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Wednesday Reading Meme
Nov. 27th, 2024 06:02 pmWhat I've Just Finished Reading
Gimlet Mops Up, The Ravensdale Mystery and All's Fair, all by W.E. Johns (as is to be expected at this point. Mops Up was a very enjoyable tale, and once again delivered Gimlet whump in spades - I think WEJ just enjoys hitting him over the head from time to time and honestly I can't blame him (sorry Gimlet, ILU really!!). The plot moved along at a fair clip and there was a decent amount of action as well as a bit of espionage with Cub's trip to the church. Speaking of, the chapter title 'Cub Goes To Church' really tickled me. We also got some fun Copper and Trapper bits, although Trapper continues to be the most weakly characterised of all the cast due to his main trait being 'has a French accent, is happy to murder', as opposed to characters like Cub ('is young, happy to murder, in love with Gimlet'). Speaking of I am starting to shamefully ship Cub/Gimlet in a one-sided and hopeless way which Gimlet would be horrified to find out about. Cub goes out for a drink with Ginger and ends up trying to commiserate about age-gap crushes. Unfortunately Ginger has levelled up the relationship and has to try and conceal that fact for as long as possible.
The Werewolves were described in a suitably creepy fashion and their use of knockout gas was an effective way to incapacitate the characters in a believable way. The scene at the Lorrington Cottage Garden Show was great, and also the fact that the Lorrington Cottage Garden Show is a thing in this book I can mention brings me great joy. WEJ seems very attached to Gimlet as landed gentry trying to Do It Right, which is probably some sort of Imperialist impulse but I can't get over the idea of Gimlet, freshly scrubbed clean of Nazi blood, turning up to award a rosette for Best Lamb In Show to a rosy-cheeked child.
The Ravensdale Mystery was a delightful surprise! A girl's school story which I can happily rec to my mum, we follow Joan Scott - a previously sickly child who grew up in a colonial state (wherever did he get that idea...) - who has finally started school after years of reading books on her own. Her father is in Intelligence and her mother isn't mentioned, but one hopes that she's alive even against all the odds. Joan is a lovely lead character, so very clearly a teenager with a lack of experience in the world but still very intelligent and adventurous in a way which surprises even herself. She self-consciously thinks she doesn't have friends - especially Diana, who is described as a quintessential British schoolgirl, being attractive and very good at sports but not much for her lessons. Diana is also said to rib younger students a lot in a good natured way, which Joan objects to. Despite all this I do believe that she has a pash on Joan and her actions in the last part of this novella definitely bear it out. Joan/Diana 4ever.
Joan's adventure begins when she is hiding in a gorse bush to avoid Diana and her friend Tick, and ends up witnessing her French mistress - the only teacher she doesn't get on with, of course - emerge from Ravensdale, an area the headmistress has declared off limits for students. This kicks off a very fast-paced mystery involving German spys, secret messages and hidden passages. It's great fun, and I have no doubt it's part of a genre of WW2 story which I just haven't come across in my reading before. I would happily read a dozen more of these and honestly it did remind me a bit of Murder Most Unladylike, which is all to the good!
All's Fair was a bit rubbish.
What I'm Reading Now
Technically Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, but after a strong start for me where I read about eighty pages in a day I've completely fallen off it. I really enjoy Emily's narrative voice so I'm hoping I'll manage to re-engage with it without too much trouble. Also a Biggles Buries A Hatchet re-read, as a treat, which I believe was spurred by the point last week that a child in my class threw a shoe at me.
What I Plan To Read Next
Since Christmas is coming up, I might go back to Connie Willis's Miracle anthology of short stories, which I got off my parents but haven't read since I was about fourteen and couldn't appreciate all the nuances. Possibly also going to dive back into some of my British Library Tales of the Weird, since I have about six I haven't finished yet after a strong period with Botanical Weird and Weird Trees.
Gimlet Mops Up, The Ravensdale Mystery and All's Fair, all by W.E. Johns (as is to be expected at this point. Mops Up was a very enjoyable tale, and once again delivered Gimlet whump in spades - I think WEJ just enjoys hitting him over the head from time to time and honestly I can't blame him (sorry Gimlet, ILU really!!). The plot moved along at a fair clip and there was a decent amount of action as well as a bit of espionage with Cub's trip to the church. Speaking of, the chapter title 'Cub Goes To Church' really tickled me. We also got some fun Copper and Trapper bits, although Trapper continues to be the most weakly characterised of all the cast due to his main trait being 'has a French accent, is happy to murder', as opposed to characters like Cub ('is young, happy to murder, in love with Gimlet'). Speaking of I am starting to shamefully ship Cub/Gimlet in a one-sided and hopeless way which Gimlet would be horrified to find out about. Cub goes out for a drink with Ginger and ends up trying to commiserate about age-gap crushes. Unfortunately Ginger has levelled up the relationship and has to try and conceal that fact for as long as possible.
The Werewolves were described in a suitably creepy fashion and their use of knockout gas was an effective way to incapacitate the characters in a believable way. The scene at the Lorrington Cottage Garden Show was great, and also the fact that the Lorrington Cottage Garden Show is a thing in this book I can mention brings me great joy. WEJ seems very attached to Gimlet as landed gentry trying to Do It Right, which is probably some sort of Imperialist impulse but I can't get over the idea of Gimlet, freshly scrubbed clean of Nazi blood, turning up to award a rosette for Best Lamb In Show to a rosy-cheeked child.
The Ravensdale Mystery was a delightful surprise! A girl's school story which I can happily rec to my mum, we follow Joan Scott - a previously sickly child who grew up in a colonial state (wherever did he get that idea...) - who has finally started school after years of reading books on her own. Her father is in Intelligence and her mother isn't mentioned, but one hopes that she's alive even against all the odds. Joan is a lovely lead character, so very clearly a teenager with a lack of experience in the world but still very intelligent and adventurous in a way which surprises even herself. She self-consciously thinks she doesn't have friends - especially Diana, who is described as a quintessential British schoolgirl, being attractive and very good at sports but not much for her lessons. Diana is also said to rib younger students a lot in a good natured way, which Joan objects to. Despite all this I do believe that she has a pash on Joan and her actions in the last part of this novella definitely bear it out. Joan/Diana 4ever.
Joan's adventure begins when she is hiding in a gorse bush to avoid Diana and her friend Tick, and ends up witnessing her French mistress - the only teacher she doesn't get on with, of course - emerge from Ravensdale, an area the headmistress has declared off limits for students. This kicks off a very fast-paced mystery involving German spys, secret messages and hidden passages. It's great fun, and I have no doubt it's part of a genre of WW2 story which I just haven't come across in my reading before. I would happily read a dozen more of these and honestly it did remind me a bit of Murder Most Unladylike, which is all to the good!
All's Fair was a bit rubbish.
What I'm Reading Now
Technically Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, but after a strong start for me where I read about eighty pages in a day I've completely fallen off it. I really enjoy Emily's narrative voice so I'm hoping I'll manage to re-engage with it without too much trouble. Also a Biggles Buries A Hatchet re-read, as a treat, which I believe was spurred by the point last week that a child in my class threw a shoe at me.
What I Plan To Read Next
Since Christmas is coming up, I might go back to Connie Willis's Miracle anthology of short stories, which I got off my parents but haven't read since I was about fourteen and couldn't appreciate all the nuances. Possibly also going to dive back into some of my British Library Tales of the Weird, since I have about six I haven't finished yet after a strong period with Botanical Weird and Weird Trees.
