Let's Bust a Recap : Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web is another of those stories with which I was very familiar, but (to my shame) had never actually read for myself. It's also the third children's novel I've read this year that made me genuinely sorry I hadn't read it sooner (the first two being A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt). I grew up with the 1973 animated film adaptation which I loved as a kid. I haven't seen it in years, and I totally forgot it was a musical until I looked it up for this post. I also saw the 2006 live action adaptation a few years ago and immediately bought it because it was so sweet. I finally snagged a copy of the actual book at The Book Shelter a couple years ago, and it sat neglected on my shelf until my niece came over one day with her copy and announced she would be reading it. Naturally, I had to join her.

Charlotte's Web by Elwyn Brooks White was first published in October of 1952. It's won a load of awards including the Newbery and is on pretty much every list of best loved novels you can imagine. It's a teacher favorite and in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, it was voted #1 out of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time. The librarian conducting the survey said it would be impossible for Charlotte's Web not to be #1. E.B. White himself won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for his full body of work and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. However, he was terribly shy and hated publicity and was known to sneak out of his office via his fire escape to avoid visitors which is a fact I just absolutely love about him.

Charlotte's Web is the story of a little pig named Wilbur and his remarkable friend Charlotte A. Cavatica who happens to be a spider. After being born the runt of his litter, Wilbur is rescued by Fern Arable who pleads with her father not to kill the tiny piglet. After five weeks of pampering from Fern, he goes to live on the Zuckerman farm down the road where he befriends Charlotte (and a whole barnyard full of animals) who becomes so fond of him that she promises to save him from becoming the Christmas ham and proceeds to spin words describing Wilbur into her web creating a sensation and finally landing him at the County Fair.

I love this dear story. As Eudora Welty put it: "What the book is about is friendship on earth, affection and protection, adventure and miracle, life and death, trust and treachery, pleasure and pain, and the passing of time. As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done." I can't describe it any better than that. Its sweetness is only enhanced by the sketches of Garth Williams throughout its pages, and the 2006 adaptation featuring the voice of Julia Roberts as Charlotte is equally delightful. It's a can't miss, and I highly recommend you read it at least once in your life—sooner rather than later.

Have you read Charlotte's Web? What is your favorite book from childhood?

Let's Bust a Recap : James Herriot's Treasury for Children

Three blog posts in one week? Well that's a first for 2020. I read James Herriot's Treasury for Children aloud to the little boy I nanny over a couple weeks this month, and it was an absolute delight. 

James Herriot is actually the pen name of James Alfred Wight who was a British veterinary surgeon in Yorkshire where he practiced for almost 50 years. At the time, veterinary surgeons were discouraged from writing under their own names to avoid seeming like they were advertising for their practices. He was a big-time soccer fan and actually chose James Herriot as his pen name after seeing Scottish goalkeeper Jim Herriot play for Birmingham City F.C. in a televised game against Manchester United F.C.

His work is partially autobiographical including his eight books for children which have all been included in this treasury. Most of the stories set in the fictional town of Darrowby are based on real events he experienced in his time as a country vet. 

Wight also wrote a series for adults which were originally published in the UK and then collected into three omnibus volumes (All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and All Things Wise and Wonderful) and published in the US where they were wildly successful. My mom read and loved them as a teenager in the 70s (when they were published) and I actually have her old copies, though I have yet to read them. 

I was given a paperback copy of his children's book The Christmas Day Kitten when I was very young and always loved the sweet story and beautiful illustrations, so when this treasury caught my eye a year or two ago in my Friends of the Library bookstore, I had to have it (especially when I realized they priced it at only $2!).

As it turns out, all his stories are just as sweet as The Christmas Day Kitten (which is one of the eight included in this treasury) and I actually ended up loving some of the other stories even more. The little boy I nanny loved Moses the Kitten best and every day wanted to read about the tiny black kitten that thought he was a piglet. I loved all the stories but especially Bonny's Big Day and Blossom Comes Home. Possibly my favorite aspect of this treasury are the beautiful illustrations by Ruth Brown. (Peter Barrett illustrated two of the eight stories and his illustrations are also wonderful, but Ruth Brown's were definitely my favorite.)

