Kathy's (kac522) Reading Log by Year

See my January 2024 update in >2 kac522:.

At the end of each year I do a tally of the books I've read by Publication Year. This thread will be a perfect place for me to keep track as I go along! I started keeping detailed track of books by year in 2019.

I keep a chronological list of all my 2024 reading here, with short reviews: 75ers: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356771
I keep track of my 2024 Challenges reading here: Category Challenge: https://www.librarything.com/topic/355880#

January 2024 Update:

I started keeping track by year in 2019, when the Read It, Track It group had a challenge to read one book from every year from 1920 to 2019. I didn't quite make it, but it was such an interesting I decided to continue keeping track as I read. So right now I've recorded the books that I've read in 2019 through 2023, and they are organized by Publication Year.

I'm going to start a project (it will be very slow), to start recording by year my books read from 2018, then 2017, then 2016, etc. I have recorded my books read since about 1985. I don't know if I'll get back that far, but it would be nice to get back as least as 2009, when I first joined LT.

So for anyone that cares, in the coming weeks you'll see books from 2018 added to these lists. They may or may not have the months, but they for sure will have the year.

At some point, I'd like to identify my "favorite" book from each year Published. We'll see.

18th Century & before-- ??? - 1799

ca. 432 B.C.E.; "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles (Apr 24)
2nd Century C.E. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (Jan 22)

1599 As You Like It, Shakespeare (Nov 23)

1600 A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare (Apr 22)
1600 The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare (Nov 24)
1601 Twelfth Night, Shakespeare (May 22)
1603 Othello, Shakespeare (Apr 19)
1606 Macbeth, Shakespeare (Nov 19)
1610 The Tempest, Shakespeare (Jan 21)

1722 A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (Mar 24)
1764 The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole (Jul 23)
1788 Emmeline, Charlotte Turner Smith (Jun 19)
1789 The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe (Sep 24)

1800 - 1819

1802 Belinda, Maria Edgeworth (Feb19)
1807 Tales from Shakespeare, Lamb (Jan21)

1811 Sense and Sensibility: An annotated edition, Austen (Mar20)
1811 Sense and Sensibility, Austen (Jul 24) Collector's edition
1812 The Absentee, Maria Edgeworth (Jul 22)
1813 Pride and Prejudice, Austen (Dec 20); (Apr 21) audiobook Fox; (Dec 21) audiobook Stevenson; (Jul 22); (Jul 23) text; (May 24) audiobook Stevenson
1814 Mansfield Park: an annotated edition, Austen (May 20)
1814 Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (Mar 24)
1816 Emma: an annotated edition, Austen (Apr 22) -- text and audiobook
1817 Sanditon, Jane Austen (Jan20) -- text
1817 Persuasion, Austen (Jul 21) audiobook; (Jul 22) text
1817 Northanger Abbey: an annotated edition, Austen (Jul 21) text and audiobook; (Jul 23) Collector's Library edition

1820 - 1839

1827 The Highland Widow, Sir Walter Scott (Jan 23)

1839 Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens (Oct 22) audiobook re-read

1840 - 1859

1840 The Betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni (Jun 23)
1841 Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens (Aug 20), (Sep 21), (Jun 23)
1842
1843 A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Writings, Dickens (Dec 21); audiobook (Dec 21), (Dec 22), (Dec 23)
1844 Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens; audiobook (Sep 23)
1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass (Feb 23)
1846 Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, Melville (July 20)
1847 Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (Oct 21)
1847 Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte (Jan 23)
1847 Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte (Oct 23)
1848 The Kellys and the O'Kellys, Anthony Trollope (Mar19) ♥
1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte (Jan 20)
1848 Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens (May 20), (Nov 23)
1849 Shirley, Charlotte Bronte (Jun 21)

1850 Audiobook: David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, read by Simon Vance (re-read) (Apr19, Mar 22, Dec 23) ♥
1850 The Moorland Cottage, Elizabeth Gaskell (Dec 20, Dec 23)
1850 Olive, Dinah Mulock Craik (Mar 21)
1851 Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell (Oct 21) audiobook re-read
1851 London Crimes, Charles Dickens (originally published in Household Words, 1851)
1851 The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne (Mar 23)
1852 Roughing It In the Bush, Susanna Moodie (Feb 23)
1853 Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell (Oct 23)
1853 Bleak House, Charles Dickens (Feb 24)
1854 Hard Times, Charles Dickens (Feb 24)
1854 The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (Oct 24)
1855 North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell (Dec 20), (Jun 22), (Jan 24)
1855 The Warden, Anthony Trollope (Jul 22)
1855 A Month in the Country, Ivan Turgenev (Sep 24)
1856 The Poor Clare, Elizabeth Gaskell (Dec 19), (Oct 23)
1857 Scenes from Clerical Life, George Eliot (Dec19) ♥
1857 Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (Mar 21), (Mar 24) audiobook re-read ♥
1857 Barchester Towers, Trollope (Aug 22) audiobook re-read ♥
1857 Madame Bovary, Flaubert (Dec 22)
1857 The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins (Apr 24)
1858 The Three Clerks, Anthony Trollope (Apr19) ♥
1858 Doctor Thorne, Anthony Trollope (Sep 22) audiobook re-read ♥
1858 "The Manchester Marriage", Elizabeth Gaskell (Jan 24) ♥
1859 The Bertrams, Anthony Trollope (Sep19)
1859 Adam Bede, George Eliot (Apr 21)
1859 The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob, George Eliot (Jun 21), (Nov 23)
1859 A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (May 22), (May 24) audiobook
1859 My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (Round the Sofa), Elizabeth Gaskell (Oct 24)

COMPLETE: 1860 - 1879

1860 Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope (Feb20)
1860 The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot (Jul 22)
1860 Love and Youth: Essential Stories, Turgenev (Aug 23)
1861 The Doctor's Family and Other Stories, Mrs Oliphant (Sep 20); (May 21)
1861 Silas Marner, George Eliot (May 21)
1861 Framley Parsonage, Anthony Trollope (Feb 23) audiobook re-read
1862 Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev (Jun19)
1862 The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson, Trollope (Mar20)
1862 Lady Audley's Secret, Mary E. Braddon (Apr20)
1862 Orley Farm, Anthony Trollope (Oct 20)
1863 Rachel Ray, Anthony Trollope (Dec 20), (Dec 21)
1863 Salem Chapel, Margaret Oliphant (Jun 21)
1863 Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell (Aug 24)
1864 The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob, George Eliot (Jun 21)
1864 The Perpetual Curate, Margaret Oliphant (Mar 22)
1864 The Doctor's Wife, Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Jan 23)
1864 The Small House at Allington, Anthony Trollope (Mar 23); audiobook re-read
1865 Miss Mackenzie, Anthony Trollope (Apr 21), (May 22)
1865 Our Mutual Friend, Dickens (Jun 21), (Aug 24) audiobook re-read
1865 Cousin Phillis and Other Tales, Elizabeth Gaskell (Jun 21), (Oct 22)
1865 Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope (Sep 24), audiobook re-read
1866 The Belton Estate, Trollope (Jun 21), (Jan 23)
1866 Miss Marjoribanks, Oliphant (Oct 22)
1867 The Claverings, Trollope (Oct 21), (Jul 23)
1867 Nina Balatka, Trollope (Nov 21), (Feb 24)
1867 The Last Chronicle of Barset, Trollope (Apr 23)
1868 Linda Tressel, Trollope (Feb 22)
1868 The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins (Mar 22)
1868 Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave, Elizabeth Keckley (Sep 23)
1869 Little Women: An Annotated Edition, Alcott (Jul 24)
1869 Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope (Oct 24)

1870 The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens (Oct 21)
1870 The Vicar of Bullhampton, Trollope (Oct 22)
1870 Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite, Trollope (Nov 22)
1870 Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins (Oct 24)
1871 Lady Susan, Austen (publ. post) (Aug 20), (Jul 22), (Jun 23) audiobook, (Feb 24) audiobook
1871 Desperate Remedies, Thomas Hardy (Oct 21)
1871 Ralph the Heir, Anthony Trollope (Dec 23)
1872 Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy (Apr 22), (May 23-audiobook)
1872 Middlemarch, George Eliot (Dec 22)
1872 The Golden Lion of Granpère, Trollope (Oct 23)
1872 The Eustace Diamonds, Trollope (Dec 24)
1873 A Pair of Blue Eyes, Thomas Hardy (Oct 22)
1874 Lady Anna, Anthony Trollope (Sep 22)
1874 Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions), Louisa May Alcott (Feb 23)
1874 Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, Anthony Trollope (Sep 23)
1875 The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (Apr 24)
1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain (Jan 23)
1876 Phoebe, Junior, Margaret Oliphant (Apr 23)
1876 A Bad Business: Essential Stories, Dostoevsky (Sep 24)
1877 Three Tales, Gustave Flaubert (Jun 23)
1878 The Lady of Launay, Anthony Trollope (Feb 23)
1879 A Rogue's Life, Wilkie Collins (Jan19)
1879 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (Oct 24)
1879 An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (Oct 24)

1880 - 1899

1880 Heidi, Johanna Spyri (Oct19)
1880 Washington Square, Henry James (Mar 23), (May 24)
1881 Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins (Apr 24); stories range from 1852 to 1881
1882 Two Heroines of Plumplington, Anthony Trollope (Feb 23)
1882 Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories, Anthony Trollope (collection published 2014; stories range from 1866-1882); (Dec 24)
1883 Hester, Margaret Oliphant (Aug 22)
1883 Treasure Island, R L Stevenson (Feb 24)
1883 The Silverado Squatters, R. L. Stevenson (May 24)
1884 An Unsocial Socialist, G. B. Shaw (Dec 21)
1885 A Child's Garden of Verses, R. L. Stevenson, Illus. Jessie Willcox Smith (1905)
1886 The Guilty River, Wilkie Collins (Jul19)
1886 Little Lord Fauntleroy, Frances Hodgson Burnett (Jan 21)
1886 Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson (Jan 22)
1886 The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy (Oct 22)
1886 The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant (Oct 24)
1887 Pansies and Water-Lilies, Louisa May Alcott (Feb19)
1887 "A Study in Scarlet" from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, A C Doyle; on audiobook read by Simon Vance (Oct 24)
1888 The Romance of a Shop, Amy Levy (Jun 21)
1888 Stempenyu: A Jewish Romance, Sholem Aleichem (Jan 22)
1889 Reuben Sachs, Amy Levy (Oct 21)

1890 How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (Apr 24)
1890 The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant; two novellas (Oct 24)
1891 The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle (Jan 24)
1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (Nov 24)
1893 The Odd Women, George Gissing (Oct 23)
1894
1895 The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde (Oct 22); The Time Machine, H. G. Wells (Jun 23)
1895 The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane (Apr 23)
1896 The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories, Sarah Orne Jewett (May 22)
1896 A Child of the Jago, Arthur Morrison (Oct 23)
1897 A Pair of Silk Stockings and Other Stories, Kate Chopin (Jan 23)
1898 Elizabeth and her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim (Sep 20)
1899 The Solitary Summer, Elizabeth von Arnim (Jul 21)

1900 - 1919

1900 The Touchstone, Edith Wharton (May 21)
1901 My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin (Apr 21)
1901 Crucial Instances, Edith Wharton (Mar 23)
1902
1903
1904 The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen, Elizabeth von Arnim (May 23)
1904 "John Bull's Other Island", George Bernard Shaw (Feb 24)
1904 Selected Stories, E. M. Forster (Dec 23)
1905 Where Angels Fear To Tread, E. M. Forster (Feb 21)
1906 "The Silver Box", John Galsworthy play (May 20)
1906 The Railway Children, E Nesbit (Jul 21)
1907 "Joy", John Galsworthy play (May 20)
1907 "Major Barbara", GB Shaw (Dec 20)
1907 Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, Eliz von Arnim (May 21)
1908 A Room with a View, E. M. Forster (May 21)
1908 Crossriggs, Jane & Mary Findlater (Mar 22)
1908 Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (Oct 23), (Sep 24)
1909 "Strife", John Galsworthy play (May 20)
1909 The Caravaners, Elizabeth von Arnim (Aug 22)
1909 Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery (Dec 24)
1909 A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter (Dec 24)
1910 Howards End, E. M. Forster (Apr20)
1910 The Getting of Wisdom, H. H. Richardson (Dec 22)
1911 Jenny, Sigrid Undset (May 21)
1911 The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (Aug 23), (Jun 24)
1911 Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton (Sep 24)
1912 Alexander's Bridge, Willa Cather (Jan20)
1913
1914 The Pastor's Wife, Elizabeth von Arnim (Jun 20)
1914 "Pygmalion" from George Bernard Shaw's Plays: Norton, Shaw (Feb 24)
1914 The Prussian Officer and other stories, D. H. Lawrence (Jun 24)
1915 Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters (Oct 19)
1915 Fighting France, Edith Wharton (Jun20)
1915 The 39 Steps, John Buchan (Feb 21)
1916 Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher (Jan 23)
1916 Madame de Treymes and Three Novellas, Edith Wharton (Apr 23)
1917 Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber (Nov 24)
1918 Eminent Victorians: The Illustrated Edition, Lytton Strachey (Oct 22)
1918 The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West (Feb 23)
1919 Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson (May 21)
1919 Christopher and Columbus, von Arnim (Aug 23)

1920 - 1929

1920
1921 The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie (Jan 19); The Girls, Edna Ferber (Jun 23)
1921 The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups; A. A. Milne (Dec 24)
1922 The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim (Dec 19)
1922 The Misses Mallett, E. H. Young (Oct 20)
1922 The Lark, E. Nesbit (Sep 22)
1922 Seducers in Ecuador & The Heir, V. Sackville-West (Mar 23)
1923 Emily of New Moon, L. M. Montgomery (Jul 20)
1923 Anderby Wold, Winifred Holtby (Dec 20)
1923 A Lost Lady, Willa Cather (Feb 22)
1923 A Son at the Front, Edith Wharton (Mar 23)
1924 So Big, Edna Ferber (Feb19) ♥
1924 The Man in the Brown Suit, Agatha Christie (Apr19)
1924 The Crowded Street, Winifred Holtby (May 21)
1924 The Home-Maker, Dorothy Canfield Fisher (Oct 23)
1924 The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor (Aug 24)
1925 The Secret of Chimneys, Agatha Christie (May19)
1925 William, E. H. Young (May 21)
1925 The Professor's House, Willa Cather (Dec 23)
1925 Greenery Street, Denis Mackail (Jun 24)
1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Christie (Dec19), (Jun 22)
1926 My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather (Sep 24)
1927 The Big Four, Christie (Dec19)
1927 The Way Things Are, E. M. Delafield (Mar 21)
1927 The Land of Green Ginger, Winifred Holtby (Aug 21)
1927 The Vicar's Daughter, E. H. Young (Aug 21)
1927 Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster (Dec 23)
1927 Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (Apr 24) ♥
1928 Quicksand, Nella Larsen (Nov19)
1928 The Mystery of the Blue Train, Agatha Christie (Jan20)
1929 Good-bye To All That, Robert Graves (Jan19)
1929 The Seven Dials Mystery, Agatha Christie (Jul19)
1929 Partners in Crime, Agatha Christie (Feb20)
1929 Passing, Nella Larsen (Dec 20 & Nov 21)
1929 A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf (Mar 22)

COMPLETE 1930 - 1939

1930 The Mysterious Mr Quin, Agatha Christie (Mar20)
1930 Private Lives, Coward (May 21)
1930 Diary of a Provincial Lady, Delafield (Nov 21)
1930 Miss Mole, E. H. Young (Jan 22)
1930 High Wages, Dorothy Whipple (May 24)
1931 Hard Lines, (poems) Ogden Nash (May19)
1931 The Sittaford Mystery, Agatha Christie (Jul20)
1931 Plagued by the Nightingale, Kay Boyle (Sep 20)
1931 The Country Child, Alison Uttley (Dec 21)
1931 My Husband Simon, Mollie Panter-Downes (Mar 22)
1931 Poor Caroline, Winifred Holtby (May 22)
1931 Father, Elizabeth von Arnim (Aug 22) (Oct 24)
1931 The Fortnight in September, R. C. Sherriff (Sep 22)
1931 All Passion Spent, Vita Sackville-West (Mar 23)
1932 The Tuesday Club Murders, short stories, Agatha Christie (Nov19)
1932 Peril at End House, Agatha Christie (May 20)
1932 Jenny Wren, E. H. Young (Apr 22)
1932 The London Scene: Six Essays on London Life, Virginia Woolf (Sep 22)
1932 Heat Lightning, Helen Hull (Nov 23)
1932 Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (Aug 24)
1932 Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield (Nov 24)
1932 The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield (Nov 24)
1933 Lord Edgware Dies, Agatha Christie (Jul 20)
1933 The Hound of Death and other stories, Agatha Christie (Dec 20)
1933 Good-Bye, Mr Chips, James Hilton (Sep 23)
1934 Miss Buncle's Book, D. E. Stevenson (Feb19), (Feb 22)
1934 The Boomerang Clue, Christie (Oct 20)
1934 Three Act Tragedy, Christie (Dec 20)
1934 Murder on the Orient Express, Christie (Feb 21)
1934 Parker Pyne Investigates, Christie (Mar 21)
1934 Now in November, Josephine Johnson (Nov 21)
1934 Burmese Days, George Orwell (Feb 22)
1934 Rumour of Heaven, Beatrix Lehmann (Mar 22)
1934 The Curate's Wife, E. H. Young (May 22)
1934 A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (Jan 24)
1934 Roman Fever, Edith Wharton (May 24); short stories from 1899-1934
1935 The Young Clementina, D. E. Stevenson (Mar 20)
1935 Smouldering Fire, D. E. Stevenson (Apr 20)
1935 Death in the Air), Christie (May 21)
1935 Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink (Jan 23)
1936 Miss Buncle Married, D. E. Stevenson (Apr19)
1936 Begin Again, Ursula Orange (Mar 21)
1936 The A. B. C. Murders, Christie (Sep 21)
1936 Murder in Mesopotamia, Christie (Nov 21)
1936 Jamaica Inn, Du Maurier (Sep 23)
1937 Scoop, Evelyn Waugh, (Aug19)
1937 Rosabelle Shaw, D. E. Stevenson (Apr20)
1937 Dumb Witness, Christie (Dec 21)
1937 Death on the Nile, Christie (Mar 22)
1937 They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell (May 24, Jun 24)
1937 Celia, E. H. Young (Jul 24)
1938 The Baker's Daughter, D. E. Stevenson (Sep 20)
1938 The Wild Geese, Bridget Boland (Aug 21)
1938 Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier (Oct 21)
1938 Appointment with Death, Agatha Christie (Sep 22)
1938 Easy To Kill, Agatha Christie (Nov 22)
1938 Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Agatha Christie (Dec 22)
1938 The Squire, Enid Bagnold (May 23)
1938 My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (Mar 24)
1939 At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien (Mar19)
1939 Mollie Panter-Downes story (Oct 19)
1939 Green Money, D. E. Stevenson (Nov 20)
1939 And Then There Were None, Christie (Mar 23)

COMPLETE: 1940 - 1949

1940 Mr Skeffington, Elizabeth von Arnim (Mar19); Rochester's Wife, D. E. Stevenson
1940 Mollie Panter-Downes stories (Oct 19)
1940 Letter from England, Mollie Panter-Downes (May 21)
1940 The English Air, D. E. Stevenson (May 21)
1940 The Patriotic Murders, Agatha Christie (Apr 23)
1940 Sad Cypress, Agatha Christie (Nov 23)
1941 Mollie Panter-Downes stories (Oct 19)
1941 Tom Tiddler's Ground, Ursula Orange (Mar 21)
1941 English Country Houses, V. Sackville-West (Mar 23)
1941 Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie (Feb 24)
1941 N or M?, Agatha Christie (Mar 24)
1941 Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane (Jul 24)
1942 Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky, translated from the French by Sandra Smith (Jun19)
1942 Mollie Panter-Downes stories (Oct 19)
1942 Spring Magic, D. E. Stevenson (Nov 21)
1942 Crooked Adam, D. E. Stevenson (Jan 22)
1942 West with the Night, Beryl Markham (Feb 23)
1942 The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie (May 24)
1942 Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie (Jun 24)
1943 The Two Mrs. Abbotts, D. E. Stevenson (Jun 19)
1943 Mollie Panter-Downes stories (Oct 19)
1943 Celia's House, D. E. Stevenson (Dec 19)
1943 "Betrothed" from Two Tales, S. Y. Agnon (Feb 22)
1943 The Betsy-Tacy Treasury, Maud Hart Lovelace (May 23)
1944 Mollie Panter-Downes stories (Oct 19)
1944 Listening Valley, D. E. Stevenson (Feb20)
1944 Towards Zero, Agatha Christie (Aug 24)
1945 Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie (Dec 24)
1946 Palladian, Elizabeth Taylor (Nov 19)
1946 The Four Graces, D. E. Stevenson (Dec 19)
1946 A Tale of Beatrix Potter, Margaret Lane (May 20)
1947 A View of the Harbour, Elizabeth Taylor (Jun 20)
1947 One Fine Day, Mollie Panter-Downes (Sep 20)
1947 Country Place, Ann Petry (Nov 20)
1947 Jeeves: Joy in the Morning, P. G. Wodehouse (Jul 22)
1947 Kate Hardy, D. E. Stevenson (Dec 22)
1947 A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams (Sep 23)
1948 I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith (Jan 21)
1948 Witness for the Prosecution, Agatha Christie (Aug 21)
1948 Young Mrs Savage, D. E. Stevenson (Nov 23)
1949 Little Boy Lost, M. Lanski (Aug 19)
1949 A Wreath of Roses, Elizabeth Taylor (May 20)
1949 Vittoria Cottage, D. E. Stevenson (Dec 23)

1950 - 1959

1950 Tea is so Intoxicating, Mary Essex (Jun 22)
1950 The Feast, Margaret Kennedy (Jun 22)
1950 Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (May 24)
1951 My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier (Apr 21)
1951 The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger (Jun 21)
1951 All-of-A-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor (Sep 21)
1951 A Game of Hide and Seek, Elizabeth Taylor (Nov 21)
1951 Winter and Rough Weather, D. E. Stevenson (May 24)
1951 The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (Sep 24)
1952 Period Piece, Gwen Raverat (Sep 21)
1952 The Natural, Bernard Malamud (Mar 22)
1952 Excellent Women, Barbara Pym (Sep 23)
1953 The Night of the Hunter, Davis Grubbs (Oct19)
1953 The Sleeping Beauty, Elizabeth Taylor (Feb 22)
1953 Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks (Mar 23)
1953 Five Windows, D. E. Stevenson (Jul 24)
1954
1955 Inherit the Wind, J. Lawrence and R. E. Lee (Oct19)
1955 Fresh from the Country, Miss Read (Nov 22)
1955 Shaw on Music, G B Shaw (Feb 24)
1955 The Quiet American, Graham Greene (Mar 24)
1956 Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald (Feb20)
1957 You Can't Get There From Here (poems), Ogden Nash, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Apr19)
1957 Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury (Jul19)
1957 What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw, Christie (Jan 23)
1957 Angel, Elizabeth Taylor (Feb 24)
1957 A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair (Dec 24)
1958 Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris, Paul Gallico (Jun20)
1958 The Blush and Other Stories, Elizabeth Taylor (this VMC edition 1987) (Feb 24)
1959 The Hills is Lonely, Lillian Beckwith (Feb 21)
1959 Thrush Green, Miss Read (Aug 21)
1959 A Chelsea Concerto, Frances Faviell (Sep 22)

1960 - 1969

1960 A Man For All Seasons, Robert Bolt (Dec19)
1960 Out on a Limerick, Bennet Cerf (Mar 21)
1961 Lanterns & Lances, James Thurber, essays (Jan 21)
1961 Winter at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Sep 21)
1961 The Spinoza of Market Street, I. B. Singer (Nov 24)
1962 Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury (1963)
1963 Country Bunch, Miss Read (Feb 21)
1964
1965 Yorkshire: Regional Archaeologies, Ian Longworth (Apr 21)
1966 The Infinite Variety of Music, Leonard Bernstein (Jun19)
1966 The Caxley Chronicles book 1:"The Market Square", Miss Read (Aug19)
1967 The Chosen, Chaim Potok (Jan19) ♥
1967 The Caxley Chronicles book 2: "The Howards of Caxley", Miss Read (Oct19)
1968 The Johnstown Flood, McCullough (May20)
1968 Picture Miss Seeton, H. Carvic (May 24)
1969 A Day of Pleasure, Isaac Bashevis Singer (Jun 24)

COMPLETE: 1970 - 1979

1970 The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison (Feb20)
1970 James Joyce, John Gross (Nov 20)
1970 84, Charing Cross Road, Hanff (Oct 21), (Jan 24)
1970 News from Thrush Green, Miss Read (Nov 21)
1971 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest Gaines (Sep19)
1971 Elizabeth Bowen, Allan E Austin (Dec19)
1971 The Golden Ball and Other stories, Agatha Christie (Apr 21)
1971 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (Aug 24)
1972 The Summer Book, Tove Jansson, transl. by Thomas Teal (Aug 21)
1972 The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty (Sep 22)
1972 My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok (May 23)
1972 To Serve Them All My Days, R. F. Delderfield (Jun 23)
1972 All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (Nov 24)
1973 Village Christmas and The Christmas Mouse, Miss Read (Jan19)
1973 The Dressmaker, Beryl Bainbridge (Aug 23)
1973 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (Mar 24)
1973 By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, B K Schneiderman, ed. (Sep 24)
1974 The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, Madeleine L'Engle (Mar20)
1974 Farther Afield from Fairacre Roundabout, Miss Read (Apr 20)
1974 Look Back with Love: a Manchester Childhood, Dodie Smith (Jan 21)
1975 Battles at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Jan 22)
1975 From These Shores, Helga Skogsbergh (Aug 23)
1976 No Holly for Miss Quinn, Miss Read (Dec19)
1976 Lady Oracle, Margaret Atwood (Jun20)
1976 The John McPhee Reader, John McPhee (Oct 22)
1976 The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele (Feb 24)
1977 Village Affairs, Miss Read (May20)
1977 Staggerford, Jon Hassler (Sep 21)
1977 Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (Apr 24)
1978 Return to Thrush Green, Miss Read (Mar 22)
1979 The White Robin, Miss Read (May20)

COMPLETE: 1980 - 1989

1980 Village Centenary, Miss Read (Aug 20)
1980 A Few Green Leaves, Barbara Pym (Apr 22)
1980 A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr (May 23) re-read
1981 Death in a Tenured Position, Amanda Cross (Dec19)
1981 Gossip from Thrush Green, Miss Read (Apr 22)
1982 Second Words: Selected Critical Prose, Margaret Atwood (Nov 23)
1982 At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald (Sep 24)
1983 Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon (Oct19)
1983 The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick (Mar 21)
1983 Affairs at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Jun 22)
1984 Summer at Fairacre, Miss Read (Aug 20)
1984 Letters to Alice, Fay Weldon (Nov 20)
1984 Over By the River and Other Stories, William Maxwell (Jan 23)
1984 Good Daughters, Mary Hocking (Aug 23)
1984 Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner (Sep 24)
1985 Hiroshima, John Hersey (Jun20)
1985 Rebecca West, Fay Weldon (Nov 20)
1985 At Home in Thrush Green (Aug 22)
1985 Indifferent Heroes, Mary Hocking (Sep 23)
1985 Q's Legacy, Helene Hanff (Mar 24)
1986 Augustine: A Very Short Introduction, Chadwick (Oct19)
1986 Fences, a play by August Wilson (Apr20)
1986 Marriage and Morals among the Victorians, Gertrude Himmelfarb (May20)
1986 Chaim Potok, Edward Abramson (May 23)
1986 Welcome Strangers, Mary Hocking (Dec 23)
1987 Joseph Banks: A Life, Patrick O'Brian (Sep 21)
1987 The School at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Mar 23)
1988 A Far Cry from Kensington, Muriel Spark (Apr 22)
1988 The World of Thrush Green, Miss Read (Dec 22)
1988 Two-Part Invention, Madeleine L'Engle (Feb 23)
1988 The Diary of an Isle Royale School Teacher, Dorothy Simonson (Apr 23)
1989 Mrs Pringle of Fairacre, Miss Read (Nov 20)
1989 Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel (Jul 21)
1989 The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (Jul 22)
1989 A Particular Place, Mary Hocking (Sep 24)

COMPLETE: 1990 - 1999

1990 The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (Jan19) ♥
1990 The Road To San Giovanni, Italo Calvino (Dec19)
1990 The Gate of Angels, Penelope Fitzgerald (Jul 20)
1990 Floating in My Mother's Palm, Ursula Hegi (Jan 22)
1990 Friends at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Apr 23)
1990 Oscar Peterson: The Will To Swing, Gene Lees (Nov 23)
1991 Lost in Yonkers, Neil Simon (May19)
1991 Bach: Essays on his life and music, Christoph Wolff (Sep 20)
1991 Changes at Fairacre, Miss Read (Apr 21)
1991 Typical American, Gish Jen (Jul 22)
1992 Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean (Feb 20) ♥
1992 Truman, David McCullough (Aug 22); audiobook re-read; read by McCullough ♥
1992 Playing in the Dark, Toni Morrison (Feb 23)
1992 Celebrations at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Jun 23)
1993 Farewell to Fairacre, Miss Read (Jun 21)
1994 The Shape of Water, Andrea Camillieri (Jan19)
1994 Open Secrets, Alice Munro (Sep 21)
1994 Tales from a Village School, Miss Read (Sep 23)
1995 Johann Sebastian Bach: Play by Play/Cantata, Alan Rich (Nov19)
1995 The Great Irish Famine, ed. Poirteir (Jun20)
1995 Epitaph for a Peach, David Mas Masumoto (Aug 22)
1995 Kids at Work: Lewis Hine, Russell Freedman with photos by Lewis Hine (Dec 22)
1995 Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature, Margaret Atwood (Feb 23)
1996 Is Heathcliff a Murderer?, John Sutherland (Oct19)
1996 A Peaceful Retirement, Miss Read (Jul 21)
1996 The Complete Maus, Spiegelman (Jan 23)
1996 The Year at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Nov 23)
1996 Great Short Stories by American Women, Candace Ward, editor (Sep 24)
1997 The World of Jane Austen, Nigel Nicolson (Nov19)
1997 The Man Made of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages, N Scott Momaday (Nov 22)
1997 The Journals of Susanna Moodie, Margaret Atwood & Charles Pachter (Feb 23)
1997 Tearing the Silence: On Being German in America, Ursula Hegi (Apr 23)
1997 Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy, Theodore Jones (Jan 24)
1997 The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, ed by Doody & Barry (Sep 24)
1998 The Other Side of the Dale, Gervase Phinn (Feb 22)
1998 Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918 (1998) (Sep 24)
1999 Undue Influence, Anita Brookner (Jan19)
1999 Hidden in Plain View, Tobin & Dobard (Mar 21))
1999 The Lighthouse Stevensons, Bella Bathurst (Mar 23)

