Hospital Sketches

Finished Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott. Published in 1863, it is an account of Alcott's experiences as a nurse in a Union hospital in Georgetown, where she worked for six weeks. At that point she became ill with Typhus and had to be sent home.

Alcott, who portrays herself as Nurse Periwinkle, bustles about the wards and does her best to bring comfort and cheer to wounded soldiers. While perhaps not as dire as scenes from the film Gone With the Wind, her accounts are frank and clear in their criticism of patient care, organization of the facility, lack of spiritual guidance and open racism. It's a very honest telling of her experiences and is based on the letters she sent home during this time. It was the first publication of her writing to bring her critical acclaim and popularity.

The Flowering Thorn

Finished The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp. This was her fourth novel, published in 1934. It’s about a young woman named Lesley. She is slim, fashionable, popular and very socially inclined. She lives in a flat in London and spends her days shopping, lunching with friends and attending parties every night. She is pale, beautiful, hard and cold. Most of her friends are the same. She finds that she is bored with her life and is looking for a change. When her aunt announces that her cook has died and left her with a four year old boy, Patrick, Lesley volunteers to take him off her hands. Her aunt is stunned. Eventually Lesley is too. At first she tries to continue her social whirlwind of a life, but finally realizes that it just won’t do. She rents a cottage in the country and takes Patrick there to live until he is old enough to be sent off to school.

At first Lesley is a town mouse in the country. She keeps to herself and dodges the vicar. She orders her meals to be delivered from Fortnum & Mason, but soon realizes that she can’t possibly continue to afford it so she engages a woman to cook and help around the house. Lesley and Patrick have a very distant, offhand sort of relationship. Gradually, bit by bit, Lesley and Patrick warm to each other. The same happens with Lesley and the people of the village. She lets her hair grow, takes long walks, gains a little weight, gets sunburned and learns to knit. In a sense she evolves into a complete human being. Her life is no longer hollow and rudderless. The same goes for Patrick as well. In the end the vicar and his wife are two of her very best friends.

There were times when I was reminded of Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day and Auntie Mame.

I adore Margery Sharp.

The Late George Apley

Finished The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand. It won the Pulitzer in 1938. It is the story of a privileged Bostonian, born in the 1860s, who watched the world around him change drastically until his death in the 1930s. Social norms, automobiles, World War I, electric lights on the Boston Common, Freudianism, Ernest Hemingway, Cubism, Lady Chatterly's Lover, all are touched upon. The book is written as a biography, compiled by a longtime friend of Apley's and consisting of occasional narration, but mostly letters written by Apley to friends and family. The book is engaging and humorous. It was interesting to read so much about the history of the area I grew up in. This was Marquand's first serious novel. He is perhaps better known for his Mr. Moto mysteries.

Waterless Mountain

Finished Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer. It won the Newbery Medal in 1933. It is the story of a young Navajo boy who wishes to be a medicine man like his uncle. He has various dreams and visions which seem to guide him on his path. This book is a bit slow, and methodically told. The dialogue is annoyingly simplistic. The details are interesting as are the various customs and examples of family relations. The illustrations in the book are by Armer as well. The edition I read had an unusual forward written by Oliver La Farge, author of Laughing Boy.

Anne of Windy Poplars

Finished Anne of Windy Poplars several weeks ago. This is the fourth book (chronologically) in L. M. Montgomery's series, although it was the seventh written. Anne has been hired as principal at Summerside High School. The book spans three years. Anne lives in a house called Windy Poplars with three elderly women. During this time she encounters the resistance of the Pringle family and also befriends Katherine Brooke, a bitter, lonely colleague. The book contains narrative as well as letters that Anne writes to her fiancee, Gilbert, who is in medical school. The stories turn the tables on Anne so that she is usually aiding students and friends in crises and muddles instead of experiencing crises and muddles of her own. Thus we encounter a fully mature Anne.

A Dog's Life

Finished A Dog's Life by Peter Mayle. Written from the perspective of Mayle's dog Boy, this book describes life with Mayle and his wife in their house in the south of France. While very humorous at times, I got a little tired of the schtick. On the other hand I was at times reminded of Hitty: Her First Hundred Years since both are memoirs of non-humans told via anthropomorphism. I enjoyed Mayle's A Year in Provence much more.

A Pair of Blue Eyes

Finished A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy, published in 1873. It is the story of a young girl, Elfride, and the two men she falls in love with.

Her first love is Stephen Smith, a young architect of low lineage, who is earnest and works hard to gain money, position and the respect of Elfride's father. Her second love is Mr. Knight, an older man who is both scholar and critic and who was once Stephen's tutor. He is a relation of Elfride's stepmother and is visiting with them.

Elfride's love for Stephen pales during a momentous event. She knows that Stephen is returning from India and goes to the nearby cliffs to watch his steamer come into the harbor. Knight, unaware of the prior relationship, accompanies her. Through foolhardy actions of his own Mr. Knight slips and and finds himself clinging to the edge of the cliff. Elfride looks for help but finds none. She removes her dress and petticoats and tears them into strips which she binds into a rope and uses this to rescue Mr. Knight. Their relationship then changes from that of casual acquaintance to two people who have been through a harrowing experience, even more so than George Emerson and Lucy Honeychurch in A Room With a View. This novel was serialized, with an installment leaving Mr. Knight dangling from the cliff. According to Wikipedia, this is the origin of the term "cliffhanger."

