I Capture The Castle

Undoubtedly, Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith is best known as the author of The One Hundred and One Dalmations, inspired by her own Dalmation, Pongo. She was also one of the most successful female playwrights of her generation. (Born 1896 Lancashire, England) But her first novel, I Capture the Castle, was written when she lived in America during the 1940's and was published by Little Brown in 1948. Out of print for many years, it was brought back into print in 1999. It arrived on my doorstep along with three other books in a box from one of my reading friends. That oval sticker on the cover reads: "This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met." signed J.K. Rowling.
The book tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. While she strives to hone her writing skills by chronicling the daily changes within the castle walls and her own first experience of love, the family's fortunes seem to take a turn for the better when her older sister Rose falls in love with the new heir of the estate.
Cassandra compares their situation to that of the Bennets in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps that fact helped make this book so enjoyable for me. I could very easily imagine the young Cassandra celebrating Midsummer Eve on Belmotte Tower hill - singing and dancing around the ritual fire set within the stone circle - feeling she was becoming too old for the childhood rites, yet unready to give them up. I Capture the Castle - unexpected reading pleasure from a thoughtful friend.

A Lesson In Secrets is Jacqueline Winspear's eighth Maisie Dobbs novel. In addition to reading it, I also listened to her Pardonable Lies on CD which is narrated by the author. There is such a huge difference between this book and the last one I listened to. Part of it has to do with the book itself, but much of it, I'm convinced, has to do with the reader. This one is so much more enjoyable. The library has one more of her books on CD, then I have two others to locate somewhere else to read before the next book comes out in 2012. I adore part detective, part psychologist, part philanthropist, Maisie Dobbs.

Melissa Jones' Emily Hudson was said to be inspired by the life of Minny Temple, Henry James's cousin. It is the story of a young woman's flight from convention during the Civil War. Emily has become the begrudged ward of her puritanical uncle after the death of her parents and siblings. He sends her to a boarding school but when she is dismissed from it for her unsettling, lively disposition, he wants to rid himself of her through marriage. Even though Emily falls in love with Captain Lindsay when he is home on leave, she turns down his offer of marriage. Her cousin William, an obsessive writer, rescues her from an uncertain future by taking her to London and enrolling her in art school.
On the "Rate This Book" slip in the front of the book, another local reader had rated it 0 (zero) on a scale of 0 to 4. I would probably give it a 2 or maybe 3. It wasn't great, but it was interesting reading.

Charles Todd is a mother-son writing team; authors of thirteen Ian Rutledge mysteries and three Bess Crawford mysteries, of which A Bitter Truth is the third - and the only one our library has. I really wish they had more titles from this team.
Bess Crawford is an English battlefield nurse in WWI. Her father is a retired Colonel. She has a close family friend in the War Office. And while they help her out of some problems, her biggest ally is a memorable kookaburra imitating Australian Sergeant. I have a feeling he will appear in any subsequent novels.

Rebecca Johns is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and received the Michener-Copernicus Award for her first novel, Icebergs.  From the fly-leaf: "Winter 1944: Walt Dunmore and Alister Clark are the only members of their bomber crew to survive a plane wreck on Newfoundland's Labrador coast - but now they must fight injuries and frostbite in the subzero wilderness. Talk of their wives awaiting them at home punctuates their desperate attempts to attract rescuers and combat the bitter cold."
Not only does WWII figure in this novel, so does the Viet Nam War. It is a multi-generational telling of death and survival, love and deceit, war and domesticity. "Icebergs reveals how tragedies narrowly averted can alter the course of lives as drastically as those met head-on."

While I liked all these books and really enjoyed finding some new authors, I think I Capture The Castle was my favourite this time around.