Comments on: Summer of “Shelf Discovery” Ch. 4: Read ‘Em and Weep http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565 Reading, Writing, Movies and Mothering in Minneapolis, Mostly Mon, 11 May 2026 20:58:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: shannon http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27469 shannon Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:21:02 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27469 i saw brian's song but don't think i read it. if i did, i would have gained an insight (or tolerance) to football i don't have (like i thought i hated formula one racing but then the dog narrator of 'the art of racing in the rain' made me rethink that sport) as for ellen, i vaguely remember another dying child/ book called ellen or helen (they all had name in the titles) that's amazing you were moved to write to her mother, amy. i wish i'd done the same with some of the book i read back then. i'll bet they would have been a sort of comfort to their mums... i saw brian’s song but don’t think i read it. if i did, i would have gained an insight (or tolerance) to football i don’t have (like i thought i hated formula one racing but then the dog narrator of ‘the art of racing in the rain’ made me rethink that sport)
as for ellen, i vaguely remember another dying child/ book called ellen or helen (they all had name in the titles)
that’s amazing you were moved to write to her mother, amy. i wish i’d done the same with some of the book i read back then. i’ll bet they would have been a sort of comfort to their mums…

]]> By: Buried In Print http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27457 Buried In Print Thu, 05 Jul 2012 01:01:49 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27457 Just wanted to say that I have been wholly enjoying your posts on these books. I was quite smitten with a project like this shortly after the book was published and it also inspired me to revisit some shelf discoveries that were on the shelves of Canadian libraries and bookstores that the author wouldn't have been reading but which were still great favourites of mine. (My list is <a href="http://www.buriedinprint.com/?page_id=1339" rel="nofollow">here</a., but 2010 sure feels like forever ago.) You're making me want to re-re-read now!</a> Just wanted to say that I have been wholly enjoying your posts on these books. I was quite smitten with a project like this shortly after the book was published and it also inspired me to revisit some shelf discoveries that were on the shelves of Canadian libraries and bookstores that the author wouldn’t have been reading but which were still great favourites of mine. (My list is here</a., but 2010 sure feels like forever ago.) You’re making me want to re-re-read now!

]]> By: crystal http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27442 crystal Wed, 04 Jul 2012 04:50:14 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27442 I read Bridge to Terabithia and I found myself again being reminded of my own experience as a young girl -although I would say I was a conglomerate of Jess and Leslie.  I was that weird kid always drawing and struggling with low income trials while running towards something unknown asking friends to take me to their respective churches searching for answers yet also the only girl in the Grand Forks city wide wrestling tourney. Paterson achieves the soul searching, child-mind evolving, finding one's place in the world, heart-wrenching, ache of life feeling all wrapped up in 128 pages.  I don't recall reading this book as a kid but as someone pointed out My Girl paralleled this story and I agree there are similarities.   These stories are so fun to read and be reminded what childhood was like and take the time to sort of commiserate with our kids.  We forget all too easily our childhood and how it is to traverse the adult world anew.  I am really enjoying this trip back in time. I read Bridge to Terabithia and I found myself again being reminded of my own experience as a young girl -although I would say I was a conglomerate of Jess and Leslie.  I was that weird kid always drawing and struggling with low income trials while running towards something unknown asking friends to take me to their respective churches searching for answers yet also the only girl in the Grand Forks city wide wrestling tourney.

Paterson achieves the soul searching, child-mind evolving, finding one’s place in the world, heart-wrenching, ache of life feeling all wrapped up in 128 pages.  I don’t recall reading this book as a kid but as someone pointed out My Girl paralleled this story and I agree there are similarities.  

These stories are so fun to read and be reminded what childhood was like and take the time to sort of commiserate with our kids.  We forget all too easily our childhood and how it is to traverse the adult world anew.  I am really enjoying this trip back in time.

