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Post by maggiethecat on Nov 21, 2008 22:49:58 GMT -5
Once upon a time when this board was young, we were peppy and snappy and stayed up until the wee hours playing The Survival Game.  Times change.  I'm so brain-weary these days that I can't concentrate on the books I keep bringing home from the library. Sad thing for an inveterate reader, but the pressures of job and life and cooking and cleaning and caregiving (Oh, Kathy, I am so sympathetic to you.  ) dictate otherwise. Such is life. *Sigh.* So I've been going through the shelves and actually reread Little Woman last month, for the first time in about 20 years. (I really should go back to the old thread on the board since I know this is a book about which everyone has an opinion.) What struck me this time through was how prissy and judgmental the parents were, especially Marmee. What a wet blanket that woman was! Hey, if she hadn't been hanging around the Hummels would Beth have picked up scarlet fever, which gave her the dicky heart that killed her? Um, probably not. I wonder how contemporary girls respond to the moralizing and quotes from John Bunyan. I've heard that in many school systems it's required reading in seventh grade -- I'd lay even money that all the boys just loathe it! Change of subject . . . and hoosier? This one's for you.  I've been going through my bookshelves, desperately seeking that which is easy to read and cozy and familiar. A few nights ago I came across my stack of Gene Stratton Porter books and dipped in for the first time in decades. Has anyone else read Gene Stratton Porter? Arguably, at a certain time, she was Indiana's most famous author and citizen. Her books sold millions of copies: Freckles, A Girl of the Limberlost, Laddie, Her Father's Daughter (which is set in 1921 Los Angeles and is so full of anti-Japanese bigotry I wonder that it was ever published, despite her nationwide popularity at the time). Really soppy stuff (women tend to have "skin like tinted porcelain," for crying out loud), the dialogue is completely unrealistic (I can't believe people talked in that stiff declamatory manner even in 1909), the plots are just plain ridiculous (orphans turn out to be the tragically abandoned scions of honorable/noble families) . . . and they are as deliciously entertaining, God help me, as when I first discovered them at the age of twelve! What saves them from being complete dreck, I think, is GSP's sensitivity to the natural world. She was a great naturalist and a conservationist long before it was fashionable. Also, you get wonderfully detailed descriptions of life between 1900 and 1920: clothing, food, furniture, etc. Gene Stratton Porter, BTW, died in LA in the early 1920s when her automobile was struck by a streetcar -- when was the last time you heard of someone dying in that manner?! Laddie: A True Blue Story ("The way to be happy is to be good.") is, I would vehemently argue, her best book. The writing is simpler -- more modern, more timeless, less mannered -- than all her other books combined. On the surface it's an unbelievable saga about an English gentry family hiding out in an Indiana farm community because their son has brought shame on the family. If you skip over that crap, however, it's a marvelous memoir of GSP's childhood in rural Indiana in the 1870s: enchanting, full of genuine sentiment, and deliciously detailed when it comes to family and farm life. Laura Ingalls Wilder is still widely read: Gene Stratton Porter is not. Perhaps the difference is that GSP cloaked her memories of farm life in ridiculously-plotted popular novels, while LIW wnr for the straight memoir. It's a shame, really, because in many respects GSP was the more persuasive and sophisticated writer. I can't imagine that young girls read GSP any more. What a shame.  We all have books that we loved in childhood, and which have fallen out of fashion, more's the pity. Thoughts, anyone? Neglected favorites? |
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Post by maggiethecat on Nov 24, 2008 16:19:59 GMT -5
[eee . . . eee . . . eee . . . sound of crickets chirping . . . .]
What, no takers? Aw, c'mon, hoosier, I would have bet even money that a good Indiana girl like you would have read Gene Stratton-Porter, at least Freckles!
Oh, well. I'm patient. Some day, someone will come play in the thread with me. ;D
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Post by hoosier on Nov 24, 2008 19:55:28 GMT -5
Hello, hello..... *echo* *echo* ;D
Yes, I have read Freckles but that is the only one I'm afraid. My mother loved the Harvester and Keeper of the Bees. At work, GSP sits on the shelf and recently was moved into the literature section in nonfiction because I felt we must keep her. I guess she is on a par with Eggleston's The Hoosier Schoolmaster because once in a blue moon someone will ask for them. There was something not too long ago about the Limberlost, the area where she lived and where you can still see her cabin etc. I can't remember if there was an environmental concern or if someone was wanting to buy land for developement. Either way, not a good thing.
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Post by mlm828 on Nov 24, 2008 23:53:45 GMT -5
My all-time favorite book I read as a child is The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene Du Bois. It's a wonderful tale, complete with hot-air balloons (twenty-one of them), a society with the restaurant form of government, a diamond mine, and (last but not least) the explosion of the Krakatoa volcano. I bought a copy several years ago and still re-read it from time to time.
I also read all of the Walter Farley and Marguerite Henry horse books, and a series of biographies on the childhoods of famous Americans. I can't recall other books specifically right now, but I basically read anything and everything I could get my hands on, probably including some things which weren't exactly age-appropriate.