COMPLETE: 2000 - 2009

2000 Jane Austen: Bloom's Major Novelists, Harold Bloom (May 20)
2000 Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland (May 24)
2001 A Cafecito Story, Julia Alvarez (Sep19)
2001 Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks (Aug 20)
2001 Jane Austen, Carol Shields (Nov 20)♥
2001 Margaret Oliphant's Carlingford Series, Birgit Kamper (Jun 21)
2001 The Means of Escape, Penelope Fitzgerald (Feb 23)
2002 Enemy Women, Paulette Jiles (Dec19)
2002 Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels, Deirdre Le Faye (Jul 21)♥
2002 Winston Churchill, John Keegan (May 22)
2002 John Adams, David McCullough (Apr 24)
2003 The Doctors' Plague, Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. (Mar19)
2004 His Excellency: George Washington, Joseph Ellis (Jan 21)♥
2004 London: a history, A. N. Wilson (Aug 21)
2004 Old Filth, Jane Gardam (Apr 22)
2005 Leaving Home, Anita Brookner (Aug19)
2005 Still Life, Louise Penny (Oct 20)
2005 The Devil's Highway: A True Story, Luis Alberto Urrea (Nov 22)
2006 Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones (Oct19)
2006 The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig (Sep 23)
2006 The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson (Oct 23)
2006 Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young, Briganti & Mezei (Jul 24)
2007 On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan (May19)
2007 Letters from Lamledra: Cornwall 1914-1918, Marjorie Williams (Nov19)♥
2007 Early Days, Miss Read (Sep 22)♥
2007 Shakespeare: The World as Stage, Bill Bryson (May 23)
2007 The Annotated Secret Garden, F H Burnett; annotated by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (Aug 23)
2008 Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie Andrews (Aug19)
2008 The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008, P. Zaleski, editor (Sep19)
2008 An Irish Country Village, Patrick Taylor (Mar 21)
2008 The Norman Maclean Reader, Norman Maclean (Jun 23)
2009 The Cello Suites, Eric Siblin, (Sep19)
2009 Strangers, Anita Brookner (Nov19)
2009 The Crossing Places, Elly Griffiths (Jun20)
2009 The Education of a British-Protected Child, Chinua Achebe (Nov 20)♥
2009 Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End, Jennifer Worth (Jun 22)
2009 An Irish Country Christmas, Patrick Taylor (Dec 22)
2009 Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, Kazuo Ishiguro (Mar 23)
2009 Brooklyn, Colm Toibin (Mar 23)
2009 Christmas at Thrush Green, Miss Read (Dec 23)

COMPLETE 2010 - 2019

2010 At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Bill Bryson (Feb 22)
2010 Foster, Claire Keegan (Jan 23)
2011 Three ebook stories by Alexander McCall Smith: The Perils of Morning Coffee, (2011); At the Reunion Buffet, (2015); Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine, (2016).
2011 The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka (May 22)♥
2011 Soldiers with Picks and Shovels, Tom Emery (May 23)
2011 The Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (orig written 1938); (Mar 24)
2011 The Cross of Redemption, James Baldwin (Aug 24)
2011 Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (Oct 24)
2012 My Ideal Bookshelf, LaForce and Mount (May19)
2012 Three Things You Need To Know About Rockets, Fox (Jan20)
2012 Scales to Scalpels, Lisa Wong, M.D. (Oct 20)
2012 Great Expectations: the Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens, Gottlieb (Nov 20)
2012 Mrs Robinson's Disgrace, Kate Summerscale (Jun 21)
2012 The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, Paula Byrne (May 22)
2012 Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure, Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22)♥
2012 What Matters in Jane Austen?, John Mullan (Aug 22)
2012 The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader, Gates (Aug 22)
2013 My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor (Dec 20)♥
2013 The Perfect Peach, David Mas Masumoto (Aug 22)♥
2013 The Great War: July 1, 1916, Joe Sacco with text by Adam Hochschild (Feb 23)
2013 Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis (Jun 24)
2014 Think Like A Freak, Levitt & Dubner (Oct19)
2014 Paper Love, Wildman (May20)
2014 My Life in Middlemarch, Rebecca Mead (Aug 23)
2014 Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud (Jul 24)
2015 England and Other Stories, Graham Swift (Jan20)
2015 The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander (Jan20)♥
2015 The Wright Brothers, David McCullough (Oct 20)♥
2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot (Jul 23)
2015 Men Explain Things To Me, Rebecca Solnit (Sep 22)
2015 Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (Jan 24)
2016 The Last Days of Night, Graham Moore (Jul19)
2016 Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys (Feb20)
2016 Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood (Jan 21)♥
2016 My Own Words, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Apr 21)♥
2016 Susanna Moodie: Roughing It In the Bush, Carol Shields & Patrick Crowe, adapted by Willow Dawson and Selena Goulding (Feb 23)
2016 Browse: The World in Bookshops, ed. Henry Hutchings (Feb 23)
2016 The Little Virtues: Essays, Natalia Ginzburg (Sep 24)
2017 The Best We Could Do, graphic memoir by Thi Bui (Feb19) ♥
2017 The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, Alexander McCall Smith (Mar19)
2017 The Diary of a Bookseller, Shaun Bythell; Audiobook read by Robin Laing (Sep19)♥
2017 Going into Town, Roz Chast (Jan 22)
2017 The Order of the Day, Erick Vuillard (May 22)
2018 The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt, graphic biography by Ken Krimstein (Feb19)
2018 Reading Art, David Trigg (Mar)
2018 The Art of Reading: An Illustrated History of Books in Paint, Jamie Camplin and Maria Ranauro (Mar19)
2018 Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany, Jane Mount (May19)
2018 Becoming, Michelle Obama, Audiobook read by the author (Sep19)♥
2018 The Cut Out Girl, Bart Van Es (Nov19)
2018 What to Read and Why, F. Prose (Apr20)
2018 A view of the Empire at Sunset, Caryl Phillips (Jul 20)
2018 Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life, Lucy Worsley (Apr 23)
2018 American Histories, John Edgar Wideman (May 23)
2018 The Faithful Spy, John Hendrix (Sep 23)
2018 Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce (Jan 24)
2018 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, Frederick & Mehta (May 24)
2018 The Feather Thief, Kirk W Johnson (Aug 24)
2019 The Second Worst Restaurant in France, A. McCall Smith (Aug19)
2019 The Department of Sensitive Crimes, A. McCall Smith (Sep19)
2019 This America, Jill Lepore (Jan20)
2019 They Called Us Enemy, George Takei (Feb20)♥
2019 Letters from an Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson (Aug 20)
2019 Pianos and Flowers, Alexander McCall Smith (Aug 21)
2019 The Pioneers, David McCullough (Sep 21)♥
2019 Semicolon, Cecelia Watson (Feb 23)
2019 The Swedish Art of Death Cleaning, Margareta Magnusson (Apr 23)

2020 - 2029
2020 The Geometry of Holding Hands, Alexander McCall Smith (Sep 20)
2020 Confessions of a Bookseller, Shaun Bythell (Nov 20)
2020 The Address Book, Deirdre Mask (Mar 21)
2020 The Other Bennet Sister, Janice Hadlow (Mar 21)
2020 Miss Austen, Gill Hornby (Jul 21)
2020 The Artful Dickens, John Mullan (Aug 21)♥
2020 Our Malady, Timothy Snyder (Nov 21)
2020 Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell (May 22)♥
2020 The Forest of Wool and Steel, Natsu Miyashita, tr. Philip Gabriel (Jan 23)♥
2020 Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books, Cathy Rentzenbrink (Jan 23)
2020 The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (Jan 24)
2021 Tiny Tales, Alexander McCall Smith (Jun 21)
2021 Chicago in 50 Objects, Joseph Gustaitis (Dec 21)
2021 On Tyranny Graphic Edition, Snyder & Krug (Feb 22)♥
2021 Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love, Haruki Murakami (Jul 22)
2021 Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan (Sep 22)♥
2021 Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, Daniel Kahneman (Oct 22)
2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green (Apr 23)
2021 Postcards: The Rise and Fall, Pyne (Apr 23)
2021 Unearthing the Secret Garden, Marta McDowell (Aug 23)
2021 The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin (Aug 24)
2022 Mrs England, Stacey Halls (May 22)
2022 The Sweet Remnants of Summer, Alexander McCall Smith (Sep 22)
2022 Our America: A Photographic History, Ken Burns (Dec 22)♥
2022 Tove Jansson (The Illustrators), Paul Gravett (Jul 23)
2022 Home/Land: A Memoir of Departure and Return, Rebecca Mead (Feb 24)
2023 Secret Harvests, David Mas Masumoto (Jun 23)
2023 Simply Artificial Intelligence, DK Publishing (Sep 23)
2023 The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even, Alexander McCall Smith (Dec 23)
2023 Praying with Jane Eyre, Vanessa Zoltan (Dec 23)
2023 Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor (Feb 24)
2023 Funny Things: A comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi (Mar 24)
2023 Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (Jul 24)
2023 Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (Jul 24)
2023 Wednesday's Child: Stories, Yiyun Li (Sep 24)
2024 The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith (May 24)
2024 Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing (Dec 24)
2024 On Freedom, Timothy Snyder (Dec 24)

I was hoping to finish more books in April; 2 chunksters and one deceptively slim volume took up much of my reading:

April


34. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1875); fiction

With a few minor exceptions, I generally love Trollope or at least find things to enjoy in his novels. Although this is supposedly Trollope's "magnum opus" at 800+ pages, I can't say that I enjoyed it very much. The book starts out following Lady Carbury, a mediocre novelist with little money who is attempting to get good reviews (and hence good sales) for her books and to get her son and daughter into advantageous marriages. The novel slowly shifts focus to the great financier Augustus Melmotte, whose background and source of great wealth are a mystery. (From what I've read, Melmotte's portrait was a conglomeration of real-life men of wealth during the Victorian era.) The more that is revealed about Melmotte, the more unlikable he becomes. Trollope can often portray unlikable characters but still get me to have pity or sympathy with them (Louis Trevelyan in He Knew He Was Right, for example), but not here. I felt I knew Melmotte too well and the more I knew him, the less I pitied him.

Trollope's intent, I think, was to portray a society that has become so corrupt that it has lost all sense of honesty and integrity. Laudable aims, but overall I can't say that I enjoyed this book very much. Trollope's portrayal of Melmotte is compelling, but once his downfall is complete, the other minor characters and their resolutions seem insignificant by comparison and not all that interesting to follow. There really wasn't a character that I liked or even appreciated, except possibly Roger Carbury (Lady Carbury's distant relation) and to a lesser extent minor characters Mr Breghert, the Jewish banker, and Mr Broune, Lady Carbury's friend.

This was a disappointment for me. At some distant time I may re-read it, and perhaps knowing the outcome I will better appreciate what Trollope was trying to do.


35. John Adams, David McCullough (2002); biography; audiobook read (mostly) by Edward Herrmann

I felt like I really knew the personality and character of John Adams when I finished this book. McCullough used quite a bit of Adams' correspondence with his wife Abigail and others to bring him to life. Adams felt most proud of his work for independence during the early revolutionary years and his part in constructing the Massachusetts constitution, which later became a model for the U.S. Constitution. I love McCullough's narrative style and it made the book move quickly despite its 600+ pages.

I listened to this abridged audio edition and supplemented by reading the print copy for some material that was skipped, which was mostly his VP and Presidential years, and background information on Thomas Jefferson (McCullough had originally intended this book to explore the relationship between Adams and Jefferson). I was annoyed, however, when the audiobook narration sometimes switched to a woman who sounded like an automated voicemail machine. Fortunately, most of the recording was done by Herrmann.


36. Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins; short stories from throughout Collins' career

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Wilkie Collins. I plan to read several of his works throughout the year, and this collection was the perfect way to begin. This was a fantastic collection of 12 ghost, mystery and detective stories throughout Collins' career. All of the stories (except 1, and that one was the least engaging) were written in first person, and often there is a narrative within the narrative. I think my favorites were "The Diary of Anne Rodway" (the first female "detective", told in diary format), "A Terribly Strange Bed" (his first published mystery story) and "The Biter Bit" (featuring an over-confident new detective told in letter format). His narrative style works perfectly in the short story format. Short stories can be hit or miss for me, but most of these were definite hits! I'm so glad my library had this older Oxford edition, as I doubt if it's still in print.


37. Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977); fiction; a re-read

I first read this in 1987, loved it and have since re-read a couple of times. This re-read did not disappoint. The story, contemporary to the 1970s, is about four elderly single people--Letty, Marcia, Edwin and Norman--who all work in the same London office and are approaching retirement. Their contact with one another is almost entirely at the office. They maintain a courteous distance and each one is a bit odd in their own way. When Letty & Marcia decide to retire, the shift in relationships and what the future looks like for each of the "quartet" is the focus of the novel.

As I've now been retired 15 years, Pym's gently funny and quiet, but wry, observations of older people alone and how they are perceived by others are spot-on. Each has their irritating quirks, but Pym gives them sympathetic and universal appeal, too, as they struggle to do the right thing and maybe find that life still has possibilities ahead. A gem.


38. "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles (5th c. B.C.E.); translated by Robert Fagles; play; a re-read

This was a re-read for me for my RL Book Club. I appreciated the Fagles translation which was very readable and understandable, and gave the play life.


39. Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); fiction

This was my first book by Dorothy Whipple, who has been on my radar for quite some time. Persephone Books have re-printed all of her novels and it seems nearly every review I've read of her books has been glowing. Fortunately for me, this book lived up to all the hype!

I absolutely inhaled this novel in 2 sittings. Set in a medium-sized town in northern England in the late 1890s, we follow Anne from age 5 into the first few years of her married life. We see her within her family with a critical father, a distant mother and a loving, motherly servant; we follow her in school as the only Protestant in a convent school; we see her first love and first break-up; we witness her first job, first boss and first paycheck; thrill to her first car and then first car accident; and finally her complex marriage.

I loved Whipple's writing; I just couldn't stop reading. She is sometimes tongue-in-cheek and sometimes quite serious. Often it's what is left unsaid that is almost as important as what is revealed. Much of the novel reflects Whipple's own experiences in her early years. I think the ending was a bit awkward and melodramatic, but on the whole, as a debut novel, this was wonderful, and I've got her next novel, High Wages, all lined up for May reading.


40. The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins (1857); fiction

This is one of Collins' early novels with true "sensational" elements. A wealthy woman is dying; on her deathbed she writes a mysterious letter witnessed by a servant and it is the intention of the mistress that this letter should be given to her husband upon her death. She dies, leaving her husband and a 5 year old daughter. The servant, however, hides the letter in a remote room of the large manor house and vanishes the next day. Fifteen years later, the surviving daughter Rosamond, now married, is made aware of this mystery while in childbirth with her first child, and, along with her blind husband, is determined to uncover the Secret.

This was quite a page-turner, and has a lot of interesting elements, including ghosts and visions, an old decrepit house and a spiteful reclusive relative. It's clear that Collins intends the reader to have a good idea of what the "Secret" is from the beginning, and that the purpose of the story is to follow young Rosamond (headstrong and quick to react) and her loving husband (blind, reserved and thoughtful) as they slowly pursue the Secret. I really enjoyed how they worked as a team uncovering each "clue" and revelation and what to follow-up next. Another strength, which is found in many of his novels, is how well Collins draws female characters; both Sarah Leeson (the servant) and Rosamond (the daughter) are amazing rounded characters. Collins keeps the spooky atmosphere throughout the novel, but there are also some funny bits, too, to break up the intensity.

What's frustrating is that this was written for serial publication, so Collins prolonged just about every scene imaginable with as much melodramatic sensibilities and for as many words as possible. I enjoyed it, but it could have been half the length and still have been a great novel.

My last read for the month deserves its own post, so.....

41. How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1890); nonfiction text with photographs

This classic of late 19th century journalism was a difficult book to read; it took me nearly the entire month to finish, even though it is only 218 pages. I could only read a chapter or two at a time because the material overwhelmed me.

Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a Danish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1870. Like many of the subjects in his book, his first years in New York were spent on the street or in miserable lodging houses. After a series of jobs, he finally became steadily employed in 1877 as a journalist on the New York Tribune and later at the Evening Sun. His beat was in the Lower East side slum district, and so began his concerted effort to raise awareness of the living conditions of the neighborhood.

Riis wrote many short articles about the conditions, but they seemed to have little or no effect. It was the invention of flash photography that changed everything. He employed photographers and later learned the skill himself, and went into neighborhoods, tenements and alleys to document the living conditions. When his book came out in 1890, it had an immediate impact, due largely to the photographs.

The text is dense. Riis includes loads of statistics, intense narrative and personal stories along with the photographs to document conditions. Riis felt that the first step to improving the slums was better housing, where every room had light and air and every living space had adequate plumbing, all things that were woefully inadequate in 1890s tenements. He goes block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, ethnicity by ethnicity, to describe the inhumane living conditions of the men, women and children, nearly all immigrants.

Riis has definite views on various ethnic groups and seems to rely on some stereotypes. But he went everywhere, no matter how horrible the living situation. As was the practice at the time, he did not ask permission to take his photographs; he just set up and shot. The photographs were taken by him and by other photographers working with him.

There is much written about his work, so I will refrain from adding any more. If you are interested here are three websites with photographs and more information:

This has a selection of some of the photographs:
https://www.americanyawp.com/text/how-the-other-half-lived-photographs-of-jacob-...

At this PBS website, there are 2 clips from a documentary about Riis:
https://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/jacob-riis-video-gallery/new-york...

This short video is from the 2016 Library of Congress exhibition about Jacob Riis. I learned quite a bit of background info:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqpQzyK96uk

January to June 2019:

1. The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie (1921)
2. Village Christmas and The Christmas Mouse, Miss Read (1973)
3. Good-bye To All That, Robert Graves (1929)
4. The Chosen, Chaim Potok (1967)
5. The Shape of Water, Andrea Camillieri (1994)
6. Undue Influence, Anita Brookner (1999)
7. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
8. A Rogue's Life, Wilkie Collins, 1879
9. Belinda, Maria Edgeworth, 1802
10. So Big, Edna Ferber 1924
11. The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt, Ken Krimstein, 2018
12. Miss Buncle's Book, D. E. Stevenson, 1934
13. Pansies and Water-Lilies, Louisa May Alcott, 1887
14. The Best We Could Do, Thi Bui, 2017
15. Reading Art, David Trigg, 2018
16. The Art of Reading, Jane Camplin & Maria Ranauro, 2018
17. The Kellys and the O'Kellys, Anthony Trollope, 1848 (re-read)
18. Mr Skeffington, Elizabeth von Arnim, 1940
19. The Doctors' Plague, Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., 2003
20. The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, Alexander McCall Smith, 2017
21. At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien, 1939
22. The Man in the Brown Suit, Agatha Christie, 1924
23. The Three Clerks, Anthony Trollope, 1858 ♥
24. Othello, Shakespeare, 1603
25. You Can't Get There From Here (poems), Ogden Nash, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, 1957
26. Audiobook: David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, read by Simon Vance (re-read), 1850 ♥
27. Miss Buncle Married, D. E. Stevenson, 1936
28. On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan, 2007
29. Hard Lines (poems), Ogden Nash, 1931
30. My Ideal Bookshelf, LaForce and Mount, 2012
31. Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany, Jane Mount, 2018
32. Lost in Yonkers (play), Neil Simon, 1991
33. The Secret of Chimneys, Agatha Christie, 1925
34. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky (translated from the French by Sandra Smith), 1942
35. Emmeline, Charlotte Turner Smith, 1788
36. The Two Mrs. Abbotts, D. E. Stevenson, 1943
37. The Infinite Variety of Music, Leonard Bernstein, 1966 (re-issued 1993)
38. Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev, 1862

July
39. 1886 The Guilty River, Wilkie Collins
40. 1957 Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury
41. 1929 The Seven Dials Mystery, Agatha Christie
42. 2016 The Last Days of Night, Graham Moore

August
43. 2008 Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie Andrews
44. 1966 The Market Square, Miss Read
45. 2005 Leaving Home, Anita Brookner
46. 2019 The Second Worst Restaurant in France, A. McCall Smith
47. 1949 Little Boy Lost, M. Laski
48. 1937 Scoop, Evelyn Waugh

September
49. 2009 The Cello Suites, Eric Siblin
50. 2018 Becoming, Michelle Obama, Audiobook read by the author
51. 1971 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest Gaines
52. 2001 A Cafecito Story, Julia Alvarez
53. 2017 The Diary of a Bookseller, Shaun Bythell; Audiobook read by Robin Laing
54. 2019 The Department of Sensitive Crimes, Alexander McCall Smith
55. 2008 The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008, P. Zaleski, editor

October
56. 1986 Augustine: A Very Short Introduction, by Henry Chadwick (finally! my first book from the 1980s!)
57. 1880 Heidi, Johanna Spyri (and from the 1980s to the 1880s!)
58. Stories: Good Evening, Mrs. Craven, Mollie Panter-Downes
1939 "Date with Romance"
1940 "Meeting at the Pringles'", "Mrs. Ramsay's War", "In Clover", "It's the Real Thing", "This Flower, Safety", "As the Fruitful Vine", "Lunch with Mr. Biddle"
1941 "Battle of the Greeks", "Fin de Siecle", "Literary Scandal at the Sewing Party", "Goodbye, My Love"
1942 "War among Strangers", "Combined Operations", "Good Evening, Mrs Craven"
1943 "The Hunger of Miss Burton", "It's the Reaction", "Cut down the Trees"
1944 "The Danger", "The Waste of it All"

59. 1996 Is Heathcliff a Murderer?, John Sutherland
60. 1859 The Bertrams, Trollope
61. 1915 Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters
62. 1983 Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon
63. 1955 Inherit the Wind, Lawrence and Lee
64. 2006 Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones
65. 1953 The Night of the Hunter, Davis Grubbs
66. 2014 Think Like a Freak, Levitt & Dubner
67. 1967 The Caxley Chronicles book 2: "The Howards of Caxley"; Miss Read

November
68. 1946 Palladian, Elizabeth Taylor
69. 2009 Strangers, Anita Brookner
70. 2018 The Cut Out Girl, Bart Van Es
71. 2007 Letters from Lamledra: Cornwall 1914-1918, Marjorie Williams ♥ loved this little book of letters
72. 1995 Johann Sebastian Bach: Play by Play/Cantata, Alan Rich (book with CD)
73. 1997 The World of Jane Austen, Nigel Nicolson
74. 1606 Macbeth, Shakespeare
75. 1932 The Tuesday Club Murders, Agatha Christie
76. 1928 Quicksand, Nella Larsen

December
77. 1960 A Man For All Seasons, Robert Bolt
78. 1981 Death in a Tenured Position, Amanda Cross
79. 1857 Scenes from Clerical Life, George Eliot
80. 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
81. 1946 The Four Graces, D. E. Stevenson
82. 1856 The Poor Clare, Elizabeth Gaskell
83. 1927 The Big Four, Agatha Christie
84. 1971 Elizabeth Bowen, Allan E. Austin
85. 1922 The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim
86. 1976 No Holly for Miss Quinn, Miss Read
87. 1990 The Road To San Giovanni, Italo Calvino
88. 2002 Enemy Women, Paulette Jiles
89. 1943 Celia's House, D. E. Stevenson

>26 kac522: 1603? Wow! I think you might be the winner of "The Oldest Book Read":)

>27 Carol420: And everybody dies in the end. Well, except Cassio. I took out a DVD with Ian McKellen as Iago, to watch when I finished reading, and I don't know if I can go through it all again. I had the gist of the story before I read it, but that play is intense.

>28 kac522: I guess at the time those plays were written life was intense.

Final totals for the 2019 Century Challenge:

1920s -- 8 years read; 10 books total
1930s -- 6 years read; 7 books total
1940s -- 7 years read; 12 books total
1950s -- 3 years read; 4 books total
1960s -- 3 years read; 5 books total
1970s -- 3 years read; 4 books total
1980s -- 3 years read; 3 books total
1990s -- 7 years read; 8 books total
2000s -- 8 years read; 11 books total
2010s -- 6 years read; 14 books total

Total 54 years read; 46 to go....

SO...as mentioned in >1 kac522: above, I'm making this a 2-year, 101 books challenge for me (1920-2020), and will continue recording my years & books in 2020.

