Last fall, I read Little Women, and while I didn’t totally hate it, I didn’t totally love it either. For which I got chastised a bit by commenters. 🙂 At any rate, one person (Inkling) said she preferred Louisa May Alcott’s other books better, especially Eight Cousins (and its companion Rose in Bloom), to Little Women. Given that Inkling usually gives good recommendations, I jumped at the chance to read another Alcott for the Classics Challenge.

The verdict? I liked it. It was enjoyable, in a quaint sort of way. It did get preachy at points (like the chapters when Rose “reforms” her cousins, and one of the aunts sets into the boys about reading dime novels), which was mildly annoying and distracting (even if I agreed). But even the preachiness (which is actually quite modern-thinking: no corsets, healthy exercise and dieting and moderation in everything) in the end, came off being quaint.

The basic plot: Rose’s parents have died, and she’s been left to the guardianship of her father’s brother, Dr. Alec. But he’s been away at sea, and she’s been living at Aunt Hill (after trying, and being miserable at, a boarding school) until he comes back. Once he does, he sets her on a regiment to fix her “poor constitution” (Aunt Myra said that — she thinks everyone is just about ready to pop off) and get her to enjoy life. And (of course) he succeeds. She’s a perfect little angel (again — even when she’s “bad” it’s really not bad at all — though I don’t know what I’d do if my daughters got their ears pierced by a friend!) who’s helpful, kind, inquisitive, earnest and loving, and above all that, a thoroughly likable character. And of course Dr. Alec succeeds in winning over Rose, and improving her health, and expanding her mind, and even getting all the Aunts (who originally disapproved) to agree with what he was doing.

Finally, my favorite bit of “medicine” from Dr. Alec: “If you dear little girls would only learn what real beauty is, and not pinch and starve and bleach yourselves out so, you’d save an immense deal of time and money and pain. A happy soul in a healthy body makes the best sort of beauty for man or woman.”

Oh, I should probably add… this was my second book for the Classics Challenge. Only three more to go.

Since it’s January, I was feeling in the mood for something a little exotic. And food-related. I had originally checked out A Year in Provence, but after reading several reviews of this book, opted for it instead.

And I’m not sorry I did. Madhur Jaffrey (whom I mostly know of as a cookbook writer; I was surprised to find out she was an actress) has put together a wonderfully exotic, fun, interesting memoir of her childhood. I loved reading about her education (in a couple of Christian convents, one in Kanpur, one in New Delhi), I enjoyed her stories of her mother and sisters (especially the haggling with local salesmen), I loved the descriptions of the holidays (I need to add Holi to our list of holidays we celebrate; anyone know when it is?). But mostly I loved the descriptions of the food.

Before I quote something, I have to explain this. I have avoided eating Indian food for years. I had an Indian friend when I was younger, and I’d go over to her house, but for some reason the smell of Indian food is linked with the smell of my friend’s grandfather’s hookah pipe. I’d always leave with a headache, and as a result, never tried the food. And have avoided it since then.

However, Madhur Jaffrey has changed my mind. For example (she’s talking about an experience getting food at the Lane of Fried Breads in Delhi):

Before any real food arrived, we would start dipping our fingers in the
condiments and licking them. Then came the vegetables — meats did not belong in such places — carrots stir-fried with young fenugreek greens; potatoes, and peas cooked with cumin, asafetida, and tomatoes; cauliflower with ginger and green chilies. As soon as the vegetables were on our plates, the hot, hot parathas floated in, whichever we had ordered, all puffed ready to be deflated and devoured even before all the steam had hissed out.

They’re all like that: yummy sounding. I guess I must find an Indian restaurant and at least give it a whirl. Either that, or try out one of the recipes in back.

A quiz! A quiz!

Found this via Blog from the Windowsill.

I thought I’d follow up The Dark is Rising with a new Susan Cooper book. I don’t think I’ve read anything else besides The Dark is Rising series by her, and figured it was about time.

And… it was okay.

Nothing spectacular, though maybe my expectations were a bit high. I mean it’s Susan Cooper after all. (I have the same expectations when I read Robin McKinley books: they need to be good.) But this was just okay. The basic story: Molly, an English girl in 2006, is having a rough time because her mom married an American who relocated the family to the States. Sam, an English boy in 1803, has been pressed into Naval service and ended up on the HMS Victory, with Vice-Admiral Nelson in the battle of Trafalgar. There’s a connection between the two, and between flashbacks from Sam, Molly figures out what it is.

I liked the flashback sections immensely. The detail about being pressed into service by the Press Gangs and life on the ship was incredible. However, I think Cooper fell short with the modern character. She just didn’t seem to fit. And her journey wasn’t nearly as interesting as Sam’s was. I found myself skimming the Molly chapters just to get to the next Sam chapter. And he dropped out of the story way too early.

The best part of the book, though, was the Afterword. (I love Afterwords. I often read them before reading the book.) In it Cooper writes this: ” Perhaps I wrote this book only for the change of meeting one of my greatest heroes, just as I was lucky enough to meet Shakespeare in a book called in King of Shadows and Merlin, long ago, in a sequence called The Dark is Rising. Writers are fortunate people.”

Indeed.