It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It has been two weeks since my last post on books and as usual, the comments and book suggestions in that post added several interesting titles to my to-be-read list- so thank you for sharing your reading life with me! Meanwhile, I found a few interesting reads to tell you about.

Image: Goodreads

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr was a gentle and enjoyable read. It is an autobiographical novel written in the voice of a child, for children. Little Anna lives in Berlin as part of an affluent family with a father is a well known writer, until one day when Hitler's rise to power is imminent and they have to flee the country, leaving behind their toys and other belongings. (The title comes from Anna imagining that Hitler stole the stuffed toy that she left behind and is now playing with him.) What follows is Anna's story of moving from country to country, trying to fit in and create a new life each time she is uprooted. Even though the book is set against the backdrop of the ghastly war (and even as I was thinking of all the millions of children who were far less fortunate), the story itself focuses on Anna's everyday life, with small joys and tiffs and incidents in school. Anna is a thoughtful girl, wise beyond her years, and her thoughts are touching and amusing- like when she reads a book about the hardships that famous people endured as children and wonders if a difficult childhood is a prerequisite for fame, and if so, is her childhood sufficiently difficult or not? The edition I read was charmingly illustrated by the author. I'm adding this book to my Color Reading Challenge where the Pink in the title fits into the "any other color" category. PS: Thanks to reader Blog-E-Zine for recommending this book.

For adults who enjoy reading but often can't make the time or mental space in their lives for books written for adults, high quality children's literature is a good option. The language is simpler, the books are often shorter, there is a merciful dearth of sex and explicit violence (at least, one hopes) but the stories can be just as deep and touching.

Image: Goodreads

Below Stairs is the classic memoir by Margaret Powell which inspired the runaway hit Downton Abbey. I'm planning to watch the series one of these days and so I picked up this book. Set in the 1920s, Powell narrates her story of starting work at 13 as a kitchen maid and working for several years in domestic service. The story is plainly told in a very conversational style, and I felt as though I was sitting and having tea with a chatty and rather crotchety older woman talking about the good old days. Powell is very observant and very candid as she describes the stark contrast between the gentry living upstairs and the servants toiling downstairs in the basement. Powell narrates how the wealthy ladies who employed them would get together for fancy tea parties and proceed to spend much of their time gossiping about their problems with the servants. When I read this, I thought: The servants were overworked and underpaid and had reason to be unhappy but the sad thing is that these affluent ladies with their idle and stifled lives seem to be pretty miserable too.

As a child of middle class India, this memoir certainly struck a chord in me because in India you don't have to be particularly wealthy to have cooks and maids and nannies and chauffeurs and gardeners working for you. So many of the situations described in the book were uncomfortably familiar. The bottom line- this book does not have slick writing or editing, but for giving a voice to people that you don't often hear from, and for being thought-provoking, it is definitely worth reading. Have you watched Downton Abbey and do you recommend it?

This book goes towards my What's in A Name 6 Reading Challenge where it fits the category of books with "up or down" or their equivalent in the title.

Image: Goodreads

What's life without a juicy mystery? Right now, I'm sinking my teeth into A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley. This is from the Flavia de Luce series, and I must say this series gets better and better. In the first book, the pint-sized not-a-little-bratty detective Flavia peeved me so much that I'd have given up this series then and there, but luckily Niranjana stepped in and eloquently made the case for marching on and reading Flavia's next adventure or two. Strangely, now I'm enjoying these books less for the actual mystery (which Bradley tends to over-complicate) and more for Flavia, the precocious child-woman and chemistry genius. She can do a pregnancy test on a woman's hanky but wonders what an "affair" means. She helps the local police solve murders while missing the mother that she barely remembers. I want to say, "Oh, Flavia" and give her a hug. This book also goes into the Color Reading Challenge.

All my reading challenge updates can be found on this page.

So, what are you reading these days? I'm linking this post to It's Monday! What Are You Reading on Book Journey.

Come back on Wednesday, if you will, for a simple recipe with rice and peas.