The Lark by E. Nesbit

💐 The Lark is the last adult novel Edith Nesbit wrote in 1922. It's a charming, delightful, and witty bildungsroman story.

💐 Jane and Lucilla are orphaned cousins who lived in boarding school until they were coming of age. They were supposed to get into a nice income, hitherto managed by their guardian. But the guardian gambled away the money, and so the two young girls must start their independent lives, free from school, with only £500 and a small yet lovely cottage in the village.

💐 Lucilla was disconcerted when they first realized of their predicament, but not Jane. Jane is an optimistic girl, though a bit too imaginative. She believes that "life is a lark", and so it should be how we perceive of life!

💐 The two girls start to earn a living by selling flowers from their little garden. But the garden is soon inadequate for their enterprise. If only they could own the uninhabited mansion house they saw down the road, with a large garden! One day they sneak into the house. Jane fell off the stairs, but luckily a handsome young man who is nephew to the house owner helps her. His name is Rochester. Wait... Jane... and then Rochester? As in... well, you know what I'm talking about, right? Is it a coincidence? I believe not!

💐 The house owner, charmed by the girls' personalities, let them use the garden, which delighted them. The flower enterprise is soon enlarged to a boarding house business.

💐 It's quite delightful to watch the two inexperienced girls entering an adult life with all the blundering, which they try to perceive as an adventure - or as a "lark"!

💐 This book is so refreshing - funny, witty, affectionate, heartwarming. It's hard for not loving and enjoying it. If you love Nesbit's children books, you'll love this one!

Rating: 4,5 / 5

Classic Club Spin # 32 #CCSpin

UPDATED 

I haven’t done CC Spin for quite a long while, but now I’m more than ready to shake up the beginning-of-year-reading. Let’s do it!

1. Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper
2. The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas
3. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
4. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
5. Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk (The Dancer) by Ahmad Tohari
6. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
7. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
8. Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore
9. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
10. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
11. No Name by Wilkie Collins
12. Middlemarch by George Eliot
13. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
14. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Moskow by Paul Gallico
15. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
16. Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac
17. The Scarlett Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
18. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
19. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
20. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• The list consists of books that are on my TBR pile, either in physical or e-books.
• I have shuffled the chunky and lighter ones, so.. let's hope for the best!
• Some of them I have intended to read this year, either for reading challenges I’m participating, or for my own reading events/schedule.
• Some of them have appeared in my previous CC Spin (and didn’t get picked), and few were even entered for last challenges but then I changed my mind (sorry, Middlemarch!)
• A Room with a View, I have started reading few chapters a couple of months ago, but I guess my mind was too pre-occupied at that time. Anyway, I’m willing to make another trial.

So, whichever gets to be picked, bring it on! I’m crossing my fingers for Rural Hours, though, so hopefully no. 1 will be lucky 😄!

 

The Knight of Maison-Rouge by Alexandre Dumas

👑 Dumas did it again! Alexandre Dumas père never failed to bring readers to the 18th century France with its heroic chevaliers, swordplay and romantic scenes, in fast-paced, high adventure historical fictions. This book is no different.

👑 The Knight of Maison-Rouge is related to the Marie Antoinette Romances, though it's not part of the series itself. It is set in 1793, right after Louis XVI's death, in what was known as the Reign of Terror - a series of massacres and public executions to those who were not a fervent followers of the Republic, after the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette was in prison with her children and sister, and some Royalists had been plotting to rescue her, with a mysterious man called le chevalier de Maison Rouge as the mastermind.

👑 Our protagonist is a brave Republican, Maurice Lindey. One night he rescued a beautiful mysterious lady who was found on the street alone after curfew, and caught by the National Guard. Unfortunately his infatuation with the woman unwittingly led him into the Royalists' plot.

👑 Although it is not one of Dumas' best or most known works, this historical fiction offers more than just romance and swashbuckling adventure. It provides a glimpse to the humane side of both parties: the royals with their aristocratic followers, and the Republicans. I loved how Dumas portrayed them equally. There's no good side or bad side, it's how the people treated other human beings that made them who they were.

👑 In this story, Marie Antoinette, for instance, is depicted as a woman - like all other women - with compassion. On the other hand, one of her ardent supporters turned out to be selfish and cruel. The same goes to the Republican side; there are brave patriots like Maurice, who fight for humanity cause, but there are also selfish cowards who pretended to be patriotic, but I think they're just poor people who are jealous of the rich aristocrats.

👑 I liked this book, though not a favorite - a perfect book to bring you out of a reading slump, for sure! 😄

Rating: 3,5 / 5

2023 Victorian Reading Challenge

 
Why oh why… whenever you want to restrain yourself from reading challenge, interesting ones always make a way to you! When I found this 2023 Victorian Reading Challenge created by Mrs. Sarah Coller of Belle’s Library, I knew I won’t be able to resist because Victorian books will always appear on my list…any year. So, here we are:

The Rules

*Books published during the Victorian age (1837-1901) are acceptable.
*Books written about the Victorian age are acceptable, no matter what year they were published.
*Stories are not limited to Victorian Britain. Read about what was going on in other parts of the world during this time!

