Kathy's (kac522) 24 in 2024 Challenge

A Pleasant Corner, 1865
John Calcott Horsley (1817-1903), British

Welcome to my "24 in 2024" Category Challenge

This year I am striving to read 24 books in 6 different categories. In order to get close to 24 in each category, if a book fits in more than one category, I'll be counting it in both places. Some of these categories are expanded from years past.

One of my major goals is to concentrate on reading Virago and Persephone editions and other editions of books by Virago/Persephone authors that are on my TBR. Each of my 6 Challenges will feature a Virago book cover from my TBR that fits that Challenge.

My 75ers thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356771

Tracking my "Roots": books I've read that have been on my shelves from before 2023:



On to the Challenges!

Quiz: Can you identify the VMC book cover with the above painting?
Answer: The Perpetual Curate, Margaret Oliphant

"Breakfast Piece", Herbert Badham (1899-1961), Australian
Art Gallery of New South Wales

I. 24 Virago and Persephone books from my TBR
My TBR currently includes 60-70 Virago (V) and Persephone (P) books, as well as books in other editions by Virago authors (think Edith Wharton and Willa Cather here). So reading at least 24 this year should put a dent in these.

P 1. A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (1934); Root from 2023
V 2. The Blush, Elizabeth Taylor
V 3. Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
P 4. Young Anne, Dorothy Whipple (1927); Root from 2023
P 5. High Wages, Dorothy Whipple (1930); Root from 2021
V 6. Roman Fever, Edith Wharton (1899-1934); short stories; Root from 2022
V 7. Celia, E. H. Young (1937); Root from 2020
V 8. Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane (1941); Root from 2017
P 9. Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (1932); Root from 2023
V10. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); Root from 2020; re-read
V11. The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor (1924); Root from 2023; Penguin edition of Virago author
V12. A Particular Place, Mary Hocking (1989); Root from 2020
P13. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant, two novellas (1890 & 1886); Root from 2023
V14. Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield (1932); Root from 2020

"At the Dressing Table", Harold Harvey (1874-1941), British
Cyfartha Castle Museum, Wales

II. 24 books in my "Complete the Author" challenge
I hope to read at least 2 books from each of these authors in 2024.

**Elizabeth Bowen

Willa Cather
Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor (2023)--biography
My Mortal Enemy (1926)

Agatha Christie
Evil Under the Sun (1941)
N or M? (1941)
The Moving Finger (1942)
Five Little Pigs (1942)
Towards Zero (1944)
Death Comes as the End (1945)

George Eliot*

Elizabeth Gaskell*
North and South (Norton Critical Edition), (1855) RR
"The Manchester Marriage" (1858) from Right At Last and other tales
"Mr Harrison's Confessions" (1851) from The Cranford Chronicles, RR
Sylvia's Lovers (1863)
Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (2011); short biography
My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (Round the Sofa) (1859); stories with narrative frame

Thomas Hardy

**Winifred Holtby*

D. E. Stevenson
The Fair Miss Fortune (2011 post; orig written 1938)
Music in the Hills (1950)
Winter and Rough Weather (1951)
Five Windows (1953)

**Elizabeth Taylor
The Blush and Other Stories (orig publ 1958; this VMC edition 1987)
Angel (1957)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1971); re-read

Anthony Trollope
Nina Balatka (1867), re-read
The Way We Live Now (1875)
Can You Forgive Her? (1865) re-read
Phineas Finn (1869), re-read
An Eye for an Eye (1879)
Christmas at Thompson Hall (1882), re-read
The Eustace Diamonds (1872), re-read

Elizabeth von Arnim
Father (1931); re-read

Edith Wharton
Roman Fever, Edith Wharton (1899-1934); short stories
Ethan Frome (1911); re-read

Dorothy Whipple
Young Anne (1927)
High Wages (1930)
Greenbanks (1932)

**E. H. Young
Celia (1937)

Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young, Briganti & Mezei (2006); library book; literary analysis of E. H. Young.

*For these authors I only have 2 books left to read.
**Will concentrate on these authors, as I failed to read any of their books in 2023.

Under the Cherry Tree", Sir John Lavery (1856-1841), Irish
Ulster Museum, Belfast
oldest VMC on my TBR, acquired 2015


"The Mirror 1900", William Orpen (1878-1931), British
Tate Gallery, London
newest VMC on my TBR, acquired 2023

III. 24 of the Oldest and Newest books on my TBR

I started recording my books in 2009 when I joined LT. I plan to read 12 of the oldest books that I've recorded on LT. And to give myself some incentive, I'm giving myself permission to read 12 books that I acquired in 2023. Anyway I look at it, it's a win-win.

Oldest
Feb 1. Telling Tales, ed. Nadine Gordimer (2004); short stories by various authors, acquired before 2009; I read 3 of the stories and tried a few others, but decided to DNF the rest. Of the 3 stories I read, "The Age of Lead" by Margaret Atwood was brilliant.
Apr 2. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1875); acquired in 2011
Sep 3. By and About Women: An Anthology of Short Fiction, BEth Kline Schneiderman, editor (1973); acquired before 2009--probably 1980s.

