assembled together the spell will be broken. This story gives the sisters something to focus on and work towards. As the set comes together the sisters become more relaxed and social and Nellie begins to shed her odd quirks.

Mary Poppins Opens the Door

Finished Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P. L. Travers. This is the third, and by far the most magical and surreal book, in her Mary Poppins series. Mary re-appears in the last of the fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day. The children and especially Mrs. Banks are happy to have Mary back. I've finally gotten used to Mary's terse way of speaking and her complete denial that their magical adventures occur. The children live in awe and sometimes fear of her sharp tongue, but they love her dearly. What I'll never get used to is her leaving. Again and again.

Excellent Women

Finished Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. Pym states towards the end of this, her second novel, in a Jane Austen-like tone, "It is a known fact that people like clergymen's daughters, excellent women in their way, sometimes rush in where the less worthy might fear to tread." Poor Mildred Lathbury. She is herself both an excellent woman and a clergyman's daughter. She is single, in her thirties, living alone in London during the 1950s. She's very involved with her church and does charitable work with the Society for the Aid of Impoverished Gentlewomen half days during the week. She lives a quiet, modest life until the new couple in her building pulls her into their volatile personal life. She becomes a go-between with each of them, the wife's supposed lover as well as the removal men who come to take the husband's furniture away when he moves out. Never have I seen a woman so put upon by others (except perhaps Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop). There were times when I wanted to grab Mildred by the shoulders and shake her very hard indeed. Despite this, the book is humorous with the usual Pym parade of harried clergymen and opinionated spinsters. It was a comfortable, cozy read.

The Sign of the Four

Finished The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is the second novel published in his Sherlock Holmes series. Unlike the first, A Study in Scarlet, it is mostly set in London. This book has all the nuances that are associated with Holmes' character, chemistry, disguises, boxing, violin and cocaine. It also features the Baker Street Irregulars and poison darts. It was faster paced than the first novel, more exciting and extremely readable. I look forward to reading more.

The Solitary Summer

Finished The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim, a follow-up to Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Elizabeth asks her husband, The Man of Wrath, for a summer without the house filled with guests and visitors. He thinks she will be bored, but reluctantly agrees. We are treated to lovely descriptions of the garden, romps with the April, May and June babies and glimpses into village life in the German countryside. Descriptions are at times lush and heavy with scent, at others all gossamer and summer haze. A lovely book to dip in and out of, especially in winter.

The Bungalow Mystery

Finished The Bungalow Mystery by Caroline Keene. This edition is the vintage re-issue by Applewood Books. The third book in the series, it was released in 1930. Unlike The Secret of the Old Clock and The Hidden Staircase, this book is free of racial stereotypes that make the reader cringe. In each of these first books Nancy sets out to help women in trouble, but in this one she also rescues a man who has been a prisoner for two weeks and has been left to starve. She gets a lot of help from her father, Carson Drew, in this story, but is still considered a hero. This was a quick and exciting read.

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual

Finished Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan. Finished it in one sitting. I love this book. It's a quick and easy read. Each rule has it's own page. The rules are sensible, practical and very thoughtful about what should be considered food. I highly recommend it to anyone who concerned about their health and the food they choose to eat.