Book Review: En komikers uppväxt (A Comedian Growing Up)

En komikers uppväxt (A Comedian Growing Up) by Jonas Gardell

Category: Fiction

Challenges:  GLBT Challenge, Flashback Challenge

Synopsis: A suburb of Stockholm in the 1970s. Juha, 12 years old, and his classmates are fighting a battle that the adults around them refuse to see or act upon. The class has a hierarchy and those who are out are very very out, those who are in are very very in and in the middle there are those who fight for life and death to be number 4 or at least not to be out.

My Thoughts: This book always makes me feel ill. The way the children in it treat each other and how the adults choose not to see. It makes me ill. And then it makes me think. And then I usually feel even more ill. I start thinking about my own actions when I was that age. How did I act? I was never one of the popular kids, but did I act as Juha did? Sometimes I know I did. Mostly though I was Jenny. But not always. And that hurts even more.

This book is often read in late junior high or high school here (I definitely read it in high school because I recently found my notes from it) and usually it is used in conjunction with a unit on bullying. And as such it is very effective. It really makes you stop and think. Part of me wishes it was suitable for younger children but I don’t think it is. It is a book for older teens and adults. I want children to see what they cause. But this isn’t the book for that. What it does show is what us adults cause, through our ignorance and unwillingness to see. There are no heroic characters in this book. There is no one who who says enough. The adults keep living there lives. Even when they see they are powerless to do anything about what they see. Part of me wants to believe that things have changed, part of me wonders if it ever can.

The book is divided into short chapters with some being letters written by an adult Juha to an unnamed person (although later it becomes clear who this person is) and most being snapshots of events during one school year. Most of the snapshots are told from Juha’s perspective but some are told from the perspective of his classmates. Although this type of writing can feel disjointed, in this book it really works. You feel the pain and conflict present in most characters. It also allows you to see the social hierarchy clearly. The format also allows some events to float, not tethered to chronology. Some events clearly happened after one another but which Friday Juha tells which story isn’t relevant and by not pinning it down to a specific time one can feel the crescendo build.

The book is included in the GLBT challenge because the author is homosexual. He is one of Sweden’s best know and most loved comedians. Although the book is not autobiographical one does get the feeling that Gardell has seen some of what happens himself, then again, I think many of us sadly did.

I’ve been unable to find this book in translation.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Anne of Windy Poplars

Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery

Category: Classic

Synopsis: Anne is the principal of Summerside High School while Gilbert goes to medical school. The book takes the format of letters from Anne to Gilbert and describes the many colourful inhabitants of Summerside and Anne’s Adventures.

My Thoughts: I do love Anne I really do, but I have to admit that Windy Poplars isn’t my favourite. This time thought I decided I would try and figure out why. And I think I know the why now. I find the myriad of characters in the book confusing. There are so many characters that pop in for one or two chapters and then pop back out again never to be seen ever again. This would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that Anne is supposedly really good friends with some of these characters. I am thinking specifically of the wedding where she is a bridesmaid. She is the bridesmaid for a girl we haven’t heard of before and never hear of again! I am left with a “what was the point” feeling at several points in the book. There are so many characters I find interesting and would like to get to know better. 

I do actually like the format of the book, the letters to Gilbert. It is such a nice way of getting glimpses into the life Anne lives, I am left feeling like I am part of it (which makes the appearance and disappearance of characters even more frustrating). By choosing this format Montgomery is able to hop from event to event without THAT feeling to disjointed. I don’t mind the skipping between events, but she could have used more of the same characters.

As always with Montgomery, I do love the language. It billows and flows. It is beautiful and imaginative and descriptive.  Just like Anne the magic of a place called Windy Poplar, located on Spook’s Lane is enough to pull me in and make me fall in love. It is just so provoking! I want to go there and see it, yet I CAN see it as I sit here at home in my own little gable room and read.  For that alone I do love the book, even if it is my least favourite.

I’ve got the US version titled Anne of Windy Poplar apparently there is a version called Anne of Windy Willows which has more in it. Has anyone read it? Apparently there are gory details in it. I feel like I’ve been cheated out of more Anne!

Purchase Anne of Windy Poplar from BookDepository.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Sunday Salon: On Poetry

Have you ever told a room full of high school students that they are going to spend the next few weeks studying poetry? If you have you were probably faced with looks ranging from abject terror (“but poetry is HARD”) to looks of resigned boredom (“but poetry is BORING”). The thing is, poetry as a format is neither hard nor boring. Poetry, I maintain, can be fun, exciting and incredibly informative and entertaining.

