Little House by the Railway Line

Two Books

13:46, Tuesday 2 February 2010 .. Posted in From the Bookshelf .. 1 comments .. Link

The first one was Troubled Journey: A Missionary Childhood in War Torn China by Faith Cook. This was a lovely book, partly a biography of her parents' life as missionaries in China (and then Malaysia, although that wasn't covered so much), and partly her own story of being a child growing up separated from her missionary parents in China - and later England. I am very thankful that the assorted people we know who are missionaries now are not forced to send their children away to boarding school at the age of six, after reading of her distressing childhood. Of course, it probably wouldn't have been as distressing had there not been a war and political problems that necessitated the escapes. Overall, a very interesting little book, and quite short and easy to read as well. I've read one of her books before, about the lives of various hymn-writers, and that was good too, so I'll be on the lookout for more of her books.

The second was The Gentle Art of Domesticity, by Jane Brocket. My mother bought me one of her books for Christmas, called Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, all about the food mentioned in classic children's literature and recipes to make them - it was marvellous and fascinating, and I loved it. So when I discovered she'd written this book, and that the library had a copy, I thought it would be wonderful. I was rather disappointed by it, though. I expected it to be something of a celebration of the beauty of home, but found it was very half-hearted in that. As long as something is inherently decorative and largely purposeless, Jane Brockett approves of it (for example, embroidery and making ridiculously over-decorated cakes). But she is very scathing and derisory about most of what I would term domestic arts, and regards things that are generally useful (for example, cooking dinners as opposed to cakes, maintaining a level of cleanliness and tidiness in the home) as beneath her (and any other woman). Despite pretending to overthrow the tyrannies of feminism that forbid a woman to enjoy homemaking, in effect it just compounds them by denigrating almost all aspects of that. She only really has time for things that happen to be done at home but she feels are more "artistic" than important.

However, the photography is beautiful, and if you can get past the patronising and pompous writing style there are some gems of information tucked in among the clutter.

I've now begun reading Could it be Dementia, which should be interesting, though it may, I suppose, be rather depressing in parts.

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16:07, Tuesday 2 February 2010 .. Posted by HopefulHeart77

Thank you for the book reviews. It is always very interesting to me.Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. Many blessings.

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Little House by the Railway Line

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