]]> By: Amy http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27425 Amy Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:58:42 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27425 Shannon, did you read Ellen: A Short Life Long Remembered? That's one I read many times. I even wrote to Ellen's mother, and bless her heart, she wrote back. Shannon, did you read Ellen: A Short Life Long Remembered? That’s one I read many times. I even wrote to Ellen’s mother, and bless her heart, she wrote back.

]]> By: girldetective http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27421 girldetective Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:42:38 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27421 Shannon, I forgot about the non-fiction ones. I remember reading Brian's Song and I know there must have been others like it. Amy, I definitely cried back then, too. Thalia, I remember not receiving Homeward Bounders in the same way you did, but "getting" how that touched a nerve. Interesting the difference how what moved one of us didn't move the other. Shannon, I forgot about the non-fiction ones. I remember reading Brian’s Song and I know there must have been others like it. Amy, I definitely cried back then, too. Thalia, I remember not receiving Homeward Bounders in the same way you did, but “getting” how that touched a nerve. Interesting the difference how what moved one of us didn’t move the other.

]]> By: thalia http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27416 thalia Mon, 02 Jul 2012 20:42:44 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27416 The two books guaranteed to make me weep, as I think you remember, are Diana Wynne Jones's 'Homeward Bounders' and Philippa Pearce's 'Tom's midnight garden'. Both cries are about, I think, the loss of childhood innocence and the burden of being the child who has to make everyone else ok (in different measures in the two books). I'm a crier, though, so I may not be a good bell weather. Have to say I never managed to finish Jacob Have I loved or indeed any other of her books. Didn't do it for me for some reason. The two books guaranteed to make me weep, as I think you remember, are Diana Wynne Jones’s ‘Homeward Bounders’ and Philippa Pearce’s ‘Tom’s midnight garden’. Both cries are about, I think, the loss of childhood innocence and the burden of being the child who has to make everyone else ok (in different measures in the two books). I’m a crier, though, so I may not be a good bell weather.

Have to say I never managed to finish Jacob Have I loved or indeed any other of her books. Didn’t do it for me for some reason.

]]> By: shannon http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27411 shannon Mon, 02 Jul 2012 19:18:51 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27411 oh, how i loved the weepy books! maybe because i liked a good cry. maybe because the bad things were not happening to me. maybe because it sounded like REAL life with all that heartache and as a preteen, i was so eager for my real life to begin. in grade 7 i burned thru the non-fiction biographies of sick and/or dying children (Eric, Karen, With Love from Karen are the titles i can remember now - but there was a whole shelf devoted to this subject: fat hardcovers with pictures of sunsets and mountains and other wistful things) when i finished the shelf, i was at a loss what to read next. maybe that's when i started with vc andrews... melodrama oh, how i loved the weepy books! maybe because i liked a good cry. maybe because the bad things were not happening to me. maybe because it sounded like REAL life with all that heartache and as a preteen, i was so eager for my real life to begin.
in grade 7 i burned thru the non-fiction biographies of sick and/or dying children (Eric, Karen, With Love from Karen are the titles i can remember now - but there was a whole shelf devoted to this subject: fat hardcovers with pictures of sunsets and mountains and other wistful things)
when i finished the shelf, i was at a loss what to read next. maybe that’s when i started with vc andrews… melodrama

]]> By: Amy http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27405 Amy Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:40:13 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27405 Funny, although I read and loved some real weepers, they didn't make me cry back in the day. But Beat the Turtle Drum just about sent me off the deep edge this time around. Having the parent's perspective is brutal. Funny, although I read and loved some real weepers, they didn’t make me cry back in the day. But Beat the Turtle Drum just about sent me off the deep edge this time around. Having the parent’s perspective is brutal.

]]> By: Kate http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565&cpage=1#comment-27404 Kate Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:09:55 +0000 http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4565#comment-27404 We ARE living slightly distant, parallel lives, as your comment about your role in your family rings strong and true for me as well. We ARE living slightly distant, parallel lives, as your comment about your role in your family rings strong and true for me as well.

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