That said, there are of course poems and poets that make me want to gouge out my eyes (please don’t make me read Dickinson or Arnold, I beg of you). But I have the same reaction to some authors or books. The wholesale dismissal of a format because someone has been subjected to poetry they did not enjoy makes me want to beat people with a two by four. It particularly upsets me because poetry is so easy to give people a wide variety of poems. You can easily cover everything from sonnets, to epics, to haikus, to humour, to U2 lyrics in just a few weeks of classes. I know I did. And if you aren’t a teacher, you can easily read a poem a day, it can take less than five minutes but really brighten your day. I mean who does not smile at this:

Loss

The day he moved out was terrible -
That evening she went through hell.
His absence wasn't a problem
But the corkscrew had gone as well.

                  --Wendy Cope

Four lines, but they never fail to put a smile on my lips.

Image Credit 

My students were incredibly surprised that they were not only allowed to discuss song lyrics but that they could be considered poetry. That they could compare today’s “sappy love songs” with Shakespeare. That The Beatles “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds” with Coleridge “Kubla Khan” (both were “trippy”). All of a sudden I had a room full of scientists discussing the differences between complex poems. After the unit was over they all agreed that poetry wasn’t as hard as they had thought.

For me poetry is great because it says so much in so few words. It can be hard to get busy students to read full length novels, especially when they are not humanities majors (here students start specialising in high school) but telling them to read three poems for homework didn’t seem like such a difficult concept. That felt doable for them, and for me it means that I can cover a lot of literary terms and concepts quite easy. Plus I love poetry!

Like with everything poetry is only hard if you go in to it thinking it is going to be hard/difficult/boring!

I am going to leave you with a poem that I will always have my seniors read:

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Weekend Cooking: Raspberry Muffins

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish at Beth Fish Reads and it is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Okay, so, apart from all my Jamie cookbooks my current favourite is 1 smet 100 muffins (1 batter 100 muffins) which is a rather miss leading title if you ask this almost English teacher. The recipe in the book is not the same for 100 different types of muffins (obviously) and the batter does not give 100 muffins. But despite the semantic issues it is a great little cookbook. It does provide 100 different versions of muffins, from the wildly indulgent to the savoury dinner versions. I have not yet made all of them but I have tried a few different versions and am quickly coming up with a few favourites. The feta cheese and leek one was great with soup (adapted from the feta cheese and scallions one) as were the cheddar cheese ones (pictured to the left) and the seed and oatmeal one made me feel virtuous, but I have to say, the raspberry one has quickly become my favourite. Even without the topping.

These muffins are lovely moist but still firm. They just make me happy.

For 12

280 g all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

a pinch of salt

115 g white sugar (I am going to try a bit less next time I make them as they are quite sweet)

2 medium eggs (I use Orgran egg substitute)

2 1/2 dl plain yogurt (1 cup)

6 tbsp oil or 85g of melted butter (I usually use 5 tbsp of oil however this last time I used 6 tbsp of home made apple sauce and it worked great plus it is healthier)

1 tsp vanilla extract

150 g frozen raspberries.

Instructions:

Turn the oven on to 200C (392F)

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

 

 

 

 

Mix the wet ingredients in a measuring jug (or a bowl).

 

 

 

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients (this is why I use a measuring jug).

Add the raspberries.

Roughly mix all the ingredients together

Put into a muffin pan (or paper muffin cups) (you can spray or butter the muffin pan to make the muffins less likely to stick)

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes (my oven needs 25 minutes)

Let rest in pan for 5 minutes. Eat hot (they really are the best hot but they are fine cold and heat up nicely if you freeze them, 180C (356F) for 20 minutes)

 

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Living History

Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Category: Memoir

Challenges: 2010 Challenge (Up to You), Memorable Memoirs, Women Unbound

My Thoughts: I’ll admit I didn’t actually know that much about Secretary of State Hillary Clintons life before she became the First Lady so I found this book to be informative as well as fascinating.

One of the reasons I read this book was for the Women Unbound challenge and I have to say it sounds like Secretary of State Clinton has done a lot of work for women, for many many years. I really do admire her for sticking with a cause for so long and for the work she has done to highlight issues that matter to women around the world. Personally I am very much for the “teach a person to fish” approach that she seems to support. She talks about the advantages of microloans for quite some time in the book, I do wish she had been a bit more specific about how it works and more on what type of things the women who get them do.

It was interesting to see how her political ideas had grown and changed as she grew up. I always find it interesting to see where peoples political ideas come from, especially if they aren’t exactly what their parents ideas are. Her discussion of the social justice issues that informed much of her thinking seemed particularly important for her, which I find important for today’s debate regarding where social justice fits in with society.

