A TALE OF TWO CITIES

From the CLASSICS shelf............

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...........it was a time to re-read A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens.

I first read the book when I was 12, then in high school with the rest of my English class. I guess I've read it a couple of times since then. Right now I'm listening to it on cassette at work. I also have an old paperback copy on my shelves.

I will probably write more about the book in future entries, now that I've reminded myself of how much I enjoy it. The story of course is good, but what I really like are the words and the people! Oooh, who doesn't get goosebumps thinking of Madame DeFarge and her cronies with their clicking knitting needles!!

Tags: A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

P. D. James

I recently listened to DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS by P.D. James on cassette. I really like that book and the author. If you like a good, long, suspense story with interesting characters and a "hard-to-guess-who-done-it", then you need to read this one -- if you haven't already! Of course, if you are a P.D. James fan, you know that this describes all her books. There just isn't anyone better at writing who-done-its.

This is an "Adam Dalgliesh" book, and he is one of my favorite main characters. It has been around for awhile, having been published in 2001. But it's one I can re-read, especially on tape!! As a matter of fact, I don't have a copy of the actual book, just an audio copy on my audio shelves. I highly recommend this book.

Tags: P.D. James, Death in Holy Orders, Adam Dalgliesch

Eler Beth's Recommendation

I just finished reading MOONSILVER, the first in The Unicorn's Secret series, by Kathleen Duey. This is a great book, and I now move on to the second in the series. Eler Beth loves these books, as I would have when I was her age. They are perfect for young girls; I'd say especially ages 8 to 12 would like them very much. I'll talk more about the books and the author in future entries.

The Corinthian, by Georgette Heyer

            In the Heyer List Group we are currently discussing Chapters 1 - 10 of THE CORINTHIAN, one of my favorite, lighter Heyer reads.

Author -- May Baldwin

I have found some copies of several of May Baldwin's other books at Abebooks.com.

They are A RIPPING GIRL, DE VICTORIA SCHOOL, NELL, MYSIE, THE GIRLS' ETON, HOLLY HOUSE AND RIDGE'S ROW, HILDA'S EXPERIENCES, THE GIRLS OF ST. GABRIEL'S, THE FOLLYS OF FIFI, POPULAR GIRL, A SCHOOLGIRL'S DIARY, TEDDY AND LILLY'S ADVENTURES, MRS. MANNING'S WARDS, SPOILT CYNTHIA AT SCHOOL, PEG'S ADVENTURES IN PARIS, BARBARA BELLAMY: A PUBLIC SCHOOL GIRL, JEAN AND THE BOYS, KENYA KIDDIES, THAT LITTLE LAMB, DORA A HIGH SCHOOL GIRL, SARAH'S SCHOOL FRIEND, IRENE TO THE RESCUE, SYBIL OR OLD SCHOOL FRIENDS, GOLDEN SQUARE HIGH SCHOOL, MOLL MEREYDITH MADCAP, A PLUCKY GIRL, THAT AWFUL LITTLE BROTHER, A CITY SCHOOLGIRL AND HER FRIENDS, THE SUNSET ROCK, MISS PETER, TROUBLESOME TOPSY AND HER FRIENDS and A YEAR IN NATURELAND. There are copies in German of several of the books. She was quite a prolific writer, wasn't she? I may have to try get some of these. If there is anyone out there who has ever read any of these or heard of May Baldwin, please let me know.

Tags: May Baldwin

January Heyer Book

I will be talking more about Georgette Heyer because I am rather fanatical about her!! Right now I just want to mention that the Heyer Reading Group to which I belong is reading THE CORINTHIAN this month. This is one of the lighter, Regency-era Heyer novels, and one I've always enjoyed. I haven't read it recently, so I'll read along this month.

We are currently covering chapters 1-5, but will start 6-10 on Monday, so I have some catching up to do. More later on that.

