Update on vaccine reactions: I felt a little icky in the night, but not feverish, just kind of icky. Now it is midday, and I have felt tired and a little emotional, but not sick, and I have not felt as if I need to lie down, or nap. I drank two quarts of Powerade yesterday; I don’t know if that helped. My arm (I got both shots in one arm) is quite sore.
I have just finished a dear, lovely book. Our library still has it even though it was published in 1955, which suggests to me that some of you will already be familiar with it. It is called An Episode of Sparrows, and it is by Rumer Godden, and look at this pretty cover:
At first I thought I was bored. It went on so long about the Garden Committee, and the street, and the children, and the dirt and soot! But gradually it wove the story and roped me in. Little comments from characters, before we even know their connection to each other, referring to a future time when we all will know all: after we read that a child had very little pocket-money, the narrative cuts in with “‘I don’t know how she managed,’ Olivia was to say when she and Angela were told everything.” Little remarks by people we haven’t met yet: “What Vincent said was worse, but he did not know Lovejoy was listening. ‘No one who loved their child could give it a name like that,’ said Vincent.”
I cried multiple times, in a good way. I enjoyed the characters, and the development of those characters. I found the ending extremely satisfying. I got used to the name Lovejoy. I can picture this being the kind of book I might read again and again over the years. It was restful, but not treacly: there is drama and distress to keep the plot realistic and interesting.
I got this year’s flu shot and then gave myself a bruise on the corner of my car door on the opposite arm where I got the flu shot. The bruise has been twice as painful and lingered much longer than the effects of the shot, for what one person’s data is worth. I noticed some arm pain the day after the flu shot, but no other reaction. So I guess I’m saying bruise your other arm???
You are so in luck because Rumer Godden is amazing and when I had access to a large university library I read every single one of her books they had, so I can recommend a bunch. They might not be in your regular town library, but worth tracking down if you like her work. Some are charming, some are dark, some are both (especially her memoirs), and many do stand up to rereading. Of course there are some dated elements like in any other book from the first half of the 20th century, but they are easy to gloss over. Here’s her Wikipedia page for reference.
If you liked An Episode of Sparrows, I recommend A Candle for St Jude and Listen to the Nightingale, which both concern ballet (a lifelong interest of Godden’s), but you don’t have to appreciate ballet to enjoy the books, I don’t think. Thursday’s Children (one of my favorites) is also about ballet, and about a large family, which you might enjoy. The Greengage Summer and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita are also about children, rather articulate and precocious but believable.
Some of her books are darker, since you don’t like reading about harm to children do NOT read In This House of Brede, which is a shame because it’s very good except for the almost needlessly horrible thing that happens to the main character’s child in the past. Godden grew up in British India, so many of her books concern that, including the famous Black Narcissus, which I find meh. Two very different books of hers set in India and concerning forbidden love are Coromandel Sea Change and The Peacock Spring.
If you like memoirs, try hers, starting with Two Under the Indian Sun, written with her older sister about their childhood. Next is A Time to Dance No Time to Weep (she liked overwrought titles), then Rungli-Rungliot/Thus Far and No Further which is very short but truly great. In the last one, A House With Four Rooms, she gets a bit annoying but it’s an interesting read if you want to know more about her life.
Sorry/not sorry for the long comment but this is so exactly in my wheelhouse and I envy you getting to read some of these books for the first time! Have fun!
I was coming here very specifically to advise Swistle NOT to read In this House of Brede, specifically because of the Bad Thing that happens to a child.
I read through all of Rumer Godden in my teens and while I suspect some of them would feel questionable now, I do love her. Coromandel Sea Change was always my favorite.
Your description made me think of a book I read a few years ago, called “And Ladies of the Club,” which was very engrossing, and which you might enjoy, if you haven’t already read it. Synopsis stolen from Wikipedia:
“…And Ladies of the Club” is a 1982 novel, written by Helen Hooven Santmyer, about a group of women in the fictional town of Waynesboro, Ohio who begin a women’s literary club, which evolves through the years into a significant community service organization in the town.
The novel, which looks at the club as it changes throughout the years, spans decades in the lives of the women involved in the club, between 1868 and 1932. Many characters are introduced in the course of the novel, but the primary characters are Anne Gordon and Sally Rausch, who in 1868 are new graduates of the Waynesboro Female College. They each marry soon after the opening of the book, and the decades that follow chronicle their marriages and those of their children and grandchildren. Santmyer focuses not just on the lives of the women in the club, but also their families, friends, politics, and developments in their small town and the larger world.