And just for the record, I read the following years/books in 2019 PRIOR to 1920:

Through 1799 -- 3 years/books
1800-1849 -- 2 years/books
1850-1899 -- 10 years/books
1900-1909 --0
1910-1919 --1 years/books

so a total of 16 books prior to 1920. This may become an ongoing challenge to read every year in the 19th century, but I'll work on the 20th century first :/

January 2020

1. 2012 Three Things You Need To Know About Rockets, Fox
2. 1817 Sanditon, Jane Austen
3. 2019 This America, Jill Lepore
4. 1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
5. 2015 England and Other Stories, Graham Swift
6. 2015 The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander
7. 1928 The Mystery of the Blue Train, Agatha Christie
8. 1912 Alexander's Bridge, Willa Cather

February 2020

9. 1944 Listening Valley, D. E. Stevenson
10. 2016 Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys
11. 1929 Partners in Crime, Agatha Christie
12. 2019 They Called Us Enemy, George Takei
13. 1860 Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope
14. 1970 The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
15. 1956 Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald
16. 1992 Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean

March 2020

17. 1930 The Mysterious Mr Quin, Christie
18. 1935 The Young Clementina, D. E. Stevenson
19. 1974 The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, Madeleine L'Engle
20. 1811 Sense and Sensibility: an annotated edition, Austen
21. 1862 The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson, Trollope

April 2020

22. 1835 Smouldering Fire, D. E. Stevenson
23. 1862 Lady's Audley Secret, Mary E. Braddon
24. 2018 What to Read and Why, F. Prose
25. 1910 Howards End, E. M. Forster
26. 1974 Farther Afield from Fairacre Roundabout, Miss Read
27. 1986 Fences, a play by August Wilson
28. 1937 Rosabelle Shaw, D. E. Stevenson

MAY 2020

29. 1968 The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough
30. 1949 A Wreath of Roses, Elizabeth Taylor
31. 1946 A Tale of Beatrix Potter, Margaret Lane
32. 2014 Paper Love, Sarah Wildman
33. 1932 Peril at End House, Agatha Christie
34. 2000 Jane Austen: Bloom's Major Novelists, Harold Bloom
35. 1906, 1907, 1909 The Silver Box and Other Plays, John Galsworthy, from 1906, 1907 and 1909. Published in one volume 1912.
36. 1848 Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens
37. 1977 Village Affairs, Miss Read
38. 1814 Mansfield Park: an annotated edition, Austen
39. 1986 Marriage and Morals among the Victorians, Himmelfarb
40. 1979 The White Robin, Miss Read

JUNE 2020

41. 1976 Lady Oracle, Margaret Atwood
42. 1947 A View of the Harbour, Elizabeth Taylor
43. 1958 Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris, Paul Gallico
44. 1995 The Great Irish Famine, ed. Poirteir
45. 1914 The Pastor's Wife, Elizabeth von Arnim
46. 2009 The Crossing Places, Elly Griffiths
47. 1915 Fighting France, Edith Wharton
48. 1985 Hiroshima, John Hersey

JULY 2020

49. 1931 The Sittaford Mystery, Agatha Christie
50. 1846 Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, Herman Melville
51. 1933 Lord Edgware Dies, Agatha Christie
52. 1990 The Gate of Angels, Penelope Fitzgerald
53. 1923 Emily of New Moon, L. M. Montgomery
54. 2018 A view of the Empire at Sunset, Caryl Phillips

AUGUST 2020

55. 1980 Village Centenary, Miss Read
56. 2019 Letters from an Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson
57. 1860 Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope re-read via audiobook, read by Simon Evers
58. 1841 Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens
59. 1984 Summer at Fairacre, Miss Read
60. 1871 Lady Susan, Austen, audiobook
61. 2001 Year of Wonders, Brooks

SEPTEMBER 2020

62. 1931 Plagued by the Nightingale, Kay Boyle
63. 2020 The Geometry of Holding Hands, Alexander McCall Smith
64. 1991 Bach: Essays on his life and music, Christoph Wolff
65. 1947 One Fine Day, Mollie Panter-Downes
66. 1938 The Baker's Daughter, D. E. Stevenson
67. 1861 The Doctor's Family and Other Stories, Margaret Oliphant
68. 2011 Three ebook stories by Alexander McCall Smith: The Perils of Morning Coffee, (2011); At the Reunion Buffet, (2015); Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine, (2016).
69. 1898 Elizabeth and her German Garden, von Arnim

OCTOBER 2020

70. 2015 The Wright Brothers, McCullough
71. 1862 Orley Farm, Trollope
72. 1934 The Boomerang Clue, Christie
73. 2012 Scales to Scalpels, Wong
74. 1922 The Misses Mallett, E. H. Young
75. 2005 Still Life, Penny

NOVEMBER 2020

76. 1989 Mrs Pringle of Fairacre, Miss Read
77. 2012 Great Expectations: the Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens, Robert Gottlieb
78. 2009 The Education of a British-Protected Child, Chinua Achebe
79. 1984 Letters to Alice, Fay Weldon
80. 1947 Country Place, Ann Petry
81. 1939 Green Money, D. E. Stevenson
82. 1985 Rebecca West, Fay Weldon
83. 2020 Confessions of a Bookseller, Shaun Bythell
84. 1970 James Joyce, John Gross
85. 2001 Jane Austen, Carol Shields

DECEMBER 2020

86. 1850 The Moorland Cottage, Elizabeth Gaskell
87. 1933 The Hound of Death and other stories, Agatha Christie
88. 1929 Passing, Nella Larsen
89. 1863 Rachel Ray, Trollope
90. 1923 Anderby Wold, Holtby
91. 1855 North and South, Gaskell, audiobook
92. 1907 "Major Barbara", GB Shaw
93. 2013 My Beloved World, Sotomayor
94. 1934 Three Act Tragedy, Christie
95. 1813 Pride and Prejudice, Austen
and 5 audiobooks listened to throughout the year:
96. 1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
97. 1811 Sense and Sensibility
98. 1814 Mansfield Park
99. 1817 Persuasion
100. 1817 Northanger Abbey

2020 stats

JANUARY 2021

1. 1974 Look Back with Love: a Manchester Childhood, Dodie Smith
2. 2004 His Excellency: George Washington, Joseph Ellis
3. 1886 Little Lord Fauntleroy, Frances Hodgson Burnett
4. 1961 Lanters & Lances, James Thurber
5. 1807 Tales from Shakespeare, C& M Lamb
6. 1610 The Tempest, Shakespeare
7. 2016 Hagseed, Margaret Atwood
8. 1948 I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

FEBRUARY 2021

9. 1934 Murder on the Orient Express, Christie
10. 1940 Rochester's Wife, Stevenson
11. 1959 The Hills is Lonely, Beckwith
12. 1963 Country Bunch, Miss Read
13. 1905 Where Angels Fear To Tread, E. M. Forster
14. 1915 The 39 Steps, John Buchan

MARCH 2021

15. 1850 Olive, Dinah Mulock Craik
16. 2020 The Address Book, Deirdre Mask
17. 1934 Parker Pyne Investigates, Christie
18. 1999 Hidden in Plain View, Tobin & Dobard
19. 1983 The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick
20. 2020 The Other Bennet Sister, Janice Hadlow
21. 1936 Begin Again, Ursula Orange
22. 2008 An Irish Country Village, Patrick Taylor
23. 1857 Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens, audiobook re-read
24. 1960 Out on a Limerick, Bennet Cerf
25. 1927 The Way Things Are, E. M. Delafield
26. 1941 Tom Tiddler's Ground, Ursula Orange

APRIL 2021

27. 1991 Changes at Fairacre, Miss Read
28. 1865 Miss Mackenzie, Anthony Trollope
29. 1901 My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin
30. 1813 Pride & Prejudice, Austen; audiobook read by Emilia Fox
31. 1859 Adam Bede, George Eliot
32. 1965 Yorkshire: Regional Archaeologies, Ian Longworth
33. 1971 The Golden Ball and other stories, Christie
34. 1951 My Cousin Rachel, du Maurier
35. 2016 My Own Words, Ruth Bader Ginsburg

MAY 2021

36. 1900 The Touchstone, Edith Wharton
37. 1907 Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, Eliz von Arnim
38. 1908 A Room with a View, E. M. Forster
39. 1911 Jenny, Sigrid Undset
40. 1919 Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
41. 1924 The Crowded Street, Winifred Holtby
42. 1925 William, E. H. Young
43. 1935 Death in the Clouds, Christie
44. 1940 Letter from England, Mollie Panter-Downes
45. 1930 Private Lives, Noel Coward
46. 1940 The English Air, D. E. Stevenson
47. 1861 The Doctor's Family and other stories, Mrs Oliphant
48. 1861 Silas Marner, George Eliot, audiobook read by Margaret Hilton

JUNE 2021

49. 2021 Tiny Tales, Alexander McCall Smith
50. 1866 The Belton Estate, Trollope
51. 1993 Farewell to Fairacre, Miss Read
52. 1888 The Romance of a Shop, Amy Levy
53. 1849 Shirley, Charlotte Bronte
54. 2001 Margaret Oliphant's Carlingford Series, Birgit Kamper
55. 1863 Salem Chapel, Margaret Oliphant
56. 1951 The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
57. 1864 Cousin Phillis and Other Tales, Elizabeth Gaskell
58. 2012 Mrs Robinson's Disgrace, Kate Summerscale
59. 1859 & 1864 The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob, George Eliot
60. 1885 23194::A Child's Garden of Verses, R. L. Stevenson, illus Jessie Willcox Smith (1905)
61. 1865 Our Mutual Friend, Dickens

JULY 2021

62. 2020 Miss Austen, Gill Hornby
63. 1996 A Peaceful Retirement, Miss Read
64. 1871 18775749::Lady Susan, Austen; audiobook re-read
65. 1906 34537::The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
66. 1862 The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson, Trollope; re-read
67. 1899 The Solitary Summer, Elizabeth von Arnim
68. 1989 Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel, re-read
69. 2002 Jane Austen: the World of her Novels, Deirdre Le Faye
70. 1817 Northanger Abbey: an annotated Edition, Jane Austen
71. 1817 18775749::Persuasion, Jane Austen

AUGUST 2021

72. 2019 Pianos and Flowers, Alexander McCall Smith
73. 2004 London: A History, A. N. Wilson
74. 1948 Witness for the Prosecution, Agatha Christie
75. 2020 Women in the Kitchen, Anne Willan
76. 1938 The Wild Geese, Bridget Boland
77. 1972 The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
78. 1959 Thrush Green, Miss Read
79. 2020 The Artful Dickens, John Mullan
80. 1927 The Land of Green Ginger, Winifred Holtby
81. 1927 The Vicar's Daughter, E. H. Young

SEPTEMBER 2021

82. 1951 All-of-a-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor
83. 1952 Period Piece, Gwen Raverat
84. 1961 Winter at Thrush Green, Miss Read
85. 1977 Staggerford, Jon Hassler
86. 1841 Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens; audiobook
87. 2019 The Pioneers, David McCullough
88. 1987 Joseph Banks: A Life, Patrick O'Brian
89. 1994 Open Secrets, Alice Munro; short stories
90. 1936 The A. B. C. Murders, Christie

OCTOBER 2021
91. 1847 Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
92. 1867 The Claverings, Trollope
93. 1889 Reuben Sachs, Amy Levy
94. 1851 Cranford, Gaskell
95. 1870 The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens
96. 1938 Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier
97. 1871 Desperate Remedies, Thomas Hardy
98. 1970 84, Charing Cross Road, Hanff
99. 1851 London Crimes, Charles Dickens (originally published in Household Words, 1851)
100. 1851 Mr Harrison's Confessions and My Lady Ludlow, Elizabeth Gaskell
101. 1851-1861 Gothic Tales, Elizabeth Gaskell

NOVEMBER 2021
102. 2020 Our Malady, Timothy Snyder
103. 1936 Murder in Mesopotamia, Agatha Christie
104. 1970 News from Thrush Green, Miss Read
105. 1942 Spring Magic, D. E. Stevenson
106. 1929 Passing, Nella Larsen
107. 1867 Nina Balatka, Trollope
108. 1951 A Game of Hide and Seek, Elizabeth Taylor
109. 1934 Now in November, Josephine Johnson

DECEMBER 2021
110. 1930 Diary of a Provincial Lady, E. M. Delafield
111. 1813 2773690::Pride and Prejudice, Austen, audiobook read by J. Stevenson
112. 2021 Chicago in 50 Objects, Joseph Gustaitis
113. 1843 A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Writings, Dickens, re-read; also audiobook read by Jim Dale
114. 1863 Rachel Ray, Trollope; re-read
115. 1931 The Country Child Alison Uttley
116. 1884 An Unsocial Socialist, G. B. Shaw
117. 1937 Dumb Witness, Christie

2021 stats

JANUARY 2022
1. 1975 Battles at Thrush Green, Miss Read
2. 2017 Going into Town, Roz Chast
3. 1888 Stempenyu: A Jewish Romance, Sholem Aleichem
4. 1930 Miss Mole, E. H. Young
5. 2nd c. C.E. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
6. 1942 Crooked Adam, D. E. Stevenson
7. 2016 Dinner with Edward, Isabel Vincent
8. 1886 Kidnapped, R L Stevenson
9. 1990 Floating in My Mother's Palm, Ursula Hegi

FEBRUARY 2022
10. 1921-1924 Lyubka the Cossack and other stories, Isaac Babel
11. 1998 The Other Side of the Dale, Gervase Phinn
12. 1953 The Sleeping Beauty, Elizabeth Taylor
13. 2021 On Tyranny Graphic Edition, Snyder & Krug
14. 1943 "Betrothed" from Two Tales, S Y Agnon
15. 1923 A Lost Lady, Willa Cather
16. 1868 Linda Tressel, Anthony Trollope
17. 1934 Miss Buncle's Book, D. E. Stevenson
18. 1934 Burmese Days, George Orwell
19. 2010 At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Bill Bryson

MARCH 2022
20. 1868 The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
21. 1908 Crossriggs, Jane & Mary Findlater
22. 1937 Death on the Nile, Christie
23. 1864 The Perpetual Curate, Oliphant
24. 1850 David Copperfield, Dickens, audiobook re-read by Simon Vance
25. 1934 Rumour of Heaven, Beatrix Lehmann
26. 1978 56903::Return to Thrush Green, Miss Read
27. 1931 My Husband Simon, Mollie Panter-Downes
28. 1929 A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
29. 1952 The Natural, Bernard Malamud

APRIL 2022
30. 1981 56903::Gossip from Thrush Green, Miss Read
31. 1932 Jenny Wren, E. H. Young
32. 1816 Emma: an annotated edition, Austen
33. 2004 Old Filth, Jane Gardam
34. 1872 Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy
35. 1980 A Few Green Leaves, Barbara Pym
36. 1988 A Far Cry from Kensington, Muriel Spark
37. 1922 The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim

MAY 2022
38. 2022 Mrs England, Stacey Halls
39. 1896 2731383::The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories, Sarah Orne Jewett
40. 2017 The Order of the Day, Eric Vuillard
41. 2012 The Real Jane Austen, Paula Byrne
42. 1934 The Curate's Wife, E. H. Young
43. 2020 Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
44. 1601 Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
45. 2011 The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka
46. 2012 Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure, Arthur Conan Doyle
47. 1931 Poor Caroline, Winifred Holtby
48. 1859 A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
49. 2002 Winston Churchill, John Keegan

JUNE 2022
50. 1983 1287884::Affairs at Thrush Green, Miss Read
51. 1865 Miss Mackenzie, Trollope
52. 1950 Tea is so Intoxicating, Mary Essex
53. 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
54. 1855 North and South, Gaskell, audiobook
55. 1950 The Feast, Margaret Kennedy
56. 2009 Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End, Jennifer Worth

2022 part2

2022 stats

Green Stars:
5
4½
4
3½
3
2½
2
1½
1
½

JANUARY 2023

1. 1996 The Complete Maus, Spiegelman
2. 2020 The Forest of Wool and Steel, Natsu Miyashita, tr. Philip Gabriel
3. 2020 Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books, Cathy Rentzenbrink
4. 1866 The Belton Estate, Anthony Trollope
5. 1847 Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
6. 1916 Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher
7. 2010 Foster, Claire Keegan
8. 1984 Over By the River and Other Stories, William Maxwell
9. 1935 Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink
10. 1897 A Pair of Silk Stockings and Other Stories, Kate Chopin
11. 1864 The Doctor's Wife, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
12. 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
13. 1827 The Highland Widow, Sir Walter Scott

FEBRUARY 2023

14. 2013 The Great War: July 1, 1916, Joe Sacco with text by Adam Hochschild
15. 2022 Revenge of the Librarians, Tom Gauld
16. 1957 What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw, Agatha Christie
17. 1874 Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions), Louisa May Alcott
18. 1852 Roughing It In the Bush, Susanna Moodie
19. 1997 The Journals of Susanna Moodie, Margaret Atwood and Charles Pachter
20. 2016 Susanna Moodie: Roughing It In the Bush, Carol Shields & Patrick Crowe, adapted by Willow Dawson & Selena Goulding
21. 1995 Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature, Margaret Atwood
22. 1942 West with the Night, Beryl Markham
23. 2001 The Means of Escape, Penelope Fitzgerald
24. 1845 19500126::Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
25. 1992 Playing in the Dark, Toni Morrison
26. 1918 The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West
27. 1861 Framley Parsonage, Anthony Trollope
28. 1878 The Lady of Launay, Anthony Trollope
29. 1882 Two Heroines of Plumplington, Anthony Trollope
30. 1988 Two-Part Invention, Madeleine L'Engle
31. 2016 Browse: The World in Bookshops, ed. Henry Hutchings
32. 2019 Semicolon, Cecelia Watson

MARCH 2023
33. 1987 The School at Thrush Green, Miss Read
34. 2009 Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, Kazuo Ishiguro
35. 1923 A Son at the Front, Edith Wharton
36. 1953 Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks
37. 1939 And Then There Were None, Christie
38. 2009 Brooklyn, Colm Toibin
39. 1999 The Lighthouse Stevensons, Bella Bathurst
40. 1931 All Passion Spent, Vita Sackville-West
41. 1941 English Country Houses, V. Sackville-West
42. 1922 Seducers in Ecuador & The Heir, V. Sackville-West
43. 1864 The Small House at Allington, Anthony Trollope
44. 1851 The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne
45. 1901 Crucial Instances, Edith Wharton
46. 1880 Washington Square, Henry James

APRIL 2023
47. 2019 The Swedish Art of Death Cleaning, Margareta Magnusson
48. 1895 130490::The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
49. 1988 The Diary of an Isle Royale School Teacher, Dorothy Simonson
50. 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green
51. 2021 Postcards: The Rise and Fall, Lydia Pyne
52. 1876 Phoebe, Junior, Margaret Oliphant
53. 1990 Friends at Thrush Green, Miss Read
54. 1867 The Last Chronicle of Barset, Trollope
55. 1600 A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare
56. 1940 The Patriotic Murders, Agatha Christie
57. 2018 Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life, Lucy Worsley
58. 1997 Tearing the Silence: On Being German in America, Ursula Hegi
59. 1916 Madame de Treymes and Three Novellas, Edith Wharton

MAY 2023
60. 1904 The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen, Elizabeth von Arnim
61. 1972 My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
62. 1986 Chaim Potok, Edward Abramson
63. 1943 The Betsy-Tacy Treasury, Maud Hart Lovelace
64. 2011 Soldiers with Picks and Shovels, Tom Emery
65. 2007 Shakespeare: The World as Stage, Bill Bryson
66. 1980 A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr
67. 1872 Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy
68. 2018 American Histories, John Edgar Wideman
69. 1938 The Squire, Enid Bagnold

JUNE 2023
70. 1972 To Serve Them All My Days, R. F. Delderfield
71. 1992 158714381::Celebrations at Thrush Green, Miss Read
72. 1877 Three Tales, Gustave Flaubert
73. 1841 Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens
74. 2008 The Norman Maclean Reader, Norman Maclean
75. 2023 Secret Harvests, David Mas Masumoto
76. 1871 Lady Susan, Jane Austen
77. 1895 The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
78. 1840 The Betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni
79. 1921 The Girls, Edna Ferber

Some Mid-Year Stats:

Total books read: 79*

Type:
--Fiction: 51
--Nonfiction: 23
--Fiction/NF combo: 1
--Drama: 1
--Poetry: 1
--Graphic: 2
Authors: Female: 42; Male: 33; Multiple authors: 4
Re-reads: 19**
Roots: 46***
Bought & read in 2023: 1
Library books: 31
Audiobooks: 5
Published:
--before 20th century: 25
--20th century: 35
--21st century: 19

Some highlights:
*This is the highest number of books I've read in 6 months in my lifetime.
**Nearly a quarter (24%) of my books have been re-reads, which probably accounts for the overall high total.
***And I'm really pleased with my ROOTs (books off my shelves) total, even considering that I read 31 library books, too.

JULY 2023

80. 1813 Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
81. 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
82. 1867 The Claverings, Trollope
83. 1764 The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole
84. 1817 Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
85. 2022 Tove Jansson (The Illustrators) by Paul Gravett

AUGUST 2023

86. 1919 Christopher and Columbus, Elizabeth von Arnim
87. 1973 The Dressmaker, Beryl Bainbridge
88. 1860 Love and Youth: Essential Stories, Turgenev
89. 2021 Unearthing the Secret Garden, Marta McDowell
90. 1975 From These Shores, Helga Skogsbergh
91. 1911 The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
92. 1984 Good Daughters, Mary Hocking
93. 2014 My Life in Middlemarch, Rebecca Mead
94. 2007 The Annotated Secret Garden, F H Burnett; annotated by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (Aug 23)

SEPTEMBER 2023

95. 1936 Jamaica Inn, Daphne Du Maurier
96. 2023 Simply Artificial Intelligence, DK Publishing
97. 1994 Tales from a Village School, Miss Read
98. 1874 Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, Anthony Trollope
99. 2006 The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig
100. 1844 Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens
101. 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
102. 1868 Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave, Elizabeth Keckley
103. 1985 Indifferent Heroes, Mary Hocking
104. 2018 The Faithful Spy, John Hendrix
105. 1952 Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
106. 1933 Good-Bye, Mr Chips, James Hilton

OCTOBER 2023

107. 1847 Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte
108. 1853 Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell
109. 1856 The Poor Clare, Elizabeth Gaskell--added after reviews
110. 1924 The Home-Maker, Dorothy Canfield Fisher
111. 1872 The Golden Lion of Granpère, Trollope
112. 1896 A Child of the Jago, Arthur Morrison
113. 2006 The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
114. 1962 Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
115. 1893 The Odd Women, George Gissing

NOVEMBER 2023

116. 1848 Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens
117. 1996 The Year at Thrush Green, Miss Read
118. 1859 The Lifted Veil, Eliot
119. 1948 Young Mrs Savage, D. E. Stevenson
120. 1908 Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery
121. 1599 As You Like It, Shakespeare
122. 1982 Second Words: Selected Critical Prose, Margaret Atwood
123. 1940 Sad Cypress, Agatha Christie
124. 1932 Heat Lightning, Helen Hull
125. 1990 Oscar Peterson: The Will To Swing, Gene Lees

DECEMBER 2023

126. 2023 The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even, Alexander McCall Smith
127. 2009 Christmas at Thrush Green, Miss Read
128. 1850 David Copperfield, Dickens, audiobook
129. 1850 The Moorland Cottage, Gaskell
130. 2023 Praying with Jane Eyre, Vanessa Zoltan
131. 1843 A Christmas Carol, Dickens, audiobook
132. 1925 The Professor's House, Willa Cather
133. 1949 Vittoria Cottage, D. E. Stevenson
134. 1904 Selected Stories, E. M. Forster
135. 1927 Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster
136. 1986 Welcome Strangers, Mary Hocking
137. 1871 Ralph the Heir, Anthony Trollope

2023 End of Year Stats

Total books read:

Type:
--Fiction:
--Nonfiction:
--Fiction/NF combo:
--Drama:
--Poetry:
--Graphic:
Authors: Female: ; Male: ; Multiple authors:
Re-reads:
Roots:
Bought & read in 2023:
Library books:
Audiobooks:
Published:
--before 20th century:
--20th century:
--21st century:

Some highlights:
*This is the highest number of books I've read in
**Nearly a quarter (??)

>62 kac522: Some good stats, and congrats on your personal best… 👍

>63 Sergeirocks: Thanks! and welcome! I didn't know anyone followed here 😊 I kinda use it as my "test" place before I post to my main threads which are here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/347256#
and here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/347268#

I did read a lot so far this year, but I am doing more scrolling than reading in July. I know it will pick up eventually, but I'm letting myself be a bit lazy.

>64 kac522: Thank you for posting your reviews on this thread! Like >63 Sergeirocks: Sergei, I do follow along and also wish to congratulate you on your reading stats.

And can I just say, thank you for your honest review of Barnaby Rudge! I was the only one in my Dickens reading group who enjoyed this book, and I found the timeline fascinating and his writing taking on a maturity that was much needed. Also agree on the awesome description of the sound of the mob and on mob violence itself.

>65 threadnsong: Thank you for stopping by and thanks for the kind words! I see you have a thread in the Category Challenge group, and I have one there, too, where you can see all my challenges & reviews back to January:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/347256#

I read a lot of classics and do a lot of re-reading. In fact, this time round was a re-read of Barnaby Rudge. What I didn't say in my review was that my prior reading was a few months after the Jan 6 attack and it was so scary to read how similar the real mob action I watched on TV was to the mob Dickens describes in that book.

But if you _really_ want to feel good about Barnaby Rudge, I highly recommend you watch this video by Katie Lumsden in June. She's a booktuber who is hosting a 2 year readalong of Dickens (which is why I was reading Barnaby at this time) and her enthusiasm for the book and for all things Dickens is infectious:

Katie's review of Barnaby Rudge

She talks very fast, so you may need to slow down the audio, but she is so, so good. And she adores Dickens.

I've read all of Dickens' novels at least once (and some multiple times) and a great book that is a fun read is John Mullan's The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist. He has such great insight into various aspects of Dickens--but it has a LOT of spoilers, so if you haven't read a lot of Dickens, I would recommend waiting until you've read most of his novels.

I noticed from your thread that you are a pianist. One book I read earlier this year that is a stand-out for me is a little Japanese novel called The Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita, and translated by Philip Gabriel. Here's my review from January:



The Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita (2015) is a story of a young man in rural Japan who hears a piano being tuned at his high school and is mesmerized by the sounds. Without any musical training, he makes the very brave decision to study piano tuning as a career. This quiet little book has so much packed into it: about striving for perfection, about perseverance, about mentors, about being completely dedicated to your craft. It's also about the importance of sound and tuning and creating the right timbre (tone quality) for a specific pianist on a specific piano. There are some very piano-technical passages (the "Wool and Steel" of the title refers to the piano hammers and strings), so I'm not sure how interesting the story might be to non-musicians; but as a music major in a distant life, I loved it.

The author has studied classical piano and the book was made into a movie in Japan. The book was not readily available at my library, so I did have to order it via inter-library loan.

If you can find the book via inter-library loan, I think you would really enjoy it. I haven't played piano in some years, mostly because of arthritis in my fingers and trouble with my back. I was in choirs most of my life until the pandemic hit and the two choirs I was in were switched to zoom only, which just didn't interest me. They are now both in-person, but I haven't gone back because I think my voice has changed in the past few years--some chronic health issues seem to have made me a tenor instead of an alto! And I have trouble matching my voice to the pitch I can hear in my ear--it's very weird. I might try going back to one this Fall--at least I can see if just using my voice more and doing vocal exercises might help the problem.

Anyway, I have starred your thread, and look forward to following what you're reading and playing and practicing!

How very fascinating you are! And thank you for the book recommendation - I'll add it to my Wishlist (which always seems to grow when I sit down with LT!). It is so true - a piano is a mixture of wire and wood. Piano tuners always fascinated me from when I was a little girl and watching the piano tuner come by, to when I was an adult and finding a piano tuner for the same piano. It is a gorgeous instrument, whatever shape it takes.

And also thank you for the link to the Barnaby Rudge video. I promise promise that I will watch it soon!

As far as my Dickens reading goes, I joined a F2F Dickens book club when they were part way through The Olde Curiosity Shop and we read through the entire canon from there. I must say, there were times where I wanted to throw the book across the room with the depiction of Little Nell! But, I recently saw the Derek Jacobi BBC production and liked it a lot better. It made the men out to be so much worse and Little Nell as so much better, and so much more human. Dealing with all the demands on her instead of submitting to X with an open and joyful heart.

My hat is off to you for reading and re-reading his entire canon. There is so much about descriptions and people and their motivations that I find so insightful in Dickens. I'm really glad I read him, and I can certainly understand the cultural references now!

And yes, you are right about the parallels between the mob in "Barnaby Rudge" and the Jan. 6 mob. I've heard some of the audio on longer clips, even audio-only, and it's eerily similar.

Thank you for the link to the other group - I have starred your thread and can start enjoying your reviews! I post my reviews both places (as you've probably already figured out).

I do hope you return to your choirs, even just one of them. I find that getting together is a good thing to do, and making music together can sometimes be Just the Thing.

>67 threadnsong: I hope you get a chance to read The Forest of Wool and Steel. It's not long at all, but so, so interesting.

Well done on your Dickens reading and a RL book group! I need to find that Jacobi adaptation--I need all the help I can get with Little Nell. I'm (re)-listening to Martin Chuzzlewit and it's starting to pick up, but the first 8 or 9 chapters require loads of patience.

Time for me to get back to my Jane Austen July reading.......

>68 kac522: Enjoy your Jane Austen July reading!

I also watched the video about Barnaby Rudge and wow! She has such an understanding of this book and the portion about mobs and what motivates people to join them and commit acts of destruction.

>69 threadnsong: Katie has such a phenomenal understanding of Victorian literature, particularly Dickens. She should be teaching, to get young people interested in the books of the era.

Oh, and in reading your thread I noticed that you more prefer Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights. I am more drawn to the latter, in part because of the passion and love between the two main characters, and OMG the film with Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier made me cry for many years (even though it left out the second half of the story!).

But.

There is a fascinating essay by Andrea Dworkin who discusses how "Wuthering Heights" is the epitome of tracing inter-generational abusive/dysfuntional family dynamics. It's in her book Letters from a War Zone and I was really blown away by her evaluation of it. And it gave me a different understanding of it, and why there are parts that are quite troubling.

>71 threadnsong: I've read WH several times throughout my life, hoping I could enjoy it. But mostly I just feel it's about people being relentlesly cruel to one another. As Katie has said in her videos, it's not a book about love, it's a book about revenge (but it's still one of her favorite books of all time). This last time I read it (last January) I appreciated how Emily structured the book, framed the action and kept up the intensity, but I have no desire to read it again.

I still vastly enjoy Jane Eyre (which has its own set of problematic issues), where at least we are presented with some good-hearted people in her journey: Helen Burns, Miss Temple and the Rivers sisters are the most prominent. And where Jane finally takes control of her own life. So a much more hopeful book. I find nothing to restore my faith in people in WH.

Years ago one of the older (than me) ladies in my book club asked me "Are you a Jane Eyre person or a Wuthering Heights person?" I'd never thought about how people could be divided that way, but of course, without blinking an eye, I answered Jane Eyre. So I guess it's not that strange to prefer one to the other.

July reading was pretty miserable: only 6 books finished and 3 of them were re-reads. I just can’t seem to stick with a new-to-me book these days, especially if it’s more than 100 pages.


80. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813); umpteenth re-read
Type: fiction for Jane Austen July
One of my favorite books of all time, which I have been re-reading since age 12. On this reading I noticed how Austen uses dialogue to flesh out her characters and to move the plot along. The only exception to this is the minor character of Georgiana Darcy, who never speaks a single line in the book. Georgiana is talked about by so many other characters, however, that we have a wonderful sense of Georgiana without ever hearing her speak. A comfort read that never fails me.


81. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi; translated by Geoffrey Trousselot (2015)
Type: fiction
The premise of this book is intriguing: in a basement café, there is small table where a person can travel into the past or the future to re-live a conversation. The catch: you must finish your conversation before your coffee gets cold or you may disappear forever. The book is divided into 4 parts, each about a different café patron who sits at that special table. It started out well, but by the last part I had lost interest with the idea and with the writing. I am probably in the minority on this one, as it is a very popular book; I waited 3 months on my library’s wait list for my copy. But it fell flat for me by the end.


82. The Claverings, Anthony Trollope (1867); re-read from 2021
Type: fiction for LT Group Read
Young Harry Clavering must decide between two women: Julia, who jilted him years ago, but is now a wealthy widow; and Florence, his current fiancée, who is good and average and niece of his boss. Trollope really knows how to show a guy who can’t make up his mind, and I was pretty impatient with Harry this time round. It’s always interesting to see how Trollope re-works a plot line and puts his own special twists to each book and makes you think from another point of view. I enjoyed this, despite the frustration and the too-easy ending.


83. The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole (1764)
Type: historical fiction for Jane Austen July
I read this to get into the mood for a re-read of Northanger Abbey. Considered the first true gothic novel, it has all the tropes you expect and even more. It was entertaining, but I have to admit I've forgotten most of it, except the chase through the underground tunnels and the death of the heroine at the end.


84. Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen (1818); umpteenth re-read
Type: fiction for Jane Austen July
After reading The Castle of Otranto this novel of young Catherine Morland and her gothic imagination left me laughing out loud many times despite the many times I've read it before. Austen knows how to balance the ridiculous gothic tropes with the importance of reading. And I really do like our hero Henry Tilney a lot; I think he is my favorite Austen hero.


85. Tove Jansson, Paul Gravett (2022)
Type: nonfiction; biography
Short, but detailed life of illustrator (and painter, novelist, cartoonist and more) Tove Jansson. This biography focuses on her career as an illustrator and creator of the Moomins. It's filled with illustrations--probably an equal amount of text and pictures. I only know Jansson from her novel The Summer Book, which I loved, so this was a wonderful introduction to her life and art work.may have been written as essays or separate individual pieces. Still, this is an American identity story that needs to be heard.

August maybes

I have decided to make as few commitments as possible for August and just pick from a very big pile.