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Post by rducasey on Nov 25, 2008 7:23:26 GMT -5
I remember spending my childhood reading with a flashlight under the covers trying to devour the latest Nancy Drew Mystery. That fictional detective (says something about me with the fictional detective attraction) written by a number of ghostwriters, I guess is still around today but not nearly as popular as it was back in the dark ages. This was the Mystery that grabbed me first and I remember trading them around with friends. The Secret of the Old Clock. I thought her boyfriend Ned Nickerson was so cool and loved the fact that she owned her own "Roadster". I see on Wikipedia, you can read a synopsis of every one of the mysteries....oh Gosh, I better stay away from that, or Ill have nothing cooked for Thanksgiving. I also did all the Trixie Belden's and Dana Girls Mysteries. I'm sure not the finest literature, but fun just the same.  |
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Post by maggiethecat on Nov 25, 2008 15:13:48 GMT -5
Ma-a-a-a-an, I love you people! A little whining on my part and we've got a great thread going. There is so much talk about, so I'll go post by post. First of all, hoosier, brava! for keeping Gene Stratton-Porter books in your library. My local library, which is the second-busiest in all of New England (only Boston Public beats us on number of transactions), threw all of them away. (We went through a bad patch about ten years ago with a Library Director who tried to close a branch library and also "deaccessioned" most of that which had been published prior to 1950. A grasstroots movement got her fired, thank heavens, but not before she'd done substantial damage.  ) Anyway, I think you'd like Laddie, which is much superior to Freckles. A least your library patrons can still find both on the shelves. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about GSP, and you can also find info about her and the Limberlost at www.genestrattonporter.netGene Stratton-Porter (August 17, 1863 – December 6, 1924) was an American author, amateur naturalist, wildlife photographer, and one of the earliest women to form a movie studio and production company. She wrote some of the best selling novels and well-received columns in magazines of the day.
Born Geneva Grace Stratton in Wabash County, Indiana, she married Charles D. Porter in 1886, and they had one daughter, Jeannette.
She became a wildlife photographer, specializing in the birds and moths in one of the last of the vanishing wetlands of the lower Great Lakes Basin. The Limberlost and Wildflower Woods of northeastern Indiana were the laboratory and inspiration for her stories, novels, essays, photography, and movies. Although there is evidence that her first book was "Strike at Shane's", which was published anonymously, her first attributed novel, The Song of the Cardinal met with great commercial success. Her novels Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost are set in the wooded wetlands and swamps of the disappearing central Indiana ecosystems she loved and documented. She eventually wrote over 20 books.
Although Stratton-Porter wanted to focus on nature books, it was her romantic novels that made her famous and generated the finances that allowed her to pursue her nature studies. She was an accomplished author, artist and photographer and is generally considered to be one of the first female authors to promulgate public positions — in her case, conserving the Limberlost Swamp.
Catherine Woolley, author of the "Ginnie and Geneva" series of children's books, may have named her character of Geneva Porter after Geneva Stratton-Porter.
One of her last novels, Her Father's Daughter, was set outside of Los Angeles, California, where she had moved in the 1920s for health reasons and to expand her business ventures into the movie industry. This novel presented a unique window into Stratton-Porter's personal feelings around WWI-era racism and nativism, especially relating to immigrants of Asian descent. She died in Los Angeles in 1924, along with her driver, when her limousine was struck by a streetcar.
A building at Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, Indiana, is named in her honor. A rest stop along the Indiana Toll Road (U.S. Interstate 90) also shares her name. Her Wildflower Woods home on Lake Sylvan, Rome City, Indiana, and her Limberlost home in Geneva, Indiana, are now museums operated by the Indiana State Museum.Martha, I never read the William Pene Du Bois book you mentioned but it just jumped to the tip of my library list -- it sounds absolutely glorious.  I also read Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley, and still consider The Black Stallion one of the most exciting and entertaining books ever . . . and, may I say, one of the few children's book that was successfully transferred to the big screen. Mary, your post took me right back to my ten-year-old self, also crouched under the covers with a flashlight and Nancy Drew. She was brilliant! There are those who say that Nancy DRew was the first feminist heroine, since she was self-reliant and curious and strong (although I do remember that Carson, her lawyer dad, usually had to pull her out of at least one jam per book). My friends and I used to tromp around in the woods playing Nancy Drew, which usually consisted of looking for non-existant clues and arguing over who would play Nancy or George -- no one wanted to play Beth, of course. The Nancy Drew books that have been published since the 1970s are really crummy, since they deleted all of the 1930s period flavor that we loved, including that snappy roadster! Did you ever see the Nancy Drew movies that were made in the 1940s starring Bonita Granville? They run them every once in a while on TCM and they really are great fun -- they got the enthusiastic tone just right, even though the boy who played Ned was a complete dweeb.  I had a serious Nancy Drew addiction . . . and I hadn't thought of the Dana Girls in about thirty years until you mentioned them. Did you also read Cherry Ames, Student Nurse? MODIFIED TO ADD: I also (in about fourth or fifth grade) devoured a series of books about Tudor women by Marguerite Vance, which were charmingly written and beautifully illustrated with soft black & white pencil drawings: there was one on Lady Jane Grey, one on the young Elizabeth I before she was queen, one on the six wives of Henry VIII. The library threw them away, too, and I haven't come across them in years. I'm not even mentioning Narnia -- there's a whole thread for that discussion. |
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Post by Katryna on Nov 25, 2008 19:28:01 GMT -5
I also was an avid fan of the Nancy Drew series. Mary, I used to buy mine at the original Ann & Hope in Cumberland! From Nancy Drew, I "graduated" to Agatha Christie and read virtually all of her mysteries. Got quite caught up in the little English village mentality! I have to say, though, that my two favorite books from my youth are Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Give me a dark, brooding hero and endless moors and I would be every bit as enamoured with Heathcliffe as Catherine was!