Newest--acquired 2023 and 2024
Jan 1. A London Child of the 1870s, Molly Hughes (1934); acquired 2023
Feb 2. Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie (1941); acquired 2023
Feb 3. The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele (1976); acquired 2024
Apr 4. Music in the Hills, D. E. Stevenson (1950); acquired 2023
May 5. They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell (1937); acquired 2023
May 6. The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie (1942); acquired 2024
Jun 7. Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis (2013); audiobook acquired 2023
July 8. Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023); acquired 2024
Aug 9. Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (1932); acquired 2023
Aug 10. The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor (1924); acquired 2023
Sep 11. Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918 (1998); acquired 2024
Sep 12. A Bad Business: Essential Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky; translated from the Russian by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater; (2022--originally published 18xx); acquired 2023
Sep 13. Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner; acquired 2023
Sep 14. The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe; acquired 2023
Sep 15. At Freddies, Penelope Fitzgerald (1982); acquired 2023
Oct 16. Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (2011); acquired 2024
Oct 17. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (1879); acquired 2023
Oct 18. Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins (1870); acquired 2024
Oct 19. My Lady Ludlow and other Stories (Round the Sofa), Elizabeth Gaskel (1859); acquired 2024
Oct 20. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1 "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), A Conan
Doyle; acquired 2023
Oct 21. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant, two novellas (1890 & 1886); acquired 2023
Nov 22. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1 "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1892), A Conan Doyle; acquired 2023
Nov 23. The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare (1600); acquired 2024
Nov 24. All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (1972); acquired 2023
Nov 25. The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield (1932); acquired 2024
Dec 26. Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery (1909); acquired 2023; re-read
Dec 27. A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair (1957); acquired 2024
Dec 28. The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne (1921) acquired 2024

"The Fan", James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902), French
Sotheby's, London
Short stories

IV. 24 Short works: short stories, novellas, plays and essays

I have over 50 collections of short stories, plays and essays on my TBR. I did read a fair number in 2023, but need to do better in 2024.

1. The Blush and Other Stories (orig publ 1958; this VMC edition 1987)
2. "John Bull's Other Island", George Bernard Shaw (1904); a play contained in Modern Irish Drama
3. "Pygmalion", G B Shaw (1914); a play contained in George Bernard Shaw's Plays: Norton, along with Preface and Epilogue by Shaw
4. Shaw on Music, G B Shaw (1955); essays
DNF The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories, Alun Richards, ed. (1988); read 6 of the 24 short stories
5. A Day of Pleasure, I. B. Singer (1969); series of short memoirs from childhood; children's/YA
6. A Bad Business: Essential Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky; translated from the Russian by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater; (2022; originally published 18xx)
7. A Month in the Country, Ivan Turgenev (1855); a play translated from the Russian in 1981 by Isaiah Berlin
8. Great Short Stories by American Women, Candace Ward, editor (1996)
9. An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (1879)
10. My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories, Elizabeth Gaskell (1859)
11. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant; two novellas (1890 & 1886); acquired 2023
DNF: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, K A Porter; I read 2 stories and that was enough.
12. The Spinoza of Market Street, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1961); short stories; Root from 2016
13. The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne (1921)
14. Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories, Anthony Trollope (collection published 2014; stories range from 1866-1882); Root from 2016

Vogue cover May 1929
For the British Author Challenge (E. M. Delafield in November)

V. 24 Books for Challenges on LT and elsewhere

I'm scaling back my challenges this year, but I will still do a few here and there. I also participate in a RL book club. I'll record these here.

RKIT = LT RandomKIT
75NF = LT 75ers Nonfiction Challenge
AAC = LT 75ers American Authors Challenge
BAC = LT 75ers British Authors Challenge
RTTM = LT Reading Through Time monthly challenge
VIRAA = LT All August/All Virago
VIR24 = LT Virago 2024 Monthly Authors
VIRCHR = LT Virago Chronological Group Reads with Liz
MA = LT Monthly Authors
CDalong = #Dickensalong (booktube)
JAJ = Jane Austen July (booktube)
VICT = Victober (Victorian October--booktube)
OCC = My RL Book Club

