The Girls of Slender Means

 I remember I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie once during my lunch break at work. A person said they had to read that in high school and they were baffled that anyone would read that on their own time for leisure. I felt like reading another book by Muriel Spark. It's been a while and this was a good one. It's about a boarding house called The May of Teck. The house boards pretty young girls but also spinsters who will never get a chance at marriage. We get to know some of the girls specifically Joanna and Jane. Jane spends time with the writer Nicolas Farringdon but he would rather be with the beautiful Selina. The book ends in a tragedy and we find out what"the girls of slender means" really means and what benefits they get from it  There's also a pretty funny scene where Jane writes to authors to gain monetary value for their autographs. George Bernard Shaw gives a pretty funny reply. This wasn't as good as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie but it was all right.  

The Wizard of Oz

 

The Wizard of Oz surpassed its publisher's expectations definitely selling more copies than predicted and putting a classic. It's imaginative. It's funny and whimsical. (My favorite part is when we meet the real wizard himself. It was hilarious.) When I was a kid my twin sister and I used to have fights on which land was better Narnia or Oz. I was a Narnia girl. But I'm slowly making my way through the series. The Patchwork Girl of Oz was easily the second-best book of the series. A lot of love went into The Wizard of Oz which is why the book still remains a unique imaginative book. 

The House on the Lagoon

 

I really liked The Youngest Doll which was a neat short story collection so I decided to try out one of Ferre's novels. I liked this one. It is about a wife writing the history of her husband's family background as well as their own love story and children. The husband has a range of emotions. First off he's jealous. He doesn't have the time to write a book like this. There are also the inaccuracies like the things she gets wrong about his family's background. He wrestles between the thoughts of throwing it away until there is finally a confrontation about it. The book also has a rich history of Puerto Rico. I especially like reading about the woman's love of dancing as well as the making of the house on the lagoon itself. Ferre was a versatile writer. She could write short stories and novels equally well. This was a National Book award finalist. I wonder why it didn't win the prize. It's pretty good. People online criticize the book saying that the characters and plot got like a soap opera at times but I liked it that way. It made me involved and kept me turning the pages.

A swiftly tilting planet

 

This is the third volume in the Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle. I found the book difficult to follow at times. A Wrinkle in Time could be challenging too but that was more rewarding. A dictator declares war so Charles goes back through time into four people to try to stop it. The most satisfying of these encounters was the plot line about Meg's mother-in-law herself and her brother Chuck. This book was just all right and I will read the others in the series. I read this book three years ago and I gave it one more star on goodreads. What made me like it more years ago? I wish I remembered.