My one commitment is:

The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett--for my RL book club. As well as the original, I've got an annotated edition and an interesting biography about Burnett and her gardens: Unearthing the Secret Garden by Marta McDowell.

Next up would be books I didn't finish is July:

Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens--still working slowly on the audiobook; almost 1/3 through
Jane Austen at Home, Lucy Worsley--my nonfiction selection for JA July which I'm enjoying but not feeling in the mood to pick up. Maybe in August.
Christopher and Columbus, Elizabeth von Arnim; hope to finish this tonight.

After that there are some library books to clear out, including:

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, Katie Lumsden
Young Mrs Savage, D. E. Stevenson
The Private Life of Spies, Alexander McCall Smith, a new book of short stories

And then I hope to read a few books published by Virago for All Virago/All August: https://www.librarything.com/topic/352498

I'll choose a couple from:
Jamaica Inn, Daphne DuMaurier
Good Behaviour, Molly Keane
Mandoa, Mandoa, Winifred Holtby
Celia, E. H. Young
Angel, Elizabeth Taylor

and I might throw in an Agatha Christie if nothing else appeals.

I'm really behind, so these are going to be quick reviews of my August reading:

86. Christopher and Columbus, Elizabeth von Arnim (1919); ebook

One could call this a delightful book, but somehow I found it disappointing. It is 1916. A set of orphaned twins, Anna-R and Anna-F, are banished to America by their English aunt and uncle. Their crime? Their late mother was English who married their late father, a German. On their voyage across the Atlantic they meet Mr Twist, a wealthy American, who finds them delightful and befriends them, and everything goes on from there.

Von Arnim's tone throughout the book is almost like a fairy-tale or fable. It is half in earnest and half in jest. Underneath the surface the story is disturbing, because along the way the twins (who consider themselves German by accident only) are repeatedly shunned. Yet the Germans the twins meet in America are portrayed as boorish and unpleasant. But what bothered me most was that the ending completely veers away from the real issues and ends in Cinderella fashion.

87. The Dressmaker, Beryl Bainbridge(1973); Root from 2021

Set in Liverpool during WWII, the story centers around Rita, a sheltered 17-year-old, who meets Ira, an American soldier, at a party. Rita has been raised by her two middle-aged aunts, Nellie (a dressmaker) and Marge, who all live together in their family home. Their brother Jack (and Rita's father) lives above his shop not far away. This dark story is really about the family dynamics, and how Rita's teen-age crush up-ends the family.

Bainbridge's detailed descriptions of the characters, their clothing, their furnishings and the general shabbiness of their lives drew me in, but at the same time made me feel constantly ill-at-ease, like I was seeing things I shouldn't. I can't say I liked any of the family, but I didn't outright dislike them either--they were trapped. This was a quick read with a shocking ending, but I'm not sure I'll be seeking out Bainbridge again; probably too dark for my taste.

88. Love and Youth: Essential Stories, Ivan Turgenev, translated by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater; (1852 & 1860 "First Love"); Root from 2022

Like most short story collections, some were better than others. The best was the first (and longest), "First Love", which is about the adoring love of young teenage boy for a slightly older woman Zinaida. Turgenev completely captures that young devoted first love feeling. Of the rest of the stories, "The District Doctor" was my second favorite, about a doctor who falls in love with his dying patient. I thought these 2 stories were excellent and the other 4 stories just OK. Loved this Pushkin Press edition, though.

89. From These Shores, Helga Skogsbergh (1975); Root from 2022

This is a one-volume abridgement of Helga Skogsbergh's three autobiographical novels about her family's homestead on the southern shores of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. Originally published as Comes the Day, Comes a Way (1960); From These Shores (1963); and That Was Then (1969), this 1975 edition is an abridgement which has selected chapters from each of the 3 volumes. The story focuses on two young couples, the Hansons and the Samuelsons, who have immigrated in the 1880s from Sweden to Duluth. In 1891 the two men are enticed by a call for families to homestead on the southern shores of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin, near Ashland (their settlement would later be known as Port Wing). They pack up their families and travel by steamer across the lake with all their belongings, some furniture and a cow.

What was most interesting is that the books are more from the women's points of view, as Skogsbergh is relating the stories her mother (here called Mama Hanson) told about this pilgrimage. It deals with their hard work, loneliness (their husbands are away weeks at a time at a logging camp), privations and learning to help one another during high points and low points, childbirth and infant burials. There is an over-riding steadfastness and faith which keeps these immigrants surviving and thriving. Told as a novel, but knowing that the basic storylines were true, I found this an effective and moving way to tell an immigrant family's story.

90. Good Daughters, Mary Hocking (1984); Root from 2020, read for the All Virago/All August challenge

This is a quiet story, the first in a trilogy, of a family with 3 daughters (ages 16, 12, 9), set from 1933 through 1937. It's mostly told from the point of view of Alice, the 12-year-old, and is about their day-to-day lives with friends, neighbors, relatives and a unnerving undercurrent of the tidings of war. I loved this book, and look forward to the second book.

91. My Life in Middlemarch, Rebecca Mead (2014); Root from 2015

I've been staring at this book for 8 years now, and finally got around to it. Mead combines memoir, biography of George Eliot and analysis of Middlemarch in a perfectly seamless way. The eight chapters are structured around the eight "Books" of Middlemarch. I didn't feel like any one of the elements (memoir, biography, analysis) dominated. Mead is there, but she's not front and center. So glad I finally gotten around to reading this one.

My last 3 books of the month are all related to my RL book club's August read: the children's classic The Secret Garden:


92. The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911); Re-read from 2013. I read a straight-forward edition about the selfish British orphan girl, raised in India, who is banished to her uncle's gloomy house on the Yorkshire moors. There she encounters nature, new friends and a secret place. I hadn't remembered the references to "Magic" from my past readings, which stood out to me this time. I also noticed how Mary becomes stronger and less selfish, but how little (except physically) Colin changes in temperament.

93. Unearthing the Secret Garden, Marta McDowell (2021) This is a wonderful mash-up of the life of Frances Hodgson Burnett, her love of gardens, and how that passion is shown in The Secret Garden. Burnett didn't become a gardener until she was 50, but she went into it with great zeal. The famous garden in The Secret Garden is based on a garden that she brought back to life in Kent. A lovely book with lots of pictures from both Burnett's life and illustrations from the children's classic.

94. The Annotated Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, with intro and annotations by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, (1911; this annotated edition 2007). I read this one last, and just read the intro and the annotations, having read the novel on its own a few weeks earlier. Gerzina points out all the references to the Brontes (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and the Yorkshire moors) that Burnett used in her story. She has some lengthy descriptions of Burnett's own "philosophy" of Magic: a combination of Christianity, nature, science, positive thinking, a bit a Freud here and there, all rolled into one. It's a big coffee-table type book, but well worth the read for all of the valuable insights into the novel and the era that it was written.

September possibilities...we know I'll never finish them all, but one can dream....

Currently reading:
DONE! Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens, on audiobook....just taking me forever to finish
DONE Tales from a Village School, Miss Read, for the September "school" theme of the British Authors Challenge and Reading Through Time

From the Library:
DONE Simply Artificial Intelligence, DK Publishing, 2023
The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even, Alexander McCall Smith, 2023, stories
Young Mrs Savage, D. E. Stevenson, 1947

From the TBR:

September LT Challenges:
Currently reading: ClassicsCAT: nonfiction: Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave, Elizabeth Keckley, 1868
DONE RandomKIT: The West: The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig, 2006
Reading through Time Quarterly: WWII: A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute, 1950
Virago: Excellent Women, Barbara Pym 1952
AlphaKIT: Angel Elizabeth Taylor (1957)

My Read or Rid Challenge:
Mrs Bridge, Evan S. Connell, 1959
Peace Like a River Leif Enger, 2001

Getting Ready for Victober (Victorian October):
Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell, 1853
The Golden Lion of Granpere, 1867, or
DONE Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, 1874, Anthony Trollope

Victober (Victorian October) is almost here, and I'm piling up my possibilities for the challenges. If you're interested in reading Victorian literature (literature of Great Britain published between 1837-1901) during October, checkout Kate Howe's announcement video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwTa7bjePg4
Kate will continue to have Victorian themed videos throughout October.

There are 5 challenges:

1. Read a Victorian work featuring a stranger/outsider:
2. Read a piece of Victorian ‘New Woman’ fiction
3. Read a Victorian work by an author who is new to you
✔ 4. Read a Victorian first-person narrative Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte
5. Read a Victorian work in which class features strongly

There is a Group Read: The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. I'm not going to do the group read, as I am trying to read Trollope in publication order, and I have a couple more until I get to this one.

Here are my possibilities, from most likely to least likely:

Currently reading: Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens (1848); on audiobook; meets challenge 5
✔ Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte (1847) meets challenges 1, 4 and 5; it's a book I've been meaning to re-read for some time.
The Odd Woman, George Gissing (1893) meets challenges 2 and 3
Currently reading: Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell (1853) meets challenge 5
A Child of the Jago, Arthur Morrison (1896) meets challenges 3 and 5
Jessie Phillips, Mrs Fanny Trollope (1843) meets challenges 3 and 5

Other Victorian works that are possibilities, but don't meet the challenges:

The Golden Lion of Granpere, Anthony Trollope (1867)
Ralph the Heir, Anthony Trollope (1871)
Essays by Robert Louis Stevenson, collected essays from 1874 to 1888
Anna of the Five Towns, Arnold Bennett (1902)--just misses the cut-off but has the "New Woman" theme

And two nonfiction works about the Victorians:

The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson (2006); about the cholera epidemic in 1854 London
Benjamin Disraeli, Adam Kirsch (2008); biography which meets challenge 1

I know I won't finish all of these, but I'm ready to jump in!

Quick reviews of September reading...lots of books that were mostly OK:


95. Jamaica Inn, Daphne Du Maurier (1936); fiction
Historical fiction set in 1815 Cornwall that seemed repetitive, over-long and a romance I didn't believe in. Meh.


96. Simply Artificial Intelligence, DK Publishing (2023); nonfiction
Basic guide to that ubiquitous term "AI", which helped clarify some concepts for me. Good for middle grades to adults.


❤️97. Tales from a Village School, Miss Read (1994); fiction
Fictional stories based on Miss Read's real experience as a teacher in English rural schools. Like most Miss Read books, the stories follow the calendar, starting with September and ending at summer vacation.


98. Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, Anthony Trollope (1874); fiction
Entertaining novella set in the Australian outback approaching Christmas, about a man defending his property against heat-induced fires and vengeful neighbors.


99. The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig (2006); fiction
Historical fiction set in a Montana homestead school during the 1909-10 school year. Good story, but I found the writing unnecessarily ornate; to me it felt contrived.


100. Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens (1844); re-read on audiobook; fiction
Felt pretty much the same as on my first reading: the middle drags, but the beginning and especially the last third of the book is very good. Not a favorite Dickens, though.


101. A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams (1947); play
Unlikable characters who do painful, stupid things. I couldn't find any redeeming value in it.


102. Behind the Scenes: or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House, Elizabeth Keckley (1868); memoir
This was easy to read and eye-opening, especially Keckley's years with Mary Todd Lincoln. Not as memorable as Frederick Douglass's memoir, but interesting from the point of view of a woman and domestic life.


103. Indifferent Heroes, Mary Hocking (1985)
Second book in Mary Hocking's Fairley family trilogy; I read the first book in August. This book begins in 1939 and ends in Fall 1945, and it felt more disjointed. I wanted more about daughter Alice, front and center.


104. The Faithful Spy, John Hendrix (2018); nonfiction graphic book for middle grade and older
The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor involved in various plots to kill Hitler. Best known for his writings from prison and death in a concentration camp, just weeks before liberation. Appropriate for mature middle-graders up to adults; the disturbing facts are never glossed over or ignored.


❤️105. Excellent Women, Barbara Pym (1952); re-read from 2013; fiction
Wonderful witty short novel about a woman who is satisfied and fulfilled in her single life.


106. Good-Bye, Mr. Chips, James Hilton (1933); fiction
Boys' school teacher looks back on his long career and many pupils; wistful but not overly melancholy. Covers his teaching days from the late Victorian era (1870s), through the Great War and into the 1930s.

Victober Reading Update:

I've finished a re-read of Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, which I enjoyed a bit more than my first reading, I think. It didn't feel as hopeless as the first reading.

Currently reading and am about 1/3 through each of these:
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens, on audiobook, slightly more engaging than I remember it.
and
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell, which so far I'm really enjoying.

I've picked up Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories, a biography by Jenny Uglow. This is a hefty bio, so I doubt if I'll finish it this month.

Also I'll be reading some Gaskell "ghost" stories with the Liz's Virago group read.

And up next will probably be a non-Victober selection: The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, for the American Authors Challenge.

And I'm watching lots of Victober video content, so I'm very happy.

So far my Victober continues to progress. I've chosen not to do the Group Read, but rather read shorter works.
Finished:
Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte (first person narrative), a re-read
Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell (stranger)
The Golden Lion of Granpère, Trollope, (class) a re-read

And two stories by Elizabeth Gaskell, which were re-reads:
"The Old Nurse's Story" and The Poor Clare

I also watched the BBC Mini-series of Martin Chuzzlewit, a book I re-read in August-September. The series was very true to the book, and I particularly liked the performance of Paul Scofield as old Martin.

Currently reading:
The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson; nonfiction about the 1854 cholera epidemic in London; read 3 chapters
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories, by Jenny Uglow; biography; I'm about 100 pages in, but will probably not finish this month
Dombey & Son, Dickens, on audio; a re-read; may run over into November

Still to be read:
A Child of the Jago, Morrison; (new-to-me author & class)
The Odd Women, Gissing; (new-to-me author & New Woman)
3 stories by Gaskell, all re-reads, part of a group read with Liz:
"Lois the Witch"
"The Grey Woman"
Curious, If True

Other possibilities if time permits:
Anna of the Five Towns, Arnold Bennet (new-to-me author & New Woman)
Finally, 3 stories by Margaret Oliphant in the Carlingford Chronicles (The Executor, The Rector, The Doctor's Family, all re-reads)

Outside of Victober, I also finished The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher for the AAC, and will be reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury for my RL Book Club.

I'm satisfied with my October/Victober reading; I finished all the main works I intended to read. I have no new Victorian books I "love", but I'm glad I read them all.



107. Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte (1847); re-read from 2016

This is the story of a young woman who becomes a governess to help her family. Bronte exposes the indignities suffered and social class limbo of the governess--not quite servant, but never her employer's equal. Our governess seems to immediately dislike her charges and her employers; her first family especially has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Towards the end of the novel her characters become a little more rounded and human, and the book is saved by a gentle, believable love story. Certainly not as polished as her sister Charlotte, Anne Bronte still gives us a cold, realistic view of the plight of the governess.



108. Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell (1853)
This novel is complicated. It is one of the first (if not *the* first) novel to feature a "fallen" woman as the heroine, and to follow her story. Ruth, orphaned as a teenager, is apprenticed to work as a seamstress in a shop. At only 16 she meets a wealthy gentleman, Mr Bellingham, some years older (23), who seduces her, gets her pregnant and on the threat of his mother, abandons Ruth. Ruth is rescued by a disabled clergyman and his sister. Together they concoct a back story for Ruth as a widowed distant relation, and she becomes accepted in their town and raises her child. Eventually the falsehood is exposed, and Ruth and her son's reputations suffer.

Gaskell's writing is wonderful; particularly lovely are scenes of nature emphasizing Ruth's innocence and humility. These are juxtaposed with indoor scenes that are more tense and introspective. Ruth cries a lot in this tale, which seemed overboard to me. The clergyman grapples with the ethical, religious and moral values of Ruth's situation, including his & his sister's own roles in the falsehood. Like Gaskell's novel North and South, it is "The Lie" that becomes the main thrust of the story.

I found the ending dissatisfying, but I appreciate the story Gaskell was trying to tell. It won't be a favorite, but it was still a worthwhile read.



109. The Home-Maker, Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1924)

Mrs. Knapp is the ultimate home-maker, known for her spotless home, sewing marvels and her 3 (mostly) well-behaved children. At home she is forever cleaning, sewing or cooking, and has little patience for her children. Mr. Knapp is an accountant in the town's largest department store, a job he loathes. When he is fired from his job, he is at an all-time low and thinks his life is not worth living. But on the way home he jumps in to help put out a fire to a neighbor's home; he falls off the roof and his legs are paralyzed.

Mrs. Knapp realizes she must get some sort of work and applies for an entry-level sales clerk position at Mr. Knapp's (former) department store. Here she thrives, where her eye for fabrics and fashion make her an asset, and is swiftly promoted.

Back at home Mr. Knapp recovers enough to use a wheel-chair and with the help of the children, learns to cook and clean. While doing the household chores he recites poetry to the children, but more importantly spends time listening to them.

The story is told by being in the "head" of the characters in turn: Mrs. Knapp, Mr. Knapp, the children (including toddler Stephen), the neighbors, and a relative all get a chance to view the family from their own point of view. This was effective and I enjoyed the way we look at the situation from all different sides. Mr. Knapp in particular goes over in his mind how he can (or cannot fit) into society's proscribed roles for a male "head" of the family.

What I didn't like was the very ending, which I won't reveal here. It sort of spoiled the whole point of the book for me. But on the whole it was an interesting read, and somewhat radical for 1924.



110. The Golden Lion of Granpère, Anthony Trollope (1872); re-read from 2014

Set in the Vosges mountains of Alsace Lorraine, this book has a simple and almost fairy-tale quality that gives this story its charm. It is typical Trollope, with a young woman who wants to please her loving but stubborn parent/guardian. It is another in the "parent thinks they know best" line of Trollope's stories. This one worked well, particularly as we see the parent gradually come round. A lovely read.



111. A Child of the Jago, Arthur Morrison (1896)

This is a short (165 pages) but powerful and well-written novel about poverty, set in one of the worst areas of the East End of London at the end of the Victorian era. The novel follows young Dickie Perrott and his family in "the Jago" (based on the Old Nichol area) where poverty, crime and violence are common-place. The author grew up in the East End, not far from the neighborhood where he sets this novel. It is not a comforting read but it is masterfully executed. I had to read it in small chunks, so that it would not become too overwhelming. The writing is strong but simple; despite the included glossary, there were still numerous slang terms used that I did not know, so that was a minor distraction. Although it's not a book I can say I "loved", it's important and I feel it should be better known for its writing and its laser-sharp focus on poverty at a particular time and place.



112. The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson (2006; this 2023 edition with new Afterword)

This work of non-fiction focuses on the 1854 cholera epidemic and the work of physician John Snow and curate Henry Whitehead. Using information about the cholera cases in their neighborhood, the two were able to create a map that helped pinpoint the source of the epidemic as coming from a specific water pump. At the time, it was thought that cholera was caused by "miasma" or essentially, bad air/odors. Snow & Whitehead were able to show with their map that persons who drank water from a specific pump in the neighborhood were the ones struck with the disease. Johnson's main idea is that sometimes divergent and big-picture thinking are needed to solve a problem, exemplified here by the doctor, who knew science, and the curate, who knew the people.

This was very interesting and extremely readable. His focus on the two personalities and strengths of Snow & Whitehead were particularly good. The edition I read was a new 2023 revision which included an Afterword by Johnson, with his reflections on the COVID pandemic and comparing it to some of the discussion in the book about the epidemics.



113. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury (1962)

A carnival is coming to town, and 2 young boys in the 1930s are entranced. The story is told from the point of view of the boys, who discover the source of the strange and evil power of the carnival, and are then pursued by the evil force. Published in 1962, for me it felt like it was Bradbury's reflections on the Nazi era and/or totalitarianism in general.

As for the writing, it was a bit strange, but evocative; I was unprepared for the density of the prose. Science fiction is a stretch for me, and I had a hard time with it, but I can understand how it has become a science fiction classic. I did enjoy the setting, as Bradbury based it on his hometown of Waukegan, Illinois. After finishing the book I drove up there and found his home, his grandparent's home and the original library building. So the local interest was worth it for me.



114. The Odd Women, George Gissing (1893)

The "odd women" of the title refers to the perceived "excess" of men in the late 19th century and therefore this left a surplus of "odd women"--those that were not paired with a man in marriage. The novel starts with the Madden sisters, left a minimal income by their father with no marriage prospects. After an unsuccessful stint as a dressmaker, the youngest sister Monica enrolls in a school run by two unmarried women, Miss Barfoot and Miss Nunn, who teach typewriting and shorthand skills. The book follows the school and Monica, and to a lesser extent the older 2 Madden sisters. Discussions of marriage and whether women should depend on a man for survival is of prime importance in the novel, particularly as 2 characters face the prospect of marriage.

The writing was excellent and thoughtful, although there are some parts that got mired down in philosophical exchanges. Many people love this book and consider it an early feminist text, and I was expecting to enjoy it. But my reactions were so different and I was disappointed, to say the least. Overtly the text seems to promote women's independence, but for me there is an underlying distrust, and maybe even hatred of the average female, particularly of those from disadvantaged backgrounds. I had a hard time immediately with the premise, in that the owners of the school blatantly state that they have no use for the "lower" classes--their focus is on middle-class women.

The farther I got into the novel, the more I felt that Gissing, through the speech and actions of the male characters (and even sometimes in the narration), was sneering at women, who are portrayed in their "uneducated" state as mostly weak and childish. In this book's view only a cold, hard woman who resists marriage can possibly survive in the world on her own; yet marriage and male-female relationships are a vicious contest of who can control (or out-maneuver) the other. In the end the Madden sisters are still weak, poor and even partially supported by a man, while the few main male characters have moved on in their lives. If anything, Gissing seems to be showing that independent women are certain to fail, and men will do as they please.

If you are at all interested in this novel, I highly encourage you to read other reviews, because mine is definitely in the minority. I fail to see the "feminism" in it, besides the concept of educating women to be self-supporting (although the outcome of the Madden sisters is the exact opposite!). In every other respect, it felt like a slap in the face to me.

Other stuff:
Films:
I did watch Martin Chuzzlewit, a very early Cranford from the 1970s and re-watched North and South. The last one was because I needed a good love story; the books I was reading seemed to be very hard on love and marriage. I'm glad I took that break; it gave me strength to carry on.

Currently reading...
Still working on the audiobook of Dombey and Son, but am in the home stretch and should be done in a day or two.

November Plans...

Not much...I'm going to play it by ear. My only commitments are:

As You Like It, Shakespeare, for my RL book club
David Copperfield on audiobook
Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery, a re-read

Everything else is up for grabs; probably working on some library books first and then some cozy familiar books.

I am glad you stretched out to Bradbury - his prose is one of the best of the "classic" science fiction writers. And how cool that you got to visit Waukegan, IL.

>83 threadnsong: The only other Bradbury I've read is Dandelion Wine, which is just fun and not sci-fi. I hope to get back to Waukegan after they finish re-habbing the old Carnegie library, a favorite place for him (and featured in the book). The plans are to make it a Waukegan History museum, with a dedicated Bradbury exhibit.

November Wrap-Up--Part 1:


116. Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens (1848); re-read on audiobook, read by David Timson; Root from 2008
Type: fiction

This was a re-read, and here's my review from 2020:
This will not be my favorite Dickens. The middle seemed to drag a bit. As with any Dickens there are all kinds of mysterious side stories that don't seem to be related, but in the end, they all come together. The first third (from the point of view of little Paul) & last third (lots of action) of the book were the best.

My opinion of the book hasn't changed much. The first 18 chapters with Young Paul are excellent; I love little Paul and his relationship to Florence. The last 14 chapters are even better; there is mystery, action, reconciliation and lots of my favorite character Mr Toots (perfectly portrayed by David Timson's reading). The whole middle section, however, was difficult to listen to. As soon as Edith & her mother enter the story, I just wanted it to hurry up and be done. Dickens gives her over-long speeches that I didn't want to hear. Ultimately, I don't understand or, more importantly, believe how Florence retains her affection and loyalty to her cold and abusive father. At any rate, Mr Toots, Captain Cuttle, Walter and Susan make the story for me. It is Dickens, after all, so it can't be all bad.


117. The Year at Thrush Green, Miss Read (1996); Root from 2018
Type: fiction series

A wonderful way to wrap up the series; nearly everyone from Thrush Green gets involved (except Dr Lovell & Joan--I missed them). And it concludes with an homage to Mrs Curdle, who started it all in the first book.


118. The Lifted Veil, George Eliot (1859); Root from 2014; re-read from 2021
Type: fiction

In this short novella, a man has the ability to read most people's minds and has visions of events in the future. This ability drives him almost to insanity. On this reading, I was struck by the Prague setting, which hadn't caught my notice before. I re-read this for the Virago chronological reads group led by Liz.


119. Young Mrs. Savage, D. E. Stevenson (1948)
Type: fiction

It is post-WWII; Dinah Savage, 28, an exhausted war widow, is spending the summer in her Scottish childhood home on the sea with her 4 children. Over the course of the summer her beloved twin brother returns from the war, she reflects on her marriage, worries about the children and meets friends, new and old. The story takes some twists and turns, sheds light on rationing and post-war Britain, and has some interesting characters, both good and bad. Overall, a good solid read.


120. Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (1908); re-read from 1960s?? and 1989
Type: fiction

As a young person, I had always identified with Anne, but on this re-read I had more sympathy with Marilla, perhaps because now I'm even older than Marilla is in the book.

In a 2008 essay by Margaret Atwood, the Canadian author reflects on the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables, on her own history reading Anne since childhood, and reading Anne with her own daughter. These comments resonated with me about the book:

Although she {Anne} changes in the book--she grows up--her main transformation is physical. Like the Ugly Duckling, she becomes a swan; but the inner Anne--her moral essence--remains much what it has been.....The only character who goes through any sort of essential transformation is Marilla. Anne of Green Gables is not about Anne becoming a good little girl; it is about Marilla Cuthbert becoming a good--and more complete--woman....Anne without Marilla would--admit it--be sadly one-dimensional, an overtalkative child whose precocious cuteness might very easily pall. Marilla adds the saving touch of lemon juice....At the beginning of the book, Marilla is all-powerful, but by the end, the structure has been reversed, and Anne has much more to offer Marilla than the other way around.

from her essay collection Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood, 2021

November Wrap-Up, Part 2


121. As You Like It, William Shakespeare (1599)
Type: drama

This was fun, but the joke (girl disguised as guy then acts as a girl) wasn't enough for me to adore it. I am glad I finally read and watched it, and now understand references to Rosalind and Orlando in other literature.


122. Second Words: Selected Critical Prose, Margaret Atwood (1982)
Type: nonfiction: essays, book & poetry reviews and lectures

I read about half of the selections of essays, book reviews, lectures. Some are SO funny, particularly when talking about Canadian vs. American identity and gender, and when reflecting on what it means to be a "woman writer" during the 1970s Women's Movement era. Most memorable: "Travels Back"; "What's So Funny? Notes on Canadian Humour"; "On Being a Woman Writer: Paradoxes and Dilemmas"; "The Curse of Eve--Or, What I learned in School"; "Canadian-American Relations: Surviving the Eighties"; "Northrop Frye Observed"; and "Writing the Male Character." An interesting and revealing look back at the issues faced by young women writers in the 1960s and 1970s.


123. Sad Cypress, Agatha Christie (1940)
Type: mystery

The book opens in a courtroom where a young woman is accused of poisoning a love rival. Poirot is called in to prove her innocence. I enjoyed this one. It has a lot of standard mystery elements: inheritance, murder, a big house, courtroom scenes, and love stories. I thought Christie did a great job with the female characters and probing the mindsets of the possible suspects. Poirot, of course, "solves" the case, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't explain whether the real murderer is ever caught OR who finally will get the inheritance. Of course, maybe I missed it. At any rate, I felt it wasn't completely resolved.


124. Heat Lightning, Helen Hull (1932)
Type: fiction

Author and Columbia University writing professor Helen Hull (1888-1971) was once a well-known American novelist and her sixth novel Heat Lightning was a Book-of-the-Month Club Selection for April 1932. Persephone Books re-printed the novel in 2013. In the summer of 1930, in the midst of the Depression, Amy Norton comes home for a week’s visit to her parents' home in small-town Michigan, essentially to re-assess her marriage and her life. This is a slow-moving book, and over the course of a steamy August week everything happens and nothing happens.

This book didn't grab me. It felt a bit like Dorothy Canfield Fisher's The Home-maker (which I read earlier this year), but without the humor and Fisher's lighter touch. Amy's observations of her complex family (siblings, aunts, cousins, and grandmother "Madam" Westover) felt detached and distant, and with little empathy or understanding. The many characters were hard to keep straight, even with a detailed "Principal Characters" list at the beginning. As I got farther into the book, I realized that the individual characters fly in and out, so that we don't really get to know them or felt invested in their outcomes. This was a disappointing read for me; I normally like slow-moving books that concentrate on family dynamics, but this one left me unmoved.


125. Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing, Gene Lees (1990)
Type: biography

Canadian author and journalist Gene Lees was a friend of Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, so this is not a particularly objective biography. Published in 1990, this book covers the first 65 years of Oscar Peterson's life, from his birth in Montreal in 1925 up until the 1990 publishing date. (Peterson died in 2007). Overall, this was a so-so biography--it had a lot of name-dropping, went off on tangents, and switched abruptly from topic to topic.

However, there were two areas that I think Lees did well. One was the historical background of blacks in Montreal, particularly for Peterson's parents and at the time of Peterson's birth (1925). Lees also explores the racism that Peterson encountered throughout his life and his own quiet way of dealing with it. The other aspect of Peterson's life that Lees does well is to describe (and defend) Peterson's musical style within jazz. Although a popular artist, critics were mixed on his style and Lees takes great pains to point out Peterson's great talents and unique contributions to jazz. This is probably not the definitive biography to pick up, but there are some insights on Montreal and Peterson's style that make the book a worthwhile read.

So it's December and I have a huge Pile of Possibilities to finish out the year.

