Books I Love

The gothic, people-eating house in Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore  made me want to re-read York: The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby, with its trickster, quirky house and House of Many Ways by Dianna Wynne Jones, with its mysterious, dusty, infinite house. I loved them both more the second time around.

This time I read York more slowly and took the time to appreciate how so many of the characters in this book are anxious in different ways. Tess has a therapy cat and meltdowns. Theo has robot moments and nightmares. Jaime is constantly drawing, which I saw as an artistic outpouring but also a way of dealing with his own anxiety. Cricket, how I love you unreasonably, tries to be in control of everything. Even the parents are rather anxious. And best of all the sequel is due out in the first half of 2019! I can’t wait!

House of Many Ways was not a favorite the first time I read it. I didn’t like cranky spoiled Charmain very much. I liked her very much this time around, maybe because I sympathized more—she’s expected to do all these things no one has ever taught her to do. Of course she’s cranky about it! Living in Thailand as a USAian, I’m expected (and expect myself) to navigate so many things without a map. Plus I would really really like a shortcut like the one through the House so I could skip Bangkok traffic occasionally. Ok, all the time. Sophie and Howl make an appearance, and Howl is kinda hilarious through Charmain’s eyes, although I would call it a related book rather than a direct sequel. It’s a Diana Wynn Jones book through and through, escapist and fun and sometimes so truthful about people that it hurts.