Many of the issues she touches upon are still issues in today’s American politics (and the politics of other countries). She discusses the polarization of American politics, something that I find very evident today too. In addition to this, especially towards the end of the book she points out the fear based rhetoric used by many to increase this polarisation. I found this particularly relevant when discussing the health care reform she and the President tried to implement. Many of the tactics she described as being used then are the same tactics that have been used today.  It really made it evident that very little has happened in politics in the last ten years. It is still the same as it was then. And seeing it from someone on the inside was very illuminating.

One thing that really annoyed me was how she seemed to become lifelong friends with everyone she met. Really, every time she met someone new she seemed to say that they had become life long friends. It became tiresome after a while and made me wonder if they were really that good of friends. It came across as almost fake and rather insincere. Maybe I’m projecting, I have a hard time letting people in and count them as friends.

She strikes me as a woman with a great deal of self-awareness. She isn’t afraid to put her hand up and say “what I said was stupid”. She points out her own mistakes. She does say this is what I actually said or this is what I actually meant, yes. But she also realises that she made mistakes. I have always wondered why she chose to stay with her husband after what he did and this book made me understand it a bit more. I don’t think I would have made the same decision but I have a better understanding of why she did it now.

Overall it was a very interesting read and I felt I learned a lot about her as a woman and her as a politician, as well as about the political process (and I am a political junkie). There was a definite political bias but I don’t think this is unexpected. Although politically I fall on the liberal side of the scale I would like to read a memoir or two from someone on the other side of the aisle at the same time. Just to see the different points of view.

I read this book in translation and I was once again reminded why I really do prefer to read books in the original where ever possible. I am going to have to re-read this book in English one day. I think I might be due a bit of a ranty post about translation.

Purchase Living History from BookDepository.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: The Namesake [Audio Book]

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by Sarita Choudhury

Category: Fiction

Challenges: South Asian Author Challenge

Synopsis: The Namesake is the story of a family from India who come to America. Although the story starts by telling of Ashoke and Ashima, the young married couple, most of the story is about their son, initially named Gogol but who later changes his name to Nikhil.

My Thoughts: This book left me feeling a bit disappointed. I liked the language in the story. Lahiri always writes such beautiful prose and to a certain extent I connected with the characters but I just felt a bit let down by the end I think. Now I know that Lahiri doesn’t always write happy endings and it wasn’t necessarily that which bothered me. I think it was just the rather abrupt ending. The final scene was good but had it not been for the fact that I saw the timestamp I wouldn’t necessarily have known it was over soon. It just jumped up on you somehow.

I did connect with Gogol/Nikhil with regards to the name issue. My name is unusual in Sweden but common in English speaking countries. Growing up I really hated always having to spell it. I was the kid who would pre-empt the sub by saying “that’s me” when I knew they were coming to my name. In that respect I understood his frustrations. However, I didn’t like the way he treated his parents after he found out. He never really acknowledged what his father did until it was to late. Maybe I am sensitive to this because I almost lost my dad over the summer (there but for the grace…). For me, the thought of my father not being here is enough to change my view on life. For Gogol/Nikhil finding out about his fathers accident seems to have no effect what so ever. I did not like the way he treated his parents. I think that just rubbed me the wrong way.

As I said earlier the prose is beautiful. The language is quiet. It paints pictures so clearly without hitting you over the head with it. I could see the places they lived, the trains they travelled on, the parties they hosted. I felt like I was in all those places. Yet I found it difficult to connect with the passivity of the characters at times. There lack of communication with each other. It bothers me, maybe that is my own cultural bias but the fact that they never TALK to each other really rubbed me the wrong way. I guess what this shows is the difficulties when families grow up in different cultures. Ashoke and Ashima have certain expectations, expectations that their children do not. However, again, the not talking thing bothered me. My father didn’t grow up in Sweden, he comes from a culture that although similar is also very different. The way we avoid conflict is buy talking. I’ve heard stories about my dad growing up. I KNOW where he comes from because we talk about it. I just find it very hard to relate to characters that do not communicate. Again, maybe this is a failing of mine.

There were a couple of instances where I wondered if there weren’t mistakes in the writing. At one point we are told about Moushumi’s reaction to the break-up with Graham. We are told that she lives with friends. A chapter or so later Nikhil and Moushumi are at a party at the friends with whom she stayed, however this comes as a surprise to Nikhil. I just found it odd as I had understood it as we were told about Moushumi’s past at the same time as they discussed it. It seemed odd and it bothered me.

