Musing Mondays  21 January 2013


Musing Mondays is a weekly event hosted by Should Be Reading.  Each week you are asked to answer one of three questions.  This week I will be writing about what I am reading and my opinions of it.  It will be a long post as I am currently reading three things at once -- a virtually unheard of thing for me.  So, here goes.

Annie Murray is a British author that is new to me.  My daughter's mother in law brought this book with her during a recent visit and left it behind for me to enjoy.  As is a usual occurrence when I try to read more than one book at a time, one takes over and the others sit around waiting for me.  Well, this is the one that has grabbed my attention at the moment.  It is a story about Rose, a little girl growing up in an unsavory area of Birmingham, England.  It depicts her living conditions in a very graphic manner, sometimes a little too graphic for me.  Her story progresses as she gets her first job which she is thrilled about so that she can help her family, her attack by her boss and the subsequent tragedy resulting from that and, her new life in the British army during World War II.  That is where I am now, about half way through the book and,  at this point, it seems that her tragic life is somewhat behind her and things are looking up a bit despite it being in the middle of the war with the very soul being bombed out of Britain.  I have left off where she has left boot camp and is being transferred to another base.  I am pretty sure her misery is not behind her but maybe it won't be as bad as what she left behind.  I will let you know.

The next book I am reading is the first Bobbsey Twins book by Laura Lee Hope.  I downloaded it to my Nook -- I would love to have the lovely first edition pictured above and I even  went to my local antique mall to look for it -- they have a huge children's section -- but couldn't find it.  I am reading this in participation of the children's book challenge I have joined -- each book has to be at least 60 pages and this one is 65 and for the life of me I can't get through it.  Shouldn't 65 pages only take about an hour or so?  Not in my world, I guess.  Anyway, I am enjoying the book and honestly, except for a bit of word usage, you wouldn't readily realize that his book was written in 1902, the year of my grandmother's birth -- it seems much more contemporary than that which contributes to the enjoyment of reading it.  I have to say that the dialogue of Dinah, the family cook, is  stereotypical and definitely NOT politically correct and is, actually, a bit difficult to understand. I don't find it particularly offensive, just typical of the time and when I read it I see Hattie McDaniel who was always one of my favorite actresses.  I am enjoying the book as it takes me through the daily life of the Bobbsey family.  Being interested in family history and knowing when the book was written, I like to think about my grandmother as I am reading it and learning about life during what was her childhood.  By the way, this isn't my first Bobbsey Twin book as these books were a staple on my bookshelf -- my mother bought many of them and I inherited a few from JLSHall (did you know that?).  The ones in my personal library tell a bit about MY childhood as well as JLSHall and I would play "library" and we make checkout card packets and stapled them into the books and they are still there.  Really?  How many kids today play library?  Well, we did only have three tv channels at the time.

The third book I am reading is "And Furthermore" by Judi Dench about Judi Dench.  I am a huge fan of this actress and I have loved reading about her career and her life.  However, most of all, I like looking at the photos and there are many.  This is one of those books I can pick up and read a bit and put it down -- not like  a novel where you have to keep going -- it is much more relaxed.  I have been interested in reading some biographies lately and this is my first.  My next will be about Coco Chanel.  You would think with my interest in these very stylish ladies I would have more style! Hmmm.  I need to think about that.

Anyway, that is what is on my reading table and Nook this week.  Hopefully by next week the list will have changed.  I am a slow reader but this is ridiculous.