1. RKIT: Jan: Birds: Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce, library book
2. 75NF: Jan: Prizes: Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Root from 2021
3. OCC: Jan: North and South (Norton Critical Edition), Elizabeth Gaskell; Root from 2022; RR
4. BAC & RTTM: Jan: The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle, Root from 2022
5. VIR24: Feb: The Blush and Other Stories (orig publ 1958; this VMC edition 1987)
6. CDalong: Feb: Bleak House; audiobook; Root; RR
7. MA: Feb: "John Bull's Other Island", George Bernard Shaw (1904); a play contained in Modern Irish Drama
8. CDalong: Feb: Hard Times (1854); audiobook; Root; RR
9. RTTM, OCC & RKIT: Feb: Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883); Root; RR
10. MA: Feb: Pygmalion, GB Shaw; Root; RR
11. VIR24: Feb: Angel, Elizabeth Taylor (1957)
12. MA: Mar: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); Root
13. RTTM: Mar: Epidemics: A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (1722); Root
14. OCC: Mar: The Quiet American, Graham Greene (1955)
15. CDalong: Mar: Little Dorrit (1857); audiobook; Root; RR
16. RTTM, AAC: Apr: John Adams, David McCullough (2002); Root; audiobook
17. MA: Apr: Wilkie Collins: Mad Monkton and Other Stories (1881)
18. BAC: Apr: The Way We Live Now, Trollope, Root
19. BAC: Apr: Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977); Root; RR
20. OCC: Apr: "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles (ca. 432 B.C.E.)
21. MA: Apr: Wilkie Collins: The Dead Secret (1857); Root
22. AAC: Apr: Nonfiction: How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1890); Root
23. RKIT: May: Art/Architecture: 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School, Frederick and Mehta (2018)
24. AAC: May: They Came Like Swallows, William Maxwell (1937); Root
25. RKIT: May: Art/Architecture: Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland (2000); Root
26. 75NF: May: The West: The Silverado Squatters, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
27. CDalong: May: A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens (1859); audiobook; Root
28. BAC: Jun: The Prussian Officer and other stories, D. H. Lawrence (1914)
29. JAJ: Jul: Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (2023)
30. JAJ: Jul: Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811); Root; Re-read
31. MA: Jul: Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023); acquired 2024
32. VIR24: Jul: Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane (1941); Root from 2017
33. RTTM: Jul: spies: Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud (2014); Root from 2019
34. VIRAA Aug: Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple (1932); Root from 2023
35. VIRAA Aug: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); Root from 2020; re-read
36. RKIT & RTTM Aug: The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin (2021); Root from 2022
37. CDalong Aug: Our Mutual Friend, Dickens (1865); audiobook read by Simon Vance; Root from 2009; re-read
38. OCC Aug: The Feather Thief, Kirk W Johnson (2018), library book
39. MA Aug: The Cross of Redemption, James Baldwin (2011); Root from 2019
40. RTTM Sep: The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (1951); Root from 2019
41. BAC Sep: 1980s: Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner (1984); Root from 2023; re-read from 1996
42. BAC Sep: 1980s: A Particular Place, Mary Hocking (1989); Root from 2020
43. OCC Sep: The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (1908); library book; and along with the audiobook, read by Barbara Caruso.
44. BAC Sep: 1980s: At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald (1982); Root from 2023
45. AAC: Sep: Immigrant authors: Wednesday's Child: Stories (2023); library book
46. VICT: Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Shelston (2011)
47. VICT: The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1854)
48. VICT: Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson (1879); Root from 2023
49. VICT: Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope (1869); re-read, Root from 2014, audiobook
50. VICT: Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins (1870); acquired 2024
51. VICT: An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (1879); Root from 2015
52. VICT: My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (Round the Sofa), Elizabeth Gaskell (1859); acquired 2024
53. VICT: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1 "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), A Conan Doyle; acquired 2023
54. VICT: The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant; two novellas (1890 & 1886); acquired 2023
55. VIR24: Oct: Father, Elizabeth von Arnim (1931); re-read; Root from 2021
56. AAC: Jewish authors: Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber (1917); Root from 2021
57. BAC: Nov: Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield (1932); Root from 2020
58. OCC: Nov: The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare (1600); acquired 2024
59. RTTM and RKIT: Nov: All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (1972); Root from 2023
60. AAC: Jewish authors: The Spinoza of Market Street, I. B. Singer (1961); Root from 2016; short stories
61. BAC and RTTM: The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield (1932); acquired 2024; re-read
62. BAC: Dec: Acquired 2024: A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair (1957)
63. BAC: Dec: Acquired 2024: The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne (1921)
64. AAC: Dec: Midwest: A Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter (1909); Root from 2022

"Mrs Mable Whitehead", Margaret Foreman (1951-), British
private collection
A possible re-read in 2024

VI. 24 Classics and Re-reads (RR)

I read lots of classics and I re-read lots of classics. This category will probably go way beyond 24.

RR 1. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff (1970); Root from 2021; re-read from 2021
RR 2. North and South (Norton Critical Edition), Elizabeth Gaskell (1855); Root from 2022--this edition; re-read from 2022
RR 3. Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853); audiobook read by Simon Vance; Root from 2017; re-read from 2017
RR 4. Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope (1867); Root from 2019; re-read from 2022
5. "John Bull's Other Island", George Bernard Shaw (1904); a play contained in Modern Irish Drama
RR 6. Hard Times, Charles Dickens (1854); audiobook read by Martin Jarvis; Root from before 2024; re-read from 2008
RR 7. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883); Root from 2017; re-read from 2017
RR 8. Lady Susan, Jane Austen (1871); on audiobook, Root; re-read from 2023
RR 9. Pygmalion, G B Shaw; Root; re-read from 1970s?
RR 10. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (1973); library book; re-read from 2004
11. Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); Root
RR 12. Little Dorrit (1857); audiobook; Root; re-read from 2021
RR 13. Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym (1977); Root; re-read from 2013
RR 14. Oedipus the King, Sophocles; play; re-read from 2013
RR 15. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813); audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson; Root; re-read from 2023
RR 16. Washington Square, Henry James (1881); Root; re-read from 2023
RR 17. A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens (1859); audiobook read by Simon Vance; Root; re-read from 2022
RR 18. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911); audiobook read by Finola Hughes; Root; re-read from 2023
19. The Prussian Officer and other stories, D. H. Lawrence (1914); Root
RR 20. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811); Root from 2012 (this edition); re-read from 2008
RR 21. Little Women: An Annotated Edition, Louisa May Alcott (1869); re-read from 1960s
RR 22. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (1971); Root; re-read from 2013
RR 23. The Daughter of Time, Josephine Time (1951); Root; re-read from 1987
RR 24. Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner (1984); Root; re-read from 1996
RR 25. Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope (1865); Root; re-read from 2012
RR 26. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton (1991); Root; re-read from 1991
27. The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe (1789); Root
RR 28. The Annotated Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (1908); library book and audiobook
29. The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge (1854); library book
RR 30. Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope (1869); re-read from 2015 on audiobook; Root from 2014
31. Man and Wife, Wilkie Collins (1870); acquired 2024
32. An Eye for an Eye, Anthony Trollope (1879); Root from 2015
33. My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories (Round the Sofa), Elizabeth Gaskell (1859); short stories with frame
34. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1 "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), A Conan Doyle; acquired 2023
35. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant; two novellas (1890 & 1886); acquired 2023
RR 36. Father, Elizabeth von Arnim (1931); re-read; Root from 2021
37. Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber (1917); Root from 2021
38. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle (1892)
RR 39. The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare (1600)
RR 40. The Provincial Lady in London, E. M. Delafield (1932)
RR 41. Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery (1909)
RR 42. Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories, Anthony Trollope (collection published 2014; stories range from 1866-1882); Root from 2016
RR 43. The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope (1872)

"Lady in a Black Dress", James Peter Quinn (1869-1951), Australian
Queensland Art Gallery

VII. Everything Else

The perpetual catch-all category!

1. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (2020); library book
2. Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy, Theodore Jones (1997); library book
3. Home/Land: A Memoir of Departure and Return, Rebecca Mead (2022); library book
4. My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (1938); library book
5. Q's Legacy, Helene Hanff (1985); library book
--- Readings on Hard Times, Jill Karson, editor (2002); library book; DNF--read intro & 6 essays
6. Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi (2023); library book; graphic/comic strips
7. The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith (2024); library book
8. Picture Miss Seeton, Heron Carvic (1968); library book
9. Greenery Street, Denis Mackail (1925); library book
10. Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young, Briganti & Mezei (2006); library book
11. The Little Virtues: Essays, Natalia Ginzburg (2016); library book, essays
DNF The Phantom of the Opera, G Leroux (1910); library book for OCC; skimmed the last half
12. On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder (2024); library book

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

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!

I will be avidly following (and put on a kevlar vest whenever I drop in for the BBs that will come flying)! Good luck with your goals, and I love those wonderful covers.

Still trying to add to my green VMC collection - so hard to find though! I just love looking at the covers. Definitely following along.
Happy reading in 2024!

Love the Virago theme! I am also doing 6 categories of 24! :)

>11 MissWatson: LOL! Just trying to picture you in that vest...thanks for stopping by!

>12 JayneCM: They ARE hard to find...I only found 3 last year. But I love them, even as the pages get old and brown. Watch these pages for any finds in 2024.

>13 christina_reads: I'm being very optimistic with 6 x 24....I'll only get close by double-counting some titles, I'm sure. Good luck with your challenges, too.

>4 kac522: Good idea! Happy reading in 2024.

Enjoy your 2024 challenge!

Wonderful theme! I love Virago books too and the covers are so beautiful.

>12 JayneCM: Fingers crossed we both have some finds in 2024. Remember the olden days, where you could find them on eBay for next to nothing? Not any more!

>15 pamelad: Thanks for stopping by! Last year I picked 24 books that had been on my shelves for a long time and I did not get through them. This way, at least half the books are ones I just picked up, so I still have some enthusiasm (I hope) for them.

>16 DeltaQueen50: I will, thank you! A year of good reading to you, too.

>17 VivienneR: Yes, I love the covers of the old green ones and I wanted to highlight the artists, too.

>18 JayneCM: Maybe--went to a used book store today--they had only 1 and it's one I already own--boo-hoo.

Great theme! Have fun in 2024 :)

>20 rabbitprincess: Thanks for visiting! If nothing else, the book covers will be wonderful...

Hope you have a good year reading.

Love the book covers. >7 kac522: is my favorite. Good luck with your 2024 reading.

>22 dudes22: Thank you, and to you as well.

>23 lowelibrary: Isn't that an interesting portrait? It's the artist's grandmother. And happy reading to you, too.

>19 kac522: That's a shame. :(
Our discussion must have been good luck for me as today I found Sunflower by Rebecca West in pristine condition, looks unread. Hopefully the good luck will continue!

>25 JayneCM: Ooh, good for you!

Oh, what wonderful covers! I'll be following along here, your categories look so good!

>27 MissBrangwen: Thanks--you can't go wrong with the old green Virago covers. I'm so sorry they gave those up, and as Jayne says, they're harder and harder to find these days. Sometimes the cover is more appealing than the book ;)

Good luck with your 2024 reading. I'm sure I will be wounded by several BB's!

Both your covers and your categories are so appealing! I'm looking forward to following your reading this year.

Do you ever buy the American black Viragos? I have several of those.

>30 NinieB: Hi Ninie! Yes, I have 4 black ones, although I rarely find them:



I've read the 2 E. H. Young novels, but not Rebecca West or May Sinclair.

I have a number of the "later" green ones, like this:



I also have a newer "in-between" green one--I'm not sure what to call it:



The border and spine are dark green, but the font and picture style are different. Haven't read this one yet. I don't believe I have any others in this same style.

I had a huge book haul today, courtesy of LTer Liz1564 (Elaine), who graciously sold me 11 Persephone titles:

Elizabeth Cambridge, Hostages to Fortune, #41
E M Delafield, Consequences, #13
Molly Hughes, A London Child of the 1870's, #61
Katherine Mansfield, Montana Stories, #25
Mrs Oliphant, The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow, #89

And these Dorothy Whipple titles:
--Someone at a Distance, #3
--They Knew Mr Knight, #19
--They Were Sisters, #56
--Greenbanks, #95
--Every Good Deed and Other Stories, #118
--Young Anne, #127

Elaine has a few titles left. If you are interested, see her post here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/355234

>32 kac522: Oooh! I have read Someone at a Distance and I own Young Anne. Looking forward to reviews!

>33 NinieB: Since we live in the same city (Chicago), I was lucky enough to briefly meet Elaine and pick these up myself. She even gave them to me in a Persephone bag! I feel very fortunate and look forward to all of them. I'm especially excited for the Molly Hughes book.

>33 NinieB: I now have 8 Dorothy Whipple titles, and I think I'm going to read them in publication order, so that means Young Anne is the oldest title I have. Definitely a book for 2024!

