Daddy-Long-Legs - Jean Webster

Title: Daddy-Long-Legs
Author: Jean Webster
Genre: Classics
Rating: 9/10
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: March, 2007

Summary: Jerusha Abbott has grown up in the John Grier Home for orphans. As the oldest, she is in charge of the younger children. An anonymous benefactor on the Board, "Mr. Smith," decides to send her to college, as long as she writes to him faithfully detailing her education. Originally published in 1912, Jean Webster's coming-of-age tale continues to be relevant to young women today. Through a series of letters Jerusha writes to "Daddy-Long-Legs," a relationship filled with affection and respect develops, even though she is the only correspondent throughout the years. Although the narrative unfolds slowly, the language is sophisticated, highly descriptive, and witty.

Review: I needed something light and familiar to listen to on my way to and from Austria, and this book fit the bill perfectly. I'd forgotten how comforting a book it is, and the readers at LibriVox do a magnificent job at reading the character convincingly. A very sweet and cozy story.

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I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Title: I Capture The Castle
Author: Dodie Smith
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 8/10
# pages: 338
Date read: October, 2006

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain wants to become a writer. Trouble is, she's the daughter of a once-famous author with a severe case of writer's block. Her family--beautiful sister Rose, brooding father James, ethereal stepmother Topaz--is barely scraping by in a crumbling English castle they leased when times were good. Now there's very little furniture, hardly any food, and just a few pages of notebook paper left to write on. Bravely making the best of things, Cassandra gets hold of a journal and begins her literary apprenticeship by refusing to face the facts. She writes, "I have just remarked to Rose that our situation is really rather romantic, two girls in this strange and lonely house. She replied that she saw nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud."

Rose longs for suitors and new tea dresses while Cassandra scorns romance: "I know all about the facts of life. And I don't think much of them." But romantic isolation comes to an end both for the family and for Cassandra's heart when the wealthy, adventurous Cotton family takes over the nearby estate. Cassandra is a witty, pensive, observant heroine, just the right voice for chronicling the perilous cusp of adulthood.

Review: dichroic has been speaking very warmly of this book, so when I found that it was available through interlibrary loan, I immediately picked it up (and afterwards discovered that my mum owns it too! I thought I knew all the books she had, but apparently not). I'm glad I did, it's a delightful story. I've always enjoyed books being written as diaries, and I thought the characters were very well portrayed. You got to feel as if you knew them. Unfortunately I'd more or less seen the ending coming, so it wasn't as big a surprise to me as I think it was supposed to be. But thank you for recommending it to me, dichroic. I have a feeling it'll be one of my regular rereads.

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