Friday, January 2, 2015

Mrs. Appleyard's Year - a year-long reading adventure

In March of 2003 I wrote this in my reading journal:
Mrs. Appleyard's Year by Louise Andrews Kent  1941    
non-fiction (with fictional names) 
Delightful book about life in the 1930s, and early 1940s. The author has great humor and love toward her family, and their life in Massachusetts and their summer home in Vermont. I loved the book which was divided into months.  She tells of their life, and meals, and adventures. I laughed out loud several times, and I learned a lot about life in my area 60 years ago. Amazing how people, and life itself, haven't fundamentally changed all that much. 

I’ve missed doing a monthly reading, as I did with Gladys Taber and Rachel Peden (see A Year with Gladys and Rachel under Letter Topics).  And in fact, I ended my last post of that series with:
This year winter begins at 6.12 am EST on December 21, the earliest arrival of winter since 1886. On that day I plan to begin reading two chapters called Winter from two books: Country Chronicle by Gladys Taber in Connecticut, USA and The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill in Oxfordshire, England; New England and old England. Each book is divided into four seasonal chapters. These two women, though not the same age, are writing within a few years of one another. Country Chronicle was published in 1974 and The Magic Apple Tree in 1982. Susan Hill was born on February 5, 1942 so she was 40 when The Magic Apple Tree was published. Gladys Taber was born on April 12, 1899 so she was 75 when Country Chronicle was published.
The last day of winter is March 19, 2013 so please stay tuned for a first posting around that date!

I fully intended to do so, but 2013 was just too full a year to attempt it. Maybe sometime in the future I will. But for this year, after considering a number of books I own that are divided into twelve entries, I decided I would reread Mrs. Appleyard’s Year, and write about it each month.


15 comments:

  1. I love this type of journal books. I can't wait to hear all about it.

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    1. I do, too. She's a little different from others I've read. Lots of humor. I'm so pleased you are interested.

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  2. I loved your monthly readings from Gladys Taber and Rachel Peden so much that I bought both books - couldn't find them in the UK at the time, but second-hand copies came winging across the Atlantic and have given me much pleasure. So I'm looking forward to your first post on Mrs Appleyard's Year.

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    1. Oh, I can't tell you how happy this makes me. Thank you!

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  3. I know we'll enjoy hearing about your monthly reading. Love the photo on the back of the book.

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    1. Thank you! And SO very good to see your name here!

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  4. I have a couple of the "Mrs. Appleyard" books. And over the years, have collected all of Gladys Taber books. (Except those just devoted to cats and dogs, that is.) What a Joy!

    Happy January,
    Tessa~

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    1. I'm so looking forward to reading this again. 12 years is a long time!

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  5. Dear Nan, stopping by after far too long to wish you a Happy New Year and say that I miss you. I'm looking forward to reconnecting after the terrible way I've lacked commenting on blogs for the better part of 2014. xoxo

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    1. Likewise! I am just getting back to reading blogs again, and trying to post more often on mine. It's been quite a year!

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    2. I have to tell you my saddest story regarding Charlotte's Web (after the comment you left me). It is,mif course, one of my favorite books ever, one I've read more times than I can count. But whenever I read it to my class this year, as teachers have ceased to do, none of the children could connect to a farm. It was unbelievable to me! They don't know what a trough is, even. How do you know what Baby Jesus was laid in if you don't know of a barn and manger?! Everything important to my life came from a farm, and it makes me so sad that children don't seem to know about them anymore.

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    3. That is so very sad. I think about this stuff all the time, especially when I hear old songs. Songs that talk about flowers and stars and moonlight. So much is urban now. I keep hoping for a hippie renaissance where kids will move back to the country. I'm seeing it a little bit around my area, but it is hard to imagine someone 23 leaving NYC for a rural life. But maybe.

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  6. Have you read Mrs. Appleyard and I? It's my favorite of her books.....

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    1. No, I haven't. I'll look into it. Thank you! I've read Year, Kitchen, Winter Kitchen, and The Summer Kitchen.

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    2. I just put a bid in on ebay. I'm sure I'll get it. Only bidder and a day left. $4.50 for nice hardbound - no cover. Thanks again for the recommendation.

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