I have Rumer Godden in my head as an author I have read ( as well as one that Demi Moore named her daughter after) and then when I stopped to think ‘what are the books I have read’ I could only think “Rocking Horse…. something?” which made me think I was mixing her up with D.H. Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner (which ew). But it was presumably The Rocking Horse Secret. And now I’m super annoyed that my library only has TWO of her books and will have to go on the hunt for more.
Wow, I didn’t realize Rumer Godden wrote books for adults too. I repeatedly checked out two of her children’s books from our library when I was little: Little Plum, and Miss Happiness and Miss Spring Flower, both books about little girls and dolls. I will request some of her adult books now. I recently read a book for adults by Noel Streatfeild, who wrote the “shoes” books for kids (Ballet Shoes, Theater Shoes, etc), and I loved it as much as I had her kids books when I was younger. It’s really fun to see how their themes and portrayals of the world overlap.
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower was one of my favorites as a kid, although I am not 100% sure how much of that was the story and how much of that was the home-made dollhouse (that dollhouse!!!), because miniatures were absolutely my jam. But I still read it as an adult occasionally; it is a good comfort-read.
I also loved Ballet Shoes and Theater Shoes! I only realized relatively recently there were soooo many more Noel Streatfeild books, and would recommend archive dot org’s book borrowing digital library for catching up on obscure books – they have scans of an incredible number of books, and one person is allowed to “borrow” a scanned book and page through it online at a time. I will say that generally and for Noel Streatfeild in particular, there are some books by prolific authors where when you read them, you wonder why they are not one of the few “classics” that are still in print, and then with other books of theirs… well. It is not so surprising. Noel Streatfeild books have strong consistent themes and structures and I would not want to own all of them, but reading all of them and then buying the ones you connect with specifically is reasonable. That said, her books for adults written as Susan Scarlett are in print and are not on archive dot org; they remove books from access under some conditions when there is a publisher challenge, but many libraries have them as ebooks. (not my library, but we’re a small system and can’t have everything, sigh.)
I had read Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, and Little Plum, and when I read In This House of Brede after getting it at a library book sale and just absolutely loved it, I got very excited and went on a bit of a Rumer Godden Cheap Used Book Buying Spree online because three books that I love by one author, with zero duds, is very exciting and… well. It turns out that the rest of Rumer Godden has been much more of a mixed bag for me; nearly everything has been well-written so far, just… sometimes horrifying or not my jam in one way or another (I really liked 98% of China Court and then part of the last chapter: NOPE. I’ve got opinions on a particular subject and NOPE, although part of my objection to that was the… authorial endorsement?… of it). So, in a different way from Noel Streatfeild: perhaps, for Rumer Godden, archive dot org to find out if you want to own a particular book first, if it is not at your library, *then* ebay…
Oh! If you liked Episode of Sparrows have I got a suggestion gor you – The Story of Holly and Ivy, by Rumer Godden. It’s a children’s story, supposedly, and I was given it as a child, but I read it every Christmas even as an adult and I cry happy tears each time. My favourite Rumer Godden and I have read many. If you want to buy yourself a Christmas treat I highly recommend it!
I love Rumer Godden, how great your library had it and you got to enjoy it. Her kids books about dolls really are still fantastic, but it was a treat to read her adult books as a grown-up.
Your book recommendation made me think of one of my own favorites: 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It’s just a sweet, lovely book; my mom and husband and I trade one copy back and forth to re-read on occasion.
That book is precious, and it’s been too long since my last re-read! Thank you for the reminder. That plus a cup of hot chocolate is my evening sorted. <3
It’s perfect for a hot-cocoa-evening!
So very random – I started reading a book yesterday and a female character was named Loveday! I had never heard of that as a first name and now you came across a similar style name.
If you like this, you might also enjoy Elizabeth Goudge–very deep and very sweet, not because of a distance from suffering (the opposite–WWI and WWII influenced her strongly) but because she has this abiding belief in meaning and joy. Some of the books are more religious than others; City of Bells is my personal favorite, although The Dean’s Watch is also phenomenal.
Yes, Green Dolphin Street by Elisabeth Goudge is unforgettable!! Highly recommend.