#from the mixed up files of mrs basil e frankweiler
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#best childhood book#poll#preliminary round#arc of a scythe#nimona#maximum ride#from the mixed up files of mrs basil e frankweiler#the wind in the willows#abhorsen#the westing game#gone#the neverending story
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NOVEMBER 2023 WRAP UP
[ loved liked ok no thanks (reread) DNF ]
The Moonstone • Chaos Terminal • (The Raven Boys) • The Ghosts of Trappist • (Fugitive Telemetry) • From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler • The Art of Destiny • The Bell in the Fog • (Exit Strategy) • Who Goes There? • Salt Magic Skin Magic • The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up • (Dracula) • (Rogue Protocol) • The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store • The Boneshaker • The Archive Undying • (The Scorpio Races) • Camilla
Total: 18 (audiobook: 15 / ebook: 3)
I started my month off by finishing my reread of The Scorpio Races on November 1, as is right and proper :) This has consistently been my favorite of Maggie's books, and it never feels right the years that I haven't reread it. I think I hit the right method this year and rather than binging it or following a structured reread (which would be cool, if you could match the timeline of the book) I listened to the audiobook on and off throughout Oct and finished it off in one last burst one the 1st. I think this is some of Maggie's best writing, but I also admit I am no longer able to judge this one objectively and will save you all the sales pitch for now :)
The Archive Undying was...confusing. It wasn't that I couldn't follow what was happening on the sentence level or in the immediate present, but try zooming out to the larger picture and I was lost. It was hazy, very much like a fever dream. I would not be opposed to trying some of the author's other work in the future, but I have no interest in revisiting this book/series, and wouldn't really recommend.
The Boneshaker has been sitting on my bookshelf for years ever since I picked it up at a library book sale, and it's managed to survive every shelf purge since. And I'm glad it did! It's a strange MG/YA book about a girl, her bicycle, a small western town just off a crossroads, a snakeoil salesman, his medicine show, and deals with the devil. It was fascinating! I've been almost tempted to send a copy to Sydnee McElroy just for fun. I will definitely be investigating the author's other series.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - I got tempted into this one because the Book Riot Podcast couldn't stop singing it's praises, and then it started making some of the year end/best of lists and... it's ok I guess? I don't really get the hype, tbh, and I got close to DNFing because it just wasn't interesting. I was at least forewarned that the "murder mystery" in the marketing was overblown, but I am here to tell you to ignore its existence completely. There is no mystery, there isn't really even a murder, and it doesn't happen until the end of the book anyway. I fully admit this was just not a book for me, and anyone who wants to read it I wish you well.
Not much to say about my Murderbot reread, other than choosing to give the audiobooks a break and rereading in a text format was an excellent choice, I really feel like I've picked up on a lot of things I didn't before, and it gives me time to think about things (I have some questions about the actual irl existence of rogue secunits, tbh). This is my second full time trough the series, and I think Exit Strategy is maybe the weakest solo link in the original quartet, but that makes me very happy to have the newer books as well. And I have to say it, FUGITIVE TELEMETRY IS BETTER IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.
Dracula Daily wrapped up this month, so I'm probably not the only one to have Dracula show up on their reading list. I listened to most of it via RE: Dracula, which I appreciated so much for helping keep me on track this year. I probably won't follow along next year, but big thanks to everyone for helping me learn to enjoy a book I hated both times I had to read it for school! I'll still be percolating that Greenwing & Dart AU somewhere in the back of my mind in the meantime.
I picked up the idea of "sparking joy" from the general internet and have found it hugely helpful in letting go of things in life, so I've been meaning to pick up The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up for a while, and was finally spurred into it when I picked up a copy at goodwill. I found some actionable advice in Kondo's method, but sooo much of the book felt like a sales pitch on how following this method could fix everything wrong in your life (and I mean *everything*). It left a very bad taste in my mouth - I think a workbook or checklist could be useful, but wouldn't recommend the book itself.
Salt Magic Skin Magic is a historical fantasy with magic, adventure, and a gay romance, which is so entirely in my wheelhouse. It hit all the same points I tend to find/enjoy in KJ Charles' work, and I had such a good time reading this - no surprise, apparently she helped edit this! Thanks to the HOTE discord group for reccing this one, I'll definitely be checking out some of the author's other work!
If you didn't know, Who Goes There? is the short story that the movie The Thing was based on - which I have not seen, but I went on a brief dive into antarctic exploration/horror in anticipation of this month's book club (All the White Spaces, which I actually read for last month but that meeting got delayed) and this popped up pretty quickly. It was available from the library and short, so why not?! The beginning felt a little rough, but I would have loved to see the tension of the main plot drawn out even longer. Liked this a lot better than the actual book club book, but I don't know that I'll watch any of the adaptations.
