What are you reading Mondays is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog

I’ve just finished two young girl “chapter” books, both classics in their own right, a top-100 list title, and a “I have no idea how this came to be reserved for me at the library” book: Betsy-Tacy, Ramona and her Mother, Olive Kitteridge, and The Christmas List: a Novel.

This week I finished reading :

1. Betsy-Tacy
by Maud Hart Lovelace.

I follow a number of book blogs and there’s been a bit of a buzz lately about these stories, originally published in 1940 and recently re-released. Nearly every review has been positive and I’m left wondering why I’ve never heard of Maud Lovelace – and running to the library for this copy of her first Betsy-Tacy book.

The story is set in the late 19th century and is quaint & charming, although I suspect a little sugar-coated. The plot line, however, was a little too non-existent for me to enjoy this very much. I didn’t care for the illustrations either, but that’s just a matter of personal taste.

It’s been a long while since I was reading young girl chapter books so I think my opinion about these stories should be taken with a grain of salt.

2. Ramona and Her Mother
by Beverly Cleary

Caught waiting at a friend’s house without a book, I scrounged this off her kids’ bookshelf. Beverly Cleary I have heard about. I didn’t read her as a kid (she wasn’t around then) but as a young mother of a voracious reader who enjoyed Cleary very much, I remember thinking her stories to be excellent.

I enjoyed this book. Ramona is very likable and the situations in her household very realistic (father out of a job, then in a new job that wears him down, sibling rivalry and so on). Nothing really dramatic/traumatic happens in this book either, but the book moves along in the exploration of the very realistic relationship between Ramona and her Mother.

I enjoyed this a great deal.

P.S. If you click through the affiliate link in the title, you’ll see a different cover. I like to see the cover that’s on the copy I read – and it’s usually different than Amazon.com because they display the American release, and I read the Canadian.
P.P.S. Canadian readers interested in any of these titles can click through at the bottom of this post. Or, even better, buy from an independent book seller.

And, yes, they are all affiliate links which means that I earn a small amount if you purchase after you’ve clicked through from this post.)

3. Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout

I’ve had a hold on this at the library for months and it finally got to me!

Thirteen short stories, all set in Crosby Maine and all involving Olive Kitteridge to some degree (a couple of the connections were very cursory, many of the stories were entirely about Olive). We meet Olive in middle age with a husband and adolescent son. As the book advances, Olive ages, her son grows and her husband enters a nursing home.

Olive is not a likable woman and as she ages, her disposition doesn’t alter radically. But despite her prickliness, the reader can see changes deep within Olive that make her look at life somewhat differently. No happy endings, no neatly tied up plot lines. Just a collection of stories that will change the way you look at people and at life. Recommended.

4. The Christmas List: A Novel
by Richard Paul Evans

Schmaltzy, formulaic story of one man’s “redemption” from his life of corporate greed, back to the wonderful human being he had been fifteen years before.

James Kier clawed his way to the top, leaving bodies (sometimes literally) strewn along the way. After reading on-line comments on his (mistakenly reported) death, he decides to change: to win his wife back, repair relationships with his son, amend all the damage to at least five people he had done business with (hence, the Christmas list).

I admit that Evans is a master of this genre and I cried copiously when Sara died, but I felt as if my feelings were manipulated and I resented that.

For those who enjoy this genre, I recognize that this is a better than average read for them but it’s not for me.

I’m currently reading:

1. Some Tame Gazelle

by Barbara Pym

This was recommended by a reader after I reviewed Miss Read’s charming journals of English country life in the 1950s.

Also set in an English country village and in the same time period, the style is more reminiscent of Jane Austen than Miss Read.

I’m nearly finished and will be sorry to see this end.

2. All You Have To Do Is Be

A very special gift from my sister because Tom Caldwell was our father’s brother.

Although I’m not keeping up to my chapter-a-day goal, this week, I read the chapter Just, based on a discussion of Micah 6:8.

This chapter contained a deceptively simple but very powerful illustration using a lost toy compass.

3. Passionate Vegetarian

Still reading this and still loving it. Picked up at 50% off at the closing-out sale of the local bookstore, this book promises to contain “more than 1,000 recipes with notes on cooking, eating, loving, and living fearlessly”.

It’s full of stories, back stories of food and the recipes, how-tos and so on. Am enjoying immensely although it’s going to take me some time to get through its 1110 pages.

Links for Canadian readers:
Betsy – Tacy
Ramona & Her Mother
Olive Kitteridge
Passionate Vegetarian

Technorati Tags: Tom Caldwell, All You Have to Do is Be, Passionate Vegetarian, Crescent Dragonwagon, great vegetarian recipes, vegetarian cookbook, Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy, book reviews, Ramona Quimby, Ramona and her Mother, Beverly Cleary, Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout, The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans, Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym