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30 Day Book Meme (2014 version) - Day 5
May. 8th, 2014 06:57 pmDay 05 – A book that makes you happy
2010 Answer: Saved By Scandal by Barbara Metzger
Now I feel like reading last year's answer on my Kindle, as it is part of my Desert Island file. These are the books that I feel I can't live without, and several of them already have ended up as answers to this meme. There will be more. It's hard to top Saved By Scandal because it just makes you feel better. Metzger is funny as all get out, and not stupid - her characters are a delight, even the people who are cardboard foils for the real characters. The mishaps are over the top in this one, the villains are deliciously bad, and it puts a smile on my face.
This year, I'll go with another Georgette Heyer title (get used to seeing her name, because her books are something else), The Nonesuch. This Heyer Regency has several elements that make me happy - a spoiled character who gets her comeuppance (not enough, sadly), the spinsterish governess Ancilla Trent falls in love with a handsome, smart, wealthy guy (Sir Waldo Hawkridge) who falls in love with her right back. The dialogue sparkles, the characters are well-drawn on both sides, and Heyer's deft touch with the Regency is all over the place. I'm fond of several of the supporting cast, including Mrs. Underwood, who is slightly mushroomy but a good soul at heart (despite her total inability to deal with Tiffany).
But he don’t look at her the way he looks at you – no, and he don’t talk to you as he does to her either! What’s more, if she ain’t in the room he don’t look up every time the door opens, hoping she’s going to come in!’ Her cool composure seriously disturbed, Ancilla said involuntarily: ‘Oh, Mrs Underhill, d-does he do so when – Oh, no! Surely not?’ ‘Lord bless you, my dear, of course he does!’ replied Mrs Underhill, with an indulgent laugh. ‘And if it is you – well, often and often I’ve thought to myself that if he was to smile at me the way he does at you I should be cast into a regular flutter, as old as I am!’
Yes, that makes me happy, in part because that's a very apt part of being in love. This bit makes me happy as well, but for different reasons:
‘I said, Quiet !’ Tiffany was so much startled by this peremptory reminder that she gasped, and stood staring up at the Nonesuch as though she could not believe that he was speaking not to his cousin, but actually to her. She drew in her breath audibly, and clenched her hands. Miss Trent cast a look of entreaty at Sir Waldo, but he ignored it. He strolled up to the infuriated beauty, and pushed up her chin. ‘Now, you may listen to me, my child!’ he said sternly. ‘You are becoming a dead bore, and I don’t tolerate bores. Neither do I tolerate noisy tantrums. Unless you want to be soundly smacked, enact me no ill-bred scenes!’ There was a moment’s astonished silence. Laurence broke it, seizing his cousin’s hand, and fervently shaking it. ‘I knew you was a right one!’ he declared. ‘A great gun, Waldo! Damme, a Trojan !’
DV
( The Rest of the Meme )
2010 Answer: Saved By Scandal by Barbara Metzger
Now I feel like reading last year's answer on my Kindle, as it is part of my Desert Island file. These are the books that I feel I can't live without, and several of them already have ended up as answers to this meme. There will be more. It's hard to top Saved By Scandal because it just makes you feel better. Metzger is funny as all get out, and not stupid - her characters are a delight, even the people who are cardboard foils for the real characters. The mishaps are over the top in this one, the villains are deliciously bad, and it puts a smile on my face.
This year, I'll go with another Georgette Heyer title (get used to seeing her name, because her books are something else), The Nonesuch. This Heyer Regency has several elements that make me happy - a spoiled character who gets her comeuppance (not enough, sadly), the spinsterish governess Ancilla Trent falls in love with a handsome, smart, wealthy guy (Sir Waldo Hawkridge) who falls in love with her right back. The dialogue sparkles, the characters are well-drawn on both sides, and Heyer's deft touch with the Regency is all over the place. I'm fond of several of the supporting cast, including Mrs. Underwood, who is slightly mushroomy but a good soul at heart (despite her total inability to deal with Tiffany).
But he don’t look at her the way he looks at you – no, and he don’t talk to you as he does to her either! What’s more, if she ain’t in the room he don’t look up every time the door opens, hoping she’s going to come in!’ Her cool composure seriously disturbed, Ancilla said involuntarily: ‘Oh, Mrs Underhill, d-does he do so when – Oh, no! Surely not?’ ‘Lord bless you, my dear, of course he does!’ replied Mrs Underhill, with an indulgent laugh. ‘And if it is you – well, often and often I’ve thought to myself that if he was to smile at me the way he does at you I should be cast into a regular flutter, as old as I am!’
Yes, that makes me happy, in part because that's a very apt part of being in love. This bit makes me happy as well, but for different reasons:
‘I said, Quiet !’ Tiffany was so much startled by this peremptory reminder that she gasped, and stood staring up at the Nonesuch as though she could not believe that he was speaking not to his cousin, but actually to her. She drew in her breath audibly, and clenched her hands. Miss Trent cast a look of entreaty at Sir Waldo, but he ignored it. He strolled up to the infuriated beauty, and pushed up her chin. ‘Now, you may listen to me, my child!’ he said sternly. ‘You are becoming a dead bore, and I don’t tolerate bores. Neither do I tolerate noisy tantrums. Unless you want to be soundly smacked, enact me no ill-bred scenes!’ There was a moment’s astonished silence. Laurence broke it, seizing his cousin’s hand, and fervently shaking it. ‘I knew you was a right one!’ he declared. ‘A great gun, Waldo! Damme, a Trojan !’
DV
( The Rest of the Meme )
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