I would highly recommend James Herriot's Treasury for Children particularly if you're an animal lover or have kids who love animals. The stories are the perfect length for reading aloud (not too long that your kids lose interest but complete enough for you to enjoy with them) and—I have to say it again—the illustrations are lovely. 

Have you read anything (for children or grown-ups) by James Herriot? Who is one of your favorite illustrators? 

Let's Bust a Recap : The Count of Monte Cristo

Well, the day has finally come. I'm going to try to put my thoughts together into a coherent post recapping The Count of Monte Cristo. I read this hunk of a novel last year, and it took me four solid months to do it. I started it at the beginning of June and made it to the end on the last day of September. When I finally finished it, I felt a bit lost. I had been reading it nearly every day for four months and was so fully wrapped up in the story that when it ended, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. 

I loved this story. Unlike The Three Musketeers by Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo hooked me from page one and nearly every single detail was vital to the plot. Most translated editions of The Count of Monte Cristo are abridged and after reading the unabridged version, I'm really not sure how. The only part of the book that I thought could have done with a bit of editing was Luigi Vampa's complicated backstory. But I digress.

The film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo starring Jim Caviezel is one of my all time favorite movies and has been for several years. Up until last year, it was one of my secret bookish shames that I had never read the novel that inspired the movie. But have you seen the novel? It's huge. It definitely intimidated me. Because I've seen the movie approximately 534 times, and because I really invested a lot of time in reading the novel, I'm going to be comparing them and in doing so, I'll be discussing some major plot points that are definitely spoilers so if you don't want to know, this is your cue to exit. 

So for a quick overview: The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of Edmond Dantes' wrongful imprisonment (literally hours before his wedding to the beautiful Mercedes) and subsequent escape from the Chateau d'If. He then amasses an insane fortune that his prison mate the Abbe Faria told him the location of before his death, and then uses it to exact revenge on the three men (Fernand, Danglars, & Villefort) responsible for his incarceration.

The first major departure from the novel as depicted in the film is that the adaptation sets Edmond and Fernand up as best friends from the time they were young. In the film's version, Fernand is rich and privileged and jealous of Edmond's happiness despite his relative poverty. He's really eaten up over the fact that Mercedes is in love with Edmond, and ends up getting kind of roped into Danglars' plan to frame Edmond during a drunken fit.

In the novel, Edmond and Fernand do not give one flying rip about each other and Fernand is just as poor as Edmond but infatuated with Mercedes. He basically is just a tool of Danglars to frame Edmond, and, in my opinion, the least culpable of the three because he's just not very bright. 

Danglars is motivated to ruin Edmond because of his jealousy over Edmond's rapid success in their mutual career as merchant sailors. Danglars is the greediest, most ridiculous character of the novel and Dumas' portrayal of him is hilariously scathing. In the movie, Danglars really doesn't get much development past his initial involvement in the plot to sabotage Edmond, and that is truly a shame.

Villefort doesn't even know who Edmond is but when he recovers a letter Edmond was given by Napoleon Bonaparte addressed to Villefort's own father, he quickly destroys the letter and sentences Edmond to life in the Chateau d'If to protect his own political interests. This was actually portrayed perfectly in the film.

The thing that the film does not and could not possibly do is develop the multitude of characters and Edmond's meticulous and complicated plot of revenge. Or as he sees it, justice. Throughout the course of the novel, Edmond has several aliases and his revenge is a years long con on these men, much more than a matter of a few weeks or months as the movie might lead you to believe. He learns every intimate detail of their lives and their families' lives and employs all this information and his considerable fortune to bring each of these men to complete ruin. He drives Fernand to suicide after decimating his reputation, he bankrupts Danglars and has him begging for food which is the ultimate punishment for that sleazeball, and he literally drives Villefort insane in the most chilling and masterful plot of revenge I have ever heard of. 

four months : this book made it into a lot of photos

The novel obviously does a better job at developing the complexities of Edmond as well. As vicious and exacting as he is with the men who destroyed his life, he's as loving and solicitous of the people he deems worthy or feels indebted to. When his revenge is coming to the ultimate climax, he has to confront the fact that innocent people have been hurt as a result of his all-consuming crusade, and he wrestles with the morality of his actions. 

One thing I'll say: the movie and the novel both end somewhat abruptly each in their own ways, and to be honest, I don't necessarily prefer one over the other. Both endings play with their corresponding forms, but ultimately, they both leave me wanting more. 

Overall, I would highly recommend the book and the film. The novel is a masterpiece in its own right, and the movie is just plain good. Having been so intimately familiar with the movie gave me a good foundation with the major characters, and I really didn't have much trouble keeping everyone straight which seems to be the commonly held problem people have when reading the novel. The Count of Monte Cristo will certainly take an investment of your time to read, but in the end, I really think it's worth it.

Have you read The Count of Monte Cristo or seen the film starring Jim Caviezel? What book has taken you the biggest investment of time to read and was it worth it?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Wednesday Letters

The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright was published in 2007, and I read it totally by accident.

Yes, you read that right. I read it on accident. How does one read a book by accident, you ask? Great question. I discovered this book while wandering around The Book Shelter, and after a couple separate trips where it caught my eye and I picked it up, it finally made it home with me. (Very similar to how I probably read the back of Maisie Dobbs at least five times before I bought it.) Since The Book Shelter opened in 2018, my library of contemporary literature has exploded. I have a much easier time justifying my book-buying habits when I'm buying secondhand and only spending a couple bucks on a book I may or may never have heard of. It's how I discovered books like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Light Between Oceans. 

The Wednesday Letters falls into the category of books I'd never heard of. This still doesn't explain how I read it "by accident" but don't worry, I'm getting there. I mean, is it even me if I don't give you a complete history of how a book came to be in my library and why I ended up reading it?? Anyway, these stacks of books come home with me from The Book Shelter, I somehow squeeze them into my already full shelves, and there they sit for only the Lord knows how long until I'll get around to reading them. Even as I'm buying them, I have zero intention of reading them any time soon and definitely not in the year I bought them because, believe it or not, I really do try to stick to my yearly book lists. 

But one day a few months ago, I pulled The Wednesday Letters off my shelf for an Instagram post of all things. (Oh Instagram, you time vampire.) Whitney at The Unread Shelf had created a book bingo game for everyone during all the initial lockdown craziness, and I pulled this book because one of her categories was a "red book" and as you can see, this book is all red. 

As I was putting these books away (by the way, I've actually read three of these since taking this photo), The Wednesday Letters somehow fell open, my eyes began to scan the first paragraph, and 24 hours later, I realized I had finished the whole book. 

Y'all. I could not stop reading it. So far this year, The Wednesday Letters is winning the most readable book award. 

After Jack and Laurel Cooper die in each other's arms, their three children come home and discover thousands of letters that Jack had written to Laurel every Wednesday of their nearly 40-year marriage. Obviously, the kids get some insight into their parents they'd never had before, and a shocking family secret none of them ever suspected comes to light.  

I loved it. I was along for the ride with the Cooper kids as they made one discovery about their parents after another, and I literally couldn't stop reading until the last page. There's even a cutie little "hand-written" epilogue letter pasted into the back of the book.

The Wednesday Letters spent time on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists, and Jason F. Wright actually wrote a sequel to it in 2011 called The Wedding Letters; but The Wednesday Letters definitely stands on its own, and even though Wright has written 16 other books, I'm not rushing out for more. 