The Bell in the Fog - Lavender House sequel! I was so glad when this was announced; I love queer books, historical books, a mystery with a lead who actually does some detecting, and a character trying to find themselves and their community? Absolute catnip for me. It also doesn't pull its punches about the violence and injustices faced by the queer community, so it's definitely a bit darker than my usual tastes and will have to try hard to make it onto my favorites list. But if the author continues to write these I will absolutely pick them up.
The Art of Destiny - bless the library for not dragging their heels on the audiobook for this sequel, but lucky me, they did finally add the first book in time for me to get them both in the same year. Unlucky me, this does not appear to be the end of this series D: third book when??? Anyway, I won't deny that these books move a little slowly, but when they move, they move. If you want a big fantasy that's diverse, funny, cartoonish but epically violent, has a cast of all ages, and centers it's story on non-romantic relationships - this is so good, come join me in wailing for a book 3 announcement.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler has lived in the back of my mind for a while as a favorite childhood book of a booklr friend who is sadly no longer on tumblr, but who I say hi to occasionally on other sites - anyways, I found a copy at goodwill and took it as a sign. This one's for you, Lourdes! If I'd found this as a kid, I probably would have reread it a lot, that's how I was too lol. For now, it was a fine read, but I don't think it'll have a lasting hold. Any fans interested in more middle grade about fine art might check out the Chasing Vermeer series by Blue Balliett.
The Ghosts of Trappist - I think it's impossible for me to not enjoy myself reading this series (NeoG), but this one was a bit of a backslide from the improvements in book 2. On one hand - a very ambitious plot, probably the least soap-operaish of the bunch, and I loved the emotional arcs (and the possible ART/murderbot reference?). On the other - over a dozen pov characters is too too many. my god. I think a tighter focus could have done a world of good, but if this is also where the series wraps up I'd be totally satisfied. I'll definitely check out the author's other series.
I admit, rereading The Scorpio Races sparked something in me and now I'm determined to set off on a full Maggie Stiefvater read/reread, starting with The Raven Boys. I really loved this when it first came out, but my interested petered out as the series progressed and I started college, and I haven't touched the spinoff yet. My impression from the first book is still that Maggie's writing is so goddam beautiful. Her sentences make me want to weep, but for me there's so much focus on the line that I'm constantly losing track of the big picture. I'm still enjoying myself, but I feel like I'm coasting a lot on nostalgia and aesthetic between moments of a story - though is it me, or does she write a lot in scenes/vignettes, rather than a constant flowing story? I've found some success in centering myself by imagining the scenes as depicted by a CW supernatural teen show of my high school years and it's quite lovely, actually - I can't believe the TV show plans got dropped and never picked up again. We'll have to see how the rest of the series goes.
Genuinely, I can't believe that I read Station Eternity earlier this year and that the sequel, Chaos Terminal, is out already. Despite liking the author's first book (Six Wakes) and normally liking the tropes they're playing with here, I did not like the first book. No idea why I read the second one then (hope?), but it was better, definitely! I still didn't like it. No idea if I'll finally call it quits on this series or get lured into another one if it gets written.
The Moonstone was an unexpected surprise! I made it to November still 2 books short on my 6 classics challenge and panicked when the first one ended up dnf'd - what if this one was bad too??? But I really should know better, give me a half decent mystery and entertaining characters, and I'll be fine. And it was epistolary! I had a good time groaning over all of the characters foibles and quirks, even if I spent the whole time just going, Hey Guys? you could avoid all of this if you just let the nice Indian men have their diamond back. Good fun if you like a mystery and have some patience.
My only DNF this month was the previously mentioned classic - from the moment I decided on a classics challenge, I knew I wanted to try something by Frances Burney given how much I liked her novel Evelina. Unfortunately for me, the only one the library had on audiobook was Camilla... and it was 37 hours long. I gave it a shot, but only made it about 3 hours in. I really do applaud Burney for her ability to create characters who are intentionally/unintentionally causing harm even if they sometimes have the best of intentions. It's absurd, truly, but I'm not in a place I can take that right now - especially since the victims were children, and it happened *repeatedly*. I think if I was to try this one again I'd need to take it slowly in small parts.
Am I horribly wrong about anything? Do you have any classics you'd recommend for next year?