Finished:
✔ David Copperfield (1850) on audiobook, read by Simon Vance
✔The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even: Stories, Alexander McCall Smith (2023)
✔ A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (1843), on audiobook, a re-read
✔ The Moorland Cottage, Gaskell (1850)
✔ Christmas at Thrush Green, Miss Read with Jenny Dereham (2009), to completes my reading of Miss Read's books
✔ The Professor's House, Willa Cather (1925)
✔ Praying with Jane Eyre, Vanessa Zoltan (2023), nonfiction

Currently reading:
Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853), on audiobook, a re-read
✔ Selected Stories, E. M. Forster
Willa Cather: 24 Stories, Willa Cather
✔ Aspects of the Novel (1927) and
Two Cheers for Democracy (1951), nonfiction by E. M. Forster, which I will dip in & out
✔ Vittoria Cottage, D. E. Stevenson (1949)

The Maybe Pile
In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden (1969)
Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy (1874), a re-read
✔ Welcome Strangers, Mary Hocking (1986)
The Village, Marghanita Laski (1952)
The Book of Daniel, E. L. Doctorow (1971)
A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest J. Gaines (1983)
The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin (2021)
Esther Waters, George Moore (1894)
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute (1950)
Death and the King's Horseman, Wole Soyinka (1975); (play)
Orwell's Roses, Rebecca Solnit (2021), nonfiction reflection on Orwell as passionate gardener and his works
✔ Ralph the Heir, Trollope (1871)

I expect I'll read my usual 10 or 12 books, so this is all wishful thinking.

I've been using this thread primarily to track my reading by year since 2019. So that is 5 years' worth of reading by year. You can view this in >3 kac522: through >17 kac522:.

I've done a pretty good job beginning with 1840, but I'm still missing 18 years (10%) between 1840 and 2023 (over 180 years!). I've decided to make a list of these years and see what's on my shelf, either to be read OR something I've been meaning to re-read, that would fit into these missing years. So here's the list:

19th Century
*1842 American Notes, Charles Dickens
1842 Dead Souls or The Overcoat, N Gogol
✔ 1854 Hard Times, Charles Dickens, a re-read from about 20 years ago
✔ 1869 Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope; a re-read
✔ 1875 The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope
✔ 1881 Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins
✔ 1890 How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis
✔ 1891 The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle
✔ 1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (book publication)
1894 Esther Waters, George Moore (library book I have out now--hope to read this month--Dec 2023)
*1894 Life's Little Ironies, Thomas Hardy (short stories)

20th Century
*1902 The Valley of Decision, Edith Wharton
1903 The Ambassadors, Henry James
1903 The Cherry Orchard, A. Chekhov
1913 Virginia, Ellen Glasgow, VMC
✔ 1917 Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber
*1920 The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton; a re-read, VMC
1945 The House in Clewe Street, Mary Lavin, VMC
1945 The Little Company, Eleanor Dark, VMC
1945 The Ghostly Lover, Elizabeth Hardwick, VMC
1954 A Wreath for the Enemy, Pamela Frankau, VMC
*1964 The Soul of Kindness, Elizabeth Taylor, VMC
✔ 1969 A Day of Pleasure, I B Singer

*I'm trying to read (or re-read) all of the major works of these authors, so this fits in with my other challenges.
VMC: Virago books--I collect these and have about 40 on my TBR shelves

I'm glad I've listed these out; now I will concentrate on making most of these books a priority in 2024.

December reading, Part I:



❤️126. The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even, Alexander McCall Smith (2023); short stories
Published as one volume in the U.S., these 2 short story collections were published separately in the U.K. The 5 stories of espionage all have some basis in time or place, so would be considered historical fiction. But McCall-Smith adds his own take/flight of fancy. My favorite of this group was "Nuns and Spies", based on a WWII rumor (not true) that Germany was parachuting spies dressed as nuns into England. The 4 stories of revenge are all pure stories set in current times. Each story is prefaced by a page of the author's own musings on the ethics of revenge, guilt and forgiveness, as highlighted in that particular story. I think it is these reflections that make the reading of these stories so meaningful.

I thought about these intros a lot while I was reading the stories and had to stop to discuss points with my husband. McCall Smith's writing is not complicated, and you can feel a certain empathy and compassion for most of his characters. This was a library book, but it's one I might buy to re-read.

127. Christmas at Thrush Green, Miss Read (2009); fiction
This is the last book in the Thrush Green series and now I have read all of Miss Read's books. This last installment starts at the beginning of December and ends with the ringing in of the New Year. Nearly all of the characters from the previous books are featured or at least mentioned. The main stories include preparing for the annual Nativity play, some unfriendly new residents and Ella Bembridge's increasing blindness.

This book was first published in 2009, more than 12 years after the last Thrush Green book. A note at the beginning of the volume explains that the book was conceived by Miss Read, but written by her long-time editor, Jenny Dereham. I missed some of the longer nature and weather passages that are such a trademark of Miss Read, but overall the writing was very much in her style. In fact, by her last years of life Miss Read was nearly completely blind (like the fictional Ella Bembridge), which makes the storylines even more poignant. A rather wistful way to end my reading with Miss Read.

❤️128. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (1850), re-read on audiobook read by Simon Vance; Root from 2019; fiction
A comforting re-read for me. This time I wasn't quite so annoyed with Dora and I was a bit annoyed at how flat a character Agnes is. But I love the development of Aunt Betsey Trotwood and the overall positivity of the novel.

❤️129. The Moorland Cottage, Elizabeth Gaskell (1850); re-read from 2020; Root from 2021; fiction
I had enjoyed this novella on the first read, but couldn't quite remember the details. It's about Maggie Browne, who lives with her mother and older brother Edward. Their mother adores Edward and ignores Maggie, although she doesn't complain. Edward is a bit of a bully, but Maggie still admires her brother. When Maggie starts to visit their wealthy neighbors the Buxtons, she finds in the invalid Mrs Buxton and her dashing son Frank two kindred spirits. Eventually Edward goes away to school, but on his return finds relationships have changed.

I really loved Gaskell's writing and her affection for the characters in this short novella. Maggie was a little *too* good, but in such a short work it wasn't a distraction. I thought the ending perhaps a little unbelievable, but not completely incredible. Some people have suggested that the premise of this book was used later by George Eliot in her novel The Mill on the Floss (1860), which I read last year. Gaskell's novella has a very different tone and outcome to Eliot's novel, and I think I liked Gaskell's short work better.

130. Praying with Jane Eyre, Vanessa Zoltan (2023); nonfiction
Disappointing. I think my expectations were so different from what the book actually is. This is mostly a memoir, while I was looking for more of an in-depth, spiritual approach to literary texts. Zoltan spends a large amount of the book describing her difficult family relationships (all 4 of her grandparents were Holocaust survivors), finding a career that she loves, her love life and her struggles with depression.

Much of the book is about how various passages in Jane Eyre gave her some insights with her life challenges. She calls her chapters "sermons", but they didn't feel like sermons to me. Generally, good sermons take a biblical text and expound on it in a general enough way so that an audience/congregation can apply the values and lessons into their own lives. Each of the chapters centers around a text in Jane Eyre, but the "sermon" felt too personal and too wrapped up in Zoltan's own life for me to find any application to my own.

131. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (1843); re-read on audiobook, read by Jim Dale; fiction
An annual re-read: absolutely brilliant voices by Jim Dale made the story come alive and brought out details I missed in my reading of the story.

December reading, Part II:



132. The Professor's House, Willa Cather (1925); fiction
I'm not sure how I feel about this novel. There's beautiful writing, but I am unclear what Cather was trying to get across. There's not much action, just small events among family members, with a story in the middle about the Southwest. There is disdain for materialism, and yet the most materialistic guy in the book is the most generous. There is uncertainty about family and family relationships. I probably need to read it again to get a better handle on it.

133. Vittoria Cottage, D. E. Stevenson (1949); fiction
It's post WWII (1948?) Britain. Caroline is a widow with 3 children, living in a small village and navigating her way through coupon books, petrol rations, and re-working old frocks into new ones. Into her life wanders Robert, whose time during the war seems to be a mystery. Her sister Harriet comes to stay after difficult years in London; her son James comes home after military service; and her daughter is navigating a relationship with the squire's son. Not much happens, but we do feel the effects of limited access to food, fuel and goods; new rules with National healthcare and overall changes in the social order are upending village life. I do have problems with how Stevenson seems to anoint characters with selfish, bad attitudes that seem destined by DNA. For Stevenson, one's character and personality are determined at birth--there never seems to be any growth, change or nuance in the "bad" characters. Other than this quibble, the story is simple and the care and concern of Caroline for those around her is comforting.

134. Selected Stories, E. M. Forster (1904-1920); short stories
All of the 12 stories in this collection, ranging from 1904 to 1920, have some sort of magical or mythical element. I read most of these and skimmed a couple. I can't say that any were particularly memorable to me except "Co-ordination", which involves Beethoven and Napoleon are looking down (from heaven?) on Miss Haddon's school girls who are learning to play a piano transcription of "Eroica" and study Napoleon.

As someone else said about Forster, there's a lot between the lines. I'm finding that so true in his fiction, and I can't always decipher what's between the lines. In his nonfiction I have an easier time understanding his meanings, as in the next book.

❤️135. Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster (1927); nonfiction; literary analysis
These 1927 lectures were presented in an entertaining, chatty style and cover story, plot, people, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm. Forster uses real examples to illustrate his concepts, including discussions of Austen, Dickens, George Eliot, Dostoevsky, Proust, Henry James and many others. He made me think about the diverse elements in a novel in a new way. He has a long section on Jane Austen's characters, which made me think about how people really identify with them. One of my best nonfiction reads this year.

136. Welcome Strangers, Mary Hocking (1986); fiction
This is the last book in her Fairley family trilogy and follows the family and their friends as they navigate post-WWII Britain. I enjoyed this last book quite a bit; our main character Alice, working in a government office, is more front & center, and it seems to end with a more positive feel. We touch on Alice's married sisters Louise and Claire; on her mother's re-marriage; on some of her friends; but the story always comes back to Alice and her good friend Ben. Overall, I enjoyed this series; I think the first and third books of the trilogy are stronger than the middle book.

137. Ralph the Heir, Anthony Trollope (1870); fiction
This is the story of two cousins named Ralph Newton. One Ralph is the heir (by entail) to the family estate and is a charming ne'er-do-well with many debts. His cousin Ralph is the illegitimate only son of Gregory Newton, the current squire of the estate. This second Ralph (not the heir) is hard-working and responsible, and currently helps manage the estate that he can never inherit. But in a way, these Ralphs are only the side stories; the real story is about Sir Thomas Underwood, the guardian of Ralph the heir, and father of Patience and Clarissa and uncle of Mary. Sir Thomas must come to terms with his purpose in life and his responsibility to his family. He decides to run for Parliament and this storyline is brilliantly done by Trollope, as it is based on his own election experience. The love stories, however, fall far short of Trollope's best and the Neefit plot could have been eliminated altogether for me. There are no interesting females here and Trollope seems to even dismiss poor Patience.

When I finished the novel, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it--most of it was brilliant, but some parts were just overlong. I then read John Sutherland's introduction, which pointed out similarities between the characters and Trollope's own life, and I wish I had known some of this before reading (without the spoilers!). This novel is very long (700 pages), but I intend one day to give it a second chance, and read with a different set of eyes.

Some end-of-year stats for 2023:

Total books read: 137 -- most books ever--averaging 11 books per month.

"Roots" read: 79 (58%)
Bought & read in 2023: 11 (8%)
Library books: 47 (34%)

Re-reads: 34
Translated: 5

Books by a male author: 58 (42%)
Books by a female author: 74 (54%)
Books with several authors: 5 (3%)

Fiction: 95 (69%)
Non-fiction: 34 (25%)
Other: 2 plays; 2 graphic; 1 poetry; 1 mixed fiction/nonfiction (6%)

Breakdown by years published:

before 1800: 3 (2%)
19th century: 43 (31%)
20th century: 61 (45%)
21st century: 30 (22%)
I'm clearly stuck in the past with my reading!

Favorite Reads of 2023

In no particular order....

Favorite Fiction
The Forest of Wool and Steel, Natsu Miyashita
Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks
All Passion Spent, Vita Sackville-West
The Girls, Edna Ferber
Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell
A Child of the Jago, Arthur Morrison
*Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
*The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
*Washington Square, Henry James

*These last 3 are all classic works that I should have read years ago, but I was positive I wouldn't like them...and I was SO wrong. It pays (once in a while) to read stuff you think you won't like.

Favorite Nonfiction
The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green--essays that made me think in new ways about random stuff
Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days that Changed her Life, Lucy Worsley--an entertaining walk through the life of the Queen
Secret Harvests, David Mas Masumoto--a memoir about secrets, separation and a family farm
Unearthing the Secret Garden, Maria McDowell--the life and gardens behind the classic children's book The Secret Garden
My Life in Middlemarch, Rebecca Mead--a memoir interweaving the author's life and George Eliot's masterpiece
Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster--classic lectures from 1927 given at Cambridge; entertaining and thought-provoking

Favorite Re-reads
The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West
A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr
The Last Chronicle of Barset, Anthony Trollope, on audiobook
Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens, on audiobook
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, on audiobook

JANUARY 2024

1. 1970 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
2. 2018 Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce
3. 2015 Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. 1934 A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes
5. 2020 The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
6. 1855 North and South (Norton Critical Edition), Elizabeth Gaskell
7. 1858 "The Manchester Marriage" (1858) by Elizabeth Gaskell and "Mr Harrison's Confessions"
8. 1891 The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle
9. 1997 Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy, Theodore Jones

FEBRUARY 2024

10. 1941 Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie
11. 2023 Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor
12. 1853 Bleak House, Charles Dickens
13. 1867 Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope
14. 1958 The Blush and Other Stories (this VMC edition 1987)
15. 1904 "John Bull's Other Island", George Bernard Shaw
16. 1854 Hard Times, Charles Dickens
17. 2022 Home/Land: A Memoir of Departure and Return, Rebecca Mead
18. 1883 Treasure Island, R L Stevenson
19. 1871 Lady Susan, Austen
20. 1914 "Pygmalion" from George Bernard Shaw's Plays: Norton, Shaw
21. 1955 Shaw on Music, G B Shaw
22. 1957 Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
23. 1976 The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele

MARCH 2024

24. 2011 The Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (orig written 1938)
25. 1973 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff
26. 1938 My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates
27. 1814 Waverley, Sir Walter Scott
28. 1985 Q's Legacy, Helene Hanff
29. 2023 Funny Things: A comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi
30. 1722 A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe
31. 1955 The Quiet American, Graham Greene
32. 1857 Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
33. 1941 N or M?, Agatha Christie

APRIL 2024

34. 1875 The Way We Live Now, Trollope
35. 2002 John Adams, David McCullough
36. 1881 Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins
37. 1977 Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym
38. ca. 432 B.C.E. "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles
39. 1927 Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple
40. 1857 The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins
41. 1890 How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis

MAY 2024

42. 2018 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, Frederick & Mehta
43. 1950 Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson
44. 1937 They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell
45. 1813 Pride and Prejudice, Austen, audiobook
46. 2000 Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland
47. 2024 The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith
48. 1883 The Silverado Squatters, R. L. Stevenson
49. 1930 High Wages, Dorothy Whipple
50. 1942 The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie
51. 1880 Washington Square, Henry James
52. 1951 Winter and Rough Weather, D. E. Stevenson
53. 1934 Roman Fever, Edith Wharton; 8 short stories from 1899-1934
54. 1968 Picture Miss Seeton, H Carvic
55. 1859 A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens

JUNE 2024

56. 1925 Greenery Street, Denis Mackail
57. 2013 Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis
58. 1969 A Day of Pleasure, Isaac Bashevis Singer
59. 1911 The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
60. 1914 The Prussian Officer and other stories, D. H. Lawrence
61. 1942 Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie

JULY 2024
62. 1937 Celia, E. H. Young
63. 1953 Five Windows, D. E. Stevenson
64. 2006 Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young, Briganti & Mezei
65. 2023 Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson
66. 1811 Sense and Sensibility, Austen
67. 2023 Burning Questions, Atwood
68. 1869 Little Women: An Annotated Edition, Alcott
69. 1941 Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane
70. 2014 Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud

AUGUST 2024
71. 1932 Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple
72. 1971 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor
73. 2021 The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin
74. 1944 Towards Zero, Agatha Christie
75. 1865 Our Mutual Friend, Dickens
76. 1863 Sylvia's Lovers, Gaskell
77. 2018 The Feather Thief, K. W. Johnson
78. 1924 The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor
79. 2011 The Cross of Redemption, James Baldwin

SEPTMEBER 2024
80. 1998 Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918
81. 2016 The Little Virtues: Essays, Natalia Ginzburg
82. 1951 The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
83. 1926 My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather
84. 1876 A Bad Business: Essential Stories, F Dostoevsky (stories from 1862-76)
85. 1984 Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner
86. 1855 A Month in the Country, Ivan Turgenev
87. 1989 A Particular Place, Mary Hocking
88. 1865 Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope
89. 1996 Great Short Stories by American Women, Candace Ward, editor
90. 1911 Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
91. 1789 The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe
92. 1973 By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, B K Schneiderman
93. 1997 The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, ed Doody & Barry
94. 1982 At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald
95. 2023 Wednesday's Child: Stories, Yiyun Li

OCTOBER 2024
96. 2011 Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston
97. 1854 The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge
98. 1879 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson
99. 1869 Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope
100. 1870 Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins
101. 1879 An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope
102. 1859 My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (Round the Sofa), Elizabeth Gaskell
103. 1887 "A Study in Scarlet" from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, A C Doyle
104. 1886 & 1890 The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant
105. 1931 Father, Elizabeth von Arnim

NOVEMBER 2024
106. 1917 Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber
107. 1932 Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield
108. 1892 "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, A C Doyle
109. 1600 The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare
110. 1972 All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot
111. 1961 The Spinoza of Market Street, I. B. Singer
112. 1932 The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield

DECEMBER 2024
113. 1909 Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery
114. 2024 Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing
115. 1957 A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair
116. 1921 The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups; A. A. Milne
117. 2024 On Freedom, Timothy Snyder
118. 1945 Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie
119. 1882 Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories, Anthony Trollope (collection published 2014; stories range from 1866-1882)
120. 1872 The Eustace Diamonds, Trollope
121. 1909 A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter

Books Acquired and donated in 2024

I've never kept a detailed list of my acquired books, and thought it would be a good idea this year. On this list are books acquired from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024. It will NOT include:
--digital works: ebooks and audiobooks
--new copies to replace books I already own (i.e., better copies, better notes or illustrations, etc.). I may make a separate list of these at the end, just to get a sense of the total.

📚 Acquired:
January
DONATED; did not read 1. ALL IS GRACE: A Biography of Dorothy Day, Jim Forest.
DONATED; read library copy 2. The Silverado Squatters, R. L. Stevenson; drawings by Kay Atwood; published privately for the Silvarado Museum
READ 3. Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918, multiple poets (1998)
4. Mrs McGinty's Dead, Agatha Christie (1951)

February
📚B&N online:
5. David Copperfield; Collector's Library edition
6. North and South; Collector's Library edition
Little Dorrit, OUP, replaces older edition
📚Powell's:
📖7. It All Adds Up, Saul Bellow (2018 edition); essays
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens; replaces Norton Critical edition
📚Seminary Co-op:
READ 8. Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins
📖9. A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, George Saunders, literary criticism
10. The Cambridge Companion to Anthony Trollope, edited Dever and Niles; literary criticism
📚Palatine Library sale:
DONATED, did not read 11. Uncle Silas, J. S. LeFanu
READ 12. The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele
📚Books Down Under--Wilmette Public Library:
Great Expectations, Dickens--replaces Norton Critical Edition
Diary of a Provincial Lady, E. M. Delafield--replaces older Academy Chicago edition
READ 13. The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield; replaces library copy
📖14. The Card, Arnold Bennett
READ 15. The Sunny Side, A. A. Milne
📚Gift from Jerry:
READ 16. Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood
📚This Old Book:
Treasure Island, R L Stevenson--replaces Dover Edition
📚Highland Park Library
📖17. The Best of Robert Service, Robert Service; poetry
📖18. Selected Essays, Poems and Other Writings, George Eliot
📖19. The Double, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

March
📚Glencoe Public Library
📖20. The Golden Bowl, Henry James--replaces Penguin movie tie-in edition
📚Highland Park and Deerfield Libraries
📖21. Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr
DONATED, did not read 22. Turtles all the Way Down, John Green
📖23. Cross Channel, Julian Barnes, stories

April
📚AHML
📖24. Founding Brothers, Joseph Ellis
Half Price Books
25. Harlequin Tea Set, Christie
26. Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster
📚Deerfield Library
DONATED, did not read 27. Lessons in Chemistry, Garmus
📚This Old Book
28. Lady Audley's Secret, Braddon
📖29. Children of the New Forest, Marryat

May
📚Half Price Books, Niles
30. The Light Years, Howard
READ 31. The Moving Finger, Christie
📚This Old Book
📖32. Offshore, P Fitzgerald
📖33. Innocence, P Fitzgerald
📖34. Human Voices, P Fitzgerald

June
Added Revolutionary Summer audiobook; purchased 2023?
📚Books Down Under
35. The Portable Henry James
📚The Understudy Cafe
36. Playgoing in Shakespeare's London (JMP)
📚Half Price books
📖37. Marking Time, Elizabeth Jane Howard
📚Seminary Co-op
📖38. Troy Chimneys, Margaret Kennedy
📖39. The Offing, Benjamin Myers
Replacements:
Hard Times
Framley Parsonage
The Last Chronicle of Barset
Can You Forgive Her?
📚 Powell's Hyde Park
📖40. Loving, Henry Green
📖41. So Long, See you Tomorrow, Wm Maxwell
📚Arlington Hts Library store
READ 42. Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, Holden
📚Various
43. & 44. JMP

July
📚Half Price Books--Vernon Hills
45. The Secret Garden, Burnett
46. Little Women, Alcott
📚Little Free Library, Sawyer & Balmoral
📖47. Anne of Ingleside, L. M. Montgomery
📚City News Cafe
48. The Last Slave Ship (JMP)
📚Deerfield Public Library
📖49. Faster, Faster, E. M. Delafield
📚Highland Park Public Library
📖50. Eugene Onegin, Pushkin

August
📚Arlington Hts Library
📖51. The World's 50 Best Short Novels
📖52. Viktor E. Frankl: Life With Meaning, William Blair Gould
📚Half-Price Books
Five Plays, Anton Chekhov, Oxford--replaces 2013 Signet Classics
📖53. Red Pottage, Mary Cholmondeley--VMC
📚Half-Price Books
📖54. Destination Unknown, Agatha Christie

September
📚Half Price Books, Niles
READ 55. Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (2010)
📚Half Price Books, Vernon Hills
56. Dead Man's Folly, Agatha Christie (1956)
📚Blackwell's
Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym, replaces Perennial edition
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym, replaces Perennial edition
Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (VMC) replaces paperback
📚WOB website
READ 57. My Lady Ludlow and other stories, Elizabeth Gaskell, OUP edition
📖58. The Moorland Cottage and other stories, Elizabeth Gaskell, OUP edition
📚Lake Forest Library book sale
No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym, replaces Perennial edition
📖59. In the Steps of Jane Austen, Anne-Marie Edwards
READ 60. A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair
📖61. Rhododendron Pie, Margery Sharp
📖62. The Tobacconist, Robert Seethaler
📖63. The American, Henry James
📚Gail Borden Library, Elgin, book sale
64. Blues for Mister Charlie, James Baldwin, JMP
65. Mother Jones: The Miners' Angel, Dale Fetherling, JMP
📚Seminary Coop
📖66. Wessex Tales, Thomas Hardy
The Small House at Allington, Trollope, replacement
67.-70. JMP

October
📚Glenview Library bookstore
📖71. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James McBride
📖72. Nothing Venture, Patricia Wentworth
📚Half Price Books, Vernon Hills
73. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather, VMC edition
📖74. The Genius of Jane Austen, Paula Byrne
📖75. The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, Enid Blyton
📚NEIU Library sale
📖76. North Woods, Daniel Mason
📚 Plot Twist Used Books, Lawrence & Austin, Chicago
📖77. The Echoing Grove, Rosamund Lehmann

November
📚Middles Used Books, 1630 Orrington, Evanston
📖78. The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy
📖79. Green for Danger, Christianna Brand
📚Barnes & Noble, Village Crossing
READ 80. The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare
📖81. Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, Barbara Comyns
📚AHML
📖82. The Bookbinder, Pip Williams
📚Glenview Public Library
📖83. The Bachelors, Muriel Spark
📚Half Price Books, Vernon Hills
📖84. Remembered Death, A. Christie
📚Irish American Heritage Center, Chicago
📖85. Tales from Bective Bridge, Mary Lavin
📖86. Time after Time, Molly Keane

Sept--Books Down Under
87. Arrest the Bishop?, Winifred Peck
88. O, the Brave Music, Dorothy Evelyn Smith

December
📚worldofbooks.com
All Creatures G&S--replacement
89. All Creatures book 2
90. All Creatures book 3
91. All Creatures book 4

📚Donated
January = 7
February = 5; and 5 replacements
March = 3
April = 0
May = about 52; includes 1 tossed (Guns of August)
June = 9
July =11
August = 10
September = 12
October = 21 Oct 5
November = 11 (2 JMP)
December

January Reading Plans/Possibilities



This month I'm leading my RL book club in a discussion of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (1855), so this will be my prime focus for the month. I've read this novel several times and it is one of my all-time favorites. I recently acquired the Norton Critical Edition, so I hope I'm prepared for our meeting on the 25th.

On New Year's Day I indulged in a re-read of 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (1970), which always inspires me.

Currently reading:
--Bleak House, Charles Dickens, (1853) on audiobook
--Index, a history of the, Dennis Duncan (2021)--nonfiction about The Index

Other possibilities for January include:
✔84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff (1970); a re-read
✔Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce (2018) for RandomKIT
--The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle (1891) for British Author Challenge (BAC)
✔Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015), for the 75ers Nonfiction Challenge
--Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971), a re-read, a Virago title
✔A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (1934), a Persephone title and one of the newest on my TBR
--The Chisellers, Brendan O'Carroll (1995), one of the oldest books on my TBR
--Short Selections from Mark Twain for the American Author Challenge (AAC)

and these library books:
--Orwell's Roses, Rebecca Solnit (2021)--George Orwell, his gardens and his writing
--Home/Land, Rebecca Mead (2022)--memoir
--Esther Waters, George Moore (1894)--classic portrayal of lower class life in Victorian London
--Index, a history of the, Dennis Duncan (2021)--nonfiction about The Index

Happy Reading in 2024, Kathy! ☺️

>97 Sergeirocks: Thanks! and to you!

>96 kac522: Hello and happy 2024 to you. Looking forward to your insights and reading this year.

>99 threadnsong: Thanks for visiting! A good reading year to you, too.

Time to think about February reading. Of course I have many more books than I can possibly read in the shortest month of the year (21 titles in 29 days--yeah, sure!), but here goes:

Currently Reading:
✔Bleak House, Charles Dickens, on audiobook
Completed in January: Carnegie Libraries Across America, Theodore Jones
✔Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor
✔Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie
The Blush, Elizabeth Taylor--short stories
Telling Tales -- short stories

Other library books:
Esther Waters, George Moore

From my shelf--listed in order, from most likely to read, to least likely:

Hard Times, Charles Dickens--audiobook once I finish Bleak House
Treasure Island, R L Stevenson--a re-read for my RL book club
Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope--a re-read for Liz's Trollope Group read
Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor--a re-read
George Bernard Shaw's Plays--will choose one or two to read for Monthly Author Read
Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson
If Not Now, When?, Primo Levi
Celia, E. H. Young
Waverley, Walter Scott; delaying until March
No Name, Wilkie Collins
Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Edwardians, Vita Sackville-West
At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald

I might take a Long book/Short book approach, where I alternate between long and short books, which may put some of the less likely books towards the top. We shall see.

January Reading Recap:



1. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff (1970); memoir; re-read
This was a re-read of the short but wonderful letters from TV script-writer Hanff to a London bookseller in the 1950s & 1960s. It was a great way to start out the new year.

2. Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce (2018); historical fiction

It's 1940 London and Miss Lake lands a job at a women's magazine working for Mrs Bird, the over-bearing advice columnist. Our Miss Lake also volunteers at the local Fire Service, manning the phones during bombing raids. Between the two jobs, she manages to upset her employer and her friends by trying too hard to do the Right Thing.

The book had some funny lines, but at first seemed too light for a story about the Blitz. It eventually took a more serious turn, focusing on the complications of friendship and loss and carrying on in adversity. I wanted to love this, but compared to other novels I've read about the Blitz, it seemed almost frivolous. But I can understand how it is an entertaining and comforting read for many.

3. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015); essay/memoir

Coates has a powerful voice here and gives an idea what it is like to live in his skin. But it felt repetitive to me. I wish it had been more broken up into separate essays instead of a very long letter to his son. It is truthful but also devastating. It didn't give me much hope.

4. A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (1934); memoir; from my Persephone collection

This is the first volume in a memoir trilogy by Molly Hughes. Born in 1866, this first book covers Molly's memories from about age 4 until about age 12. The youngest of 5, Molly was the only daughter and adored her 4 big brothers. We hear of their games, their studies, their plays, their scrapes, vacations in Cornwall and much more. I'm amazed at her fantastic recall of so many details of her life.

This was totally enjoyable and I hope I can find the next book in the trilogy.

5. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (2020); mystery

I've heard so many raves of this series and I wanted to love it, but it didn't work for me. Set in a retirement home, it had too many characters and felt too long. I think it will make a great TV mini-series, as it was written with 95% dialogue/voice-over and in short scenes. So I'll wait until it gets adapted by the BBC (or wherever) and enjoy the characters on the screen.