While not as pastoral as other Hardy novels I have read, this book was enjoyable. At times I was reminded of Trollope's The Warden. This is probably because of the female characters falling for men their clergymen fathers disapprove of.

Sing Mother Goose

Sing Mother Goose, music by Opal Wheeler, illustrations by Marjorie Torrey, won the Caldecott Honor Medal in 1946. I feel like we've been through so much Mother Goose already, but there are two more to go.

My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

Finished My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World written by Becky Reyher and illustrated by Ruth Gannett. It is based on a Russian folktale. A little girl accompanies her parents into the fields when everyone is harvesting wheat. The day is warm and the little girl falls asleep. When she wakes up she cannot find her mother anywhere. Others who are working nearby try to help her. They ask the child to describe her. She says "My mother is the most beautiful woman in the world." The people scour the village for all the young beauties, but not one of them is the child's mother. In the end the mother appears. She is no conventional beauty, but to that little girl she is beautiful. A sweet book that demonstrates the picture love can paint.

Ruth Gannett won the Newbery Honor Medal in 1949 for My Father's Dragon, the first in a series of three books. They are lovely and make a nice gift as a set.

Honey in the Horn

Finished Honey in the Horn by Harold Lenoir Davis. It won the Pulitzer in 1936. Set in Oregon in the early 20th century, it's the story of a young man who comes of age quickly amidst harsh conditions and considerable danger. In a way the entire story is based on a series of misconceptions which are not cleared up until the very end. I would not classify it as a mystery, but the suspense gives it a similar feel. Like other Pulitizer winners of the time it documents tragic events, but in a different way. Books like Lamb in His Bosom and Now in November tell much the same type of story but with prose that is deeply poetic. Honey in the Horn is told with a wry voice and the tone of tall tales. It's not clear who the narrator is, but the voice is one of unrelenting candidness. No group is safe from its criticism. It's comments concerning local Native American groups are particularly acidic. Regardless of that, many of the descriptions had me chortling.

Aside from the Pulitzer, Honey in the Horn won The Harper Prize for Best First Novel of 1935. Davis wrote several other novels and was a poet as well.

Two Years

Been writing this blog for two years today. Hmm....

You Can Write Chinese

Finished You Can Write Chinese by Kurt Wiese. It won the Caldecott Honor Medal in 1946. An American boy whose family has moved to China attends school in Chungking. There are only boys in this school. The teacher explains that there is no alphabet in Chinese. Each character is an actual word. As he draws the words on the blackboard he shows his students how the characters visually resemble what they mean. Some of the examples are very clear. Others seem a bit forced conceptually. However, I think this approach for young children is entirely appropriate. The cover of the book shows the boy and his sister with the teacher, but his sister does not appear anywhere in the book. Perhaps she appears on the cover to make the "you" in the title more universal.

Kurt Wiese illustrated many books for children. He won the Caldecott Honor Medal again in 1948 for Fish in the Air. His work also won one Newbery Medal and several Honor Medals. His most recognizable illustrations are perhaps for The Story About Ping and The Five Chinese Brothers.

Little Lost Lamb

Finished Little Lost Lamb illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. It won the Caldecott Honor Medal in 1946. Weisgard won the Honor Medal again in 1947 for Rain Drop Splash, the same year the he also won the Caldecott Medal for The Little Island. The text was written by Golden MacDonald, a name which was a pseudonym for Margaret Wise Brown. Brown also won several times. She is remembered most for her book Goodnight Moon.

Caleb's Story

Finished Caleb's Story by Patricia MacLachlan. It is the third book in a series of five which began with Sarah, Plain and Tall, which won the Newbery Medal in 1986.

When Caleb is home alone with Sarah and his little sister Cassie during a blizzard he finds a stranger in their barn. He is an old man who is gruff and seems ill. Sarah, always compassionate, invites him into the house. When Papa returns from town he is stunned when he begins to recognize the stranger. The stranger is his father who left when Papa was a boy. Papa is angry that his father has returned after all these years without a word or a letter. Sarah does her best to repair the rift between the two men. All along Caleb is writing about these events in the journal that his older sister has given him.

Caleb is very observant and after a while he begins to realize that his grandfather cannot read. In secret Caleb teaches his grandfather to read and write. His grandfather then writes the letter to his son that he was never able to write before.

I enjoyed this book. It was very brief and even though it has been years since I read Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark, it was very easy to drop back into the lives of these characters.

The Cat Who Went to Heaven

Finished The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth. It won the Newbery Medal in 1931. It is the story of a Japanese painter whose housekeeper brings home a cat from the market instead of food. At first the painter is skeptical, cats are demonic, but after observing the behavior of the cat he changes his mind. The painter is commissioned to paint a mural for the temple of the death of Buddha. The painter imagines himself as Buddha and as each of the animals that Buddha welcomes to Nirvana. The descriptions of each animal are interesting and compassionately written. The cat is the one animal that was not welcomed, but this seems to change by the end of the book. I don't usually enjoy books that are religiously based, but this book is special. "One of the thirty 20th-century children's books every adult should know."--The Horn Book. Unfortunately I cannot seem to locate that list itself.