Elizabeth the Gallant

I'm reading a very, very bad book today: Elizabeth the Gallant by Elinor Brent-Dyer. It was written in 1927, near the beginning of her career, but even that can't excuse this book (after all, School at the Chalet isn't half-bad, and it was published several years earlier). It's historical fiction about the English Civil War, but the quality of the book makes this some sort of alternate reality. Here, Prince Rupert makes flowery speeches and has, apparently, nothing better to do in 1643 than dance attendance on his uncle. Given the frequency with which characters meet, I'd guess England is approximately ten square miles, with about 200 people in total. Otherwise, the coincidences are too unlikely - and in a book where the hero and heroine pretend to be married, and the heroine dresses as a man and gets away with it, that's saying a lot.
Oh, and did I mention the dialogue? Here's a random sampling: "Nay; shalt not talk yet, for thou art wearied, as 'tis plain to see. First thou must sleep, and then, when the morrow comes, shalt tell us all."
So why am I reading it? Well, I'm about 1/3rd done, and it's been gathering dust on my to-read shelf for a little while, so I thought I might as well.

sorry I've been elsewhere...

...though actually, it's not that I haven't been blogging, it's that I haven't been blogging here. I've been blogging on my new blog, instead, which is easier because reading a chapter of a Betty Neels romance and blogging about it takes only 15 minutes or so. My sister was visiting me until last night; while she was here, I didn't read much aside from a book about Vietnam nurses and the aforementioned Betts chapters. The book (Elizabeth Norman's Women at War: the Story of Fifty Military Nurses who Served in Vietnam) about Vietnam nurses is really interesting - I hadn't read much nonfiction about them before. It's less like a monograph than some others I have around the house, which probably explains why I've read this one and not the others. Some of the ancedotes in the book seemed familiar, I'm not sure whether I read them in a newspaper article or review, or in fiction that was based on true stories.
I go back to work tomorrow, after a week away. Thank heavens that I have another vacation coming up at the end of September!

apparently, she'll be assimiliated, too

As I've mentioned before, I'm excited about Ellen Emerson White's upcoming book, Long May She Reign (though I don't love the cover art, natch). She's not really a publicity seeker, so it's strange to see that she has a website, and stranger still to see her Myspace page. I'm a fan of her work, so I'll check out both - but still, it's strange.

standards for children's books

I just finished reviews of two children's books. Both were ostensibly biographies, but both had fictionalized dialogue. (And no, I wasn't reviewing an old Childhood of Famous Americans title; these were published this year!). I find this dismaying, and always give such books a bad review. To my dismay, some of my colleagues think I'm a crank for so doing. I understand that publishers don't want to waste space in a 40-page book for endnotes, but it's insulting to perpetuate standards for children that adults gave up decades ago.