6. North and South (Norton Critical Edition), Elizabeth Gaskell (1855); re-read

This was my fourth re-read of this beloved 19th century novel about industrialization and change in the North of England. Margaret Hale, from a small village in the south of England, moves to Milton-Northern (based on Manchester) and learns to confront her own prejudices and pre-conceived notions. The novel touches on differences of region, religion, class, education and owners vs. workers, with a great love story weaving through it all.

On this reading I noticed how many times an ethical decision by a character marks a movement of the plot. I read the Norton Critical Edition, which has additional material including letters to & from Gaskell and contemporary criticism. One of my favorite novels of all time, and only gets better on each reading.

7. Two stories: "The Manchester Marriage" from Right At Last and other tales (1858) and "Mr Harrison's Confessions" from The Cranford Chronicles (1851), by Elizabeth Gaskell; fiction

"The Manchester Marriage" (1858) concerns Mrs. Frank Wilson, a shy young widow who is "wooed" by Mr Openshaw, a stiff Manchester business man. His romantic proposal (from behind a newspaper): "Mrs Frank, is there any reason why we two should not put up our horses together?" She eventually accepts. This story starts out rather humorously, but when the couple move to London, darker events occur, where Mr Openshaw's full character and good heart are revealed.

"Mr Harrison's Confessions" (1851) is a longer story (about 80 pages) and concerns a new young doctor in town. As he settles in, it becomes apparent that 3 slightly older women believe he has feelings for them, while Mr Harrison only has eyes for the vicar's daughter. The confusion is funny, but the story takes a more serious turn when the doctor faces real medical emergencies.

These were delightful and moving, and show Gaskell's knack for effortlessly interweaving humor and sadness into her stories.

8. The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle (1891); historical fiction

This is and early piece of historical fiction by Arthur Conan Doyle set in 1366-67 during the Hundred Years' War. Alleyne Edricson is an orphan and has been raised in a Hampshire abbey. Under his father's will, the abbey received money and land as long as Alleyne was kept at the abbey until his 20th year. At that time his father's will specified that Alleyne must spend at least one year "in the world" and then may decide if he wishes to remain in the world or return to the abbey.

Alleyne ventures out and is eventually drawn into the ranks of The White Company, led by Sir Nigel Loring, to re-capture the throne of Spain at the Battle of Najera. These last are all real events and The White Company and Sir Loring are real characters in the war whose history fascinated Doyle. Our young Alleyne (a fictional character) shows his mettle and by the end of the book joins the ranks of the knights.

This started out well, but I must admit all the adventures, fights and capers just got repetitive. We don't get the decisive battle until the last 30 pages of the book. I did enjoy the writing and the characterizations, but it was just over-long for me, and I ended up skimming some of the middle chapters. My edition from 1965 has some wonderful water-color illustrations by N. C. Wyeth, though:



9. Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy, Theodore Jones (1997); nonfiction

This was a good overview of Andrew Carnegie's project to fund over 1600 libraries in (mostly) small-town America. The book covers how it evolved, how towns applied for grants, the stipulations by Carnegie and how the libraries were implemented. For every library there is a unique story. Interestingly, there appear to have been quite a number of architectural styles and floor plans. The book also has a list of all the libraries and their status as of the book's writing (1996). A significant number were still used as libraries, although many have been re-purposed or razed. Lots of archival photos of the buildings from all over the U.S. makes it an interesting read.

February Reading Recap: Part I

Hard to believe, but I finished 14 books in February, although 6 were re-reads. So better get started....



10. Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie (1941); mystery
A holiday setting on the sea, with an off-shore island. Great characters as always and Poirot is in from the beginning. I was able to follow his solution and it seemed to make sense from what we are told.

11. Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor (2023); biography
This is a loving, short biography of Willa Cather. Taylor weaves important events in Cather's life with summaries, extracts and analyses of her works as reflections of her life experiences. Bringing the woman and the writer together are quotes from Cather's letters, only recently available to scholars.

At only 180 pages, this is not a mammoth, all-inclusive tome, but rather a gentle and comforting introduction to her work, her loves and her character. If you're new to Cather, this is a wonderful place to start. If you know and love Cather, this is a real delight to read, like a visit with an old, beloved friend. My only disappoint was that there wasn't a chronology of important dates and works, but that is a minor flaw.

12. Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853); fiction; re-read on audiobook

Dickens' long and scathing tale of the decades-old law case Jarndyce & Jarndyce, and how the legal system can leave families in ruin. The way things are working in our legal system today, I'm not sure all that much has changed. It's also about class, illegitimacy, forgiveness and so much more. I do love Mr Jarndyce. I can't say I had many new revelations on this reading, although I still loved it all the way through. I did not get bored with any section or side-plot (maybe only the droning of Mr Vholes). Because I'm currently re-reading Dickens in publication order, I noticed this time that at the end of David Copperfield, Traddles has a long monologue on the absurdities of the law, foreshadowing Dickens' next book, Bleak House. And near the end of Bleak House, Mr George goes to the Iron Country to visit his brother and we get a long description of the industrial north, foreshadowing Hard Times.

13. Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope (1867); fiction; a re-read

Set in Prague, this is the love story of Nina Balatka, a Catholic and Anton Trendellsohn, a Jew, and their struggles with family and society because of their different faiths. Published anonymously, along with his next novel Linda Tressel, Trollope provides some detailed descriptions of Prague, which he had visited. The writing style is simple, and the characters are typical Trollope, showing sympathy for both of the lovers.

Before this re-read I had remembered the descriptions of Prague, but was vague on the story. I had particularly forgotten the friendship with Rebecca, a Jewish admirer of Anton's and the very dramatic ending. I found Rebecca's selflessness a bit hard to believe, but otherwise the story felt true. In particular, Trollope's passages inside of Nina's head were well done and more extensive than I remembered.

14. The Blush and Other Stories, Elizabeth Taylor (1958); short stories

Short story collections can be hit or miss for me. This collection has one gem after another. As Paul Bailey notes in the Introduction, Elizabeth Taylor's writing has an "effortlessness" that is truly remarkable--you are never aware of how concisely yet easily her stories unfold. I think my favorites were "The Ambush", "The Letter-Writers", "You'll Enjoy it When you Get There" and "The Blush." There was only one story that I didn't enjoy, but the writing was still exquisite.

15. John Bull's Other Island, George Bernard Shaw (1904); play

An Englishman and his Irish engineering partner leave London to visit the home town of the Irishman. Although the plot on the surface is about the engineering firm developing land in Ireland, it's really a discussion of the English and Irish. Shaw manages to satirize and criticize both. The play was not well received, either by English or Irish audiences, and it was rather so-so for me.

16. Hard Times, Charles Dickens (1854); re-read on audiobook

I am still processing my re-read of this novel. Set in the industrial north of England, it is thought by some to be his greatest achievement, but to me it feels like a didactic morality fable. The characters are stereotyped (both good and bad) and spout ideas that seem to come directly from Dickens himself, instead of from the characters themselves. Mercifully, it is one of his shortest novels. I can't help comparing it to Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, published right after Hard Times, which presents rounded and thoughtful characters in the industrialized North, who don't always have the answers.

February Reading Recap: Part II



17. Home/Land: A Memoir of Departure and Return, Rebecca Mead (2022); memoir
I picked this up because I enjoyed My Life in Middlemarch, in which Mead weaves the structure and themes of George Eliot's book with her own journey. Born in London, but raised in a small sea-side English village, Mead moved to New York City after university and has had a successful career in journalism. Around 2017 she and her American husband decided to move to London. The book starts out with thoughts and memories of New York; it slowly shifts to the move, musings on being "rootless" and finally wraps up in London. I wasn't as taken with Home/Land as her previous work, however, perhaps because by the end of the book I don't think I completely understood why Mead and her family decided to move to London. I found the book compelling to read because of the writing, but felt it was untethered in purpose. It wandered about for me, feeling more like a series of loosely connected essays.

18. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883); fiction; a re-read on audiobook.
I enjoyed this classic children's adventure tale of young Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver so much more than my first reading about 10 years ago. I listened to about half on audiobook which helped and this edition & the Modern Library edition I picked up at the library had more background info, which greatly enhanced my reading. I think on my first reading I didn't always follow what was going on, but this time I did. After reading Conan Doyle's "White Company" in January, I'm impressed by how superior Stevenson's book is as an adventure tale and keeping my interest. It's also shorter, but every piece of action is leading to the eventual conclusion. Plus I think the first person narration here helps keep our interest and suspense.

19. Lady Susan, Jane Austen (1871 post.); fiction; re-read on audiobook

The delightful short epistolary novel about the scheming Lady Susan. Always a comforting re-read.

20. "Pygmalion" from George Bernard Shaw's Plays (Norton Critical Editions), George Bernard Shaw (1912); play; a re-read

I re-read Pygmalion from this Norton Critical Edition of Shaw's plays, which included the Preface and Epilogue written by Shaw. Probably Shaw's most famous play (later adapted as the musical "My Fair Lady"), it's the story of flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her encounter with speech teacher Henry Higgins. It's a play about class, language and strong vs. weak personalities. Shaw's original ending is completely different from the movie (and musical) versions. In Shaw's epilogue he makes it clear that he intends NO romance between Eliza and Higgins. In fact he imagines that Eliza marries Freddy and they set up a flower shop (financed by Colonel Pickering). Lots to think about here in its original version.

21. Shaw on Music, George Bernard Shaw (1955); essays and reviews from the 1890s to 1930s

I skimmed through these essays, stopping to read ones that I found interesting. Most of the essays date from the 1890s, but there are a scattered few up to the 1930s. Shaw adored Wagner, and Herr Richard shows up in almost every essay, either as a subject or as a comparison to shame lesser beings attempting composition. There are also many essays on opera. The most interesting essay was the beginning piece on his own upbringing and musical education. His description of Messiah being sung (badly) by a cast of thousands is memorable. Paderewski makes an appearance as someone who hammers the piano to death while the orchestra competes and just about wins. There are a few positive reviews: a performance of Mendelssohn's "Elijah"'; The Hallé orchestra of Manchester performing Symphony Fantastique by Berlioz; and a review of a concert by locals in a remote Welsh village which Shaw found charming and surprisingly good.

22. Angel, Elizabeth Taylor (1957); fiction

Loosely based on the life of the Edwardian popular novelist Marie Corelli, this novel follows the life of Angel Deverell from age 15 to her death. At age 15 Angel begins writing sentimental romantic novels set in aristocratic settings and becomes a smash hit. But Angel is selfish, self-absorbed and essentially lives in the dream world of her creations. Taylor's novel is an excellent character study, but half-way through the book I was bored with Angel, her life and the people around her. I only finished the book because of Taylor's brilliant writing style, but the people and story line did not keep me wanting more. This may have worked better as a novella, or even parts as a short story, but it went on way too long for me.

23. The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742)?, Prof. Peter Schickele (1976); musical humor or humorous music--take your pick!

The great Peter Schickele died in January 2024 and I was fortunate to snag this book at a library sale in February. I can remember hearing his bits on radio (WFMT/Midnight Special) and loved them. Prof. Schickele "discovered" this "strangest stop on the Bach family organ." Schickele presents a life history, pictures, and descriptions of some of his works ("Such a Horrid Clang"), including the "Gross Concerto"; "Pervertimento" for Bagpipes, Bicycle and Balloons; "Serenude" for devious instruments; "Schleptet"; and "Concerto for Piano Versus Orchestra", just to name a few.

So much fun here--even in the footnotes, and the Index is a stitch on its own. I read it in bits & pieces throughout the month whenever I needed a good laugh.

Coming up in March....

Currently reading:
✓Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857), a re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance

From my shelf:
✓A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (1722); my first Defoe, for a couple of challenges (medicine/epidemics)
✓Penguin book of Welsh Short Stories for the BAC
✓Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); the Monthly Author for March
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852); for the "Read for Julia" Memorial (for LTer rosalita)
✓The Quiet American, Graham Greene (1955); for my RL book club
Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); from my Persephone/Virago shelf
Mary O'Grady, Mary Lavin (1950); from my Persephone/Virago shelf and St. Patrick's Day/Irish Readathon
This is Happiness, Niall Williams (2019); set in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day/Irish Readathon

From the library:
✓Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (1973)--sequel to 84, Charing Cross Road
✓Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (2011 post.); ebook; written in the 1930s
✓My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (1938); set in Bedfordshire, England--attempting to read a book from every county in England
Esther Waters, George Moore (1894); 19th c. Irish author for St. Patrick's Day/Irish Readathon
Index, a History of the, Dennis Duncan (2022); nonfiction
The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day (1952); autobiography

and if time allows, or the whim seizes me:
✓N or M?, Agatha Christie )1941)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); re-read
The Ladies of Seneca Falls, Miriam Gurko (1976)--history of the famous Women's Rights convention in the 19th century

I finished 10 books in March and it was a pretty good reading month.

March Reading--Part I


24. The Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (2011 post.; orig written 1938); fiction

Moving along in my D. E. Stevenson reading, this is one that was originally written in 1938 but Stevenson could not get a publisher, and was first published in 2011. Basic premise is mistaken identity with a set of twins. A pleasant romp, with a few funny lines. The twin deception went on until the very last chapter, which was way too long (and somewhat unbelievable). I can see why it wasn't published at the time--perhaps a bit too frivolous as the country was heading toward war? I can see how it could have been the basis for a decent 1930s screwball comedy movie, with the right script and actors.


25. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (1973); memoir; Re-read from 2004

Following up on my January re-read of 84, Charing Cross Road, I decided to re-read the sequel. Such a fun book about London from a rapturous New Yorker's perspective. After a while all the people she meets got confusing, but the places and comments were brilliant. 50+ years on it's still a great memoir.


26. My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (1938); fiction

Set in Bedfordshire, England, these are stories told by a narrator of his colorful Uncle Silas and rural life in Bedfordshire at the turn of the century. Uncle Silas is a teller of tall tales and Bates is an author with wonderful country descriptions, understated wit and affection for his characters. A lovely little book.


27. Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); fiction

Considered to be the first full novel of historical fiction, it's set in 18th century England and Scotland, and contains a few real characters from history. Our hero, the fictional Edward Waverley, is a young Englishman without a clear purpose. Heir to his uncle's estate, Waverley-Honour, Edward enters the British army and is posted to Dundee, Scotland. While on leave he visits friends of his uncle's, where he meets men of strong Jacobite sympathies. While traveling and visiting, he is taken into custody by British officials because reports have circulated that he has deserted his company and has now aligned with the rebel Jacobites. Edward is later rescued by his new Jacobite friends and makes the decision to don the tartans and join the gathering rebellion to re-instate Prince Charles Edward (Bonnie Prince Charlie) to the throne, and the story continues from there.

This was my first full-length novel by Scott and I had a hard time following this book at first. This was Scott's first novel and his language is sometimes difficult to follow; the Scottish dialects of some characters was almost impossible for me to decipher (these bits may have worked better on audio). I didn't feel engaged with the story until Edward's capture and then the novel seemed to fly by. Scott provided long and detailed extra notes on various real-life characters and events. Scott's writing in these short explanatory texts was so much easier to read and understand than his more flowery prose in the novel. I'm glad I read it, even if it took nearly half the book before I was enjoying it. I haven't given up completely on Scott and plan to read at least one more.


28. Q's Legacy, Helene Hanff (1985); memoir

The last installment of Helene Hanff's memoir provides background on how her wonderful book 84, Charing Cross Road, changed her life. Entertaining, funny and honest. This was written before the film adaptation; I'd be curious to find out how she felt about it, as I think it does the book justice.

March Reading--Part II


29. Funny Things: A comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi (2023); graphic/comic strip biography

This very creative and enjoyable biography of Charles M Schulz of Peanuts fame is told in comic strip form -- six daily black & white "strips" followed by a "Sunday" page in color, extending over 400+ pages. It's told by an elderly Schulz looking back on his very full life.

Debus & Matteuzzi capture Schulz's range of personality: you laugh and cry with him, and maybe get a little angry and frustrated with him, too. My own quibble with the structure was that it wasn't always clear when in Schulz's life the "strips" happened. I wish there had been more markers of the years of the events--especially post WWII until the 1970s--to get a sense of Schulz's age and what's happening in the world. Otherwise, it's an amazing achievement and I think surprised me how well it told a life-story with comic strips alone.


30. A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (1722); fiction

Set during the London plague of 1665, Defoe wrote the novel as if it were a newly discovered manuscript by an observer/narrator ("H.F.") living in London at the time. Defoe did much research on the plague and includes real statistics that are reported by "H.F." in the journal. (The endnotes of this Oxford edition were invaluable and pointed out how nearly all of Defoe's narrative was true and recorded in other treatises of the day.) Overall, this was much easier to read than I was expecting from an 18th century text.

It's amazing how some things were so much like our own pandemic and yet how things were so, so different. He de-bunks quacks and crazy transmission theories, notes the economic hardships the plague created and offers lots of anecdotal stories. Brilliant observations on the attitudes of people and the "opening up too soon" factor. On the "differences" side, dead bodies were taken away and only buried during the night. Families in sick households were nailed into their homes to die, with guards to prevent them from anyone going in OR out. It was dangerous to leave a plague area and attempt to escape to an uninfected area, as travelers would be ostracized and even worse. I'm not sure I would have appreciated this novel as much if I had read it 10 years ago, but today it is eerily relevant. I'm glad I read it, but I probably will not read it again...until the next pandemic😧


31. The Quiet American, Graham Greene (1955); fiction

I hated this. Great writing, but the sexism and racism completely ruined this book for me. I only finished it because it was for my real life book group. I was definitely in the minority. The less said about this the better, but I will never read another Graham Greene novel.


32. Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857); Re-read on audiobook read by Simon Vance

Probably my second favorite novel of Dickens (after David Copperfield). The story is too long and involved to summarize here, but among other things it is about prisons: both real and self-imposed. Listening to it on audiobook (25 CDs!) was an emotional experience; some of the narration was so poignantly done. I could re-read this over and over; it never gets old for me.


33. N or M?, Agatha Christie (1941); mystery

Set during WWII, this installment in the Tommy & Tuppence mysteries takes our couple to a holiday retreat on the east coast of England, where they have assumed identities and are trying to smoke out German spies. I love Tommy & Tuppence's characters, their relationship and how they work together. Christie makes me feel like I'm part of the process to solve the crime, rather than waiting for the big reveal, as in a Poirot novel. I've been reading Christie in publication order, but I may skip ahead and finish up the T&T books, just for fun.

I have two books that I DNF'd in March:
DNF: The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories, Alun Richards, ed. (1988)
I read 6 of the 24 short stories in this collection, but none really grabbed me and I couldn't get past the first page of the rest.

DNF: Readings on Hard Times, Jill Karson, ed. (2002)
This is a collection of literary essays on Dickens' novel Hard Times. What I read of this was quite good: I read the Introduction and about half the essays that had topics of interest to me. These included George Bernard Shaw on Dickens and the Modern World; F. R. Leavis' assessment that Hard Times is Dickens' greatest novel; Malcolm Pittock, essentially refuting most of Leavis' conclusions; and a couple of others. Some interesting thoughts here that helped me understand the novel better, which I re-read in February and did not like very much.

April's Pile of Possibilities:

Way too many as usual, but what else is new?

Currently Reading:
✔ Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins--for the April Monthly Author challenge and the 200th anniversary of Wilkie Collins birth
✔ John Adams, David McCullough (2001), on audiobook--for the April AAC nonfiction challenge and the Reading Through Time April Riots & Revolutions; fascinating and eye-opening
✔ The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1874)--for the April BAC and loving it so far.

Upcoming reads (from my shelves):
✔ Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977), for the April BAC
✔ How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1890), classic nonfiction journalism about poverty in NYC; more nonfiction for the AAC
✔ Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins (1857), novel for Monthly Author Challenge
--Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852), Memorial read from Julia's TBR (LTer rosalita)
--Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950), next DES on my list
✔ Oedipus Rex, Sophocles (Fagles translation), a re-read, for my RL book club
--In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden (1969), for Virago April Challenge
✔ Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); my Virago/Persephone Challenge

From the Library, as time permits:
DNF So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan; stories
DNF The Light of Truth: Writings, Ida B. Wells; essays and other nonfiction selections
--Esther Waters, George Moore, novel
--Dream Angus, Alexander McCall Smith, myth re-telling
--The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith; novel; 2024 release
--In the Upper Country, Kai Thomas; 2024 Longlist for the Walter Scott Prize; Canadian author
--Index, a History of the, Dennis Duncan; nonfiction

It's here, the lovely month of May! Piles and piles on the TBR; most of these are fairly short, so the chances are a bit better I may get to at least half 🤣:

Completed--woo-hoo!:
✔ Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950)
✔ 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, M. Frederick and V. Mehta (2018)
DNF Index, a History of the, Dennis Duncan; nonfiction--determined to finish or DNF this book in May
✔ Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen--my annual re-read on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson
✔ They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell--for the AAC
✔ Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland, for RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture
✔ The Silverado Squatters, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883) for the 75ers NonFiction Wild West theme ✔ The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith

Currently Reading:
--A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, on audiobook--for the Dickens Mega readalong
--The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell--for the Monthly Author reads
--Roman Fever, Edith Wharton--for the Virago May Challenge:
--The Pinecone, Jenny Uglow--for RTT May International Labor Day and RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture

Upcoming reads (from my shelves):
--The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell--for the Monthly Author reads
--Washington Square, Henry James--for my RL book club; a re-read
--Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud for RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture

From the Library:
--Winter and Rough Weather, D E. Stevenson; next up in DES reads

As always, the "As Time Permits" list:
--No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym--another Pym I want to re-read
--Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor--a Taylor I want to re-read
--The American Senator, Anthony Trollope--next up in my Trollope reads
--Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie--next in my Christie reads
--High Wages, Dorothy Whipple--next in my Whipple reads

I was hoping to finish more books in April; 2 chunksters and one deceptively slim volume took up much of my reading:

April


34. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1875); fiction

With a few minor exceptions, I generally love Trollope or at least find things to enjoy in his novels. Although this is supposedly Trollope's "magnum opus" at 800+ pages, I can't say that I enjoyed it very much. The book starts out following Lady Carbury, a mediocre novelist with little money who is attempting to get good reviews (and hence good sales) for her books and to get her son and daughter into advantageous marriages. The novel slowly shifts focus to the great financier Augustus Melmotte, whose background and source of great wealth are a mystery. (From what I've read, Melmotte's portrait was a conglomeration of real-life men of wealth during the Victorian era.) The more that is revealed about Melmotte, the more unlikable he becomes. Trollope can often portray unlikable characters but still get me to have pity or sympathy with them (Louis Trevelyan in He Knew He Was Right, for example), but not here. I felt I knew Melmotte too well and the more I knew him, the less I pitied him.

Trollope's intent, I think, was to portray a society that has become so corrupt that it has lost all sense of honesty and integrity. Laudable aims, but overall I can't say that I enjoyed this book very much. Trollope's portrayal of Melmotte is compelling, but once his downfall is complete, the other minor characters and their resolutions seem insignificant by comparison and not all that interesting to follow. There really wasn't a character that I liked or even appreciated, except possibly Roger Carbury (Lady Carbury's distant relation) and to a lesser extent minor characters Mr Breghert, the Jewish banker, and Mr Broune, Lady Carbury's friend.

This was a disappointment for me. At some distant time I may re-read it, and perhaps knowing the outcome I will better appreciate what Trollope was trying to do.


35. John Adams, David McCullough (2002); biography; audiobook read (mostly) by Edward Herrmann

I felt like I really knew the personality and character of John Adams when I finished this book. McCullough used quite a bit of Adams' correspondence with his wife Abigail and others to bring him to life. Adams felt most proud of his work for independence during the early revolutionary years and his part in constructing the Massachusetts constitution, which later became a model for the U.S. Constitution. I love McCullough's narrative style and it made the book move quickly despite its 600+ pages.

I listened to this abridged audio edition and supplemented by reading the print copy for some material that was skipped, which was mostly his VP and Presidential years, and background information on Thomas Jefferson (McCullough had originally intended this book to explore the relationship between Adams and Jefferson). I was annoyed, however, when the audiobook narration sometimes switched to a woman who sounded like an automated voicemail machine. Fortunately, most of the recording was done by Herrmann.


36. Mad Monkton and Other Stories, Wilkie Collins; short stories from throughout Collins' career

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Wilkie Collins. I plan to read several of his works throughout the year, and this collection was the perfect way to begin. This was a fantastic collection of 12 ghost, mystery and detective stories throughout Collins' career. All of the stories (except 1, and that one was the least engaging) were written in first person, and often there is a narrative within the narrative. I think my favorites were "The Diary of Anne Rodway" (the first female "detective", told in diary format), "A Terribly Strange Bed" (his first published mystery story) and "The Biter Bit" (featuring an over-confident new detective told in letter format). His narrative style works perfectly in the short story format. Short stories can be hit or miss for me, but most of these were definite hits! I'm so glad my library had this older Oxford edition, as I doubt if it's still in print.


37. Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977); fiction; a re-read

I first read this in 1987, loved it and have since re-read a couple of times. This re-read did not disappoint. The story, contemporary to the 1970s, is about four elderly single people--Letty, Marcia, Edwin and Norman--who all work in the same London office and are approaching retirement. Their contact with one another is almost entirely at the office. They maintain a courteous distance and each one is a bit odd in their own way. When Letty & Marcia decide to retire, the shift in relationships and what the future looks like for each of the "quartet" is the focus of the novel.

As I've now been retired 15 years, Pym's gently funny and quiet, but wry, observations of older people alone and how they are perceived by others are spot-on. Each has their irritating quirks, but Pym gives them sympathetic and universal appeal, too, as they struggle to do the right thing and maybe find that life still has possibilities ahead. A gem.


38. "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles (5th c. B.C.E.); translated by Robert Fagles; play; a re-read

This was a re-read for me for my RL Book Club. I appreciated the Fagles translation which was very readable and understandable, and gave the play life.


39. Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); fiction

This was my first book by Dorothy Whipple, who has been on my radar for quite some time. Persephone Books have re-printed all of her novels and it seems nearly every review I've read of her books has been glowing. Fortunately for me, this book lived up to all the hype!

I absolutely inhaled this novel in 2 sittings. Set in a medium-sized town in northern England in the late 1890s, we follow Anne from age 5 into the first few years of her married life. We see her within her family with a critical father, a distant mother and a loving, motherly servant; we follow her in school as the only Protestant in a convent school; we see her first love and first break-up; we witness her first job, first boss and first paycheck; thrill to her first car and then first car accident; and finally her complex marriage.

I loved Whipple's writing; I just couldn't stop reading. She is sometimes tongue-in-cheek and sometimes quite serious. Often it's what is left unsaid that is almost as important as what is revealed. Much of the novel reflects Whipple's own experiences in her early years. I think the ending was a bit awkward and melodramatic, but on the whole, as a debut novel, this was wonderful, and I've got her next novel, High Wages, all lined up for May reading.


40. The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins (1857); fiction

This is one of Collins' early novels with true "sensational" elements. A wealthy woman is dying; on her deathbed she writes a mysterious letter witnessed by a servant and it is the intention of the mistress that this letter should be given to her husband upon her death. She dies, leaving her husband and a 5 year old daughter. The servant, however, hides the letter in a remote room of the large manor house and vanishes the next day. Fifteen years later, the surviving daughter Rosamond, now married, is made aware of this mystery while in childbirth with her first child, and, along with her blind husband, is determined to uncover the Secret.

This was quite a page-turner, and has a lot of interesting elements, including ghosts and visions, an old decrepit house and a spiteful reclusive relative. It's clear that Collins intends the reader to have a good idea of what the "Secret" is from the beginning, and that the purpose of the story is to follow young Rosamond (headstrong and quick to react) and her loving husband (blind, reserved and thoughtful) as they slowly pursue the Secret. I really enjoyed how they worked as a team uncovering each "clue" and revelation and what to follow-up next. Another strength, which is found in many of his novels, is how well Collins draws female characters; both Sarah Leeson (the servant) and Rosamond (the daughter) are amazing rounded characters. Collins keeps the spooky atmosphere throughout the novel, but there are also some funny bits, too, to break up the intensity.

What's frustrating is that this was written for serial publication, so Collins prolonged just about every scene imaginable with as much melodramatic sensibilities and for as many words as possible. I enjoyed it, but it could have been half the length and still have been a great novel.

My last read for the month deserves its own post, so.....

41. How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1890); nonfiction text with photographs

This classic of late 19th century journalism was a difficult book to read; it took me nearly the entire month to finish, even though it is only 218 pages. I could only read a chapter or two at a time because the material overwhelmed me.

Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was a Danish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1870. Like many of the subjects in his book, his first years in New York were spent on the street or in miserable lodging houses. After a series of jobs, he finally became steadily employed in 1877 as a journalist on the New York Tribune and later at the Evening Sun. His beat was in the Lower East side slum district, and so began his concerted effort to raise awareness of the living conditions of the neighborhood.

Riis wrote many short articles about the conditions, but they seemed to have little or no effect. It was the invention of flash photography that changed everything. He employed photographers and later learned the skill himself, and went into neighborhoods, tenements and alleys to document the living conditions. When his book came out in 1890, it had an immediate impact, due largely to the photographs.

The text is dense. Riis includes loads of statistics, intense narrative and personal stories along with the photographs to document conditions. Riis felt that the first step to improving the slums was better housing, where every room had light and air and every living space had adequate plumbing, all things that were woefully inadequate in 1890s tenements. He goes block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, ethnicity by ethnicity, to describe the inhumane living conditions of the men, women and children, nearly all immigrants.

Riis has definite views on various ethnic groups and seems to rely on some stereotypes. But he went everywhere, no matter how horrible the living situation. As was the practice at the time, he did not ask permission to take his photographs; he just set up and shot. The photographs were taken by him and by other photographers working with him.