>34 kac522: That sounds like a lovely way to acquire your new Persephones. My first two I ordered from England and since then I have been able to buy a few at the big local book sale.

>35 kac522: A readalong to break up the Dickens! I have just reminded myself that I also own Whipple's The Priory. I have a reading plan for my persephones for 2024, basically one a month.

>36 NinieB: Not a bad idea. I think I'll add her to >3 kac522:, my Author Challenge. I may not have access to the titles I'm missing, but it will keep the books I do own front & center and less likely to get lost on the TBR.

I love the way you notice and post about book covers. I read exclusively (almost) ebooks or audiobooks and never even notice the covers. I must become more aware!

That is exciting about the Persephones! I got about 8 of them by ordering from England, but their shipping has gotten prohibitively expensive in the past couple years. Some day I'll make a trip over there and buy out the store! I've really enjoyed every title I've read.

>38 Tess_W: I just love the Virago covers, Tess. It's one of the main reasons that I collect the old ones; I'm not as much a fan of the newer ones. I was inspired by Jane (BeyondEdenRock) in the Virago group in 2022. She did a whole series featuring the original art of many Virago covers, with a short description of the book. The first thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/336441

>39 japaul22: I was fortunate to be able to pick up the books from Elaine--she lives downtown so it was easy. I'm particularly excited about all the Dorothy Whipple titles. A few years ago Elaine gave me 20 Virago titles, and I'm still slowly making my way through those.

I enjoyed seeing all the book covers. Hope you have fun with your 2024 reading.

>41 hailelib: Thanks! If I read mostly off my shelves, I'll be very happy.

I just noticed that the cover of the book I'm currently reading is by the same artist in >5 kac522:, James Jacques Joseph Tissot:



Detail from The Picnic.

The woman could be the same model in both pictures.

I ended up looking through Elaine's list of Persephones that she was selling and buying quite a few of them! In fact, I think I ended up taking all the grey covers that she had left. I just couldn't pass them up since it's so expensive to acquire them new right now. Thanks for mentioning it on your thread - I had missed her post in the Virago group. I'm so excited!

>43 japaul22: Yes, she's really trying to downsize. She forgot to include the bookmarks, so today I got an envelope filled with the bookmarks! So don't be shy if your books don't have them--she definitely wants to forward those on, too.

Goodness, you have quite a few challenges this year, and 24 in each! I don't think I could complete so many. If I get to 50 total this year, I'll be happy. Good luck with all the challenges; it looks like a great reading year!

>45 atozgrl: Oh, no worries, Irene! I'm double- and triple-counting wherever I can!! I actually don't think I'll make 24x6 anyway, but I like the "24" idea. Really, until I retired, I was lucky to get in 25 books a year. My reading exploded once I retired.

I was also thinking about finding books published and authors born in 1924 and 1824, as well as 1974 (50 years) and 1874 (150 years). How's that for another challenge?

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

✔ North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)--re-read for my RL book club and I'm presenting the book (meaning I give the background info and come up with the discussion questions).

Other possibilities for January include:
✔ 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 Realized this is 2nd in a trilogy and haven't read book #1! Don't own #1 so will need to find it, either used or library copy
--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

>46 kac522: That certainly sounds like an interesting additional challenge! Go for it if you've got the time and interest to research it!

Oh, some good reading going on there in >47 kac522:, plus, I took 3 BB's!

>47 kac522: So many good reading plans! I'm also a huge fan of North and South, both the book and the miniseries adaptation. And I'm intrigued by Index, A History of the!

>49 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess--I hope to get to most of them.

>50 christina_reads: Christina, I love N&S and the miniseries, too. It's my selection for my RL book club, and no one else has read it, so I'm a little nervous. So I hope it will go OK.

My sister-in-law used to work as an indexer at a small publisher and so the indexing book intrigues me, too.

Hello and finally dropping in to say Happy 2024 reading! I congratulate you on achieving your goals in 2023, and I look forward to more insights into your 2024 books.

BTW, how is Bleak House as an audiobook?

>52 threadnsong: Thanks for stopping by! I love Bleak House as an audiobook, but I have read it (print) a couple of times and seen the adaptation a couple of times. I am much better with audiobooks as re-reads; that way, if I miss something or get distracted for a moment, it's no big deal as I already know the story.

The narrator for mine is Simon Vance, and he does great voices and characterizations for all the parts. And for me he does meaningful readings of the narrative (non-dialogue) portions. It's going slowly (I only listen in the car), but I'm enjoying it.

Definitely following along! Have a happy reading year!

>54 beebeereads: And you as well! I'm in the middle of re-reading both Bleak House and North and South, so it's all good!

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
Carnegie Libraries Across America, Theodore Jones

Other library books:
Esther Waters, George Moore
Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, Benjamin Taylor

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
Evil Under the Sun, Agatha Christie
Nina Balatka, Anthony Trollope--a re-read for Liz's Trollope Group read
Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
The Blush, Elizabeth Taylor--short stories
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
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.

>56 kac522: I often alternate long book, short book, etc. It seems I read "more" as even in pages, and pay attention better!

>57 Tess_W: Yes, I agree. Also, I think finishing a short book gives me a sense of accomplishment, which in turn gives me incentive to tackle a long book. I guess whatever works to trick my brain...

I generally read one physical book at a time. That said, of course, last night I started reading a little out of 4(!) new books--2 short story collections, 1 nonfiction and 1 Agatha Christie. None of them are long--I'll probably concentrate on the mystery first, the nonfiction 2nd and pick at the stories here & there throughout the month.

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 an 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. My edition from 1965 has some wonderful water-color illustrations by N. C. Wyeth:



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.

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.

