Perhaps my expectations were too high--after all, I think I Capture the Castle is practically perfect. And it started out great--young girl off to London to try to break in to the Theater. Complete with fun actress friends and an almost dorm-like home situation.
But then she falls in love with the Wrong Man, and she knows it, and she still does it, and it's never clear why he's so fabulous (besides being the leading man and all). And there was a big lead up to a Pivotal Event, whic wasn't really that big a deal.
So, it's still Dodie Smith and old-fashioned London, but I'll take Streatfeld's theater memories over this any day.

Such a great read! Tells the story of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which created all kinds of books that kids in the 20th century grew up with. But the star of the story is Nancy and the two women behind her: Mildred Wirt Benson and Harriet Statemeyer Adams.
Rehak does a wonderful job of setting the stage. Nancy entered our world at exactly the right time--and even though there have been many variations of her over the years (I was totally a fan of the Case Files in the 1980s), her core character remained the same. It's also a great piece of women's history--both from the perspective of the working women who created her and the girls who loved her.
Highly recommended to all fans of children's literature and/or women's history.

Another wonderful, exhaustive resource for fans of all things Montgomery. It's like the Anne treasury for grown ups.

Enjoyable, page turning read about land and famiy and money. Reminded me a bit of Rebecca, which is never a bad thing.
Though I do feel like an idiot for not figuring out the twist earlier. . .

Loved this story of a family finding themselves during a summer in India. I may have teared up while reading. And I desperately wanted to see some of the Nageena Designs. And eat some of Danita's food. Richly layered, I'm just going to have to check out the rest of Mitali's books. . .

Loved, loved this examination of the invention of Christmas traditions--most of which happened in the 19th century. During that space of 100 years, Christmas went from being a rowdy, drunken holiday to one centered around home and family. Some fascinating stuff here that made me keep reading.
But, unfortunately, it is written in the way so many history books are--lots of long quotes, footnotes, and at times, it's pretty dry. This is a story that deserves wider attention (especially in light of our current "Christmas wars"), but this book will never hit the best-seller list.

Very mixed feelings about this book.
On the one hand, I loved getting some more of the back story to the creation of these books, as well as how the fandom grew and built into the frenzy it became. I think I have even more appreciation for what these books accomplished and their place in our culture.
Oh the other hand, this could have used a slightly better editor. It jumped back and forth in time all over the place, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. And when talking about the growth of fandom, this seems kinda important. There were multiple sentences I had to reread because they just didn't make sense the first time. She seemed to use information from her interviews with J. K. Rowling throughout the book, even though it wasn't clear until late in the book that she got those interviews. Which had me confused. And I always hate it when writers says "while I was writing this book. . ." It's just weird.
And I gotta say, in a personal book like this, you really need to love the writer to get through the personal bits. And I didn't.
Of course, I wonder if part of my problems are that I wasn't a devoted Leaky Cauldron follower, so I didn't already "know" her. And I'm also wondering if she made some assumptions while writing this that her readers would have been Leaky readers.
Good enough to finish, but it really just left me wanting to dip back into the real thing.

LOVE! Jane just completely captured my heart--perhaps I have extra affection for her because my middle name is Jane and that's not always a name given to main characters. She is spunky and clever and not always real bright and it all just cracks me up.
And for the historian in me, there are several kidlit history things to ponder. Going backwards in the series--the Moffats is on its way from the library!

A tale of families, the weight of history in a small town, and figuring out where you fit.
Really enjoyed this story of Willie Upton, a PhD student who flees homeward in the midst of a crisis only to be told that the story she thought she knew about her origins wasn't true.
I had some issues of keeping track of the Temples and Uptons, but not enough to affect my enjoyment of the book. Based on Cooperstown and James Fenimore Cooper, it was fun to hear the local side of living in a tourist mecca.
Recommended.

Perhaps I should have read these in order (I picked up The Middle Moffat first because it was on my bookshelf), but no matter. These are wonderful, delightful books. The looming "For Sale" sign annoys all residents, times are tough, and then Rufus gets scarlet fever. But there's also plenty of funny--like the trolley car fight and the dance recital and Jane's terror of the Chief of Police. So glad I finally read these!