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I have an enormous stack of Truly Excellent Books which I'm partway through, or need to start, or which otherwise deserve my full attention and then a detailed, nuanced response later on.
But, since I have class in a little over an hour, and I'm not quite awake yet this morning, I'm going to instead mention an utterly fluffy, entertaining MG/YA series that I've been reading lately: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. They're written by Maryrose Wood, and I've just finished the second book; a third will be coming out in late March.
The essential premise is simple. Miss Penelope Lumsley, a sixteen-year-old graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, sets out into the world for her first governess position, and discovers she's been engaged to tame three children who were raised by wolves. They were found by Lord Ashton while he was hunting, and as he keeps saying, Finders keepers. There are, of course, complications, and mysterious happenings, and many Dark Secrets, the answers to almost none of which are revealed in the first book. Or the second, for that matter. Meanwhile, Penelope and the children diligently study Greek history and French verbs, geometry and Latin, poetry and naturalism, and spend a fair amount of time reading their favorite book series about an exceptionally bright pony named Rainbow.
Between, you know. Danger and suspense and near escapes and dramatic chase scenes and a few excellent incidents with a velocipede.
The premise is fun, but the narration is what makes it all deeply engaging. The narrator is brisk, informative, a little pompous at times, and prone to wandering off on long explanations that seem to be going on complete tangents but end up tying back in perfectly to the story at hand. (The discussion of useful French phrases in the second book is one of my favorites.) I suppose the comparison that comes to mind immediately is the Lemony Snicket books, but while it's similarly a story about children with a very distinct narrator, the tone is completely different. There's a pragmatic, determined optimism that runs throughout, and while a great many exciting things happen, nothing too terrible ever does; it's perhaps a slightly less fantastic companion to Alex and the Ironic Gentleman.
In any case, it is not a particularly deep series, nor is it likely to touch anyone's life profoundly. But by god, the books are an awful lot of fun to read, and I recommend 'em without caveat.
But, since I have class in a little over an hour, and I'm not quite awake yet this morning, I'm going to instead mention an utterly fluffy, entertaining MG/YA series that I've been reading lately: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. They're written by Maryrose Wood, and I've just finished the second book; a third will be coming out in late March.
The essential premise is simple. Miss Penelope Lumsley, a sixteen-year-old graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, sets out into the world for her first governess position, and discovers she's been engaged to tame three children who were raised by wolves. They were found by Lord Ashton while he was hunting, and as he keeps saying, Finders keepers. There are, of course, complications, and mysterious happenings, and many Dark Secrets, the answers to almost none of which are revealed in the first book. Or the second, for that matter. Meanwhile, Penelope and the children diligently study Greek history and French verbs, geometry and Latin, poetry and naturalism, and spend a fair amount of time reading their favorite book series about an exceptionally bright pony named Rainbow.
Between, you know. Danger and suspense and near escapes and dramatic chase scenes and a few excellent incidents with a velocipede.
The premise is fun, but the narration is what makes it all deeply engaging. The narrator is brisk, informative, a little pompous at times, and prone to wandering off on long explanations that seem to be going on complete tangents but end up tying back in perfectly to the story at hand. (The discussion of useful French phrases in the second book is one of my favorites.) I suppose the comparison that comes to mind immediately is the Lemony Snicket books, but while it's similarly a story about children with a very distinct narrator, the tone is completely different. There's a pragmatic, determined optimism that runs throughout, and while a great many exciting things happen, nothing too terrible ever does; it's perhaps a slightly less fantastic companion to Alex and the Ironic Gentleman.
In any case, it is not a particularly deep series, nor is it likely to touch anyone's life profoundly. But by god, the books are an awful lot of fun to read, and I recommend 'em without caveat.