My List:

1. The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola (re-read)
2. Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper
3. Doctor Pascal by Émile Zola
4. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
5. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

Will you join me? 😉

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie

🍎 This one is, perhaps, by far, my least favorite of Christie's. The background is promising - a teenage Halloween party in English country village - packed with traditional games like bobbing apple, snapdragon, and many more. That part IS fun, also the appearance of Ariadne Oliver, but not, unfortunately, the murder part.

🍎 Ariadne Oliver, the famous crime writer who also makes her appearance on several others Poirot's mystery, is staying at a friend's in a country village. At a Halloween party prep, Joyce, a 13 y.o. girl blurted out that she'd witnessed a murder years earlier, though at that time she didn't understand what it was. Nobody believed her, though, as she's a liar and boastful girl.

🍎 But at the Halloween party, someone drowned her head in a pail full of water used for the apple-bobbing. A deliberate murder! Does it mean that Joyce did witness a murder after all, frightened the murderer, who then took a huge risk by killing her in the middle of a party? Or she's indeed a liar, and some mad scoundrel just happened to randomly kill her?

🍎 Ariadne Oliver called her friend, Hercule Poirot, to investigate the case. He immediately went through all murder cases that had happened some years earlier, which might have incidentally been witnessed by a little girl.

🍎 There'd be the second murder, of course, and then Poirot would come to a conclusion no one would have ever thought, as usual. So, it should have been one of my favorites, but it's not. I wonder why Hallowe'en Party had felt nothing like Christie's. Poirot seemed to be not his usual arrogant, confident self. He's more often on doubts and relies (too much) on other people's opinion. The whole plot/story also felt somewhat (too) unreal. I don't know, on the whole, it's not my favorite. And it's not the kind of book you'd hope to list as Halloween readings - well, unless what you seek is the British Halloween party vibes...

Rating: 3 / 5

The 2023 TBR Pile Challenge

TBR Pile Challenge has been one of my favorite challenges, and next year it will turn 10! Congratulations, Adam!

My initial list for The 2023 TBR Pile Challenge:
(it will change along the way, of course, but one must start from something, right?)

1. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
2. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
3. Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk (The Dancer) by Ahmad Tohari (Indonesian classic)
4. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
5. The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
6. The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
8. Summer by Edith Wharton
9. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
10. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
11. We Have Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
12. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie

Alternates:

• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
• 
  

 To participate in this challenge, just hop to the sign up post.

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

💎 Another brilliant piece of work from du Maurier! Although not as magnificent as Rebecca, it's still brilliant.

💎 The story is told by one of the most unreliable narrators in literature: Philip Ashley; an orphan who'd been brought up by his cousin: Ambrose Ashley, the owner of a large estate in Cornwall, England.

💎 Ambrose is Philip's world; he worshipped him as brother, father, and guardian. They have each other, this two brothers, and Philip will be Ambrose's heir after he turns 25. But their world is shattered the day Ambrose left to Italy, in need of warmer weather. He met a distant cousin, Rachel, a widow in Florence. He was soon infatuated by her, and eventually married her, and stayed in Florence.

💎 Ambrose soon fell ill with terrible headaches. His letters to Philip changed tone; he didn't trust Rachel, and even called her his tormentor. At this point Philip, whose hatred toward Rachel has rapidly growing, departed to Florence to save Ambrose. But it's too late, Ambrose's dead and buried in Florence.

💎 When Rachel came to Cornwall, Philip has been planning a revenge, since he's sure that Rachel has killed Ambrose. But this spoiled boy, who had nearly no experience in dealing with women before, was soon falling in love head over heels with his cousin Rachel.

💎 Now history repeats itself, Philip began to have similar illness to Ambrose, right after his 25th birthday, when he handed over the estate to Rachel and wanted her to be his wife. The question is, did Rachel really poisoned Ambrose (and now Philip) for their money/estate? Or she's merely an impulsive spendthrift woman who loves gardening, and thus keeping a packet of poisonous laburnum tree seeds in her drawer?

💎 One of my biggest pet peeves in literature is ambiguous ending. I'd prefer a rounded up story, of which I could either satisfyingly happy or mournfully broken-hearted, so that I can immediately close the book, and move on to next one. An uncertain ending, however, left me uncertained, and it's really annoying. My Cousin Rachel is one of the latter. Du Maurier leave us to guess ourselves whether Rachel is really an evil woman, or it's all just Philip's sentiment because of his jealousy. Remember, we know Rachel only from Philip's perspective, and he's emotional and unreliable, and perhaps on the border of madness (as was Ambrose).

💎 On my part, I prefer to conclude that Rachel is not innocent. She's a spendthrift - that's a fact - and her relationship with the lawyer/best friend Rainaldi could not have as innocence as she said it to be. They never talk openly, and always talk in Italian when Philip leaves the room. And the laburnum seed.. why keep it in her drawer? There could have been simple reason, but it's rather fishy, don't you think?

💎 All in all, it's rather an appropriate gothic reading, beautifully written. I admired Maurier's tension building and psychological thriller around a mysterious woman (just like in Rebecca), but.. like I said, I hated the inconclusive ending.

Rating: 4 / 5