The Shrimp and the Anemone

The Go-Between was the first L.P. Hartley book I read.  It's still my favorite of his and I've read most of what he has written now except for all his short stories. It's about Eustace and his sister Hilda.  Hilda encourages Eustace to befriend a crippled old lady called Miss Fothergill.  It's something he doesn't want to do.  He would rather hang out with his friend Nancy.  But he ends up doing it and it pays in a big way.  I started reading the sequel "The Sixth Heaven."  It takes place in the adult years.  I have to admit I was hoping for another book of these characters in their childhood.  This book takes a delicate look at describing the confusion children face figuring out the adulthood world.   

Emily Dickinson

I watched Cynthia Nixon play Emily in A Quiet Passion.  Of course, I've heard about Dickinson my whole life but I don't think I've actually read a poem.  I'm a newbie to poetry.  I'm still trying to figure out all that it means.  Still, I'm impressed.  Emily Dickinson sure was an interesting person a spinster, a reclusive woman who hid her talents from the world.  I think she would be satisfied that she became a legendary poet.  There are many subjects that Emily writes about - nature, death, love, and religion.  I haven't read the whole thing but plan to.  I'm going by little by little.  I recommend this website to get all that her poems mean - http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/.  

The Good Demon

This young adult book was ok.  It's about a lonely messed up girl.  She misses the girl who possessed her which is definitely a different take on possession.  She becomes friends with the reverend's son despite the fact that the father took her demon away from her.  The friendship between the two is the best thing in the book. The boy though is self-righteous at times but then that's his upbringing. I think that Goth kids would dig this book.  

Mrs. McThing

I read Loretta Mason Potts recently and watched the movie Harvey.  I was curious about Mary Chase so I read her play Mrs. McThing.  This isn't as good as Harvey but I liked it more than Loretta Mason Potts.  It's about a boy who gets replaced by a stick - a perfectly behaved little boy.  The mother wonders what's up and finds the person behind it all is a woman called Mrs. McThing.  Also there's a subplot about the real boy joining the mob. The play didn't change my life.  However it was cute, imaginative, and kind of whimsical. 

The Ruby in the Smoke

I read this book and the other Sally Lockhart books when I was a child.  I completely forgot the title and the author.  It wasn't until I was reading Pullman's The Subtle Knife that I remembered it.  The listing of his other books was in the back of The Subtle Knife.  I was like hey that's the book I've been looking for all these years.  Well, it stood the test of my childhood.  This book was still good.  Sally's father dies a suspicious death.  While she finds clues to her father's death she gets employment from a photographer.  She also finds out about the opium addiction going around, finds out about a rare ruby, and also has a ruthless villain Mrs. Holland on her trail.  I'm looking forward to watching the tv movie that was made years ago of this. By the way, Sally is not the typical flawless heroine which kind of threw me off but at least it's different.  

Anne Sexton Transformations

I've been reading poetry lately.  It's a new thing I'm doing and it's not easy.  I've never really been a poetry reader.  The education I received stopped covering that after sixth grade.  So far I've found that I really like Anne Sexton.  She's easy to understand.  Her best work is about her battle with mental illness but Transformations was ok.   It's a book based on the Grimms' fairy tales.  While she covers familiar fairy tales like Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel she also does fairy tales that aren't really known like The Wonderful Musician and One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes.  Most of the time variations on fairy tales are tiresome but this one was all right.

Mishima a Biography

Yukio Mishima was a fascinating guy.  This book was written by a friend of his, John Nathan. He did translations for Mishima.  He's more familiar with the author than the usual biographer.  Mishima went from being a sissy boy to becoming a buff man who trained his own army.  Then he committed harakiri, ritual suicide.  His books indicate that this man was always very troubled.  The first book he got published was "Confessions of a Mask", about his hidden homosexuality.  I've read it and "The Sailor who fell from the Grace of the Sea". Both are disturbing and not for the faint of heart.  Despite it, Mishima tried to be a regular Joe.  He had a wife and family.  He tried to present himself as "normal" but there was always something off.  The one thing I really admire here about him is how he always kept his deadlines.  Most writers can't say that.