>59 kac522: Our district attorney office (Shawnee, OK) was originally a Carnegie Library building.

>59 kac522: Yes, so many different purposes. My hometown built a new library in 1958 and the Carnegie Library is now a nail salon....go figure!

>58 kac522: I generally have 3 going: a tree book, an ebook, and an audio book. Depends upon my mood, which one I pick up. Always listen when I drive and before bed, though.

>62 Tess_W: Yes, I usually have an audiobook going in the car, too. I only listen before bed when I'm so near the end of the book that I've _got_ to finish it!

I'm another one who generally has 3 books going. I love the phrase "a tree book" and am going to adopt it going forward. I mostly listen in the car and if my walking partner isn't walking, I'll listen while I walk.

Taking a hit for the Carnegie Libraries book. Off to see if it's available at the library.

ETA: Yup - it was. Put on order.

>64 dudes22: I hope you like the Carnegie book. His grant programs helped make a town public library something that even smaller communities could afford. Carnegie granted funds to build the structure, but only after the communities provided the land, agreed to buy the books and furniture, hire & pay staff and commit to ongoing support each year. It paved the way for public funds for libraries, something that we take for granted today, but wasn't common prior to Carnegie's program.

>65 kac522: "...public funds for libraries, something that we take for granted today"

Taking funding for granted may be a mistake. When Mike Huckabee was Governor of Arkansas he stopped state funding to public libraries. His attitude was that if a city/town wanted a library they should fund it. I was on the Board of our library, we were the second largest city in the state, and overnight we lost $350,000 in annual funds. We had funding from property tax as many libraries do, but we still had to lay off part time employees and reduce hours. When the next Governor came into office he restored the money immediately. By that time some (I hope I can find the number) of the small libraries had to close because they didn't have a tax base large enough to provide 100% of funding. I worry about continued funding, a lot of people think libraries aren't needed because after all, we have the internet!

>66 clue: It should be said that back when Carnegie was starting these libraries, there wasn't even property tax revenue allocated for most libraries. Some communities couldn't accept Carnegie's grant because they couldn't get any sort of public funding approved at all.

I feel (for the time being anyway) our libraries in Illinois are "safe", but it's not true everywhere. Thanks for the reminder of the need to keep vigilant.

>66 clue: - We had a similar situation at the library my sister works at. There was a big controversy that went on for many years. Although taxpayers had approved a bond for a new library, when a new town council was elected, they tried to stop the purchase of the new building and when they found what the library had in reserves, they cut the funding for the library basically in half. In a domino effect, the state library board cut funding because they only support in a proportional amount. Luckily a new town council was elected, and funding restored, and the new library had a ribbon cutting and opened last weekend. And this was a library that was in the running when the Reader's Digest (?) had a competition for best small library in the country. And, of course, none of the town council at the time used the library.

>65 kac522: - I think that the library in a town I used to live in might have been a Carnegie library which is one of the reasons I'm interested in the book. I've already requested it through our ILL system. Might have it by the end of next week.

>68 dudes22: There's a list here (click on your state to see the list): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Carnegie_libraries_in_the_United_States

I think it might be more up-to-date than the book, which is from 1996.

Our library was originally a Carnegie library too. It's been in two other locations since those days though.

>69 kac522: - Looks like the only one in my state is a university library that Carnegie contributed money towards.

>59 kac522: BB for me for the Carnegie Libraries...just put it on hold. Thanks!

>72 beebeereads: Yep, it's an interesting book, with lots of pictures and anecdotes, and it has a complete list of all the libraries at the end.

I posted this on the "This Just In" thread, but thought I'd share it here, too:

I don't usually post my acquisitions, but I had to share this story.

Today I went to Powell's Books Chicago on 57th Street in Hyde Park, near the University of Chicago. It is a used bookstore and years ago was affiliated with the Powell's of Portland, but no longer.

As I was browsing I saw this book, with cover facing out, on the shelves:



I pulled it off the shelf, to get a better look at the title: It All Adds Up by Saul Bellow. But as I was looking at the photograph, I had a weird experience, because those shelves looked eerily familiar. I looked at the photo, and then looked up to my right, and saw the exact same shelves AND that big heating duct up on the ceiling, with some very similar strips hanging down!

I was in the EXACT same aisle as in the photograph! I checked with the staff, and indeed the photograph was of aisle #6 in the store and the man in the photograph is Saul Bellow. I don't know what year the photo was taken, but it was probably in the 1990s. And I was standing in just about the same place as Bellow, bending over the stacks. So, of course, I had to buy the book.....

The Northcote Library in Melbourne, Australia, was a Carnegie library. There's a plaque on the Northcote Town Hall, where the library used to be.

>75 pamelad: Yes, it's important to recognize the Carnegie helped to build over 3,000 libraries throughout the world. Scotland, Carnegie's original homeland, has quite a few. This particular book only includes libraries in the United States, however.

Oof--message deleted--didn't mean to post >74 kac522: twice!

There was so much great discussion about the Carnegie libraries here that I took a tour down the rabbit hole to see the libraries in Georgia. The Atlanta branches were mostly torn down, and one is now a bank. I had no idea Andrew Carnegie started this trend, worldwide, of public libraries! We are all richer for his gifts.

>74 kac522: That's amazing! Did you get someone to help you re-create the photo? :D

>78 threadnsong: Yes, I think we are, and also that we recognize that small communities 1) deserve a library and 2) it is in the public interest to fund it with public funds. Up to this point, most American libraries were privately funded.

