Book Review: Freckles

Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter
Indiana University Press, 1986 (originally published 1904); 352 pages

Freckles, an Irish-American orphan from Chicago, shows up at a lumber camp near the Limberlost Swamp, looking for work. Although he is missing one of his hands, the Boss believes that Freckles is suitable for a guard for 2000 acres of forest that the lumbermen can't get to yet. Some of the trees on this land are worth thousands as veneer, and an ex-lumberman wants to steal them as a way of getting back at the Boss, who fired him. Over the course of a year as the Limberlost Guard, Freckles finds love, family, and becomes something of an amateur naturalist with the help of the Bird Woman.

I always enjoy Gene Stratton-Porter novels, even if they are sentimental and somewhat ridiculous, and Freckles is no exception. It's a sweet book, but fortunately, not too sweet.

Book Review: The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Watermill Press, 1987 (originally published 1911); 278 pages

It seems that Frances Hodgson Burnett liked to write about English orphans from India. When Mary Lenox's parents die from cholera, she is sent to live with her uncle in Yorkshire. While there, she decides to look for the garden that her uncle ordered sealed up after her aunt's death in the garden.

I read The Secret Garden as a child, but it wasn't a favorite back then and it's not a favorite now. There wasn't really anything technically wrong with it; I just didn't like it. I did, however, like the Yorkshire setting. My ancestors were from Yorkshire (well, the ones that weren't Irish or German), about 50 miles southeast of Misselthwaite Manor, and I liked the glimpse into the landscapes they would have seen and how they would have talked before they immigrated to the United States.

Book Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Mud Puddle Books, 2006 (originally published 1920); 222 pages

I'm reading or rereading all of Agatha Christie's works in publication order this year (and the next year and however long it takes me). Here's my first entry on that subject.

My first book of 2014 is also Agatha Christie's first novel and the first of the Hercule Poirot series. Arthur Hastings, home on convalescence after being injured during World War I* is invited to an old friend's country home, Styles Manor. Shortly after Hastings' arrival at the house, his friend's stepmother is murdered. Providentially, another old friend of Hastings', famous detective Hercule Poirot, happens to be living in the village because the stepmother provided the money for some Belgians to immigrate to England to escape wartime Belgium. Because he can't resist a crime and because he is grateful to the stepmother, Poirot agrees to solve the murder.

This really isn't a terrible mystery, but compared to other Christie works, it's not her best. The plot is much "looser" than is typical of a Christie novel--everyone is accused of the crime at least once, Poirot is much too cryptic (I don't try to solve mysteries as I read, and even I was getting frustrated with the way he kept suppressing the clues), and the middle part of the book meanders too much while the ending is too rushed. Also, Hastings is unsurpassedly stupid. Poirot and Hastings have a sort of Holmes-and-Watson relationship, but Watson was never quite this frustrating.

*I wonder if Christie actually wrote this during World War I, since her next novel, The Secret Adversary is set in the post-war era but this one is not.

Book Review: The Little White Horse

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
Puffin Books, 2001 (originally published 1946); 238 pages

This is an absolutely delightful book--I loved the descriptions of the food and the scenery in particular. I really do wish I had read this as a child; I know I would have loved it even more then.

In The Little White Horse, Goudge tells the story of Maria Merryweather, an orphan who must leave London to live with her great-uncle at his country estate of Moonacre. Because of centuries-old feud, Moonacre is not the peaceful place it once was, and it is up to Maria to set everything to rights.

The Little White Horse was made into a movie, The Secret of Moonacre, which is entertaining, although not nearly as good as the book. The costuming is fabulous, though.

You know you're a reader when...

You see a Half Price Books truck out on the road and you immediately wonder what it would take to hijack it.

Has it really been *that* long?!?!?

Or, my poor, neglected blog! How I lament thee!

I didn't exactly mean to quit writing. I just got really, really busy. I spent most of my summer at work, covering for everybody else's vacations, which meant far more hours than usual (and a far bigger paycheck--yay!), but didn't leave a lot of time for everything or anything else. But now things have evened out a little, so I'm going to try to get back to regular posts on here.

Today I went to the grocery store and bought ALL THE VEGETABLES!!!!! Not really, but that's kind of what it feels like. My plan is to make a big old salad, add in a bunch of veggies, some herbs--dill is my most favorite ever!--and make some kind of vinaigrette. I'm also roasting chickpeas and caramelizing some bacon for the salad. (I'm roasting/caramelizing beets as well, but not for the salad. Just because I love beets.)

