birdienl (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
birdienl) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
christianreader2018-02-08 09:40 pm
birdienl) wrote in christianreader2018-02-08 09:40 pm
Entry tags:
My January reads
A little late, but better late then never, right?
I started the year of reading only books from my own shelves. It feels good to make a dent in the unread books I own!
Mary Gibson - Custard tarts and broken hearts 4/5
The girls who work at the custard and jelly factories in early 20th century London are called 'custard tarts'. Nellie Clark is one of them, working hard from morning till night, trying to hold her family together after her mother died. Two men are fighting for Nellie's attention and to top it all of, the threat of war looms on the horizon.
A warmhearted and human novel, this story of 'little' people swept up in 'big' events. The atmosphere is reminiscent of Call the Midwife: the poverty, the hardship, but also the caring human relationships. The romance is sweet and definitely not 'insta'. The only con I would name for this book is the large amount of time that passes during the story and how this sometimes feels a little weird.
Caroline Roberts - The cosy teashop in the castle 3/5
Ellie Hall is over the moon when she lands a job running the teashop in an actual castle. But things are not all as rosy as they seem, when Ellie has to wrestle with her non-existing experience as a teashop owner and her old-fashioned boss, Lord Henry. Luckily there's Joe, the handsome estate manager and a growing group of locals that Ellie can call her friends.
Check out the cover of this book via Google, this is one of these cosy English books with snug settings (a small village, a crumbling castle) and a heroine with a food-related or artistic profession. My favourite genre of comfort reads! This one falls in the middle of the bunch: I've read better, I've read worse. I would have liked the attention to be a bit more on Ellie's running of the teashop and less heavily on the romance. The romance, by the way, was also a bit too physical for my liking. But, the setting and the people populating this book definitely make up for a lot.
Louis Theroux - The call of the weird 3/5
The documentaries Louis Theroux makes for the BBC are routinely also broadcast on Dutch television, so I've seen most of them. They are undoubtedly well-made and totally fascinating. Theroux himself is amazingly talented, just hanging around people, making them feel comfortable and then asking simple questions, questions we as viewers also have. I think he's better at film making than at writing though, because this book was a bit dry. It also rehashed a lot of material from the documentaries, as Theroux describes how he got to know the people etc. And, in the end, it's also rather sad. Because most of the people he re-visits some years after his documentaries, are not in a good place at all. It was an interesting read nonetheless, but I gave the book away after reading.
Sybil G. Brinton - Old Friends & New Fancies 4/5
The subtitle of this book really says it all: 'An imaginary sequel to the novels of Jane Austen'. And not just any Austenesque sequel, but one of the very first written, already in 1914! Brinton intertwines the lives of beloved characters from all six of Jane Austen's novels, with Georgiana Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Kitty Bennet and William Price as the main characters.
I'm planning on writing a full review for this, so I'll keep it short here: this is a lovely read for Austen fans. We all love to wonder what happened to Austen's characters after her novels and here we get an answer for all her books at once! The style is also really well done, it felt close to Austen's own style to me. (I listened to
Toon Tellegen - De genezing van de krekel 4/5
It can occasionally be sad, to be part of the blogging community and not to be American or English myself. Why, do you ask? Well, I will sometimes read or watch things and not be able to share them with you guys, because they are in Dutch! This little book by Toon Tellegen is one of these. Toon Tellegen writes fables for adults, wise little stories about animals, their emotions and their relationships. While reading them, you are sure they have a message, but it's never immediately clear. Some of his books are translated, so if you ever come across them, highly recommended! This book is about a cricket who feels sad one day and the sadness does not go away. It's a touching and suprisingly human (pun intended) portrait of depression. But not too heavy, because there are also elephants who climb in trees and turtles who celebrate their own shield!
I started the year of reading only books from my own shelves. It feels good to make a dent in the unread books I own!
Mary Gibson - Custard tarts and broken hearts 4/5
The girls who work at the custard and jelly factories in early 20th century London are called 'custard tarts'. Nellie Clark is one of them, working hard from morning till night, trying to hold her family together after her mother died. Two men are fighting for Nellie's attention and to top it all of, the threat of war looms on the horizon.
A warmhearted and human novel, this story of 'little' people swept up in 'big' events. The atmosphere is reminiscent of Call the Midwife: the poverty, the hardship, but also the caring human relationships. The romance is sweet and definitely not 'insta'. The only con I would name for this book is the large amount of time that passes during the story and how this sometimes feels a little weird.
Caroline Roberts - The cosy teashop in the castle 3/5
Ellie Hall is over the moon when she lands a job running the teashop in an actual castle. But things are not all as rosy as they seem, when Ellie has to wrestle with her non-existing experience as a teashop owner and her old-fashioned boss, Lord Henry. Luckily there's Joe, the handsome estate manager and a growing group of locals that Ellie can call her friends.
Check out the cover of this book via Google, this is one of these cosy English books with snug settings (a small village, a crumbling castle) and a heroine with a food-related or artistic profession. My favourite genre of comfort reads! This one falls in the middle of the bunch: I've read better, I've read worse. I would have liked the attention to be a bit more on Ellie's running of the teashop and less heavily on the romance. The romance, by the way, was also a bit too physical for my liking. But, the setting and the people populating this book definitely make up for a lot.
Louis Theroux - The call of the weird 3/5
The documentaries Louis Theroux makes for the BBC are routinely also broadcast on Dutch television, so I've seen most of them. They are undoubtedly well-made and totally fascinating. Theroux himself is amazingly talented, just hanging around people, making them feel comfortable and then asking simple questions, questions we as viewers also have. I think he's better at film making than at writing though, because this book was a bit dry. It also rehashed a lot of material from the documentaries, as Theroux describes how he got to know the people etc. And, in the end, it's also rather sad. Because most of the people he re-visits some years after his documentaries, are not in a good place at all. It was an interesting read nonetheless, but I gave the book away after reading.
Sybil G. Brinton - Old Friends & New Fancies 4/5
The subtitle of this book really says it all: 'An imaginary sequel to the novels of Jane Austen'. And not just any Austenesque sequel, but one of the very first written, already in 1914! Brinton intertwines the lives of beloved characters from all six of Jane Austen's novels, with Georgiana Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Kitty Bennet and William Price as the main characters.
I'm planning on writing a full review for this, so I'll keep it short here: this is a lovely read for Austen fans. We all love to wonder what happened to Austen's characters after her novels and here we get an answer for all her books at once! The style is also really well done, it felt close to Austen's own style to me. (I listened to
Toon Tellegen - De genezing van de krekel 4/5
It can occasionally be sad, to be part of the blogging community and not to be American or English myself. Why, do you ask? Well, I will sometimes read or watch things and not be able to share them with you guys, because they are in Dutch! This little book by Toon Tellegen is one of these. Toon Tellegen writes fables for adults, wise little stories about animals, their emotions and their relationships. While reading them, you are sure they have a message, but it's never immediately clear. Some of his books are translated, so if you ever come across them, highly recommended! This book is about a cricket who feels sad one day and the sadness does not go away. It's a touching and suprisingly human (pun intended) portrait of depression. But not too heavy, because there are also elephants who climb in trees and turtles who celebrate their own shield!