A Child's Geography of the World. V.M. Hillyer. 1929/1951. 472 pages.
First sentence: When I was a boy, my nurse used to take me to the railroad station to see the trains.
Premise/plot: A Child's Geography of the World was first published in 1929. The edition I found was revised and published in 1951. The tone is casual conversation. There are a few black and white illustrations throughout the book. The book is full of information, but what kind?
The truth is some information stays the same no matter the decade. (For example the location of the The Great Lakes, the Empire State Building, the Leaning Tower of Pisa). But plenty of things have changed and changed dramatically! Nations have passed away, governments have been toppled, revolutions have taken place. Also the United States has more than 48 states! Mount Everest has been climbed. Man has gone to the moon and back.
The last war mentioned is World War 2. Communists are mentioned, or perhaps I should say warned against!
Race is definitely an issue if you're reading this with children. (God created black men at night and many black people in Africa eat each other. The narrator makes an offhandedly comment that you will likely never see a real live Indian because there are few left. The narrator later makes an aside that the U.S. does it's best to keep out the Chinese.) I would say adults can throw away the bad and keep the good and have the discernment needed to tell the difference between the two. I would not recommend young children read this on their own for several reasons. One being that unless this text has been updated and revised recently, you'd have more misinformation than correct information.
My thoughts: I find vintage books entertaining. I do. Rare, long out-of-print books call to me. It's a way to capture a glimpse of the past, for better or worse. Not a historical writer's idea of the past. Good Morning, Miss Dove is one of my favorite, favorite books--and movies. This book would have been published at exactly the right time for Miss Dove to use!
The information is dated, true, I won't lie, but it is also a strong narrative. If there weren't problematic sections, I could easily call it charming.
© 2016 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
Beauvallet. Georgette Heyer. 1929. Arrow Books. 264 pages.
The deck was in shambles.If only Beauvallet had been filmed... Errol Flynn would have been perfect--absolutely perfect--as Heyer's hero, Nicholas Beauvallet. It was easy to imagine, which perhaps helped me enjoy the novel more. Beauvallet is the heroic pirate who agrees to take Dona Dominica and her father Don Manuel de Rada y Sylva directly to Spain--at the risk of his own life, he is a wanted man after all--after their capture. (The ship they were sailing on, the Santa Maria, attacked Beauvallet's ship.) Beauvallet treats the Spanish lady well--very well. Though he could take her to England and marry her, his intentions are completely honorable, he chooses to keep his word and take her to Spain. He will come for her--fight for her--in Spain. There are essentially three sections in this romance: the initial pirating chapters where Beauvallet is wooing Dona Dominica on his ship; Beauvallet's return to England afterwards which allows readers to meet the family; Beavallet's dangerous journey to win Dona Dominica which sees him traveling through France and Spain.
I enjoyed this one. You can read
my initial review from several years ago to learn more. But I enjoyed it. Beauvallet would never be among my favorite, favorite Heyer romances. Most of my favorite Heyer novels are set in the Regency. This historical romance is set in the Elizabethan period. But it's good fun and well worth the read.
Read Beauvallet
- If you love Errol Flynn,
- If you enjoy pirate-adventure love stories,
- If you enjoy historical novels set in the Elizabethan period
- If you enjoy Georgette Heyer
© 2013 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
The Seven Dials Mystery. Agatha Christie. 1929/2012. HarperCollins. 304 pages.
That amiable youth, Jimmy Thesiger, came racing down the big staircase at Chimneys two steps at a time. So precipitate was his descent that he collided with Tredwell, the stately butler, just as the latter was crossing the hall bearing a fresh supply of hot coffee. Owing to the marvelous presence of mind and masterly agility of Tredwell, no casualty occurred. Oh, how I LOVED The Seven Dials Mystery!!!! It was such a great book. I loved the tone of this one--the tongue-in-cheek-ness of it. It was just one of those books where you could almost open it to any page and find something to smile about. The characters. The characters' names. The dialogue. Some of the situations. The Seven Dials Mystery is one of those rare books that combines comedy or humor with drama and suspense. There is danger and suspense. There are murder victims. The murderer does manage to avoid detection, for most of the novel. And the reader knows that the murderer could strike again. So the threat is real, but, at the same time The Seven Dials Mystery does not read like a horror novel. It's not weird enough, creepy enough, scary enough. I don't think the point of this one is to scare you, I think it is all about entertaining you.
This Agatha Christie novel features several characters that I loved. The inspector from Scotland Yard is Superintendent Battle. And I definitely enjoyed him. Not quite as much as I enjoyed Eileen "Bundle" Brent. But still, I was glad to meet him. Bundle was one of a handful of young people who involve themselves in this case. They are working with Battle to solve the case. And there is a tiny bit of romance going on behind the scenes in this one.