It was a rabbit-hole that got me to this book: in the Fall I read Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury set the book based on his hometown of Waukegan, IL, and part of the story involves the Carnegie library in the town. This was based on a real Carnegie Library in Waukegan where Bradbury spent many, many hours as a kid. That building is still standing (although there is a new library), and it is in the process of being renovated as a Waukegan History Museum. I drove up to Waukegan to check it out, and that got me thinking about the whole project, what they looked like, etc.

>79 rabbitprincess: Ha! Never even thought of it, although I guess I can always go back and do that on my next visit. I am going to put a note in my book to remind myself of the whole thing. I actually hadn't planned on buying the book--I put it back on the shelf--and then decided it was just too good to pass up.

>68 dudes22: I remember when we were living in SC the branch library for the northern portion of the county was in a storefront, bursting at the seams. A campaign was started to raise funds for building a new branch library. I can't recall if it was in print or video, but someone who objected to building a new library said "I don't see why we need a new library. I don't use it."

Uh...I'd be ashamed if I'd said that.

>74 kac522: That's an amazing story!

>82 MissWatson: Yeah, it is, but the more I think about it, the more I'm certain the store placed that book in that particular spot on purpose. It was in the middle of the "G" fiction section, yet it's a collection of essays by Bellow. Anyway, it felt amazing at the time and I was a sucker for their strategic book placement. I'm sure the essays will hold up. Plus, these days, you never know how long bookstores will last, so it's nice to have a book with a photo of bookshelves I've browsed.

>83 kac522: I'm sure they placed it there on purpose, but it shows someone has a knack for marketing.

>84 MissWatson: Yep, when I bought the book I told him it was all due to the book placement.😉

>74 kac522: That is such a cool story, even if they placed the book there on purpose!

Both 84, Charing Cross Road and North and South are books I have owned for ages and mean to read every year but never do. Maybe 2024 will be the year I finally get around to them?

>86 MissBrangwen: You could read 84, Charing Cross Road in an evening--it's short letters back and forth--so go for it! North and South is a slower book and there are some passages in Northern dialect. But it is one of my all-time favorites. Gaskell has a way of presenting many sides to an issue.

And then after you've read them, you should see if you can find the films: 84, Charing Cross Road with Anne Bancroft & Anthony Hopkins--fairly true to the book and the BBC mini-series of North and South with Richard Armitage, Sinead Cusack, Anna Maxwell Martin and so many other great actors. The mini-series changes some things and adds scenes, but I think they are all in the spirit of the book. The film helps draw out the many themes of the book.

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; read by Martin Jarvis

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
The Ladies of Seneca Falls, Miriam Gurko (1976)--history of the famous Women's Rights convention in the 19th century
Index, a History of the, Dennis Duncan (2022); nonfiction
Penguin book of Welsh Short Stories for the BAC
My Uncle Silas, H. E. Bates (1938); set in Bedfordshire, England--attempting to read a book from every county in England
Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff (1973)--sequel to 84, Charing Cross Road

From my shelf:
A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe (1722); my first Defoe, for a couple of challenges (medicine/epidemics)
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:
✔Fair Miss Fortune, D. E. Stevenson (2011 post.); ebook; written in the 1930s
Esther Waters, George Moore (1894); 19th c. Irish author for St. Patrick's Day/Irish Readathon
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

>88 kac522: >89 kac522: I really enjoyed reading your comments and I added Chasing Medusas to my WL! I have not read much of/about Willa Cather, but would love to know more. The Blush and Other Stories is another BB!

And you have such great plans for March. Happy reading and I am looking forward to your reviews!

>88 kac522: I had pretty much the same reaction to Hard Times, it's not a Dickens I'm eager to pick up again. Bleak House, on the other hand...ah yes, but it's Walter Scott first this month. I've taken Guy Mannering from the shelf.

>88 kac522: thanks for the review of the Willa Cather biography. It's been on my radar - good to know it's short and not one of those 600 page comprehensive biographies! I like those too, but I'm more likely to read this short one.

>91 MissBrangwen: Yes, I'm lately into "short"--the Willa Cather biography is short and yet covers all the basics. And I've read a lot of Elizabeth Taylor's novels over the years, but I'm finding that she excels in shorter formats.

>92 MissWatson: I'm still struggling through this re-reading of Hard Times. I picked up a book at the library: Dickens Redressed: the Art of Bleak House and Hard Times by Alexander Welsh, and I hope it will give me some insight.

I've only read one Walter Scott before, and it was a short work extracted from The Chronicles of the Canongate. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on Guy Mannering; that's one I don't have.

>93 japaul22: Short can be good sometimes, and Chasing Bright Medusas is one of those. I've read long biographies of both Austen and Dickens, and my favorites are still 2 little ones: Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley and Jane Austen by Carol Shields.

>94 kac522: Carol Shields wrote a Jane Austen biography?! I must read.

>95 japaul22: Yep, both the Dickens and Austen bios are part of the Penguin Lives series:



here: https://www.librarything.com/work/75958

Shields finished it not long before she died.

Wow, two Dickens in a month! I can only take one, although, for the most part, I'm a fan! Bleak House is my fav Dickens.

>97 Tess_W: It's an ongoing project on audiobook, so in December (after I finished Dombey & Son) I started Bleak House, which I finished in early February. Then I listened to Hard Times and because it's (relatively) short finished in February, and then in the last week of Feb. started right in on Litlle Dorrit. Frankly, I was glad to get right into Bleak House after Dombey (which I didn't like), and to get into Little Dorrit right after Hard Times, another one that is not a favorite.

>59 kac522: Thanks so much for the recommendation of Carnegie Libraries Across America. I had a fun time reading about them and made a discovery about my childhood library as well!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/357398#8472633

>99 beebeereads: Glad you enjoyed it!