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Post by hoosier on Nov 26, 2008 19:50:21 GMT -5
I had a serious addiction to books about horses and dogs as a kid. I read all of the The Black Stallion series and Marguerite Henry. A few years ago, they reissued several of hers in paperback so I grabbed Misty andKing of the Wind plusSeastar which I had never read before. Its so nice to find a previously unknown book by an author you love. I also read Black Beauty and all of Terhune's collie books. There was another book about a dog, the title escapes me at the moment, who passes aways but continues to keep his mistress company because he is worried about her. He only goes to doggy heaven after she finally allows herself to love a new puppy and he knows she will be okay.
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Post by matilda on Nov 27, 2008 6:34:01 GMT -5
Trixie Belden - big tick
Nancy Drew - big tick - have been watching recent movie with kids, it's ok ...
Little Women - of course but I maintain that Laurie should have run off with Jo, most unsatisfactory outcome
re horses - three words hoosier - The Silver Brumby - our local version - gorgeous
Now I have my own 8 year old budding inveterate reader. Recent birthday - got her Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, poor little girl hasn't had a chance to get near it as of course it's next to my bed and I'm loving it, though reading with an adult's perception is really different.
Any suggestions for her? She's informed me that she's not "big enough" for Little Women just quite yet - hey maggie do you reckon 'The Saturdays' is still in print? I loooooved that ...
It's really interesting reading what you all read as kids - some are common to us and we had our own stuff - I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall was probably my favourite. I'd love to get my baby some stuff that is the stuff that kids adore outside Australia.
And yeah I got her The Magician's Nephew so hopefully she'll develop obligatory love of all things Narnia - I worry sometimes about them seeing the movies before they get a chance to read the books. Something about it's just not quite right.
Her choice is the Clarice Bean series and I have to say I'm with her on that, Clarice is quirky and funny.
So here I am, 44 years old and about to embark on the jourmey all over again!
Great thread my friends, thanks
M
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Post by Eyphur on Nov 27, 2008 12:07:08 GMT -5
I suppose being somewhat younger than most on this board, I had different tastes in childhood books. What I remember reading the most were the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and the Baby Sitters Club. And the Boxcar Children, I loved those. I still occasionally sneak one to read. (I'm too embarrassed to just read it inf ront of everybody).
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Post by carl1951 on Nov 27, 2008 15:29:33 GMT -5
My favorite, going waaaaay back, was Golden Books. I know I liked all of them pretty much. Those were when I was about 5.
After than anything with a spy or mystery or sci fi was fine with me.
Later, Carl
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Post by minianne on Nov 28, 2008 12:47:13 GMT -5
I remember reading the book "Follow My Leader" somewhere around 4th grade. It made a big impact on me.
Anyone else remember that?
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Post by Eyphur on Nov 28, 2008 13:50:19 GMT -5
I remember reading the book "Follow My Leader" somewhere around 4th grade. It made a big impact on me. Anyone else remember that? I didn't read it as a kid, but I bought a copy at a used/ discarded library book sale. It's a pretty good kid's book. |
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Post by Kasman on Nov 28, 2008 15:16:07 GMT -5
re horses - three words hoosier - The Silver Brumby - our local version - gorgeous .... It's really interesting reading what you all read as kids - some are common to us and we had our own stuff - I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall was probably my favourite. I'd love to get my baby some stuff that is the stuff that kids adore outside Australia. M I have to agree with you on The Silver Brumby series (Eline Mitchell) and Alan Marshall - I have several of his books and I Can Jump Puddles is one I still pull out from time to time. What about February Dragon and the Ivan Southall books? (To continue the Australian theme). And definitely Narnia. And to add another horsey series to the mix, Flambards. The TV series was also well done. |
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Post by Katryna on Nov 28, 2008 20:13:24 GMT -5
And to add another horsey series to the mix, Flambards. The TV series was also well done. I LOVED the TV series! Thanks for reminding me! I wonder if it is available on DVD. I must check it out. |
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) dictate otherwise. Such is life. *Sigh.*
)
I also read Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley, and still consider The Black Stallion one of the most exciting and entertaining books ever . . . and, may I say, one of the few children's book that was successfully transferred to the big screen.