This one, though, I would recommend, particularly if you're looking for something highly readable to bust you out of a reading slump. It was easy, absorbing, and I didn't see the twist coming. If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think!

Have you ever read a book on accident? Do you buy books even if you know you probably won't get to them any time soon?

A Word for Wednesday

"If resentment were a good or a safe foundation for policy measures, 

few Americans perhaps would be disposed to go farther than I should. 

But of all the guides that a nation can follow, 

passion is the most treacherous, and prudence the most faithful."

~John Quincy Adams~

Let's Bust a Recap : John Quincy Adams

It. Is. Finished. It took me way too long to read this biography, and I have two more (both about Andrew Jackson) on my list for 2020. I technically began reading this one the first week of February, but given the pandemic and stay home orders and general madness of the world, I largely ignored JQA until June. I think between the time I started in February and June 1st, I only managed eight or nine chapters. I finally buckled down last month and finished up this 540-page biography last week. I still have a stack of books waiting to be recapped siting in my reading nook, but I have to be pretty quick on the turnaround with my presidential biographies before everything I learned falls back out of my head. 

That being said, let's get after it.

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub was published in March of 2016. I originally intended to read a biography of our nation's sixth president written by Harlow Giles Unger, but after reading his laughably biased biography of Monroe last year, I got rid of the Unger biography of John Quincy Adams and picked up this one by Traub instead. Which led me to make a new rule in my quest to read through the presidents: no back-to-back biographies by the same author. I think reading about the same period of history and men who worked together from different authorial perspectives will be more beneficial than just getting one person's take. 

Traub certainly put together an excellent biography. He managed to be comprehensive without bogging it down with too much detail. He interwove Adams' political and personal life seamlessly throughout the entire biography which I really appreciated. (Other biographers sometimes have the tendency to focus wholly on the political component forgetting altogether the human side of their subjects.) His biography was readable and insightful, and if you're looking for a good bio of John Quincy Adams, I would definitely recommend this one.

However, John Quincy Adams himself is not fun. He was a consummate politician, and, even more so than Madison, politics were his entire life. He was the first (and only) president to serve in the House of Representatives after his presidency (instead of having the good grace to retire) and he literally died in the House during the congressional session of 1848.

Adams served as the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Britain under Washington's, his father's, and Madison's administrations. He took on the role of U.S. Senator (from Massachusetts) during Jefferson's administration, and he worked tirelessly as Secretary of State under Monroe's administration. There is absolutely no logical reason he should have been elected president over Andrew Jackson, and he spent his one term in office largely ineffectual because of his stubborn political idealism. Harrison Gray Otis, a contemporary of John Quincy Adams, characterized the entire line of Adams men as "a peculiar species of our race exhibiting a combination of talent & good moral character, with passions and prejudices calculated to defeat their own objects & embarrass their friends." I found this to be a penetrating insight and discerning assessment of John Quincy Adams in particular.

After his presidency, during his time in the House of Representatives, Adams took up the cause of petitions, particularly anti-slavery petitions, and bullheadedly fought the gag rule imposed by the Democrat-ruled House. While being vehemently opposed to slavery morally, Adams did not think Congress had the right to legislate slavery, and he was not an abolitionist though he did believe slavery would eventually be eradicated. I actually found this period of his life—specifically his political life—the most interesting to read about.

On a personal level, I never would have been friends with John Quincy Adams. He was a terrible husband, and he and Louisa had a pretty miserable marriage. He held his sons to impossible standards, and was only outlived by his youngest son Charles, the only son he ever cultivated a good relationship with. Solid friendships were conspicuously absent from this biography. He is the first president I've read about who seemed to have no outstanding friendships or correspondence with other colleagues. While those who worked closest with him did seem to grudgingly respect him, he really didn't get along with anyone for long. 

