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Book meme- Day 22
Apr. 24th, 2019 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsi22. Out of print.
Mt parent’s childhood books had their own shelf in their bookshelves, and there I found many books I enjoyed, which has not been printed in Sweden since they were kids.
The Snow Ponies by Ursula Bruns. Dick and Dalli are sisters in their early teens. They live on a horse farm with their grandmother and aunt, passionately invested in the care of their Icelandic horses and Shetland ponies. They are also passionate about Vikings, and when they learn their cousin Ethelbert will be coming to stay with them for a while, they think he must be a real Viking- with that name! Unfortunately, Ethelbert is no only sickly, but very spoiled and self-obsessed. Most of the book is about Dick and Dalli’s antics, but also a character arc for Ethelbert, where he learns to be a better person. An adorable Shetland foal named Saroti plays a large part in that. It’s a very funny book, and I reread it several times. It was my father’s copy, and it was rendered very personal as his dog had taken large chunks out of it too…
Inkaindianernas fångar (Prisoners of the Incas) by Gustaf Bolinder, another one of my father’s books. Set in the late 19th century a dashing Swedish doctor travels on boat of South America. Among the passengers is a lovely Spanish lady he falls in love with, which is mutual, but their plans are disrupted when they and a number of other passengers are abducted by Incas, who has lived in secret in the mountains. Apart from the abduction bit, the Incas are pretty nice, and when the doctor heals the sick king they get very friendly. Apart from that bit of being prisoners. And when the king decides to marry the pretty Spanish lady against her will, they have to fell. Lots of perils abound. I’m not sure how well this book stands up to time- probably not at all. I don’t want to reread it to find out.
My mother had a large collection of Christina Söderling-Brydolfs books for girls. She had similar books by other authors, but Söderling-Brydolf stood out because she had a really good sense of humour. Her heroines are plucky teenagers who get into (slight) troubles, often family oriented. She also had a knack for titles which made you want to check them out, like Brothers Are the Worst, Kerstin Chooses A Mother, Almost Triplets and My Sister’s Diary- and they usually had good covers to go with them.
But the price in the collection, the book I return to again and again- at least once a year, was Gwendoline Courtney’s Elizabeth and the Garrett Theatre (Also published as Stepmother and Those Verney Girls). It’s about four motherless sisters, aged between 10 and 17 who suddenly have to cope with their father’s new wife. They are determined to hate her, “stepmothers are always awful”, but Nan turns out to be a very nice person. The sisters are also mad about theatre, and large parts of the book are about their endeavours into amateur theatrics. It’s a charming book, full of good humour and lots of sumptuous meals. I always reach for it when I feel low, and it never fails to cheer me up.
Mt parent’s childhood books had their own shelf in their bookshelves, and there I found many books I enjoyed, which has not been printed in Sweden since they were kids.
The Snow Ponies by Ursula Bruns. Dick and Dalli are sisters in their early teens. They live on a horse farm with their grandmother and aunt, passionately invested in the care of their Icelandic horses and Shetland ponies. They are also passionate about Vikings, and when they learn their cousin Ethelbert will be coming to stay with them for a while, they think he must be a real Viking- with that name! Unfortunately, Ethelbert is no only sickly, but very spoiled and self-obsessed. Most of the book is about Dick and Dalli’s antics, but also a character arc for Ethelbert, where he learns to be a better person. An adorable Shetland foal named Saroti plays a large part in that. It’s a very funny book, and I reread it several times. It was my father’s copy, and it was rendered very personal as his dog had taken large chunks out of it too…
Inkaindianernas fångar (Prisoners of the Incas) by Gustaf Bolinder, another one of my father’s books. Set in the late 19th century a dashing Swedish doctor travels on boat of South America. Among the passengers is a lovely Spanish lady he falls in love with, which is mutual, but their plans are disrupted when they and a number of other passengers are abducted by Incas, who has lived in secret in the mountains. Apart from the abduction bit, the Incas are pretty nice, and when the doctor heals the sick king they get very friendly. Apart from that bit of being prisoners. And when the king decides to marry the pretty Spanish lady against her will, they have to fell. Lots of perils abound. I’m not sure how well this book stands up to time- probably not at all. I don’t want to reread it to find out.
My mother had a large collection of Christina Söderling-Brydolfs books for girls. She had similar books by other authors, but Söderling-Brydolf stood out because she had a really good sense of humour. Her heroines are plucky teenagers who get into (slight) troubles, often family oriented. She also had a knack for titles which made you want to check them out, like Brothers Are the Worst, Kerstin Chooses A Mother, Almost Triplets and My Sister’s Diary- and they usually had good covers to go with them.
But the price in the collection, the book I return to again and again- at least once a year, was Gwendoline Courtney’s Elizabeth and the Garrett Theatre (Also published as Stepmother and Those Verney Girls). It’s about four motherless sisters, aged between 10 and 17 who suddenly have to cope with their father’s new wife. They are determined to hate her, “stepmothers are always awful”, but Nan turns out to be a very nice person. The sisters are also mad about theatre, and large parts of the book are about their endeavours into amateur theatrics. It’s a charming book, full of good humour and lots of sumptuous meals. I always reach for it when I feel low, and it never fails to cheer me up.