#bec posts#book log#2023#wrap up 2023#books#booklr#book review#the moonstone#midsolar murders#the raven boys#murderbot#neog#the ghosts of trappist#from the mixed up files of mrs basil e frankweiler#the art of prophecy#the art of destiny#wesley chu#the bell in the fog#who goes there?#salt magic skin magic#the life changing magic of tidying up#the heaven and earth grocery store#the boneshaker#kate milford#the archive undying#the scorpio races#frances burney
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One of my favourite micro-genres, especially growing up, was books about kids or teens running away from home and living in unusual places. Some of these are more serious and involve leaving abusive homes. Others, the home life and excuse for leaving is entirely perfunctory and the adventure is the point. The common theme is that the kid leaves voluntarily (isn’t stranded somewhere, but goes there specifically) and then ends up living independently in some unique setting that gives the story a large part of its identity.
My Side of the Mountain — inside a tree in the Catskills
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler — the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art
Maniac Magee — inside a buffalo house in the zoo, in a baseball stadium, and more
The Invention of Hugo Cabret — a grand Parisian train station
notabookbut The Kings of Summer — a homemade shanty in the Ohio woods
Last Sam’s Cage — the Calgary Zoo
The Boxcar Children — a freight car
Suggest more if you can think of any, I know there are lots of other examples.
#my side of the mountain#jean craighead george#from the mixed up files of Mrs basil e frankweiler#el konigsburg#maniac Magee#jerry spinelli#the invention of hugo Cabret#brian selznick#the kings of summer#last sam’s cage#David a poulsen#the boxcar children
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Title: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
Author: E.L Konigsburg
Rating: 3 out of 5
Review: Hadn't read this for year so I forgot that the central plot of this is them investigating the statue. Enjoyed this through and through and once again it made me want to stay overnight at a museum. It's just a quick, fun, read and the little bit of mystery that it provides is entertaining.
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Wendy is revisiting classic middle grade novels The Westing Game and From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (and has inspired Katherine to reread the latter as well!). Re: Mixed-Up Files, Wendy says, “It had such a hold on the kid-psyches of a whole generation.”
#westing game#from the mixed up files of mrs basil e frankweiler#middle grade#currently reading#wendy#katherine
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When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would go in comfort - she would live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her brother Jamie to go, mostly because he was a miser and would have money.
Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie had some ideas, too; so the two took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she had discovered its maker, a question that baffled the experts, too.
The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her - well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
#book: from the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler#author: e.l. konigsburg#genre: childrens#genre: mystery#genre: classics
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hello from the met, where we spent my birthday with my best friend aeneas (and his mom)
excellent birthday so far, no notes
#ray and venus third and fourth wheels on this museum date#anyway i love this place so much#it closes in an hour and i am very tempted to try to live out my childhood dream (of living in the met)#(like from the mixed up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler)#(who DIDN’T want to live in the met as a child??)
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From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1995) - M. Emmet Walsh as Morris
#From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler#M. Emmet Walsh#movie#Jean Marie Barnwell#Jesse Lee Soffer#american actor#screenshots#actor#suit & tie
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For the book ask thing — favorite book (or books, I can never pick just one), and what you’re currently reading? I’m always on the lookout for queer sci fi and fantasy recs!
For favorites, here’s one fantasy and one sci-fi:
I have to give A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske a round of applause. It’s wonderful. Joy in a box. It’s an Edwardian English missing persons/murder mystery with magic and complicated families. It also uses one of my fav magic-user tropes - the magician who does a lot with very little power. It is also rather sexy, which is often a surprise to bookclubs.
For sci-fi, I’m going to pick Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. It’s technically the third in a series, but the stories are only loosely connected by shared characters. They’re all worth a read, but this one is full of thoughts about memory and purpose and belonging. I’m planning a reread of this one soon.
And for what I’m currently reading:
I’ve been rereading The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard, which is massive and lovely - like a trusted friend holding your hand and saying “sometimes we can change the world with compassion and bureaucracy, and the people who love us will understand us and it will be good.”
I’m also reading From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg for the first time right now. I found it in a used bookstore and am enjoying it. I know it’s a classic for a lot of folks, but I’d never read it before.
I hope you enjoy any of these! And I’m always happy to offer more recommendations 📚🌊
#book recs#a marvellous light#freya marske#record of a spaceborn few#becky chambers#the hands of the emperor#victoria goddard#from the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e frankweiler#e l konigsburg
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A Few Fun Facts About 'From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler' & Its Author
We weren't surprised that the children's classic The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler came out on top in the 2023 edition of NYPL's #LiteraryMarchMadness. Written by E.L. Konigsburg and published in 1967, it has been beloved by generations of children (and adults) and has never been out of print.