Don't Know Much About May Baldwin

About The Author

I haven't been able to find out anything about May Baldwin yet, by just doing searches on the net. I'll continue trying, though. I'd like to find and read some of her other books. (See previous entry.) I have found her mentioned along with other authors of the "girl school"-type novels, though.

In these articles, The History of Girls' School Stories and Reviews & Criticism 1906-1945, Baldwin was only briefly mentioned, but I thought the articles themselves were interesting reads. I always enjoyed those types of books when I was younger. The articles bring out that by 1920 the number of girls between the ages of 12 and 18 who attended school had risen from 20,000 in 1897 to 185,000. The genre of girls' school stories became established and the most popular form of reading during the first quarter of the 20th Century.

There is some really fascinating information in these articles about how education facilities for girls came about. I hadn't realized until reading this that St. Andrew's in Scotland had been the first girls' public school.

About the genre of girls' school stories the first article says: "However, from the beginning the genre did not appeal only to girls who were receiving a middle-class girls' education..., but also to those educated at home and from lower-middle-class and working-class backgrounds. There were initially far more readers of school stories than there were British girls receiving secondary education, and many girls encountered the genre before the experience of school itself. It was not simply the representation of readers' own lives, then, which appealed to them about girls' school stories....In marked contrast to boys' reading, the reading of fiction was regarded as asuitable pastime for young women, as long as what they read was not considered to be challenging or corrupting in any way."

I would still like to find out more about May Baldwin. Hopefully I can. I really enjoyed re-reading MURIEL AND HER AUNT LU, and would like to purchase a copy with a binding in better shape than mine, because it printed with truly lovely binding! I look forward to Eler Beth reading it someday. It is a very good book.

Tags: May Baldwin, Muriel And Her Aunt Lu, The History of Girls' School Stories, Reviews and Criticism 1906 - 1945

A 1909 Tale of Paris

I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide which book on my shelves I would like to write about first. I scanned them ... while this author or that dust jacket jumped out at me -- "pick me, pick me!"

On one of my lower shelves a big, fat volume in red caught my eye. Aha! I haven't seen you in a while!

The book is MURIEL AND HER AUNT LU, A Tale of Paris, by May Baldwin. I can't remember exactly where I got this book, but I was probably around 13 or 14 years old at the time. I've read it three or four times, but not in recent years ... until yesterday. I started reading it again. And I became curious about the author, so I did some research. It wasn't easy finding information about her; it required more than just entering her name in a search engine.

The book:

My copy is about 8-1/2 inches tall, 6 inches wide and over 2 inches deep. The binding is red with a beautiful, etched picture on the front of two ladies dressed in Parisian clothes of the early 1900's, sitting at a small table having coffee or tea, with a young girl standing beside one of the women. The spine is made to look like a column with the title and author printed in gold on a twining ribbon.

Inside the fly leaf the title of the book is actually given as MURIEL AND HER AUNT LU or School and Art Life in Paris. Below that is By May Baldwin Author of HOLLY HOUSE AND RIDGE'S ROW, GOLDEN SQUARE HIGH SCHOOL, MYSIE, PEG'S ADVENTURE IN PARIS, etc. Then credit is given to A. S. Boyd for eight illustrations. The copyright is 1909 W. & R. Chambers, Limited, London and Edinburgh, and J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. LIPPINCOTT is also stamped on the spine.

There is a dedication "To My Friend Rose Mackintosh". The book is printed on thick, almost-but-not-quite-card-stock paper. There are 32 titled chapters and 412 pages.

Overview: 14-year old Muriel goes to live with her aunt, an art student, in Paris, after the death of her mother. Muriel, an only child has very grown-up ways and speech. She was taught by her mother and a governess, and because her mother's health had always been poor, she was used to caring for her invalid mother. Her father, a doctor, is so devastated after his wife's death that he takes a position as a ship's surgeon and sends Muriel to boarding school. She has never been with girls her own age and does not know how to act around them. Muriel, miserable, leaves the school and journeys across the Channel to her father's sister, her beloved Aunt Lu.

