MYSELF AND I by Janet Lambert

 

Goodness, Susan really does have the beauty of Gwenn with the nice demeanor of Alcie. She is the best of both worlds and Bobby Parrish must either own or destroy her! Bobby is just gross. 

So Susan has an epiphany with the help of Ellin the housekeeper about how she is always doing for others and doesn't take time to do any self-care, as we call it nowadays. She has just gotten a job at a bookstore and is very excited about it. However, before she can begin, she ends up drawing the short straw and has to help drive Tippy and Tippy Two to Fort Knox, where Peter is newly stationed. And frankly, it is fascinating! 

I read a great journal article about Lambert with the following quote in it - “ I loved and still do love Lambert’s attentiveness to history and context. Open up a lot of [other books of that era] and you could be in [any] McWorld. But if you open up Janet Lambert you know she understood how 1946 differed from 1950.”  And she is the same with her settings. Fort Knox and Fort Jay are very different, and you can tell that Janet knows them both like the back of her hand. 

Susan only plans to stay a day or so and then fly home because she doesn't want to give Bobby Parrish (also stationed at Fort Knox) the idea that she has come out to see him. She is very much into playing the field and Booby, I mean Bobby, wants to shackle her to him. 

There is a delightful bit when Tippy first sees the lousy lodgings on the base but quickly knows how to deal with it. She is such a good army wife!  Tippy Two is the best baby in the world, apparently, and other than needing the occasional diaper change, is quite easy to manage. 

The same can not, however, be said of Bobby. He fakes a tank injury to try to get Susan to stay out longer. It works in the short run. She really does care about him and wants him to get well. But in the long run it destroys any hope that she will marry him because he keeps being an entitled, childish, dolt. 

She comes home only a bit later than she intended and she has a delightful date with Keith Drayton (I think he's Drayton, oh the fogginess of my mind) where they talk about the future. He will be collecting patents and she will be running a bookshop empire! 

Bobby comes home for a few days, but she avoids him. There is a scary bit where we find out that Bitsy has been riding around with him trying to pump her for details about Susan and I want to cry out, 
"Don't get in the car, Bitsy! He's a PREDATOR!" But I manage not to. 

Susan has decided to keep working at the book store and perhaps attend some classes at Hunter College, when her father (who has been worried that she is pining for Bobby) surprises her with the offer (obligation, more like) of a trip to "the Orient" where she can be his 'hostess' for a business junket. WHAT WILL SHE DO? 

Two cliffhangers in a row, Janet? What are you up to??

A SONG IN THEIR HEARTS by Janet Lambert

 Tippy is back! And she's knocked up! Ken Prescott is the father, of course. 

Just kidding, it's our stalwart Peter. There is some heteronormative arguing about if the baby will be a boy or a girl and it turns out to be a girl - Tippy Two, which is just as gross as can be. But the Jordans are lovely. 

But I have BIG NEWS - CANDY KANE is back! You know I love some Candy. She and Barton are living in the Philippines as well and Tip and Candy have become friends. 

It turns out that Barton is still a man-baby. He is controlling and secretive and I do wonder if it isn't chemical, because his mother has always been a delight. 

The struggles in this book are two-fold. The Jordans are going back state-side and they are having a baby and it's not easy when the army tells you next to nothing about what is going to happen. But Tippy is a natural army wife and she makes it work. There is also a housekeeper/cook who is annoying, but also excellent. 

The other issue is Barton making plans without consulting Candy at all which leads to Candy singing in public like a whore and Barton getting worse, and Candy taking a job singing on a record and oh my the DRAMA! 

The book ends on a bit of a cliff hanger with the Jordan's on a boat back to the states. Stay tuned!

FLY AWAY, CINDA by Janet Lambert

 

It has been ages since I read this, but one thing sticks in my mind - the awful way the Hollisters respond to a possible Filipino houseguest for the holidays. More on that later...

So remember Cinda? She is the girl who has the superpower of fixing unhappy people. She fixed Paula last book. Paula's dad died in WW2 and her mom had recently remarried and Paula was pissed. But it all worked out. She shows up later. 

It is coming on Christmas and War Horse, the oldest Hollister is coming home for the holidays with a friend from the Philippines. Everyone is older now - maybe a year, maybe 2 - it's hard to keep track. Money is tight-ish, the house still sounds beautiful, but it is old, which is bad in Lambert-land. 

Paula is coming too and Jinx (middle brother) is thrilled because he fancies her. 

Cinda has befriended a boy called Paul. Maybe her super-power isn't fixing unhappy people, but rather people whose first name begins with PAUL. Anyway, he is nice, if a little dull, but they strike up a friendship and she helps give him the courage to leave his very unhappy home (a formerly rich family who has lost anything, but is unable to stop keeping up appearances) and strike out on his own, to FLY AWAY, if you will.

The other children are there, but we shall ignore them because they are so forgettable that I seem to have forgotten whatever subplots they may have gotten themselves into. 

So there is much talk of rice and homesickness and foreigners RUINING EVERYTHING for Christmas. Cinda worries, "He might even be a heathen." Good grief. Turns out that the person in question is the son of missionaries from Bangkok, Thailand - not even the Phillippines. Good grief. The whole thing is unnecessary and gross and so of the time. 

Paula knows Jinx is into her but tries to get War Horse to come to New York with her. It comes to nothing. I think Janet is trying to make her into the snooty foil. I guess not everyone can be likeable. 

I am sure it comes as no surprise that everything turns out lovely and Paul and Cinda are better friends than ever. I have to say I like Cinda, but am finding the books to be distinctly "meh". Perhaps I am a heathen.