{"id":343,"date":"2016-04-07T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T12:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/07\/what-i-am-reading\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T16:30:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T16:30:39","slug":"what-i-am-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/07\/what-i-am-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Am Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"currently<\/a><\/div>\n

Last week I mentioned that I was stuck in a bit of a rereading rut (which I must admit, I have completely enjoyed.) \u00a0This week I am branching out just a little. \u00a0I am still doing some rereading but I have added a \u00a0few new books into the mix. \u00a0That has resulted in me having way too many books going at once but I can live with that.<\/p>\n

I am reading Mansfield Park<\/i> for the millionth time. \u00a0I recently read Claire Tomalin’s book about Jane Austen and then I read a volume of Jane Austen’s letters. \u00a0The obvious next step is to reread Jane Austen’s books. \u00a0I have read them over and over but they never get old. \u00a0Every time I feel like I notice some new turn of phrase or detail of the story. \u00a0Her books make me happy. \u00a0What does not make me happy is the inscription inside this copy. \u00a0I picked it up secondhand, like most of my books, and this is the first time I have read this copy.<\/p>\n

\"book<\/a><\/div>\n

I don’t know what the relationship is between Sharon and Greg. \u00a0Husband and wife? \u00a0Friends? \u00a0Boyfriend and Girlfriend? \u00a0Who knows. \u00a0What I do know is that Sharon should get rid of Greg. \u00a0Anyone who puts “B-4” \u00a0instead of before and “luv” instead of love deserves to be dumped. \u00a0And to write that in the front of a Jane Austen novel just makes me cringe. \u00a0I stopped and thought about what I just wrote and no, I don’t think I am joking.<\/p>\n

\"children's<\/a><\/div>\n

My next reread is Searching for Shona<\/i> by Margaret J. Anderson. I do like the cover and apparently, my obsession with WWII stories started at a very young age. \u00a0I picked this up off the free book rack at the library for my daughter. \u00a0I read it when I was about her age. \u00a0It is about two girls who are being evacuated from Edinburgh during WWII. \u00a0They decide to switch places, each thinking the other’s destination is preferable. If I remember correctly they were both going to relatives who had never met them. They think they will easily be able to switch back but it is years before they see each other again. \u00a0I found this book quite traumatic when I was young. \u00a0At the end of the book, one of the girls denies her true identity and insists on staying with the family of the other girl. \u00a0I was very bothered by this. \u00a0It offended my sense of the correctness of things for the girl’s identities to be confused and for them to be living the “wrong” lives. \u00a0It didn’t matter that they had good, happy lives. \u00a0They were the wrong lives. \u00a0I am curious to see how I feel about the ending now as an adult and I am also curious to see how my daughter reacts to it. \u00a0I must admit, I debated giving it to my daughter but I thought that any book that made that big an impression on me was a well-done book and I also knew, even at the time, that my reaction to the book was a little extreme. \u00a0I am sure a psychologist would have a field day with that.<\/p>\n

I just started Ancestral Voices<\/i> by James Lees-Milne. \u00a0The back cover says it “is the first of three volumes of a diary James Lees-Milne kept from 1942 to 1947 when he was employed to inspect historic buildings offered by their eccentric or impecunious owners to the National Trust. Lively, frank, witty sometimes scandalous, it is immensely entertaining reading.” \u00a0I enjoy reading diaries and that time period is exactly what I like best. \u00a0I saw this recommended on a blog somewhere at some point but I can’t remember where.<\/p>\n

I am also reading Diary of an Ordinary Woman<\/i> by Margaret Forster. \u00a0She is not an author I am familiar with at all but my husband heard an old interview with her on the BBC and told me about it. \u00a0 He thought she sounded like someone I would like so I am trying one of her books. \u00a0This is the fictional diaries of a woman who lived during most of the twentieth century. \u00a0She records the “dramas of everyday life in an ordinary family touched by war, tragedy, and money troubles in the early decades of the century.” \u00a0I am about a third of the way through it and am enjoying it. \u00a0It is a light and easy read so far even though the events going on in the world at the time are not light and easy. \u00a0Maybe that is my complaint. \u00a0The diary format, in this case, seems to keep everyone and everything at a distance so I don’t feel completely involved in the story. \u00a0I’ll see what I think as it goes on.<\/p>\n

I am also reading a book about photography but that doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the books I talk about. \u00a0It is very useful though.<\/p>\n

