lory_enterenchanted's reviews
531 reviews

A pleasant light novel that skillfully interweaves a "present" story (the main character inherits a house from a woman she met years ago in Italy) with memories of the past, unraveling some old hurts along with encountering new characters and relationships. The subtle, understated romance could have been more developed for my taste, with a few more scenes of the two characters interacting.

It was fun to read about the school branch opening in Switzerland, but the main conflict was too easily resolved, and there were other parts that seemed just thrown in for no reason -- I remember a description of a left-over cup of coffee that I thought might have some relevance to the plot, but no. It was like the author just needed to fill pages. The final pantomime was also totally unrelated to character or plot development, an interminable and boring description. I don't think i'll read any more of this series.

This story can only really be recommended for those with some interest in pianos and music. Some nice, atmospheric writing, but the main character's obsession with his vocation as a piano tuner overwhelms everything else; his background and relationships are only sketchily hinted at, and the actual process of tuning remains rather vague and mystical. 

I never imagined that a tuner could alter the sound of a piano so extremely, and by the end I started to be skeptical about these claims. They seemed exaggerated.

I read a couple of the popular Chalet School books - actually started with the Oberland (due to its Swiss setting) but then switched to this as I thought it would be good to see where the saga began. It was fine but nothing so tremendously outstanding.

I wish there weee more in these books about Margaret’s Life in the theatre. It’s all a bit too easy for her there. The evil Matron appears to add conflict but it would be more interesting if this were omitted and the relationships developed more, eg between Margaret and Katie. 

Nonstop action in this late Streatfeild, with a feisty orphan battling a horrid orphanage Matron, long-lost aristocrats, journeying on a canal boat (this was my favorite part), and ending up in a traveling theatre. I enjoyed it though I wonder why nobody offers to strangle Margaret with her stockings when she keeps on and on about her "three sets of everything, all of the very best quality."

After a number of disappointingly random or repetitive stories I find this is one of the stronger entries in the series. There is a solid reason for the characters to go on a journey -- trying to bring peace between warring peoples -- even if one wonders why the all-powerful Ozma took so long to become aware of this, and why when she gets there her magic turns out to be so useless. But never mind, if she really was all knowing and all powerful there would never be any Oz stories at all. 

A middling Oz book that has a few striking images but also a lot of repetition of motifs from earlier books. 

I spent a year reading through this book with a partner and doing some of the writing exercises. I found it really helpful and inspiring and will come back to it again.

Read for the True Crime category of Nonfiction Reader Challenge, a genre that I usually don't gravitate to. I appreciated that Summerscale stayed with the facts for the most part, though she did slip in a certain amount of speculation. It's hard not to, as the historical record does not have any explanation for why this murder was actually committed. It is most intriguing that the murderer ended up giving refuge to another boy who was suffering domestic abuse, and it's plausible that he did so in empathy out of his own experience. But we just can't know what really happened, and that is a bit frustrating.

Summerscale rounds out the story with information about the time and place that is often quite interesting, but sometimes goes a bit far off topic - seems like stretching to fill pages.