fun

“The Boxcar Children” by Gertrude Chandler Warner

August 12, 2023 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Finding it in a Little Free Library

I look in all the little free libraries I pass, but I’m only drawn to take books home if I recognize them. I don’t remember if I read this series as a child, but I certainly recognized it.

I started reading with some trepidation, but despite being written in the 1920s, this book has largely escaped being visited by the Suck Fairy. The children seem to be in the most danger while running away at the beginning of the book, but then settle into creating a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the woods. The oldest boy walks into town and finds work helping a kindly family. The older girl and younger girl and boy have adventures like damming a small nearby creek without mishaps. There are some divisions of work by gender roles, but both the boys and the girls are confident, capable, and active.

The book avoids being overtly racist or homophobic by not having any Black or LGBTQ characters, which makes sense in the small town context. Of course a family of four Black kids running away would have had a much harder time and less help from the adults they encounter.

Recommended for kids, or adults taking a walk down memory lane. I enjoyed sitting on the back step and reading it, and then returned it to the Little Free Library where I found it so someone else can enjoy it.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Kingfisher” by Patricia A. McKillip

June 28, 2023 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

I am a longtime McKillip fan. I remember finding “Riddle-Master of Hed” on a used book rack as a young teen. When I finished reading it, I held the closed book in my hands, turned it over, and started reading it again to see all the connections I had missed the first time. Her “Forgotten Beasts of Eld” was my favorite book for many years.

Over the years I wandered away from automatically reading everything she published. The same themes and characters seemed remixed in each book, and the stories floated along vaguely without making sense.

I picked up Kingfisher when it popped up in a library search for “T.Kingfisher”. It’s a more recent book, from 2016. The King Arthur underpinnings give the book a strong structure, and the way she fixes the fore-doomed parts of the story is very satisfying.

Like with “Riddle-Master of Hed,” I turned the book over and started again when I finished it. It rewarded re-reading with more connections with the King Arthur story, and more details that I skimmed over the first time.

There is a strong theme of missing parents, and repairing broken connections. Some of the familiar themes were missing – no musicians! Some were there – cauldrons and castle kitchens cooking feasts. Shape changing. Learning magical skills quickly and easily. I liked that perceptiveness was a valued magical skill.

On the positive side, there are strong, competent women knights. On the negative side, all the important women characters are tall, willowy, and have light hair and eyes. A couple of incidental characters without speaking parts are described as plump. All the relationships are heterosexual. Everyone seems to be white. Even the man described as having “lamb’s wool” hair is also described as having pale colored hair. I would have hoped for better from a book written in 2016.

Recommended with those caveats.

Available at bookshop.org.

“The English Understand Wool” by Helen DeWitt

May 3, 2023 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Andy

A story in brief chapters of a child raised by very wealthy very upperclass very international parents, and how she copes with a sudden change in her circumstances.

The story seems light, superficial, until it comes to its sudden, satisfying end and it becomes clearer how the apparently superficial details fit together.

It is written in a distancing style. Recommended if you like that, and/or if you like reading about how people behave when they have really a lot of money and are trying to meet their own standard for good behavior.

Available at bookshop.org.

“When the Angels Left the Old Country” by sacha lamb

March 12, 2023 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Soph and Becca.

This is a book about an angel and a demon (and some humans). A Jewish angel, a Jewish demon, and Jewish queer humans, emigrating by ship from a tiny shtetl in Poland to New York.

The angel is obviously, essentially Good, and at the same time it can be oblivious, and its actions can have evil effects. The demon is selfish and encourages wickedness, and its actions can have ultimately good effects. They are conflicted within themselves, argue endlessly with each other, and love and need each other deeply. This complexity and debate around questions of good and evil, intent and action, are quintessentially Jewish, in contrast to a single clear polarizing answer.

Of course some immigrants were queer, and of course some of them would fall in love with each other. As a Jewish queer human myself, it was surprising and delightful to feel recognized in the world of this book, permeated with Yiddish phrases and Jewish mysticism.

The prose is a pleasure to read, tumbling from one scene to the next and only occasionally allowing the uncertainty and danger to ratchet too high. The outcome is satisfying neat, even if full repentance is a little unexpected.

Highly recommended!

Available at bookshop.org.

“Chalice” by Robin McKinley

March 6, 2023 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Fill to me the parting glass by someinstant, fan fiction for this book

This book is beautifully written with strong characters and relationships and an interesting system of magic. It pulled me right through it. It’s another Robin McKinley book with a capable young woman protagonist studying hard to get through challenging circumstances. Mirasol has more help and less desperation than some of her protagonists have had in past books, so it felt softer to read about her and her world. I loved her honey and bees.

When I stepped back to think about the world-building, the book is disappointingly xenophobic and patriarchal. There is a crisis because the land won’t accept an outblood Master (male and hereditary) under an Overlord (also male) and the Master is supported by a Chalice (female and not hereditary).

I would love to see the creativity that went into this book supporting alternatives to xenophobia and patriarchy instead of reinforcing them.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Six Reasons to Travel” by Stuart Gelzer

January 22, 2023 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Subtitle: an American Singer in Georgia

Recommended to me by: Jen Morris

As an enthusiastic fan of Georgian singing in general and Trio Kavkasia in particular, I was eager to read about the trio’s adventures in the Republic of Georgia as shared by one of its members. These three American men spent time in Georgia both studying the language in the capital city, Tbilisi, and touring the countryside to learn songs from master singers.

The book is well-written and full of engaging details about places and people. At the same time, it took me a long time to finish reading. It is a set of semi-independent essays, and some of the essays have more drinking and violence in them than I’m comfortable reading about. It is a book very much centered on men, with women relegated to the background or referred to disparagingly, like the “kerchiefed biddy” mopping a church. While women do sing in Georgia, there is a whole tradition of men sitting around the table drinking, singing, and eating, while women serve food they spent days preparing.

Toward the end of the book the focus returns to the theory and practice of learning Georgian songs. Stuart Gelzer looks back on a religious ritual he participated in without learning about it beforehand and says, “I actually like to stay a little lost, a little confused. […] I like the flow of apparent chaos, the hilarious unpredictability, the feeling of being a perpetual outsider, the challenge of being clueless.” This cheerful attitude born of luck and privilege gives him access to wonderful musical adventures and a deep knowledge of Georgian singing.

The whole time I wondered when the six reasons to travel would be explained. Looking at the beginning of the book again to write this review, I noticed a poem before the table of contents.

to leave one’s troubles behind one
to earn a living
to acquire learning
to practice good manners
to meet honorable men
for the pleasantness of being liked for oneself
— Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia

Recommended for anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of traveling and learning songs in Georgia.

Available at bookshop.org.