*Read for S524: Adult Readers' Advisory* I'm COMPLETELY shocked that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. There was a time when my mother's Mitford books infuriated me because they seemed so trite and I felt like they stood for everything I hated. Now I'm all Martha Stewart-ed and stuff, and I crave all things domestic. How things change... Maybe I liked this because it wasn't trying to force anything feel-good down my throat? Anyway, nothing really happens at all in these books (they are the epitome of gentle fiction), but they have little vignettes of village life throughout the seasons. I loved reading about the Harvest Festival, and picnics, and details of the schoolhouse. Oh my gosh, what has happened to me???? The stories are soothing and charming, but I definitely wouldn't recommend them for everyone since there really isn't any plot to propel things forward. I found it easiest to read a couple of chapters at a time rather than sitting for prolonged periods. There were some parts that bored me as characters discussed their theories on teaching (understandable since the author was a schoolteacher), but luckily it didn't come up too often. Now I have to let my mom in on these because she'll totally love them and I'll have to apologize for all the times I hid her Mitford books...
I turned to Miss Read's Fairacre Chronicles when I had finished the last Thrush Green book, The Year at Thrush Green. I had always thought the Thrush Green books infinitely better than the Mitford books my sisters-in-law so love. I was heartbroken when it was over. Thinking that the Fairacre novels would be more of the same, I turned to Village School.Was I wrong! Yes, the story concerns a Cotswold village, as in Thrush Green. But the Fairacre novels are more worldly wise and the humor is much more sly. Thrush Green is the terribly idealized village everyone wishes they could live in; Fairacre is the village that you really live in, if you are lucky. The world of Fairacre is more realistic, with misbehaving children, out-of-wedlock births, alcoholic schoolmasters, the occasional abusive parent, and a schoolmistress who is human enough to lose patience and lose track of a 5-year-old while on a field trip.I turned to Fairacre because I had already devoured all 12 Thrush Green books; I was seeking consolation. However, if Village School is any indication, I shall come to prefer it even to my own beloved Thrush Green.
What do You think about Village School (2001)?
Historic Fiction Feels like homeI very much enjoyed this book, more than anything, it reminded me of reading the Little House on the Prairie books as a child. The book was written in 1955, and there are a couple of racist remarks, always startling to see. Otherwise, Miss Read's writing is engaging and her characters easily imagined.I saw some people had categorized this as a cozy mystery, but there's really no mystery. It's more a "slice of life" look at each month of the school year in a small village, post WWII Britain.The book is clean in terms of language and intimacy.
—puppitypup
I was looking forward to a cosy read about village life in England in the 1950s (?). The fact that this is about a schoolmistress was just a bonus.This was no Little House on the Prairie-type book though. The life of pioneers must be inherently more interesting... and I was expecting the same kinds of adventures in Fairacres (perhaps unreasonably so!).I don't mind so much that nothing happens, but I find the switches in perspective strange (this is a first-person narrative, but on many occasions, we get to see the children's lives from a third-person narrator's point of view), and reading about the minutiae of slow-moving village life wasn't always so charming.
—mstan
I love Miss Read books - they evoke so many memories of living in England (although they took place before my first visit in 1978). There is no mystery, murder or mayhem, just gentle stories of very ordinary people making their way in a very ordinary world. Reading these books is a respite from the constant buzzing of reminders on my phone, the emails piling up in the inbox and the pace of life which seems, at times, ready to tear us apart. I love a good cozy - and books set in England are always enjoyed - so Miss Reads tales of Fairacre and Thrush Green are often revisited - they provide a soothing journey to visit old friends and familiar places.
—Maureen Hawes