There is much written about his work, so I will refrain from adding any more. If you are interested here are three websites with photographs and more information:

This has a selection of some of the photographs:
https://www.americanyawp.com/text/how-the-other-half-lived-photographs-of-jacob-...

At this PBS website, there are 2 clips from a documentary about Riis:
https://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/jacob-riis-video-gallery/new-york...

This short video is from the 2016 Library of Congress exhibition about Jacob Riis. I learned quite a bit of background info:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqpQzyK96uk

May Reading

It was a lusty month for me--14 titles completed--so this will be a bit of a lightning round of reviews:


42. 101 Things I learned in Urban Design School, Matthew Frederick and Vikas Mehta (2018); nonfiction
Part of a larger series about basic principles of professional schools, this book uses text of a basic urban design principle on one page, and a design sketch illustrating that principle on the facing page. Some of the 101 principles were generic for design and others opened my eyes to looking at architecture and urban spaces, like: "We prefer enclosed spaces."; "Space doesn't make space. Forms make space." "If the edges fail, the space fails." "Suburbanites walk perpendicular. Urbanites walk parallel." "A design scheme is an argument." "At the 4th floor, we tend to lose identity with the street."; and many more.

Read this in one evening and found it fascinating. Thanks to Joyce (Nickelini) here on LT who reviewed this book (in more depth) and sparked my interest: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356846#8511337


43. Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950); fiction
This continues with some of the characters from Vittoria Cottage. James is a WWII vet who has decided he wants to learn to farm, and arrives in the Scottish Border country to live with his aunt Mamie and Uncle Jock to learn farming. This is a quiet post-WWII book; I particularly liked the character of Mamie and the description of the Scottish Borders. which was well done. It was a pleasant diversion.


❤️❤️44. They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell (1937); fiction
It is Sunday November 10, 1918 in Logan, Illinois, a small town in central Illinois. The book is divided into 3 sections: the first from the perspective of 8 year old Bunny (Peter); then from 13 year old Robert; and lastly from James, their father. We soon come to realize, however, that the book is really about mother and wife Elizabeth, who is the center of their world.

Each quiet section has its moments of joy, anger, grief, day-dreams, wistfulness for the past, and perhaps more than anything else, guilt. This is a beautifully written book, and yet sometimes it's not what's said that is important; it is the unsaid, the implied feelings. I read it in 3 sittings, making myself stop to process what I'd read. A gem.


❤️❤️45. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813); re-read on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson
I was needing a comfort read, so decided this was the time for my annual re-read of my favorite. 'Nuff said.


46. Leonardo da Vinci, Dr. Sherwin Nuland (2000); biography
At 170 pages, this is a short overview of Leonardo's life and work. Besides his artistic studies Leonardo studied geometry, mechanics, the flight of birds, animal and plant biology, optics, military engineering, hydraulics, and architecture. From this, Nuland says, Leonardo "began to see art from what might be called the scientific point of view. And the converse was also true: he was seeing science from the viewpoint of an artist." (p.27).

Dr. Nuland, a surgeon and medical school professor, brings a special focus on Leonardo's amazing anatomical sketches, and how they were centuries ahead of their time. I enjoyed this biography and the aspects of Leonardo's genius using his artistic talents to explore science.


47. The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith (2024); fiction
Had a hard time with the premise (an in-person dating/introduction service in Edinburgh) and it's way too long, but as always McCall Smith reminds us to be kind, be generous and think the best of others whenever possible. And it ends happily.


48. The Silverado Squatters (1883) from the collection From Scotland to Silverado, by Robert Louis Stevenson; James D. Hart, editor (1966); memoir
This is Stevenson's memoir of his 2-month honeymoon amidst the abandoned Silverado mines in California. I liked the writing, but how they endured living in an abandoned mine building is beyond me. Stevenson would later use descriptions of some of the landscape in Treasure Island.


❤️❤️49. High Wages, Dorothy Whipple (1930); fiction; Persephone collection
Written in 1930 and set in a northern English milltown beginning in 1912, the story follows 18 year old Jane Carter who gets a job as a shopgirl in a draper's shop. Whipple does a brilliant job of giving us many of the details of a young woman's life in such a shop. Working from early in the morning until late at night (with only Sundays off), Jane gets 5 shillings a week plus room & board to clean the shop and assist customers She shares a cold, dingy room above the shop with another shopgirl; they are constantly hungry, cheated out of wages and in constant fear of being sacked.

Jane works very hard and by the end of WWI, she is able to open her own shop with the newest thing: ready-made clothes. Along the way Jane makes friends and falls in love. This is a fascinating look at the lives of young women at this time and the extreme effort and hard work it took for a young woman to open her own shop. Brilliant!


50. The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie (1942); mystery
This was OK, but too many characters for me to keep straight. Miss Marple is delightful, but there's too little of her and too late.


51. Washington Square, Henry James (1881); fiction, re-read from 2023
In general I'm not a Henry James fan, but this slim novel from his early years has some very clean writing and excellent descriptions of 1840s New York society. I didn't really like any of the characters, and yet I kept reading for the insights into their personalities. In fact it was an interesting exercise to determine who I thought was the worst human being of the bunch; not sure if James and I would agree.


52. Winter and Rough Weather, D. E. Stevenson (1951); fiction
This is a continuation of the characters in Music in the Hills. James and Rhoda are newly married and beginning life on a sheep farm in the Scottish Borders. The side story "secret" was fairly easy to figure out, so the ending was not a surprise. As with all of her books, Stevenson has the good characters and the utterly despicable, so the plot and characters are entirely predictable. But what does come through is her love of the Scottish countryside, life and language, so it's worth the read for those elements.


❤️53. Roman Fever, Edith Wharton (1899-1934); short stories; Virago collection
This is a collection of 8 stories by Wharton, ranging from 1899 to 1934. All of the stories were very good and most of the stories turn societal conventions on their heads. I especially enjoyed the title story "Roman Fever" (1934), which has the best last line ever. Other good ones were "Xingu" (1916) and "The Other Two" (1904). I also enjoyed "The Angel at the Grave" (1901), about a young woman dedicated to her famous father's memory, which was in a completely different style, but carried off the atmosphere perfectly.


54. Picture Miss Seeton, Heron Carvic (1968); mystery
Started out fun, but drifted into too many details. Miss Seeton uses her drawing ability (and her umbrella) to solve crimes. I would have liked more Miss Seeton in the story, who is supposedly a spoof of Miss Marple. I won't be going on in the series.


❤️55. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (1859); historical fiction; re-read on audiobook read by Simon Vance
When I first read this in 2013, I wasn't impressed--found it too sentimental, emotional and confusing. In 2022 I listened to this on audiobook, and the power of the book grabbed me more than I expected. This re-listening was also very good, although I still had to re-listen to chapters to keep some of the details straight. Dickens skillfully weaves an intricate story into an abbreviated version of the real events--his knowledge and research are on display here. And, of course, the absolute best ending in all of Dickens, perhaps in 19th century British literature.

What's up for JUNE?

Currently Reading....
--Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2022, Margaret Atwood; for June Monthly Authors
--Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence, Joseph Ellis on audiobook; for June HistoryCAT

Upcoming Reading
--The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, D. H. Lawrence; for June BAC
--In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden; for Virago read
--Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie; for June RandomKIT--your initials
--Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; for ROOTS Read for Julia challenge
--A Day of Pleasure, Isaac Bashevis Singer; childhood memoir for 75ers NonFiction
--The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, Dan Egan; June Reading Through Time--natural wonders
--They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell; re-read for my RL book club

The Possibilities Pile from the TBR
--The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, James Baldwin
--Turtles All the Way Down, John Green
--Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (Persephone)
--No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym (re-read)
--Mandoa, Mandoa, Winifred Holtby (Virago)
--Celia, E. H. Young (Virago)
--The American Senator, Anthony Trollope
--Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy (re-read)
--The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather
--Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (Virago re-read)
--Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey

Finally, from the "New Books" shelf of my public library branch:



Composers who Changed History, DK Publishing--a huge, gorgeous coffee-table book with wonderful glossy illustrations highlighting composers throughout time.

June Reading

Well, it's feast or famine with me--and this month is famine. A paltry 6 books finished; these were all enjoyable, but none were outstanding.


56. Greenery Street, Denis George Mackail (1925); fiction
Greenery Street, London, is where newlyweds find their first home, or so this novel implies. Felicity & Ian are the newlyweds going through all the usual trials and tribulations with relations, neighbors, servants and each other. This is a fun, fast & tongue-in-cheek novel that felt like a 1930s screwball comedy movie or maybe a witty play of the 1920s. The narrator occasionally inserts himself, but the novel is probably 80% dialogue. Nothing over-taxing and no major truths of life are revealed, but it's a delightful escapist ride.


57. Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis (2013); audiobook; nonfiction--U.S. history
Ellis concentrates on March 1776 through October 1776, and shows how the events and decisions in those pivotal months would lay the groundwork for independence. Ellis makes it clear that it was a long process to get the colonies to agree to full Independence, rather than just being a self-governing arm of the British Empire. He also pointed out how decisions in the Continental Congress depended on what Washington's "army" was doing, and at the same time, the military choices depended on decisions made by the Congress. Ellis has a great writing style and I appreciated the narrow focus. However, I found my mind wandering with the audiobook--not sure if it was the reader or my own lack of attention. At some point, I want to read the physical book.


❤️58. A Day of Pleasure, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1969); memoir
I was "pleasurably" surprised by this book, which I had picked up on a whim at a library sale. This is a wonderful collection of stories from Singer's childhood. They were originally selected from his memoir In My Father's Court and then re-fashioned by Singer for older children and young adults, and collected into this volume. The stories cover his young childhood through the First World War. The characters include family members (his rigid father, clever mother, rebel older brother Israel), friends, and people who seek his father's advice as a rabbi. Each scene is complete unto itself. They reflect a child's perspective and questioning of the adult's world. This 1969 edition includes photographs of pre-WWI Warsaw and rural Poland.


59. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911); re-read on audiobook, read by Finola Hughes
I was needing a comfort audiobook read, so this fit the bill. Ms Hughes does a decent job of narration, except that she doesn't know how to pronounce "Ayah", which occurs throughout the book.


60. The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, D. H. Lawrence (1914); short stories
These 12 stories were written from about 1900 to 1914; all were revised for publication as a collection in 1914. Lawrence does a brilliant job of describing the natural surroundings; most of these stories are set in his native Nottinghamshire. About half the stories are set in the 1870s-1890s and concern rural and coal mining families. All of the stories involve difficult personal relationships and "this horrible nothingness of their lives." (from the story "Daughters of the Vicar"). Men and women both love and loathe each other at the same time. Overall I found these stories well-written but difficult, depressing and almost hopeless.


61. Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie (1942); classic mystery
An unusual premise and structure. Poirot is asked to investigate a murder that happened 16 years ago. The convicted murderer is now deceased and Poirot interviews the 5 living persons who were at the scene of the crime and knew both murderer and victim. This was more psychological probing than anything else, but the final solution includes lots of twists and turns. This was an interesting twist on the usual Poirot "house" murder mystery. One of Christie's better ones.

I had a couple of re-reads that I read earlier this year that I'm not counting in my total:
Lady Susan by Jane Austen on audiobook
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell; re-read in June for my RL book club

Had one DNF: In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (1969). I read 200 pages of this book (I really tried), but it is a 600 page book, and it just wasn't working for me.

And books I'm still currently reading that I started in June:
--Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood (2023); a collection of essays, lectures and reviews from from 2004 to 2022. I'm enjoying these quite a bit--they are varied and funny and relevant. But I'm reading them slowly--I'm about 360 pages and have about 100 left to read. Hope to finish in June.
--Composers Who Changed History by DK Books; a giant coffee-table sized book of composers throughout music history. Again, reading a bit at a time to appreciate the information and wonderful illustrations.

July Plans:

It's Jane Austen July, so I have a line-up of JA reads. More here if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6CqZ1Zst4

Completed:
I've started my JA reading early last week with:
✔ The Watsons, an unfinished book by Austen
✔ Lady Susan, on audiobook, re-read

Currently reading:
--Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023)
--Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing (2024)
--Pride and Prejudice, Austen, on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson, re-read

Jane Austen reads:
--Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811)
--Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (2023)
--Jane Austen at Home, Lucy Worsley (2017); read parts of this last July and hope to finish this year
--What Matters in Jane Austen, John Mullan (2012); a re-read
--Evelina, Fanny Burney (1778), a book read by Austen
--One of these contemporary JA mysteries: The Murder of Mr Wickham by Charlotte Gray OR Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, Stephanie Barron

Other stuff:
I also have a bunch of other reads, which I know I'll never finish, but hope springs eternal:
--Therese Raquin, Zola for monthly authors
--Mr Mac and Me, for July HistoryCAT (spies)
--Little Women, Louisa Mae Alcott, a re-read for my RL Book Club
--Devoted Ladies, Molly Keane--Virago July author
--All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot--BAC July--animals
--Celia, E. H. Young

Library books
I have a couple of inter-library loan requests that I will need to prioritize once they arrive.

Let's hope this is a "feast" month, not famine.

Highlights so far this year:

Nonfiction:
Chasing Bright Medusas by Benjamin Taylor--a biography of author Willa Cather (2023)
John Adams by David McCullough (2002)
Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M Schulz by Debus and Matteuzzi (2023)

Fiction:
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell (1937)
Young Anne and High Wages by Dorothy Whipple (1930)--Dorothy Whipple (1893-1966) is a "new" favorite author.

And I had some great classic re-reads, mostly on audio like:

Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities and Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
Treasure Island, R L Stevenson
Pygmalion, G. B. Shaw

Some Mid-Year Stats:

61 books read

67% fiction
66% from my TBR
33% from the library

30% published before 1900
50% published in the 20th century
20% published in the 21st century

Here's my (semi-) quick wrap-up of July reading:



62. Celia, E. H. Young (1937); fiction, from my Virago collection
It took over 100 pages before I felt in the rhythm of this book. Through the eyes of Celia, we explore marriages and relationships of family and friends, as well as her own. Often the dialogue seems cryptic, particularly for the first chapters. Sometimes I felt like I was in the middle of a room of complete strangers who all know each other, without introductions or reference. This has much to say, but I definitely need to read this one again to absorb it all.



63. Five Windows, D. E. Stevenson (1953); fiction
Stevenson's later novels are becoming hit or miss for me. Five Windows is a better one: it appears to be Stevenson's modern take on the David Copperfield story. Told in the first person, David Kirke is an only child in a loving, but modest family living in rural Scotland just before WWII. David goes to school, joins the military and eventually moves to London where he becomes a clerk, while writing stories in his free time. Although simplistic (WWII and David's service are never mentioned), I liked David and his story.



64. Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young, Briganti and Mezei (2006); literary criticism
This analysis looks at women authors in the interwar years, with particular emphasis on E. H. Young. I read relevant chapters about E. H. Young and scanned others. The authors present an interesting premise of the "domestic" novel in the interwar years and how specifically E. H. Young brings that into her novels. A lengthy amount was dedicated to Young's novel Celia, which I finished earlier in the month.



❤️65. Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (2023); fashion history during the time of Jane Austen, for Jane Austen July
In a way, the title is a misnomer, as there are only a handful of surviving items of fashion that have been documented to have been worn or belonged to Jane Austen. Fashion historian Hilary Davidson has used relevant excerpts from Jane Austen's letters as jumping off points to describe and document fashion in the Regency era in this beautiful book. Davidson organizes the book by categories: gowns, outer garments, hats, gloves, jewelery, etc., and provides a detailed description of these items: the fabric and construction; when it would be worn; how much it might cost; and more. Each category includes multiple illustrations of that piece from the period or photographs from current museum collections. The few items that have been authenticated as belonging to Jane Austen are described in great detail.

I'm not particularly interested in fashion, but this book was fascinating, particularly as Davidson describes who, how & where the garments would be worn in Jane Austen's time. It's a great book to dip in & out of, is well documented and includes items from the author's own collection. This was by far my favorite read this month.



66. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811); fiction, for Jane Austen July
This was, I think, my 6th re-read of this classic. I did enjoy it and had forgotten how many funny lines are in this sometimes melodramatic story. Not my favorite Austen, but it's still Jane!



67. Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023); essays and other nonfiction from 2004 to 2022
Over 60 of Atwood's essays, lectures, obituaries and other nonfiction pieces from 2004 to 2022. Atwood has a round-about way of getting to a topic that I find interesting and witty. No matter what the topic, she touches on the environment and climate change, directly or in passing. As the daughter of a university science professor, this is part of her DNA. Some of my favorite essays were "Anne of Green Gables" (reflecting on the 100th anniversary of the Canadian classic), "Frozen in Time", "Literature and the Environment", "Shakespeare and Me", "Reflections on The Handmaid's Tale" (30th anniversary); and "Caught in Time's Current" (describing how she came to write the poem "Dearly"). An eclectic and mostly excellent collection.



68. Little Women: An Annotated Edition, Louisa May Alcott (1869); children's classic
This is an excellent annotated edition which added so much to my enjoyment of the book. Besides explanations of archaic terms, most of the notes were about Alcott herself: her life and how the events in Little Women were similar (or in some cases, different) to her own experiences. Also were excerpts from letters and other writings by Alcott that emphasized the points she is trying to make in the book. Sometimes this book feels preachy and melodramatic, but I think the annotations gave me a completely different perspective on what Alcott was trying to do within the restrictions of her era. An excellent resource for anyone reading Alcott's book for the first (or hundredth) time.



69. Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane (1941); fiction from my Virago collection
Set in southern Ireland during two eventful days in April, 1920 during the Troubles, the house of Aragon is really the main character of this book. Across its path come aristocratic Anglo-Irish families, Catholic servants, British soldiers and members of Sinn Fein (IRA rebels or "shinners"). Relationships develop across faiths and classes, while ghosts of the past loom over the events. Much happens in this book and it can be quite a page-turner. The characters are skillfully drawn. Yet there isn't a single character that I really liked or admired or would ever want to know. So although this is a well-written story, it is not one I will want to re-visit or remember fondly.



70. Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud (2014); historical fiction set in Britain during WWI
This started out slowly for me. The story is told in first person, present tense by Thomas Maggs, a young teen living in a small village on the southern coast of England at the beginning of World War I. His parents run a local pub and his father is often drunk. Thomas discovers an older couple who have recently moved to the area. They stay separate from the villagers, seem to wander the beaches at all hours and have strange ways. Thomas discovers Mr Mac is the celebrated Scottish architect Charles Rennie Macintosh, who takes kindly to the boy and encourages his exploration of drawing ships and other pieces of art.

This is based on a true story of the artist, who lived in southern England at the beginning of WWI and who would be accused of being a German spy. I thought Freud did a good job of interweaving all the story lines, filling in about the Macintoshes and a vivid sense of place. I was completely baffled and disappointed by the last few pages of the book, in which it's unclear if Thomas drowns (is he dreaming?) or is rescued. Overall it was a good book, but the ending left me flat and confused, spoiling my final feelings.

August reading is going to be unpredictable. I have a few books I need to read for challenges, etc., but the rest will depend on my mood.

Currently reading:
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens, on audiobook, a re-read
The Cross of Redemption, James Baldwin; essays for the Monthly Author Read
The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray; leftover from Jane Austen July
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot--a multi-month read
Composers who Changed History, DK Publishing--a multi-month read

Other planned reads:
The Feather Thief, Kirk Wallace Johnson, nonfiction for my RL book club
The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin, Reading Through Time and RandomKit
Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple
Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy--library book
Chatterton Square, E. H. Young--All Virago, All August

On the possibilities pile:
Evelina, Fannie Burney--leftover from JA July
No Name, Wilkie Collins--200th anniversary of Collins' birth
Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
Towards Zero, Agatha Christie
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (Julia's Reads)
The Ghostly Lover, Elizabeth Hardwick (Virago)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (Virago re-read)
The Light Years, Elizabeth Jane Howard, family saga
Turtles All the Way Down, John Green, YA
Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery, re-read
Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey, mystery

Any I should move to the top of the pile? Let me know!

Finally! My August reading...



❤️71. Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (1932); fiction, from my Persephone collection.
I finished (inhaled!) and absolutely loved this book set around a house, Greenbanks, before, during and immediately after the Great War. The story centers around widowed Louisa, her adult children and their relationships. Most important is the wonderful portrayal of Louisa with her granddaughter Rachel, who have a special bond.

This is my 3rd Dorothy Whipple and I am in heaven! There is something so wonderful to be completely absorbed with a book; I can't really tell you why, but I can't put her books down. The characters are so interesting and nuanced, and I feel for them even when they're flawed. Not much happens and yet everything happens.



❤️72. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); fiction, from my Virago collection
Widowed Mrs Palfrey comes to live in a retirement hotel and along the way we meet the various other residents. During her stay Mrs Palfrey meets a young writer and the two form an interesting friendship.

It's amazing what Taylor can communicate with the sparest of prose. Like a very good short story, everything in this book has a purpose. This was a re-read of the first novel I ever read by Elizabeth Taylor. I've gone on to read more, but I think this still remains the best for me. I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read.



73. The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin (2021); fiction
Set during the London Blitz, this book has great detail about the time period from an everyday person's point of view. However, it didn't feel particularly British to me and the writing left a bit to be desired, especially after finishing a re-read of the exquisite Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. I skim-read the last half of the book. I thought Frances Faviell's memoir, A Chelsea Concerto, a much better book about the Blitz.



74. Towards Zero, Agatha Christie (1944); mystery
A fairly decent mystery with Inspector Battle. He doesn't get much personality here but the whole case is fairly twisty-turny and there were enough clues to make the solution believable. What wasn't believable was a silly romance in the last few pages. Christie has done this before, and every time it irritates me.



❤️75. Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens (1865); fiction; re-read on audiobook, narrated by Simon Vance
This was my 3rd re-read and there were so many details I had forgotten. I was so immersed in the book, I couldn't stop listening sometimes. There are too many storylines in this final full novel by Dickens that it's impossible to give a synopsis, but it is set along the Thames with high-brow and low-brow characters and all those in-between. Two characters, Eugene Wrayburn and Bella Wilfer, stand out for their character arc over the course of the novel. I consider Bradley Headstone the most creepy villain in all of Dickens.

One of the many things I noticed on this reading was how individual Dickens makes each person's style of speech and word choices unique and individual, and so different from all the other characters. Even on the page, it is always clear who is speaking. This is still not my favorite Dickens, but it is probably among my top 5.



76. Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell (1864); fiction
I'm still conflicted about this book; I think Gaskell did a lot of interesting things here, but I'm not sure it quite comes off well as a whole. Briefly, it is set during the late 18th century along the North-east coast of England during the time of the "press-gangs", legitimate gangs, sanctioned by the Government to impress (i.e., kidnap) men into the Navy. Gaskell based some of the book on real characters and events. Amidst this strife we follow Sylvia, a young woman who is in love with the "bad boy" of the neighborhood, but eventually marries the boring but reliable man who has been in love with her since childhood. As with most of Gaskell's works, the crux of the novel revolves around a falsehood, how it precipitates events and how the characters struggle with the consequences.

I can't say I really liked any of the characters, but the way Gaskell weaves the real events and issues around these characters was impressive. It is a sad, sad book, as there is no even remotely happy ending for anyone here.



77. The Feather Thief, Kirk W. Johnson (2018); nonfiction, true crime
About a young brilliant American kid who perfects fly-tying and then as a college student goes on to steal birds and feathers from the British Museum. And gets away with it with the "Asperger's" Defense. This is a whole obsessive cult with many followers which I knew nothing about, and yet I found the first half of the book surprisingly interesting. Indeed, the author knows how to build suspense. Because not all the specimens were recovered (because they were sold online or split apart). the author felt his own "need" to try and find the missing pieces. This part of the story became tedious for me and ultimately meant the last third of the book was just a let-down.



78. The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor (1924); fiction

Mary Jocelyn is 35 years old and has spent her life caring for her disabled sister and domineering Rector father. She is quiet, obedient and constantly criticized by her father. But into her life strolls Robert Herbert: she is smitten, but the path of true love does not run smooth. Herbert himself becomes smitten with another woman who seems completely wrong for him, and the majority of the book examines their marriage and the effect upon Mary.

This is a quiet book; well-written and perceptive about human relationships. But none of the characters (even Mary) are entirely likable and I'm not sure it's a book that I want to read again--I think it might be too frustrating and painful.



79. The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, James Baldwin (2010); essays and misc. non-fiction
This collection includes essays, lectures, letters and book reviews not previously included in other collections. I found the essays and lectures sometimes haphazard and rambling, but I did enjoy the letters and book reviews. My favorite pieces were profiles of Patterson vs. Liston; Sidney Poitier; all of the letters; and books reviews of Robert Louis Stevenson, John Hope Franklin and Roger Wilkins. An eclectic, if uneven, collection.

As I mentioned above in >204, I'm reading a bunch of "shorty" books in September. Since I'm hoping to read quite a few, I plan to summarize every week or so as I finish a couple of books.

September Reading begins:



80. Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918, (1998)
This is a short compilation of poems written by Great War poets. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are probably the most represented. I did not understand Owen's poems at all, but I did get something out of Sassoon and some of the others. "Flanders Fields", the only poem by John McCrae, was actually one of my favorites.



81. The Little Virtues: Essays, Natalia Ginzburg, translated from the Italian by Dick Davis (2016)
Ginzburg is a wonderful writer, and I particularly loved her essays about her childhood and writing ("My Vocation"), her marriage ("La Maison Volpe") and about England ("England: Eulogy and Lament").

However, the last 2 essays, including the title essay "The Little Virtues" are curious in that the author constantly uses the plural "We" and in present tense--"we do this, we do that, we say this", etc., yet she seems to be talking about the universal "we". I'm not sure if this is normal Italian structure for essays, but I found it annoying because in many cases, I'm not part of that "we" that she's referencing. These essays are also about how to raise children, and as my children are well into their 40s, that train has passed, so they did not feel relevant to me.

Currently reading:

A Bad Business: Essential Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey

Four more short books finished this week:



82. The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (1951); mystery
Often considered one of the best mysteries of all time, this story is set in a hospital where Inspector Grant has been laid up with a broken leg. Bored with staring at the ceiling, he becomes intrigued by a portrait of Richard III given to him by a friend and sets out on a quest to discover the true facts behind the murder of the Princes in the Tower.

This is a page-turning historical mystery read. Assisting the Inspector is a young American researcher who does all the running and researching, and together they discuss the who, what, how and whys of the case. I can't say I always followed their arguments, nor was familiar with many of the names thrown out. But was interesting to me was the examination of how the truth of "history", whether in children's history schoolbooks or in respected classic works, can be distorted by perspective, myth and time.



83. My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather (1926); novella

This short novella which I read in a few hours is a portrait of a woman, a marriage and human relationships. The story is told by Nellie, a 15-year old from a small town in Illinois. Nellie has heard the romantic stories of Myra Henshawe, a contemporary of her mother and aunts, who left her cruel uncle, gave up fortune and ran away for love with a poor clerk. When Myra & her husband Oswald come back to visit, she & young Nellie get along. Myra is charming, witty and strong, but can be sarcastic, even cruel. The rest of the novella is Nellie's observations of the couple when she visits them in fashionable New York, and some 10 years later in a run-down apartment hotel on the West Coast.

This novella is full of observations of people, relationships, nature, youth and old age in Cather's spare, pure style--every word counts. These are not characters I loved, but it's a portrait of a complicated woman I'll think about for a long time.



84. A Bad Business: Essential stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky; translated from the Russian by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater; collection published 2021; 6 stories original published 1862, 1865, 1873, 1876

All of these stories, with the exception of one, have a satiric tone that keeps the reader at a certain distance. In "A Bad Business" we are inside the head of a man who spends his time imagining how he will be received in social situations, and then his reflections on what actually happens. In "The Crocodile" a clerk is swallowed whole by a crocodile but is able to talk to his friends and reflect on his work. The only story that truly engaged me was the shortest: "A Heavenly Christmas Tree", about a poor mother & son seeking food & shelter on Christmas. Very moving, without a hint of satire.



85. Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner (1984); fiction; re-read from 1996

This is the story of Edith Hope, a woman writer of romantic fiction, who has been convinced by her friends to seek out Hotel du Lac, a Swiss resort hotel off the beaten path. We slowly learn that Edith is here "recovering" from the past, and we get bits and pieces along the way, until the actual incident is revealed.

Brookner's introspective writing and wry observations are the draw here. Sentences are meticulously constructed. Narration seamlessly weaves into Edith's thoughts and back out again. The weather and the sun, in particular, seem to set the moods in the book. This was a re-read for me and it was my first Brookner that I read in 1996. I quickly read all of her books in order in the 1990s and early 2000s. They are of their time and place, I think. Brookner's stories are of women from the post-WWII era who were navigating women's increased freedoms but still felt restricted by their upbringing and society's traditional expectations that they cannot completely shake off.

Currently reading:

Great Short Stories by American Women, which includes stories by authors such as Louisa Mae Alcott, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen.
A Month in the Country, a play by Ivan Turgenev (written 1848-50; first published in 1869 & first performed in 1872)

This week's reading--3 short, one long:



86. A Month in the Country: A Comedy in Five Acts, Ivan Turgenev; a play, (1855); translated from the Russian by Isaiah Berlin in 1981 for the National Theatre (UK)

A love triangle that is at once comic and tragic, and which subtlety mocks the aristocracy and laments the slights to the self-made working man. Probably comes off better when performed than it did on the page. Translation by Isaiah Berlin was smooth and felt effortless.



❤️87. A Particular Place, Mary Hocking (1989); fiction

Mary Hocking (1921-2014, UK) wrote 24 novels between 1961 and 1996. Last year I read her Fairley family trilogy (Good Daughters, Indifferent Heroes and Welcome Strangers), which are set before, during and after WWII. I enjoyed these books, particularly the first & last.