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Title: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | Author: E.L. Konigsburg | Publisher: Atheneum Books (2007)
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#best childhood book#poll#preliminary round#arc of a scythe#nimona#maximum ride#from the mixed up files of mrs basil e frankweiler#the wind in the willows#abhorsen#the westing game#gone#magnus chase#the neverending story
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I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside of you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.
E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
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From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1968)
Jim: What are you reading?
Abby: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Jim: Best book.
Abby: Yeah, but I've read it before.
Jim: So have I. Hey, question: If you had to spend the night in the Met or the aquarium, which would it be?
Abby: Definitely the aquarium.
Jim: Definitely. Yes. Glad you said that. You don't wanna help me with some of my sales, do you? 'Cause I'm kind of swamped.
Abby: Sure.
It's the most mundane Office quote to devote any brainpower to remembering (although my name popped up, which is a plus), but this was my only exposure to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler before picking it up at the bookstore in the kids' section a few months ago. I thought it might be one of those amazing, fast-paced mysteries that involved a group of quirky kids getting trapped in a museum or an aquarium, somehow chancing upon a crime taking place and catching the criminals before any police have a chance to get involved... but nope.
This was a really boring book and I didn't like it.
...I could stop there, but since my last post didn't include any kind of synopsis of the book in question, here you go: A very young girl decides to run away from home with one of her brothers and hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art until she teaches a lesson to her parents in appreciating her more. The siblings aren't discovered by anyone for several days, which leads to very exciting descriptions of bathing in the museum fountain and hiding in public restrooms while the security guards do their nightly rounds. They sleep in a centuries-old bed and buy food from the nearby automat (if that gives you any idea of the timeframe) and are constantly worried about how many cents they're spending on food and transportation, etc.
But to get to the meat of the story, the girl quickly becomes interested in determining whether a new statue supposedly by Michaelangelo is really an original or a fake. They follow some "clues" and write to the museum, but they receive an unsatisfactory answer in the P.O. box they rent for this specific purpose. In the end, they visit a (slightly rude) rich old lady outside the city who gives them an hour to look through her file cabinets to find out the truth about the statue's origin.
Without spoiling the ending (although I'm sure you can probably guess how everything turned out), it was disappointing. There wasn't any kind of antagonist aside from budgeting concerns, which is hard to take seriously these days when they're talking about the difference between 16 and 20 cents. Something about knowing they're sleeping in an extremely ancient bed that someone was murdered in freaked me out a little, too, and it didn't seem thrilling so much as stressful.
There was a bit at the very end about needing to have a secret -- how knowledge that no one else knows transforms you, even if no one else knows. Claudia (the main character) is desperate to know the truth about the statue because it will make her exciting and important, which is something she doesn't feel at home.
"Returning with a secret is what [Claudia] really wants. [The statue] had a secret and that made her exciting, important. Claudia doesn't want adventure. She likes baths and feeling comfortable too much for that kind of thing. Secrets are the kind of adventure she needs. Secrets are safe, and they do much to make you different. On the inside where it counts."
I'm not sure I entirely agree. The thing about secrets (or maybe a better word in this context is the truth) is that people can choose to see them as lies that sad people concoct for all kinds of pitiable reasons. Lies are (among many other reasons) sometimes created to make people feel important when they don't have anything exciting to share or contribute (I'm thinking of a certain someone saying something along the lines of boasting to be able to solve the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office...).
I think the book's quote insinuates that if you know your secret is real, that's what gives you your own sense of value — but deep inside the adult side of my brain, I think I might be too concerned with the believability aspect. If something unbelievable (or even extremely believable) is true, but everyone else believes it's a lie... is it really true? (Inside the current political landscape of the U.S., it appears even reality is debatable.)
And I'm pretty bad at keeping secrets as it is, so never tell me about any surprise parties.
I would rate this book a 5/10 and Unrecommendable. It did not meet my expectations and went from being very practical (how to very practically and frugally live in a museum for a few days) to more abstract (~secrets change you~) in ways that didn't add up to a satisfactory ending for me.
Your mileage may vary.
#booklr#books#currently reading#newbery#newberyaward#newberymedal#reading#from the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler#e.l. konigsburg#books and reading#book review
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E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler || underscored, this is a story about wolves || @chloegoround || serendipitysirius, perfectly normal || @stardustandvanilla
#eldest siblings#web weaving#siblings#petunia evans#peter pevensie#lily and petunia#peter and edmund
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