I also bought the ingredients for this pasta. I got the recipe from Bon Appetit, and it could very well be my favorite food ever. I love pasta anyway, and I love leeks, and bacon, and cream sauce, and so what's not to like here? This time around, though, I'm adding roasted grape tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh parsley, and mushrooms cooked in a bit of white wine (a mixture of Gewürztraminer and Vinho Verde, because that's what I've got in my freezer; also, I had to type "Gewurz..." whatever into Google five different ways before Google even knew what I wanted). This is for tomorrow, and work lunches after, because this pasta is much better after it sits overnight.

Just for the record:

Food Purchased Today:

• cucumbers
• parsley
• frisee
• lemons
• dill
• beets
• radishes
• green onions
• leeks
• chickpeas
• avocados
• radicchio
• grape tomatoes
• sugar snap peas
• white button mushrooms
• bell peppers

Recipes Used/Consulted:

• Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
• Brown Sugar-Glazed Bacon
• Roasted Beets
• Crunchy Spiced Chickpeas
• Hard-Boiled Eggs (because I can never remember how long to let them sit after boiling)
• Creamy Pappardelle with Leeks and Bacon

Young Marrieds vs. Old Unmarrieds

Lately I've read several blog posts and editorials devoted to marriage, specifically the benefits or whys and wherefores of marrying young. (The Common Room, The Atlantic, Life in a Shoe, Stephen Miller, and more I can't find at the moment) They've been interesting, honestly, and speaking as someone who's wanted to be married ever since I was a little girl, I'm kind of surprised that willfully deferring marriage has become enough of a "thing" that people feel a need to write about it. (Clearly I need to get out more.)

However, I'm here today with a different take on the issue. I am a woman, 26 years old, trying to get a career off the ground in a brutal job market. I don't know if I'm still "young," but I'm not married or engaged or dating or interested in someone. Nor have I ever been any of the above. Heck, I don't even have any male friends at the moment. (I said I need to get out more.) Anyhow, my piece today could be called Reasons Why People Should Stop Fretting about the Marriage Age of Others.

1. Believe me, we know we're not married and we know we're not getting any younger.

Nuff said.

2. All people are not unmarried for the same reasons.

Apparently some of us are so selfish and misguided that we avoid such a wonderful thing as marriage (and children) so that we can have a career or nice stuff or a villa in Tuscany. (Why else would so many people write on this subject?) Others put off marriage out of a nebulous sense of unreadiness, ignoring the fact that no one is ever 100% ready to get married. Still others are waiting for Mr./Miss Perfect Prince(ss) Charming, and we just won't admit that he/she is a figment of our imagination that no real person could ever hope to match. But some of us wanted to be married 10... 20... 50 years ago. We want it desperately to this day. We pray for a spouse like Hannah prayed for a son. For whatever reason that has nothing to do with our self-centeredness or poor decisions we haven't gotten married and here we are. Personally, being a wife (and hopefully mother) is my dream job, as in "drop everything, move around the world, and give up all kinds of perks" dream job. I'm only starting a career because somebody's got to pay the bills, and it's not going to be the cat.

3. Not everyone meets someone at the same life stage.

I expected I'd meet my husband in college. I mean, it happens all the time, right? During those four years, I met a lot of people. Most of them, although adults in age, were still "boys." The few men I met were already married or in a deep relationship heading toward marriage. I don't want to marry a boy, so I didn't date in college. My senior year, my brother started his freshman year at the same university. His first day on campus, before classes had even started, he met a girl and said to himself, "I want to marry her." He'd just met her five minutes previous! Anyhow, they dated for four years, married at the age of 22, and recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary. In the same time span, I finished college, finished grad school, and still haven't met anyone.

4. Thinking that other people think we should have been married already amplifies the (admittedly irrational) doubts and worries we already dwell on too much.

It goes something like this: So if I'm not married, it must not be God's will for me to be married. Is that His will for now or for always? If I'm never going to get married, why can't He just tell me so I can stop praying for a husband and wasting both our time? Maybe I just need to pray harder. Does my lack of a husband really have anything to do with God, or am I just not pretty enough? Maybe I need to change my personality or something. Should I act dumber and less independent? Pretend I like sports but not books when it's really the other way 'round? But I like me the way I am, so why can't a guy? I just need to pray more and have more faith. God will provide... unless He doesn't.

So my proposal is that instead of focusing on how old people are when they get married, we should encourage young people (and everyone else) to seek the will of God and to trust that God's plans are for the best, even when we don't get what we want. Because if people are truly striving to live according to God's will for their lives, then every last one of them will get married at exactly the right age for them. For some people, that means marriage at 19, for others, marriage at 50, and for others, never marrying. And that's okay.

Postscript: In all actuality, I do believe there are benefits to marrying young. (See cited posts/articles for some of the reasons.) But to go around saying that people need to quit delaying marriage (with the implied, "just go get hitched already," as if it's that easy) assumes a lot.