Pick Up The Honor Girl Designed By Grace Livingston Hill Conveyed In PDF
as good as I've come to expect from this author, One of my favorite books that she wrote, I have read it many times and always enjoy reading it again, Easy and Fun Read
While Grace Livingston Hill is no theologian or some great novelist, her stories are timeless.
They remind you of a simpler time when life focused around family and love, Honor Girl is no different, It follows the story of Elsie who gives up a cushy life with her Aunt and Uncle to take care of her father and two brothers, bringing with her the steady influence of a woman of God.
Beautiful writing! What happens to the girl that has it all after high school Is she "honorable"to the core What will she do when she sees her brother and dad living in dire conditions, will she abandon her life of ease to help them Can she "give up" such a bright future
The answers to these questions surprised and delighted me.
My only comment is that this really isn't a romance but just a delightful story, Completely clean and darling. Published inby Lippincott. Sad, tragic. Tearjerker. I cried a bit. But it ends on a happy note, Theme involves how a family can be split apart by death and alcoholism and how one person can be a catalyst for change.
I add this to my househome shelf because Elsie found her brothers and widower father living in squalor, The house was a pigsty and a fixerupper, I found her familys apathy hard to believe at first, but gradually the author portrayed the inner workings that created such despair in her two brothers and her father.
When their mother died and their father started drinking, they felt no hope and abandoned by God,
I didnt like Elsie at first, She seemed selfish and disloyal to her own family, The shrine her old bedroom seemed so sad,
I didnt like the wealthy aunt, Hill does a good job portraying nasty relatives,
There is a slight romantic edge to the book with a likable fellow for Elsie, but this is not a romance and does not include a wedding.
There is a slight focus on going to church, etc, but Hill is not as heavyhanded as she can be, thank goodness,
It would be faulted today for its focus on women staying at home as homemakers, There is much talk of Elsies brothers going to college, and it is implied that Elsie herself is college bound, being a high school “honor girl” with top marks in algebra and Latin.
It also would be labeled racist because the housemaids were black, It was written in, so its authentic, I find most of Hill's books to be a bit heavyhanded, but I've always liked this one, It has a lot to say about women and domesticity that is definitely couched in oldfashioned ideas and language, but I think she makes some valid points about what makes a house a home that are just as applicable today.
While the wealthy heroine manages to clean a whole disheveled house in not even a whole day, plus bake a tasty dinner, that is one of the parts of this book that I find so interesting and amusing, and the fact that she has such a sweet family of grown brothers and her Dad.
makes it a read worth keeping, Made a new goal to read every GLH book, and this was next, It was fine. Basically a re write of Hill's earlier book, "ReCreations" and frankly, I liked that one better, The ending of this one left SO, MUCH up in the air, ReCreations was perfection, and this one was a poor imitation, If you have the choice, don't bother reading this one read ReCreations instead, Reminded me of those Pollyannatype stories for girls which btw, never were anything close to Pollyanna, Sickly sweet.
Nothing exactly wrong with it, But our h is apparently a high school girl and she's good at EVERYTHING from equations, baking, gymnastics, to handling people! And she goes back to her father and brothers to cook and clean for them because, well, those are good 'Christian' values.
Now, I do think there is value in cooking, cleaning and feeding and looking after your family, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually.
But this just came across as rather shallow and sanctimonious,
And so I went looking for the Betty Neels story where the h puts up with her father's ill temper, with horrible uncaring brothers, only to be left with no inheritance from horribly daddy and winds up with a Dutch doctor.
. . I'm sure there are more than one, but I read A Good Wife :D, Much more satisfying. I've often compared the women in Grace Livingston Hill's books to the women in Agatha Christie's as they both had books published during the same time period.
There isn't one woman in Hill's books that's not on the dark side who drinks, smokes, plays cards, dances and divorce is that terrible word never thought of.
Christie's women are the complete oppositedrinking, dancing and partying are many times a way of life, plus so many are divorced are wanting one.
Are Christie's women evil and Hill's women saints I believe many of Hill's heroines take their belief system too far, though it's understandable since she wrote Christian books, and the women are most likely set up as role models for young girls.
Though the women are extremely trusting of men they hardly know and fall in love almost immediately, The characters in her books believe they know a decent man just on the basis of meeting him, and every bad man shows his faults from the start.
This situation is misleadingwe all know that evil can be covered up with fine manners and a flair for words.
Christie's main characters live a more flamboyant lifestyle, but that doesn't make them wrong, just different, Would the protagonist from The Honor Girl care for one of Christie's characters Maybe no, but they might find something rare and good in each other and overlook the others faults of being too saintly or not saintly enough.
Though Christie's characters are better at concealing the evil that dwells inside, hidden by smiles, actions and kind words.
It's shocking to find out the character that I liked the most turns out to be a murdering fiend,
The Honor Girl is my favorite book by Grace Hill though the beginning part is rather boring, Elsie is so beloved by everyone for her brilliance in her studies and athletics,
After her mother died, she left her father and two brothers to live with her aunt, She hates to even visit her old home and rarely speak to the men she left behind,
One Saturday she must go to her old home to retrieve a book, and she finds her brothers and father live in great filth and poverty.
She doesn't understand since they all work and can afford a maid to clean for them,
Standing in horror while looking around the large house, she remembers her father asked her in the last year to move home.