Her life there with the aunt is so beautifully told. Lu, a serious, studious, talented art student and also naturally reserved, has never really made friends with her fellow art students, including the mischievous Angelique who also lives in the same rooming house as Lu. With Muriel's coming lots of things change. Lu learns to thaw a little and relax; Muriel learns how to make and keep friends. Of course, mixed in with the story are a lot of history and art lessons, told in such a beautiful and sometimes funny way.

The style of speech is very old-fashioned and continental, but not in a weighty way. It is still a book that is easy to read. I sank into it when I was young and I sank into it yesterday! I look forward to introducing my daughter to the book in a few years. I don't know if there are any copies in libraries; I've never looked. I found a copy for sale for $25.00 at Pioneer Books and for $37.00 at Biblio.

Tags: May Baldwin,Muriel and her Aunt Lu,

"Beware the Man of One Book" -- Anonymous

I cannot remember a time when I could not read. I cannot remember a time when I did not have books all around me. I was taught to read by being read to by my mother and older sister, Barbara. She is the one who first began to teach me the necessary mechanics of reading, so that I was already a reader on an elementary level when I started school. I was taught to read by the sight at any given time of one or both my parents or of any of my siblings with their noses buried in the pages of a book or magazine. I was taught to read by the joy I felt when I heard the rustle of pages turning, the smell of a new book or of news print, the sight of all those words filling all that white space.

In school I was always several years ahead of myself in reading comprehension. My Senior-year English teacher told me she'd never had a student who had read such varied material. I still have pretty eclectic tastes in reading.

So, what do I like to read? What do I have on my shelves? A little bit of everything.

I like biographies, children's books, classic literature, books for young adults, fables, mythology, modern romances, period romances, mysteries, suspense novels, westerns, ancient literature, science fiction, books on self-improvement, books on home-improvement, comics, poetry, school texts, plays and cereal boxes! (Although that last isn't supposed to be on my book shelves!) I'm currently reading the "Unicorn's Secret" series of books by Kathleen Duey that my nine-year old just finished. (They were a recommended read, and when my daughter recommends a book, I must read it!) I have four books going right now: the abovementioned "Unicorn" book (Book #1, because I just started), the first volume of ONE PIECE, which is an anime that my 16-year-old son told me I'd like (he was right -- very funny!), the Georgette Heyer novel for December (REGENCY BUCK), that my Heyer group is reading (actually just finished it), and I'm listening to CRITICAL JUDGMENT by Michael Palmer on audio at work.

Sometimes I want something light and full of fluff. Sometimes I want Dostoevsky. Sometimes I want to re-read a favorite series like The Rabbi Series by Harry Kemmelman, Tolkein, or all of the ANNE OF GREEN GABLES series....aallllll of them! Sometimes I want to re-visit a favorite from my childhood, like Nancy Drew (the original ones!), The Three Investigators, or something by Marguerite Henry, Marjory Hall, Erle Stanley Gardner or Zane Grey. And I almost always have a Georgette Heyer or Patricia Veryan novel going, because they are the best and wittiest, with the most consistently interesting characters of any of my favorite novelists, and it always makes me feel good to read them. Sometimes you can find on my shelves a book that I picked up from some dusty thrift store shelf, written by some obscure author no one's ever heard of.

I don't have the time to read like I used to, but I still manage. And my shelves are full to overflowing. This year I have been concentrating on building my collections of my favorite authors and of many classic novels. I'd like to share on the pages of this journal what is on my shelves and what I think about the books and authors. I'll also be sharing my quests for certain books that round out a series or collection. Maybe by doing this readers will find some enjoyment, be reminded of an old favorite, or be inspired to try out a new author.

I've tried this before and just couldn't get it down the way I wanted. But this time is different. I know what I'm doing. So stay tuned for some talk about books. Leave comments, email me, make suggestions, recommend a book you like and tell me why you like it. It's a new month and a new year, and I mean to start it off with a book. Come join me.

Tags: Reading, books, Veryan, Heyer,