At first I wasn't sure where this novel was going, but it gradually grew on me and in the end, I loved it. It's the 1980s and newly appointed vicar Michael Hoath and his wife Valentine come to a small West country village to serve the Anglican congregation. The vicar and his wife don't seem terribly suited to one another: he is studious, thoughtful and a lover of nature; she is tall, remote, chic and beautiful, and completely uninterested in religion or church affairs. Theirs is a strained relationship at best.

Michael eventually finds a kindred spirit in the village: kind, drab and newly-married Norah, a former nurse, who is dealing with a selfish & wrathful husband. The close friendship between Michael & Norah threatens the vicar's marriage. All this is wryly observed by Michael's Aunt Hester.

There's a lot about women's place in the church and in the world (after all, it's the 1980s), but also about relationships and marriage and doing our best with what we are given (and what we have chosen). As Norah says "I have learnt that we have to do what we can in the particular place where we find ourselves....Here is where you are, Norah Kendall, and all that is asked is that you make your best of it."



❤️88. Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope (1865); fiction; re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance

Just like my re-read of Trollope's Barsetshire books last year, this re-read of the first of his Palliser series was such a delight. I had forgotten so much of the plots, and was again surprised by Trollope's humor. In this story Trollope portrays three different women, with three different problems with men, and each one felt sympathetic and well-rounded. We are introduced to Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora, who will be important throughout the Palliser series. And in the end, I think I can forgive all 3 women 😊

This first book, along with the last book The Duke's Children in the series, were my favorites on the first time reading this series. I am anxious to start the next book, Phineas Finn, to see if it goes up in my estimation on a second reading.



89. Great Short Stories by American Women, Candace Ward, editor (1996)

On the whole, I thought this was an interesting and representative collection of stories by American women through 1930. The 13 stories range in publication from 1861 (Rebecca Harding Davis) through 1930 (Nella Larsen). I read 7 of the 13 stories; 4 of the stories I had read before, and did not feel the need re-read, and I decided to pass on 3.

My favorites of the ones I read this time were "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett (1886); "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell (1917) and "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston (1926). I need to find more of Susan Glaspell's work; it's a name that's relatively new to me and "A Jury of Her Peers" was the best story of the ones new to me.

Of the ones I've read before, I would recommend "The Angel at the Grave" by Edith Wharton (1901) and the brilliant "The Yellow Wall-Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), which I've read several times.

Current "shorty" reading:

--Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, on audiobook, and supplemented with The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, edited by Margaret Doody, Mary Doody, and Wendy Barry (1997)
--By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, edited by Beth Kline Schneiderman (1973)--a collection of 19 stories by women in the 20th century (up to the 1970s).
--Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911); a re-read from 1991--and I don't remember a thing about it.

It's comin' on October, and that means Victober (Victorian October) is almost here, my favorite reading challenge of the year. It's about reading books written by British authors during the Victorian era (1837-1901). It's hosted by several booktubers, and you can watch the announcement video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynyQHVDh190&t=25s

To participate the only requirement is to read 1 book from the Victorian era. For people like me, it's just too hard to choose just one, so the hosts have come up with challenges. They are:

Serialized: Read a Victorian book that was serially published
Format: Read a Victorian book with an unusual format structure
Religion: Read a Victorian book that has religious themes or characters
Play: Read a Victorian play
Honor two booktubers who passed away this year (Jennifer & Alice) by reading something by their favorite Victorian authors:
Wilkie Collins: Jennifer's favorite
Arthur Conan Doyle: Alice's favorite

There is a Group Read: The Doctor's Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I read this a couple of years ago, and have chosen not to re-read it now.

After much shuffling of books and changing of mind, here are my (pretty) firm selections:
Serialized: Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope, a re-read on audiobook
Serialized: The American Senator, Anthony Trollope
Format: Round the Sofa, Elizabeth Gaskell (stories with connecting narrative & themes)
Religion: The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge
Play: I'll be watch 1 or 2 plays by G. B. Shaw from the 1890s, still undecided on which ones
Wilkie Collins: Man and Wife, also fits serialized
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet, also fits format

In my pile of additional possibilities:
Red Pottage, Mary Cholmondeley, from my Virago collection
The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow, Margaret Oliphant, from my Persephone collection
The Master of Ballantrae, Robert Louis Stevenson
Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy, a re-read

and 3 non-fiction possibilities:
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson, travel memoir
Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston, biography
Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? More Puzzles in Classic Fiction, John Sutherland, fun(!)literary analysis of (mostly) Victorian novels

Finishing off September reading:



90. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton (1911); fiction

This was a re-read for me from the 1990s and I had completely forgotten what this novella was about. The story is set in rural New England, perhaps 1880s or 1890s, and focuses on a married couple and their niece, who has come to live with them to help out with the household. Wharton builds tension from the very beginning and it never lets up. This was dark and gripping, and is not like anything else that I have read by Wharton.



91. The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe (1789) fiction

Set in the medieval Scottish Highlands, this is the story pf two rival chieftains. Now come of age, Osbert of Athlin feels compelled to revenge the murder of his father by the evil Baron Malcolm of Dunbayne. Castles, feuds, romance, kidnappings and escapes are all packed into this very short work (112 pages), the first of Ann Radcliffe's Gothic novels. Although I'm not a gothic fan, this was entertaining. Although the emphasis is on the men, the female characters do more than just faint. I was able to follow the story and never felt bored, although the final twists at the end seemed contrived and rushed. I think I liked it better than The Italian, just because the brevity kept it from dragging. If you just want to get a taste of the original Gothic novels of the 18th century, this might be the book for you.



92. By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, Beth Kline Schneiderman, editor (1973); short stories

This is one of the oldest books on my TBR--I'm sure from the 1980s. This collection contains 19 stories from the 20th century up to the 1970s. A couple I have read previously and a couple I have in other collections. Of the remaining stories, I chose 6 authors that I wanted to read. My favorites were Dorothy Parker's "The Waltz" (funny and snarky); Elizabeth Taylor's "Girl Reading" (poignant); and Shirley Jackson's "Island' (almost creepy). The stories I read by Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield and Doris Lessing were good but not memorable.



❤️93. The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery; edited by Margaret Doody, Mary Doody Jones, Wendy Barry (1908; this annotated edition 1997); fiction

This was a re-read for my RL book club. I read the notes in this annotated edition while listening to the audiobook, read by Barbara Caruso. This over-sized book contains a lot of additional background material, including sections on education at the time, history of Prince Edward Island, home life and cooking, and all of the recitation pieces and shorter poems mentioned in the novel. The introduction was almost overwhelming in its detail of Montgomery--sometimes more than I wanted to know. But the notes throughout the text gave background to terms, places and events that were contemporary to turn of the century Canada, so it was helpful. This would be a great gift for a true Anne fan.



94. At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald (1982); fiction

This is set in 1960s London at a "Stage School" (the "Freddie's" of the title), which taught and trained children for acting roles in the London theater, where children were needed. While not performing, the children were supposedly taught drama, dance and singing, along with regular classroom subjects. The book concentrates on Freddie, the famed and imperious elderly female director of the school, two teachers (not much teaching gets done), several students, a few has-been actors, and some behind the scenes bits when the children are performing. Fitzgerald has a bit of a tongue-in-cheek attitude here; apparently she (briefly) was a teacher in one of these schools. It's hard to take much of it seriously, although it apparently wasn't too far from the mark, from what I've read.

Previously I've read two novels by Fitzgerald (The Bookshop and The Gate of Angels), both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, and a collection of short stories (The Means of Escape) which were so-so. I wasn't terribly interested in this book; the whole acting world is outside my experience, so it was hard to have any sympathy or interest in the characters, settings or plot (what little there was). It might resonate more with someone familiar with this world.



95. Wednesday's Child: Stories, Yiyun Li (2023); short stories

These are intense stories, and I found I could not read the entire collection. Of the 5 that I read, the best stories were "On the Street Where You Live" and "Wednesday's Child." Both stories focus on a mother and her child; one wondering what might have been and the other, anxious for her child's future.

I previously read Li's short story collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think this current collection was just a bit too intense for me, so 5 stories was enough.

I'm fairly pleased with what I finished in September: 16 books, which included 4 collections of short stories (reading 24 stories total) and 1 audiobook. And the best news is that for those that were not library books (12), a majority (8) are now in my donation bag, ready to be dropped off for someone else to read.

As always, the best reading experiences for me this month were my re-reads: Hotel du Lac, Can You Forgive Her?, Ethan Frome and Anne of Green Gables. I can't say I adore all of these, but there is something about re-reading them that makes the experience so much richer, particularly Ethan Frome and Hotel du Lac, which I barely remembered, but knew they had left an impression.

Of the new-to-me reading, A Particular Place by Mary Hocking was surely the best, and it's definitely been marked in my catalog as "To Read Again."

I've started my Victober (Victorian October) reading and so far, so good:

--Phineas Finn, Trollope (1869), making my way through a re-read of the Pallisers on audiobook
--The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1854)--wildly popular in its day, but fairly obscure today; so far it's keeping my interest
--Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston, a slim (about 100 pages) bio, by a prior President of the Gaskell Society

October reading, first half:

Well, two weeks left in Victober and I've finished 3 books and well on my way in 3 more:



❤️96. Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (2011); biography

As the title says, this is a brief (104 pages) biography of Elizabeth Gaskell. I thought the bio was well done and gave a good overview of Gaskell's life. I've been slowly making my way through a long and detailed biography by Jenny Uglow, but I think after reading this it will make the Uglow work a bit easier to digest. There's a fairly thorough list of Gaskell's works and a detailed bibliography. There are no pictures, but I would have appreciated a chronology of Gaskell's life. The author is a past president of the Gaskell Society and had access to archives of letters and records.

This doesn't meet any prompts, but I wanted a few "short" selections to finish in-between longer ones.



97. The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1853); fiction

This novel has a complicated set-up. It tells the story of Guy Morville of Redclyffe, the soon-to-be heir of the book's title. An orphan from birth, he has been raised by his grandfather. When the story opens, he is 17, his grandfather has died and he comes to live with distant Morville relatives, the Edmonstone family. The Edmonstones include the parents and their 4 children ranging in age from 19 to 12. Also often living with the Edmonstones is another orphaned Morville cousin, Phillip, also 17. Eventually, romance develops between these 2 young men and their 2 Edmonstone cousins, Amy and Laura. Other important characters include Charles, the eldest Edmonstone child, who is disabled and a bit spoiled and sarcastic.

Much of the story centers about Guy the heir, generally good and likable, growing into adulthood and his struggle to overcome the "curse" of his ancestors: an impulsive nature and uncontrollable temper. Charlotte Mary Yonge was strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement of the 19th century and her book emphasizes heart over head, and striving for goodness over intellect and logic. Although most prominent in Guy, all of the characters acknowledge their character flaws and attempt to be the best person each can be. There is a lot of sincere soul-searching and questioning, and reliance on their faith for strength.

One of the most interesting characters is the disabled Charles, who is presented in a realistic and yet not overly sympathetic or simplistic fashion. We are matter-of-factly told when Charles needs assistance, yet we never feel sorry for him; in fact, we tend to cheer him on, like the rest of the family, despite his tendency to sarcastic one-liners.

Overall I enjoyed this book, although I didn't adore it; in particular, the first 3/4 of the book the writing was engaging and events moved along. This is a 600+ page book, and the main crisis of the book hits about page 450. The latter 150+ pages, however, went on a bit too long for me, as the characters react to this crisis. In some ways it felt like Yonge didn't know how to bring her story to a close. While the first half of the book has a subtle religious overtone, by the end it felt a bit heavy-handed. As a 21st century reader, I also had issues with Guy's ancestral "curse" that all the characters, especially Guy himself, completely believe in.

This book meets the "religion" prompt.



98. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (1879); travel memoir

In 1879 Robert Louis Stevenson spent 12 days traveling in the Cevennes mountains in France, with a donkey as his "working" companion to carry his supplies. I enjoyed Stevenson's descriptions and observations of the people he met along the way, and his comical struggles with his donkey. According to my book's intro, Stevenson went there to research a book he intended to write about the Camisards (but never did). The Camisards were Protestant Huguenots from the Cevennes who fought for their religious independence against royal troops during the early 18th century. Visiting in 1879, Stevenson spends some time recalling the history of the area and observing Catholic and Protestant descendants still living there some 175 years later.

I think I might have gotten a little more out of his observations if I'd known more about this history, but it was still an enjoyable read, mostly due to Stevenson's wonderful writing.

This doesn't meet any of the prompts; another short Victorian nonfiction to read between longer books.

Currently reading:
I'm in the midst of 3 books:
"Round the Sofa" stories by Elizabeth Gaskell, mostly contained (with connecting narrative) in My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories. I've got about 130+ pages left to read here. This meets the prompt for "format."

Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins (1870); I've just started this and am about 120 pages in. It's moving along VERY quickly, although I have to keep track of the characters, as there are a lot introduced right away. This is in memory of Jennifer Brooks, but it also meets the "serialized" and "format" prompts, as it's organized into scenes, as well as Parts and Chapters.

Finally, I have about 100 pages left to listen to Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope. This is a re-read for me. I hope to finish it by the weekend.

I still need to:

--watch a Shaw play--I have BBC videos of 5: "The Devil's Disciple" (with Patrick Stewart), "Mrs Warren's Profession", "You Never Can Tell", "Arms and the Man" (with Helena Bonham Carter), and "Man of Destiny" (with Simon Callow). I think I've only read or seen Mrs Warren's Profession, and that was years ago.

--listen to A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle. I've got the audio ready, which also includes "The Sign of Four" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." I hope I'll be with Sherlock starting next week.

And some other possibilities I want to get to, but will have to see:
--An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (a short Trollope!)
--Red Pottage, Mary Cholmondeley, from my Virago collection
--The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow, Margaret Oliphant, from my Persephone collection

Oh, and a few non-Victorian reads:
--Phantom of the Opera, for my RL book club on Oct 24
--Vera, by Elizabeth von Arnim, for Virago monthly read
--a few short stories by Katherine Anne Porter for the AAC challenge

Now that election anxiety has turned into post-election depression, I'll try to divert my thoughts back to Victober and finish off my reviews of my last 7 books:


99. Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope (1869); fiction; re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance

This second book in Trollope's political "Palliser" novels follows young Phineas Finn's journey through politics and love. On my re-read I felt Phineas made some good decisions in politics, but I was repeatedly frustrated following his love life. The book introduces one of my favorite Palliser characters, Madame Max, and one of the Palliser characters that I love to hate, Robert Kennedy.



❤️100. Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins (1870); fiction

The plot is entirely too complicated and twisty/turny to do it justice here, but it includes mistaken identities; creepy houses; a mute servant who has visions; a murder plot; a healthy dose of fainting; and "missed" chances at every step. It was quite the page-turner.

Amidst all of this, Collins criticizes the strange marriage laws of Ireland; the stranger marriage laws of Scotland; the plight of a British married woman who must give up all rights and property to her husband, no matter how cruel; and the obsessive male physical fitness craze of the mid-Victorian era.

It starts out a bit slow, but ramps up quickly. The first half has some funny moments (which surprised me), but the second half gets pretty gothic. There's even an Appendix which Collins included, citing the specific marriage laws that he was condemning.



❤️101. An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (1879); fiction

This is one of Trollope's shorter novels dominated by the setting, the Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic coast in County Clare, Ireland. Young Fred Neville is the heir to his uncle's grand estate in southern England. Before settling down with his uncle to learn the ropes of the property, Fred takes a year with his regiment and is stationed in Ireland. There he meets a poor young woman and her fiercely protective mother living in a remote house on the coast, and falls in love, without thinking of the consequences ahead.

This is a sad, sad story and Trollope does not give us any good outcomes. For such a short book, it was very powerful.



102. My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (originally published as "Round the Sofa"), Elizabeth Gaskell (1859); short stories with narrative links.

"Round the Sofa", published in 1859, contained 6 short stories previously published separately, now connected by Gaskell with a narrative link. Gaskell's new narration introduces Mrs Dawson, a disabled woman who must entertain her guests while laying on her sofa. Her Monday "evenings" involve inviting good friends in to share stories.

This volume from Oxford World's Classics has all of the stories except one (which I have in another collection), and also the narrative linking text in the Appendix. I had actually read 4 of the stories before in other volumes. Of the stories I read before, I think the best is "The Poor Clare" about a religious group in Belgium. "The Half Brothers" was a story new to me, about 2 brothers who are not particularly close or equivalent in understanding, and the story that haunts one of them. Overall this is an interesting group of 4 connected short stories and 2 longer stories (almost novellas). I only wish Oxford had published them in their original 1859 form, and not scattered them about.



103. "A Study in Scarlet" from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, Arthur Conan Doyle (1887); short fiction; on audiobook read by Simon Vance

I'm a little late to the party with Sherlock. I had read a few of the stories as a teenager, but that was a life-time ago. "A Study in Scarlet" was a first-time read for me. It introduces the characters of Watson & Holmes, but I was very surprised by some of the content, part of which is set in Utah. Glad to have finally read this classic.



❤️104. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant (1890 & 1886); two novellas

Published in one volume by Persephone Books, these are two novella-length stories from 1890 & 1886 that both deal with marriage "scandals." They could have been treated in a sensational way, but Oliphant presents realistic consequences for the women involved.

Apparently Oliphant was using the model of the relationship between Queen Victoria and her servant John Brown for Mrs. Blencarrow's story. The second story, as expected, is a contemporary re-telling of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II, and Rosamund Clifford, Henry's mistress. In both stories the wronged women are more concerned about the effect upon their children than about their marriages. Typical of Oliphant, both stories end in a rather vague and ambiguous way, letting us muse for ourselves as to how these women will fare in life.

Margaret Oliphant can be hit or miss for me, but I really enjoyed both of these, and appreciated the pairing of the two stories in one volume. The Afterword by Oliphant scholar Merryn Williams was particularly enlightening.

And to end the month, a non-Victorian title:



105. Father, Elizabeth von Arnim (1931); fiction

This was a re-read of one of my favorite novels by Elizabeth von Arnim. Jennifer, 33, has been her father's secretary and household manager in London since her mother's death 12 years earlier. She loves her father but feels trapped in this role. One day her father waltzes in with a new bride, many years younger than Jennifer.

Feeling that "three's a crowd", Jennifer jumps at the opportunity to take her mother's small legacy and strike out on her own. She finds a small country cottage to let from a young vicar, James, and his bossy elder sister, Alice. Jennifer and James begin to understand each other, as they both are attempting to free themselves from over-bearing relations, and the story moves on from there.

Funny, touching, with lovely descriptions of the cottage and surrounding gardens, this book looks at unequal family relationships. But it also touches on the lives of women between the wars who must depend on the support and good graces of a man, whether by marriage or family connection. This is von Arnim at her best, and I am so thankful that the British Library chose to re-publish it in their Women Writers Series.

November reading--very much overdue:



❤️106. Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber (1917); fiction

Loosely based on Ferber's early life, the story begins around 1900 and is a coming of age story of Fanny Brandeis, age 13, living in Winnebago, Wisconsin (based on Ferber's own Appleton, WI). While going to school, Fanny helps out at her parents' struggling general store. After her father dies, her mother Molly takes over the store and makes it a success. We follow Fanny through high school and her years helping her mother run the store. After her mother dies, Fanny sells the store and takes an entry-level job at a large mail-order catalogue firm in Chicago (probably based on Sears Roebuck), where she becomes a rising star. On her journey she struggles with her Jewish self and determining what's really important to her in life. The book ends soon after war is declared in Europe in 1914.

Some have called this an "old-fashioned novel" and I guess it is. I found it readable and light-hearted, but without ignoring some serious themes. Ferber describes lots of America: small town Wisconsin, walking Michigan Avenue in Chicago, spending a day at the Indiana Dunes, watching suffragettes march down Fifth Avenue in New York City and ending the novel in the mountains of Colorado. She describes Jewish life in small-town America (lesser known to us today than big-city Jewish life), and one of the most moving scenes is Fanny's first Yom Kippur fasting after her father's death, attending services and rising to say Kaddish for her father.

I was a bit disappointed with the ending, which seemed unrealistic. A cautionary note: typical of its time, there are some ethnic phrases used that are uncomfortable today, but these are few and far between. I've read three of Ferber's novels: So Big, The Girls and now Fanny Herself, and all three were wonderful reads about strong women in business, trying to make their way in early 20th century America.



107. Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield (1932); fiction

“Thank heaven fasting for a good man’s love”, Rosalind, in As You Like It, Shakespeare.

Monica is 18, an only child and about to embark on her first "season." She has been brought up knowing that in her social class there is only one thing expected of her: to marry "the right sort" and to avoid scandal. She has been protected, coddled and heavily monitored by her parents; her mother is constantly hovering about and occasionally laments that her only child was a daughter instead of a son. As she moves into "society" she struggles with wearing the right clothing, saying the right things to the right people, and taking in her mother's constant advice. When Monica makes an error in judgment with a questionable young man, her life in society begins a gradual decline. We follow Monica through the next several years, eventually leading to an ironic "Happy Ending."

Although the timeline is unclear, the story appears to be set in pre-WWI London. The novel starts out as typical Delafield: light-hearted and even innocuous. Gradually, however, we watch as Monica's independent actions and thoughts whittle away, completely absorbing her mother's expectations and Monica's own acceptance of her restricted life and limited options. For all of the light touch, there is a serious comment on society, independence and the limited choices of young women in the early 20th century.

One thing struck me while reading this is how this novel and my previous book, Fanny Herself, are set in roughly the same time frame (1900-1914) and about young women roughly the same age (18-25), but their class differences make their lives very, very different. As difficult as Fanny's life is in Ferber's book (she must work very, very hard to earn her living and has only herself to rely upon), Fanny has more independence and confidence than poor little rich girl Monica in Delafield's book. Monica's wealth, in essence, limits her opportunities, rather than expands them. What a difference class makes.



108. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", Arthur Conan Doyle (1892); fiction; short stories; audiobook read by Simon Vance

Told in the first person as a memoir of Dr John Watson about his great detective friend. I had read one or two of the stories before, but that was many lifetimes ago. I listened to these on audiobook and they make great listening, as there is so much dialogue in the stories. Plan to listen to the entire canon over the next year or so.



109. The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare (1600); drama

Read this for my RL book club. We had an interesting discussion. I read this way back in high school, but had not re-visited since. Always amazes me how much of the characters, phrases and scenarios are still with us today, centuries later.



❤️110. All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (1972); memoir

Sadly, I'm a little late to the James Herriot love fest--but better late than never! I devoured this memoir it in a few days, and I'm not an animal person at all. It's as much about the people and the place, as it is about the animals, I think. How I have not read this book before, I don't know, but I will definitely be going on with the series. What a delight!



111. The Spinoza of Market Street, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1961); short stories

This is a collection of short stories, mostly set in turn of the century Eastern Europe. The title story was an interesting portrait of a Spinoza scholar, attempting to model his life on Spinoza's philosophy. But his life takes an unpredictable turn, and he falters. Dr Fischelson has been studying a copy of Ethics (in Latin) for 30 years. When he goes to the market, he carries a basket in one hand and a copy of Ethics in the other:

"He knew every proposition, every proof, every corollary, every note by heart. When he wanted to find a particular passage, he generally opened to the place immediately without having to search for it....The truth was that the more Dr. Fischelson studied, the more puzzling sentences, unclear passages and cryptic remarks he found."

Many of the stories are like this--fate, "the Evil One", "Satan", all seem to turn mediocre people into borderline evil ones. This got wearing over time, and I decided to skip the last longish story, "The Destruction of Kreshev", when I realized the narrator is Satan himself. Only one story, "The Beggar Says So", had some gleam of faith in humanity. Overall I was disappointed, as I was hoping for stories more like in A Day of Pleasure, which I loved, or at least something touching, like his novel Shosha, which I read some years ago.



❤️112. The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield (1932); fiction

This is the second in the wonderfully funny Diary of a Provincial Lady series. Like the first book, this book is in diary format. The Provincial Lady has sold her first book and now has a little money to spend, so she decides to rent a flat in London, where she can occasionally flee from her husband, kids and house to do some writing. Her adventures along the way are very funny; I particularly enjoy when she thinks of a much better "come back" remark when it's too late. I especially appreciate all the times she says "yes" to things that she really doesn't want to do or agree to. How often we do this in life, just to be "agreeable." I also loved the part where she goes scrambling around the flat to find enough spare change for carfare. Lots of fun; written the same year as Thank Heaven Fasting (see above), and in a completely different tone.

In addition I DNF'd The Phantom of the Opera by Leroux, which just was way over the top for me. I read about half, and skimmed the rest to get the gist of the story.

I also paused my reading of Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark. After about 100 pages, it was not grabbing me like her other books have, so I decided that perhaps it was the wrong time for this book. I will eventually give it another try when I can give it more concentration and attention.

What's up in December?
Too much, actually.

Currently reading:

--Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie, historical fiction mystery, set in ancient Egypt
--The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope, re-read of the 3rd Palliser series book on audiobook, read by Simon Vance

Completed:
✔️Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery--re-read, started on Nov. 30, which was Montgomery's 150th birthday. I re-read Anne of Green Gables earlier this year, and hope to spend the next 12 months re-reading the series.
✔️Composers Who Changed History by DK Publishing; gorgeous oversize book, covering all the major composers through history
✔️A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair, Dean Street Press find; an enjoyable quick read.
✔️The Sunny Side, A. A. Milne--short stories, poems, essays, etc. Published in 1921, this collection is from Milne's pieces written for Punch, well before he wrote Pooh.
✔️84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff, for RL book club, a re-read
✔️On Freedom, Timothy Snyder--another slow one; I'm skimming some as Snyder seems to wander in this book, unlike his very focused On Tyranny.

Priorities for December:
This month's British Author Challenge (BAC) is to read a book (by a British author) that you acquired in 2024--NO PROBLEM!! Just a few titles to consider:

O, The Brave Music, Dorothy Evelyn Smith (British Library Women Writers Series)
The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, Enid Blyton (children's vintage)
The Light Years, Elizabeth Jane Howard, the first in the Cazalet trilogy
No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym
Rhododendron Pie, Margery Sharp, Dean Street Press find
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, Barbara Comyns, nyrb
Green for Danger, Christianna Brand, British Library Crime series
Nothing Venture, Patricia Wentworth, Dean Street Press
Arrest the Bishop?, Winifred Peck, Dean Street Press

Other priorities:
Felix Holt, George Eliot, for Monthly Authors
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger, Midwest author for the AAC

Holiday re-reads:
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, on audiobook, read by Jim Dale

Other possibilities:
They Knew Mr Knight, Dorothy Whipple, Persephone Books
So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell, re-read

No lack of choices....

December reading so far....as I've finished 5 titles, I thought I'd post them now.



113. Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery (1909); fiction; re-read

Not the same vibe as the first book, but still enjoyable. I liked Anne and the older characters, especially Miss Lewis and Mr Harrison, but I didn't get on with the portrayal of the two young boys, Davy and Paul. They didn't seem real to me.



❤️114. Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing (2024); nonfiction, biographies, reference

This is a massive, coffee-table style book with glorious photographs, insets, timelines, etc. about the major composers, up to the present day. It took me 6 months, reading a little at a time, to finally finish the book, but I think it was well worth it. The composers are organized by year of birth (earliest to latest). It's probably not meant to be read cover-to-cover, but that's what I did and in the end, it was interesting to understand who was contemporary to whom. Often in these types of works, composers are grouped by country or style (Baroque, Romantic, etc.), but this strict chronological order shed some different light.

Each entry has a short biography (either 2-page or 4-page) which includes an overview of their life, their musical education and their works. There are sidebars that give added perspective on the era. The books are divided into centuries, and at the end of each group, there are very short bios (a few paragraphs) of lesser-known composers from that year range. I quibbled with the book's choices here; some of the "featured" composers were less familiar to me than some of the "minor" composers. But overall this is a very professional and well thought out reference work.



115. A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair (1957); fiction

Charming quick read set in a southern English village post WWII. Maud, just out of secretarial school, comes to live with her father's Cousin Alice and her fussy friend Miss Conway, to take a job as a "secretary" to a curmudgeonly old neighbor living on his ancient deteriorating estate. This book is full of misunderstandings, both humorous and not so humorous, but it all comes right at the end. There's not much of a story, there's a little romance, but what keeps the book going is Elizabeth Fair's ear for dialogue and observations of small-town characters, which moves the book along and kept me turning pages. Probably won't appeal to everyone, but I enjoyed my time with it.



116. The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne (1921); short pieces

A. A. Milne contributed humorous articles to Punch for many years. In 1921 (some years before Winnie-the-Pooh), he collected in this volume some his favorite articles from 1912 through 1921. Some of these were fun; some were just silly. My favorites were "The Arrival of Blackman's Warbler" (bluffing your way through bird calls), "The Complete Dramatist" (how to write a play) and "A Poetry Recital" (attending a poetry reading). A quick and diverting read.



117. On Freedom, Timothy Snyder (2024); nonfiction; political philosophy

I was looking forward to this book. I thought Snyder's On Tyranny was excellent. But this book was a disappointment. Snyder starts out with a structure: that Freedom needs these components: Sovereignty, Unpredictability, Mobility, Factuality, Solidarity. In each section he attempts to explore these concepts as they relate to freedom. But there is a lot of rambling, reminiscing, and philosophical musings that went way over my head. It was exactly the opposite of the very focused and concise On Tyranny.

I did read half the book, but then realized I wasn't absorbing even one-quarter of what he was trying to get across, so I skimmed the rest of the book. Perhaps this will be more accessible for other readers or maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for this type of book right now. I feel like I read enough to count it as "read" and I don't plan to re-visit any time soon, if ever, unless he comes up with a much shorter and more focused version.

Currently reading:
The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope (on audiobook)
Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie

Coming Up:
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger
Felix Holt, the Radical, George Eliot
O, The Brave Music, Dorothy Evelyn Smith (British Library Women Writers Series0
No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym (re-read)