The setting of this one, for the most part, is Chimneys. The novel opens with a houseguest being murdered. Well, that's not exactly true. The novel begins with all the other houseguests making fun of the would-be-victim's bad habit of sleeping way too late. Their teasing even takes it the next level--a big practical joke is planned and plotted for the next day. But the victim of the joke becomes the victim of a murderer. Who killed Gerry Wade? Was it one of the other houseguests?
Read The Seven Dials Mystery
- If you're a fan of Agatha Christie
- If you're interested in reading Christie's earlier works
- If you enjoy mystery/suspense novels
- If you enjoy a little comedy with your mystery/thriller
- If you want to smile
© 2012 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
This Day in World History - While federal and state officials knew Capone was guilty of bootlegging, running prostitution rings, and ordering these and other murders, they could not get the evidence to convict him. Their break came in May 1929, when Capone was arrested in Philadelphia for carrying a concealed weapon. While he served his prison sentence, federal authorities combed his homes for evidence. Their efforts produced the desired results. In 1931, officials leveled more than 5,000 counts of violating the Prohibition law against Capone and dozens of followers. They also indicted Capone on twenty-two counts of evading income taxes.
Beauvallet. Georgette Heyer. 1929/2010. Sourcebooks. 301 pages.
The deck was in shambles.
Dona Dominica, the daughter of the former governor of Santiago, Don Manuel de Rada y Sylva, is on her way back to Spain--along with her dying father, when their ship the Santa Maria is boarded by English adventurers (pirates) led by the fearless El Beauvallet (Nicholas Beauvallet). The two are taken captive by Beauvallet and brought aboard his ship, Venture. But he promises--and it's not a promise without risk--to return these two safely to Spain. If anyone can land an English ship safely into a Spanish port during these hostile times it would have to be Beauvallet.
At first Dominica hates her captor. She refuses to admit to herself that he is a little charming, a little handsome. She flirts with the other men to drive him crazy. But. Soon she has to admit that there is an attraction between them. And she's shocked to hear him boast recklessly of his honorable intentions to make her an English woman before the year is out. Since she is his captive, you might think this would be easy. Just set sail for England instead of Spain. The lady seems willing enough. But Beauvallet wants the challenge. So he keeps his promise--his first promise--both father and daughter arrive safely in Spain. Beauvallet returns to England, to his family, to his Queen.
But Dominica has not been forgotten. And a few months later, Beauvallet is ready to pursue his lady. To woo her in Spain. With England and Spain so very, very close to war--how can an Englishman, a pirate, a dreaded pirate, safely enter Spain? He has boasted that he will find a way...
Meanwhile, Dominica's father dies and she is taken into her aunt's family. Her aunt!!! Oh what a character Dona Beatrice is! She's a strong, strong woman with a mind of her own. She has a way of bullying all the men in her life including her son, Don Diego. She has determined that he must marry Dominica.
Beauvallet is an exciting and dramatic historical romance set in the Elizabethan era. Beauvallet is a bold adventurer who will risk it all to win his lady love. With his faithful companion, Joshua Dimmock, by his side, Beauvallet is ready for any challenge. The book had action, adventure, drama, and romance. I enjoyed Beauvallet very much!
The opening chapters of Beauvallet definitely reminded me of The Sea Hawk, a 1940 film starring Errol Flynn.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
The Man in the Queue. Josephine Tey. 1929/1995. Simon & Schuster. 256 pages.
It was between seven and eight o'clock on a March evening, and all over London the bars were being drawn back from pit and gallery doors.
When a man is murdered in a ticket line for a show, it's up to Inspector Alan Grant and others at Scotland Yard to solve the crime. Many things are a mystery in this one. The man's identity, for one. Who is this man? How could people spend hours in line together and not notice the people around them--the people before and behind them. Who murdered this man? What could the motive be for his murder? Why didn't those behind him notice anything?
I was surprised by how much I liked this one. I have always thought I didn't like mysteries. And yet, I found this detective story so enjoyable. I really liked Inspector Grant. And it was more than just the characters, I liked the narrative style too. I liked the way she told this story.
Eagerly he opened it and eagerly skipped the slightly prosy unimportances with which it opened--Bretherton of the scientific side was inclined to be a pompous dogmatist; if you sent him a Persian cat to report on, he would spend the first sheet of foolscap in deciding that its coat was grey and not fawn--and picked out the salient thing. (39)
Isn't that a great description? I loved the
prosy unimportances.
I definitely liked this one. I'm so glad I discovered Josephine Tey.
In the introduction to this edition, Robert Barnard made this observation,
Josephine Tey (1896 or 97-1952) is a writer who lives by her works alone...I would hazard the guess that her readers' attitude toward her is different from their attitude toward other classic crime writers: they regard her with love. They give to their favorite Tey novel what they once gave to their favorite books of childhood, to The Wind in the Willows, Little Women, or whatever: unconditional enthusiasm. (7)
© Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
OOoooh, another Agatha Christie I need to read!
Love Agatha Christie's Books. Thanks for Bringing back good memories. Good Article.
L Pereira
www.BookWhispers.com