As always when my first encounter with a book is in audio I am left wondering if I would have had a different reaction to it had I read it. I will say that I really enjoyed the audio production. The narrator was clear and I liked how they used accents for Nikhil’s parents. It made the story feel more alive. It was read at a good pace but not to fast.

The book is told in somewhat of an episodic fashion; I wasn’t surprised to learn it had originally been a novella that had been expanded upon. This format makes it hard for me to see where the author is going at times. Although the story is told in chronological order it still feels very jumpy. Certain events that I felt had a big lead up were ended quickly, much like the ending of the book. They didn’t feel properly resolved, but rather they were just dropped without any real resolution.

Overall the book wouldn’t be my first choice for a Lahiri book, I preferred Interpreter of Maladies, but I wouldn’t discourage people from reading it. I never wanted to abandon it, I was invested enough in the characters that I wanted to find out what happened to them.

Purchase The Namesake from BookDepository

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Lilla Feminist-boken (The Little Feminist Book)

Lilla Feminist-boken (The Little Feminist Book) by Sassa Buregren

Category: Children’s Non-fiction (ages 9-12 I would think)

Challenges: Women Unbound

Synopsis: The book features ten year old Ebba who discovers that the world isn’t as equal as she thought.

My Thoughts: Some days everything comes together. I was at the library the other day and wandering the shelves I came across this little gem. It is geared at children but it is a fantastic little book, especially considering that I have been hip deep in feminism for my thesis lately.

The book starts with Ebba leafing through the paper to get to the comics, instead she comes across this picture. Ebba wonders why it is titled “The Worlds Most Powerful Men”. What about women. This leads to a great deal of questioning by Ebba and her friends. I loved how the book didn’t focus on how things should be more equal for women but also how men (and boys) should be allowed to do what they want too. That men shouldn’t be penalised for being home with their children. How we shouldn’t have jobs that are male or female.

The book is a nice mixture between history, biography and call to action. It tells this story of some of the most important figures in the feminist movement in the world in general and Sweden in particular. It explains Mary Wollstonecraft’s arguments along with Simone de Beauvoir’s. And it does so it a way that children could understand without being patronising. As I have been reading extracts from both A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and The Second Sex lately I felt that it was a very accurate summation of the different authors arguments.

The book is a lovely little introduction to what feminism is, why it is important and where it started and where it is going. It shows how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. It mixes the history and philosophy with the story about Ebba and her friends and their awakening to the issues of feminism. I felt that this made the book more accessible. I also liked how it discussed many of the issues involved in feminism without ever sounding heavy handed. I really want to find something similar in English to send to my little cousins and honorary niece. Although Ebba’s story is fiction this is firmly a non-fiction book, and thus a perfect addition to the Women Unbound Non-Fiction requirement.

I have not been able to find this book in translation unfortunately

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Weekly Geeks 13-2010: Poetry Month

This weeks Weekly Geek asks:

April is National Poetry Month in the US and Canada. It is "a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry."
Now I'm not one for poetry but maybe I should learn more about this literary form. For this week's theme, I encourage participants to to help celebrate National Poetry Month by:

• Posting a favorite poem, or
• Reviewing a poem or book of poems, or
• Discussing a favorite poet, or
• Posting a vlog of yourself reading a poem or find a video of someone else reading one, or
• Writing a poem yourself- any form

Or come up with something I haven't thought of to celebrate and post it on your blog. Let your imagination run wild.

I’m going combine mine with the POC Reading Challenge Mini-Challenge for April which asks us to do the same as above but with a poet of colour. Since one of my favourite poets is Langston Huges it was an easy combine. One of the most powerful poems by this author is the poem I, Too, Sing America. It is short but powerful. It speaks volumes.

I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Weekend Cooking: Jamie’s Mushroom Risotto

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish at Beth Fish Reads and it is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

This is my first Weekend Cooking post but I have been thinking about joining in for a while. I thought I would share one of my family’s favourite comfort foods: Jamie’s Mushroom Risotto. Jamie is Jamie Oliver of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, but he has been Jamie and our favourite celebrity chef for 10 years now, ever since he was The Naked Chef. We use recipes from his cookbooks and tv shows several times a week (the roast potatoes from his Christmas show are divine). This week I made his mushroom risotto

Now I use Jamie’s recipe as a base but I change things around quite a bit as well :D.

Here is Jamie’s recipe for the Risotto base. And when he says it smells gorgeous he means it!

Now for the mushrooms and other good stuff!