So there you have it. \u00a0I am going to try to finish up some of these before I pick up anything else. \u00a0My old familiar books are still calling me so I don’t know how well that will work. \u00a0I was just thinking that I hadn’t read any Angela Thirkell in a while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I mentioned that I was stuck in a bit of a rereading rut (which I must admit, I have completely enjoyed.) \u00a0This week I am branching out just a little. \u00a0I am still doing some rereading but I have added a \u00a0few new books into the mix. \u00a0That has resulted in me having way too many books going at once but I can live with that. I am reading Mansfield Park for the millionth time. \u00a0I recently read Claire Tomalin’s book about Jane Austen and then I read a volume of Jane Austen’s letters. \u00a0The obvious next step is to reread Jane Austen’s books. \u00a0I have read them over and over but they never get old. \u00a0Every time I feel like I notice some new turn of phrase or detail of the story. \u00a0Her books make me happy. \u00a0What does not make me happy is the inscription inside this copy. \u00a0I picked it up secondhand, like most of my books, and this is the first time I have read this copy. I don’t know what the relationship is between Sharon and Greg. \u00a0Husband and wife? \u00a0Friends? \u00a0Boyfriend and Girlfriend? \u00a0Who knows. \u00a0What I do know is that Sharon should get rid of Greg. \u00a0Anyone who puts “B-4” \u00a0instead of before and “luv” instead of love deserves to be dumped. \u00a0And to write that in the front of a Jane Austen novel just makes me cringe. \u00a0I stopped and thought about what I just wrote and no, I don’t think I am joking. My next reread is Searching for Shona by Margaret J. Anderson. I do like the cover and apparently, my obsession with WWII stories started at a very young age. \u00a0I picked this up off the free book rack at the library for my daughter. \u00a0I read it when I was about her age. \u00a0It is about two girls who are being evacuated from Edinburgh during WWII. \u00a0They decide to switch places, each thinking the other’s destination is preferable. If I remember correctly they were both going to relatives who had never met them. They think they will easily be able to switch back but it is years before they see each other again. \u00a0I found this book quite traumatic when I was young. \u00a0At the end of the book, one of the girls denies her true identity and insists on staying with the family of the other girl. \u00a0I was very bothered by this. \u00a0It offended my sense of the correctness of things for the girl’s identities to be confused and for them to be living the “wrong” lives. \u00a0It didn’t matter that they had good, happy lives. \u00a0They were the wrong lives. \u00a0I am curious to see how I feel about the ending now as an adult and I am also curious to see how my daughter reacts to it. \u00a0I must admit, I debated giving it to my daughter but I thought that any book that made that big an impression on me was a well-done book and I also knew, even at the time, that my reaction to the book was a little extreme. \u00a0I am sure a psychologist would have a field day with that. I just started Ancestral Voices by James Lees-Milne. \u00a0The back cover says it “is the first of three volumes of a diary James Lees-Milne kept from 1942 to 1947 when he was employed to inspect historic buildings offered by their eccentric or impecunious owners to the National Trust. Lively, frank, witty sometimes scandalous, it is immensely entertaining reading.” \u00a0I enjoy reading diaries and that time period is exactly what I like best. \u00a0I saw this recommended on a blog somewhere at some point but I can’t remember where. I am also reading Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster. \u00a0She is not an author I am familiar with at all but my husband heard an old interview with her on the BBC and told me about it. \u00a0 He thought she sounded like someone I would like so I am trying one of her books. \u00a0This is the fictional diaries of a woman who lived during most of the twentieth century. \u00a0She records the “dramas of everyday life in an ordinary family touched by war, tragedy, and money troubles in the early decades of the century.” \u00a0I am about a third of the way through it and am enjoying it. \u00a0It is a light and easy read so far even though the events going on in the world at the time are not light and easy. \u00a0Maybe that is my complaint. \u00a0The diary format, in this case, seems to keep everyone and everything at a distance so I don’t feel completely involved in the story. \u00a0I’ll see what I think as it goes on. I am also reading a book about photography but that doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the books I talk about. \u00a0It is very useful though. So there you have it. \u00a0I am going to try to finish up some of these before I pick up anything else. \u00a0My old familiar books are still calling me so I don’t know how well that will work. \u00a0I was just thinking that I hadn’t read any Angela Thirkell in a while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currently-reading"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2852,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/2852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}