One of my favorite bits of this whole biography was actually the account of Louisa's solo trip from Russia to France during Napoleon's bloody Hundred Days War. Louisa Catherine Adams was, honestly, a somewhat pathetic character (I mean, you can hardly blame her given who she was married to and the fact that she had to endure miscarriages, very difficult pregnancies, and the deaths of all her children excepting Charles), but she really bucked up and took to this six week adventure with gusto. It really makes you wonder what her life would have been like if she had married a warm, attentive partner rather than the austere and somewhat neglectful John Quincy Adams.

All in all, good biography; less-than-stellar subject. If you're on a similar quest to read through the American presidents, this would be a great biography for you when you get to John Quincy Adams. If you're not particularly interested in JQA, I can't really blame you. He was a total killjoy. 

Next up: Andrew Jackson. 

Have you read any good biographies or non-fiction lately? Do you have any specific lofty reading goals? I think my two biggest ones are: 1) reading a biography of every U.S. president, and 2) reading the complete works of Shakespeare. How are your 2020 reading goals coming along?

Let's Bust a Recap : Maisie Dobbs

Well, so much for catching up on the blog during May...or June, apparently. It's now July and I still have a stack of books sitting in my favorite reading nook waiting to be chronicled here. As I shared over in my Instagram stories the other day: 

You're all living in the same world I am so I don't have to explain that any further. 

Anyway, in an effort to revive this little corner of cyberspace, today we'll be talking about Maisie Dobbs. This debut novel from author Jacqueline Winspear was published in 2003 and is the first book in the Maisie Dobbs series which is now 15 books strong. I typically avoid new book series like the plague, usually opting for stand alone novels. Most of my all time favorite books in the world are actually book series (Anne of Green Gables, The Chronicles of Narnia, Christy Miller—I'm lookin' at you) so this aversion to series shouldn't make any sense, but there's this part of me that feels like there isn't any more room in my life for book series and it's too much of a commitment to get involved with a new series when there are so many other books on my shelves. Silly maybe, but there it is. I'm not sure why we've wandered so far down this rabbit hole of my literary psyche, but suffice it to say: I did not go looking for a new series to start. In my many trips to The Book Shelter (my favorite local secondhand bookshop) this slim volume kept catching my eye. I must have picked it up and read the back on no less than five previous visits, and I finally concluded that this book was meant to be added to my collection (along with four of the Flavia de Luce mysteries—another series!) and brought it home earlier this year with absolutely no intention of reading it any time soon. 

However, my mother came over looking for a book to borrow for one of her work trips, and naturally I had to show her my latest haul (keep in mind, this was back in January; that's how far behind we are) and she decided to snag Maisie Dobbs knowing that if she waited for me to read it first, she may never get to read it. Well, not only did she read it, she had my dad read it. And they both hyped it so well that I decided I needed to read it immediately. So the first week of April saw me throwing my 2020 book list to the wind and getting lost in the post-WWI era of Maisie Dobbs and tagging along on her first official case as an independent private investigator. What seems to be an open-and-shut case of infidelity ends up leading Maisie into a much deeper, darker web of secrets that force her to confront the horrors of her own experiences during the Great War.

I loved this book. The pacing was not too fast and not too slow. The historical points were well researched and informed the story without being tedious or inserted awkwardly. I connected emotionally with the story, and it definitely left me wanting to read more of the series although this debut stands easily on its own. I thought the author did an excellent job setting up the case in the first third of the book, taking us back in time and developing Maisie's backstory in the middle of the novel, and then naturally pulling us back to the present for the resolution (and when I say "present" I mean 1929, the year in which the case is set).

I have absolutely zero reservations in recommending Maisie Dobbs. My mom and dad and I all enjoyed it, and this is a book (and probably series) I would have devoured as a teenager. I'm looking forward to adding more Maisie Dobbs to my library and tagging along on more of her cases in the future.

Have you read any of the Maisie Dobbs books? Do you prefer book series or stand alone novels? What are some of your favorite series to get lost in?