I used chantrelles that my mum picked in the summer and fall (a couple of hand fulls (however much happens to be in the bag)). They have a mild earthy taste and are our favourite mushrooms (see Jamie no button mushrooms). I use rosemary to flavour because it is one of my favourite herbs (a couple of stems). I also use half cheddar and half parmesan cheese because that is what I had at home and I like my risotto extra cheesy.

Am I the only one who loves the smell of frying onions? (I didn’t have any celery at home so I skipped that this time but it does make it better).

Sautéing chantrelles (in the summer we like eating them sautéed on toast with a bit of salt. Yummmy)

I don’t have any pictures of the finished product because I forgot  :(  but trust me it was yummy! We had it with oven baked tomatoes (because the tomatoes are a bit icky right now to eat fresh) but I’ve served it with oven baked asparagus too and that is yummier!

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Anne of the Island

Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery

Category: Classic

Synopsis: Anne, Gilbert and Charlie Sloan head off to Redmond to study for their BAs. In Kingsport they make new friends and learn new things. However things are also changing between Anne and her friends.

My Thoughts: Yet another Anne book that I adore. As with Anne of Avonlea the language in the book is beautiful. It is full of scrumptious descriptions and flowing prose. I just love it. It is one of the few books where I don’t mind that the author uses ten words when she could have used one.

I always want to whack Anne over the head in this book. Why oh why doesn’t she realise how absolutely amazing Gilbert is! Gilbert is probably my longest standing bookish crush. I suppose he is my Prince Charming :).

Along with Anne’s changing relationship to Gilbert the book focuses on new and changing friendships for Anne. Anne’s friends from Queens Pricilla and Stella join her at Redmond and the girls make a new friend in frivolous but lovable Philippa, known as Phil to her friends. I love the view of friendship that is presented in the book.

If I could give one criticism it would be that the academic in me would have liked to see more of the classes. What exactly did they study. The book covers four years and could easily have been four times as long. I want more! More of everything!

For me this is the ultimate comfort read. This is one of the books I reach for when life is difficult. This is one of the books that never fails to make me feel better.

Purchase Anne of the Island from BookDepository

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Teaser Tuesday: Anne of Windy Poplars

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

“Trix Taylor was curled up in the tower one night in February, while little flurries of snow hissed against the windows and that absurdly tiny stove purred like a red-hot black cat. Trix was pouring out her woes to Anne” (pg61).

From Anne of Windy Poplars by L. M. Montgomery

 

 

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Wrap Up Post: Childhood Favourites Challenge

First off I would like to thank Debbie of Debbie’s World of Books for hosting this wonderful challenge. It has been such a treat to get back to some of my childhood favourites, it is something I intend to continue with.

The five books I read for this challenge were:

The Babysitters Club: Mary Anne Saves the Day by Ann M. Martin. I was younger than the girls in the club when I read them and I had forgotten much of what happened. What struck me the most about the book though was the fact that much of the fashions in the book were the same now as they were then. Highly amusing :)

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This was never one of my favourite series in the book, but I could see it with slightly different eyes now. Laura was one of my childhood heroines, I wanted to be her (bookLaura more than tvseriesLaura). She was a contributing part in making me into the woman I am today.

A Horse Called Wonder by Joanna Campbell. I was a bit of a horse girl growing up and I wanted to save a foal just like Ashleigh did. I also wanted to work with race horses and this book (and the rest of the series) were directly responsible for that. I still felt for Ashleigh in the book like I did all those years ago when I read it.

Madicken by Astrid Lindgren. This was a book that I had forgotten but remembered, if that makes sense. When I read it it was all familiar but if you had asked me about it before I couldn’t have told you the plot points. Madicken is another independent, curious and resourceful young girl who had a profound impact on me growing up. I like the fact that it is a rather quiet story without dramatic events it manages to tell stories of family and friendship. 

Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery. My last, and probably my favourite re-read. I had forgotten so much about a book I loved in my early teen years. Anne offers me a great deal of comfort at the same time as I now saw new things. Things that I had not noticed as a teenager, especially with regards to Anne as a teacher. Now that I am studying to become a teacher myself I see some of the events in the book in a whole new light.

In writing this wrap-up post I realise that I chose books about strong, independent and caring girls. Books about girls whom I admired greatly growing up. Girls I aspired to be. I shall make a confession here: If I could, and the Tardis arrived right now, I would happily go to any of these alternative realities. Although, all things considered I think I would have to go see Anne. If nothing else to tell her that if she doesn’t snap up Gilbert this instance I will (why yes, I am currently reading Anne of the Island).

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North.This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.