Sittenfeld burst on the scene in 2005 with Prep, a coming-of-age narrative inspired by her time at the Groton School, located about an hour from me in Massachusetts. After being rejected several times, this boarding school story became a big bestseller.
The cover of Prep was inspired by a comeback of those ribbon belts from the preppy craze of the late 1970s. Some will remember The Official Preppy Handbook by Lisa Birnbach (1980). I recall that the summer I spent in DC working on Capitol Hill was particularly full of people who resembled this book. I am sure I still have a copy somewhere.
Another tongue-in-cheer handbook I like is The Snark Handbook: A Reference Guide to Verbal Sparring by my friend Larry Dorfman (2009). As the publisher says, “Do you have a snarky friend? Buy this for them. Are you snarky? Then buy it for yourself.”
A more serious book with its own cult following is The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense by Suzette Haden Elgin (1980), with its distinctive but very plain cover. I came across this book because she also wrote a dystopian trilogy about a group of linguists who breed women to be perfect interstellar translators until they are sent to the Barren House to await death. But instead, these women are slowly creating a language of their own to make resistance possible. The SF series was published by an imprint at Penguin when I worked there and although it wasn’t my sort of book, I admired that the author was able to incorporate her passion for language into extremely different types of writing.
My next book is A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson (2007). She is a gifted Canadian children’s author best known for an evacuation trilogy set in Ontario during WWII. This is about six children who cope with their grief over losing their mother by obsessively immersing themselves in role-playing the Knights of King Arthur . . . which works until some lose interest in the game. When I was in Canada in June, I was hoping I would find a book by Pearson that hadn’t made it to the US but was disappointed not to find any at all. My review.
My final link brings me to a series I have been meaning to get back to, which starts with Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch (1954). Set during the Crusades, this first in a series about the Carey family follows Philip d'Aubigny, a brave young knight who is captured by the Turks and must escape to follow Richard the Lionheart back to Britain. This book won the Carnegie Medal and I liked it although thought it would be improved with some humor. I should buy the two I am missing from Slightly Foxed but I'd be so jealous of their matching copies.
Next month (September 2, 2023), we’ll start with Wifedom by Anna Funder.
11 comments:
What an original chain! Preppy Handbook--my generation lol
Constance, I like the direction of your chain towards handbooks, and the trilogy by Suzette Haden Elgin sounds very interesting. I will have to look into books by Kit Pearson also.
Those editions of the Ronald Welch series are lovely. When you buy from Slightly Foxed, how long does it take them to get to you, and are they terribly expensive?
I've never actually bought anything from Slightly Foxed, although I think their books are gorgeous and reasonably priced. Overseas postage is so expensive that I meant to order the two Welch books I am missing while I was in the UK and I forgot. Now I think it is too late because they were limited editions. What it is to be a frugal completist!
What a fun chain--the Preppy and Snarky books I'd love to read some time. A fun 'guidebook' I picked up once was something called In-laws and Outlaws which gave all sorts of 'tips' for success in life!
Lovely chain. Good first link, too! I haven't read anything by her, and now I'm starting to think I should. But not Rodham... no, not that one at all. I hate alternative history novels.
Such an interesting chain. I have not read any of the books (including the starter book) but I loved following your links.
My Six Degrees of Separation took me from Romantic Comedy to The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith.
Elgin's book on Verbal Self Defense is something I've read, and admired -- she was actually able to detect patterns in communication and ways to deflect attacks which were useful. But I certainly hadn't known that she wrote fiction too - esp. dystopian stuff. Great range, I say! And I think I want to read The Official Preppy Handbook very badly now.
I only recently bought a copy of the third in Suzette Haden Elgin's SF trilogy (which arrived the day of your post.) Attracted by the concept of a constructed language I read the first two books many years ago but the third was much more difficult to obtain.
Jack, I think I read the first one many years ago but not the others. I don't recall if the series was successful - if not, likely fewer copies of the third book would have been printed, resulting later in scarcity. It is pretty funny that we were thinking about her at the same time.
Unrelated, Katrina told me your father was at Dunkirk and now I will always think of him when I read about or view that part of WWII!
Constance,
The first two of Elgin's trilogy were printed in the UK by The Women's Press. The one I've just bought is from The Feminist Press, University of New York, 2002, a reprint. Daw Books first published it (again New York) in 1994. I don't know if there was ever a British edition.
Yes, my Dad was at Dunkirk. He never talked much about it. I'm lucky he got home I suppose. I wasn't born till 1953!
Oh!! I do need that Snark Handbook!!! love this chain and it is so fascinating to see the journeys one single starting point takes each of us on..
My post is here
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