At this point, I want her to run and never look back, but she starts to think of the youngest brother, and how his sheets are ripped to shreds and he covers up with coats and an old shawl that belonged to her mother.
She decides to spend the day cleaning and cooking a decent meal, leaving before they arrive home, so as in doubt who their house fairy is.
She hires two women this part is racist now and should have been racist back then to help her clean, and orders several items from a department store.
The three women are able to make the house
comfortable, plus Elsie is able to make all the beds with new sheets and comforters, and add many other normal conveniences such as towels.
This was a time period when ahour/day work week was mandatory, and no one is at home nor will they be home until evening, so she has the entire day to make this happen and finishes the meal minutes before the men arrive home.
After arriving back at her Aunt's house, she realizes that she's not happy away from her family and starts to think about moving back home.
Every Saturday she goes back and to add more comfort to the home, and her brothers find her, Oh, how they love her, and she can't resist any longer to be away from the home she should never have left.
Elsie has many trials along the wayher father is an alcoholic, and she wants her brothers to attend college which they finally kowtow to her wishes.
Along the way, she meets the love of her life as it wouldn't be a Grace Livingston Hill book without a love story looming.
I read this book several times a year, it's a nice change from zombie books and it's quite satisfying, and I love books about my God.
This review is from my blog: sitelink blogs This book is far from politically correct, but you have to remember that it was written in, This book is written from the view that women belong in the home, and also that no one can take a woman's place in the home.
While I admit to chuckling a bit over the men who lived in a junk pile and didn't seem to know how to clean up after themselves, and the fact that everything was better once the sister came home, I did enjoy the story.
This book has plenty of housekeeping details, which is my favorite thing about Grace Livingston Hill's books, and this is her first book that I read that doesn't end .
I have to admit I was quite relieved at that: after all, the heroine is in high school, Its cheerful Very Good! This is one of my single favorite books of all time, I re read it every couple of years : It brings me back to my childhood, when I read it the first time, and I can see how she evolved, and how I've grown up : GLH has not written one book that I have not enjoyed.
I have all of her books, Some first editions. I really like this book, if only our country could go back to the standards of that time when a homemaker was appreciated and looked upon with respect.
This hard copy find from a massive library booksale is the book that introduced me to the joy of living in the past with circa's novels.
I love seeing into another time and the social standards of the day, Grace Livingston Hill tends to be simple and moralistic, but it's such a refreshing antidote to modern living! This book was written originally back inand may not be deemed politically correct in present day.
GLH wrote Christian books where people were faced with the problems of life and love and triumphed, I have read others and this one is not her best, There is also something wrong with the timeline as she has Elsie leaving home atyears old and living with her aunt foryears.
That would only make heryears old, From the story I would put her age closer to, This was a difficult book, I fully support women working to make a home for their families, I can even go so far as that it may be the most important thing they do, but this book, or at least some of the characters in this book, imply that it is the only thing women are good for, and that really irks me.
I don't think that GLH really supports that view but it is an impression you could get from reading this.
Other than that the story was good as far as it went, Elsie is a nice strong lead who sets to work and gets things done, but it ends very abruptly just as our heroine has gotten everything started.
I will have to do some research and find out if there is a sequel,
Jul:
On second reading the attitude mentioned above did not seem so prominent and I really enjoyed the part where Elsie comes in secretly each week to do things for her father and brothers it reminded me of the "magic" in sitelinkA Little Princess.
There does not seem to be a sequel though and I still wish there was just a little more of this story.
Well it is a classic and has some noble ideas about women but being the modern gal that I am I had a little bit of an uneasy feeling that this portrayal of an intelligent women giving up her dreams to sacrifice for her family was a little unbalanced.
This book bristled my feminist side, I turn to one of Grace Livingston Hill's books when I want to escape to a yesteryear that I never knew but somehow offers comfort.
And I often learn a lesson I neededwe can win all the awards and have worldly success, but family comes first.
Plain and simple.
Oh, if it were only that simple, This is one of my favorite stories of all time, A girl who has grown up privileged with relatives who are rather worldly and shallow, returns to her father and brothers.
It's a difficult life, where depression and squalor have crept into the house, But again and again this scrappy girl manages to change not only the lives they live on the surface, but also they find their truer selves.
I have seen firsthand what a difference surroundings makes in anyone's life, This book underscores this in perhaps a somewhat heavyhanded way, but the transformation is a beautiful one and I like how this girl doesn't wait around for a prince to come rescue her, but makes a plan, and buckles down to do the hard work required to make a genuine change in the life of those she loves.
I've probably read this book a dozen times now, and I have come away happy and content with each reading.
I hope to read it a dozen more times yet, : I love this story! It is a sweet account of a girl deciding that her father and brothers matter, and acting like it.
I really enjoyed how the different characters grow and change and interact with each other, and I also enjoyed the fact that the story is more about the girl's personal growth and the growth of her family members than about the developing relationship between her and the love interest.
This is probably the most understated romance of any of this author's books, : A very good book mostly geared towards high school kids, Okay, subjective fivestar rating just because I love the descriptions of how she cleans/remodels the house her Dad and brothers live in.
I've loved watching/reading about places getting cleaned and remodeled ever since I saw "The Secret of Roan Inish", Comfort read. Hadn't read this in years but really enjoyed reading it again, Makes me think of my mother's mom who I never met that had to go live with an aunt after her mother died.
She never went back to live with her father and brother though, as the character Elsie in the story did.
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