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:
--So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan; stories
--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

>101 kac522: I have a few of Sir Walter Scott's novels on my shelves, but haven't read one so far because I am intimidated by them. Reading your review I think that there is some justification to that feeling.

>104 MissBrangwen: I think my next one will be easier now that I understand his style. I know that I need to have an edition with a lot of notes, to understand the historical background and any unfamiliar Scottish terms/language.

Prior to Waverley (which is his first full-length novel), I had only read The Highland Widow, which is a novella within a larger work called Chronicles of the Canongate. This was one of Scott's last works before he died, and I found it easy to read, so I think his writing style improves over the years. In fact, maybe I'll start with that next, and move back in time! 🤣

>102 kac522: I also found A Journal of the Plague Year a much easier read than I expected. It encouraged me to read Moll Flanders, which I'd never considered reading but turned out to be very entertaining.

I like Graham Green a great deal more than you do and thought The Quiet American a thought-provoking book. My main issue with him is that he's such a misery.

Loved The Way We Live Now, which was the first Trollope I completed after a false start with The Warden. But once I became attuned to Trollope I returned to The Warden because I knew The Barchester Chronicles would be worth it.

>106 pamelad: I wasn't liking The Quiet American much as I was reading. The narrator is obnoxious and he doesn't have a good thing to say about anybody. And his opinion of women is little better than what he feels about a faithful dog. But what really did me in was this sentence a little over half-way into the book, where he & Pyle (the American) are trapped in the marshes:

I took a breath and went under--so instinctively one avoids the loved thing, coquetting with death, like a woman who demands to be raped by her lover.

After that, every page just got me angrier and angrier. That's his viewpoint--a girl just wants to get raped. Enough. Whether that's the thoughts of the despicable narrator or Greene himself, it doesn't matter. I don't need it.

I'm enjoying TWWLN (about 25% through), although I'd like it to move a little faster. I have a feeling the pace is going to pick up soon.

>107 kac522: That passage is really off.

>108 pamelad: Yeah, just made an annoying book worse for me.

For Jane Austen fans:

Amanda Fagan is an American singer-songwriter who has just released an EP of 6 songs, with each song based on one of Jane Austen's novels.

Katie Lumsden introduces & reviews Amanda's EP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ3wztwn6NM

and you can listen to it in full here:
Love, Jane playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8B-BzufZvrMN8A8r44kp_GMqHYmUp0xE

>110 kac522: Thanks for sharing that! The album is also available on Spotify for those who have it. While I don't love all of the songs, I think that this is a beautiful idea!

>111 MissBrangwen: Yes, the songs tend to sound the same, but I do like the one based on Persuasion. And it is a very cool idea to have words straight from the text in the lyrics.

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

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:
✔ 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
✔Washington Square, Henry James--for my RL book club; a re-read
✔Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland
✔The Silverado Squatters, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)--a California travel diary for the 75ers NonFiction "Wild West" theme.
DNFThe Pinecone, Jenny Uglow--for RTT May International Labor Day and RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture
✔The Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith
✔Winter and Rough Weather, D E. Stevenson; next up in DES reads
✔High Wages, Dorothy Whipple--next in my Whipple reads
✔The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie

Currently Reading:
--For the Virago May Challenge: Edith Wharton, Roman Fever
--A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, on audiobook--for the Dickens Mega readalong

Upcoming reads (from my shelves):
--The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell--for the Monthly Author reads
--Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud for RandomKIT May: Art & Architecture

From the Library:

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

>113 kac522: Oh, your review tells me that I should read Quartet in Autumn, it sounds wonderful.

I really like The Way We Live Now, but I get why you didn't. Definitely has unlikeable characters.

That John Adams biography was the book that hooked me on nonfiction. And Quartet in Autumn was my first Barbara Pym novel and I've now read almost all of hers. She's one of my favorites.

And I've also gotten into Dorothy Whipple recently, through Persephone. I've only read The Priory, and I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to more of hers.

Lots of good reading to look forward to from you in May!

>116 MissWatson: Anything by Pym is wonderful, Birgit, but I especially enjoyed Quartet in Autumn and Excellent Women.

>117 japaul22: Thanks for stopping by, Jennifer.
Re: Trollope--I think a re-read at some distant point will be worth it. Besides the unlikeable characters, I think there was a feeling of distance from Trollope in this one. I didn't feel like he enjoyed his characters, either.

Re: McCullough--The first book I read of his was 1776 for my book club and I was hooked with his style and perspective. With John Adams I've now read most of his major works, except the one about the Panama Canal. One of my favorites of his was an early one, The Johnstown Flood, I think because it was local for him, so it felt more personal.

Re: Whipple--I was prepared to be let down by all the hype, but Young Anne was so engaging. I can't wait to dive into High Wages.

>113 kac522: After a false start with The Warden, which I went back to later, The Way We Live Now was the first Trollope I read, and I loved it. I was impressed by the modernity of the book's concerns, and by Trollope's fairness to his flawed, complex characters. You've experienced almost the opposite! Perhaps it's the times? The wrong time to read a book about corruption?

I'm a big Barbara Pym fan as well. My favourite is probably Excellent Women.

>119 pamelad: Pam, thanks for stopping by. I absolutely love Trollope. Years ago I started out with the Barchester novels, then the Pallisers, and then went back and have been reading all his stand-alone novels (mostly) in publication order. I've read 34 of his 47 novels, and except for maybe 2, I've enjoyed them all.

So having heard how great this novel was, I guess I was expecting too much. What I missed was not liking any of the characters, even the "heroine" Hetta and the "hero" Paul. Lady Carbury (the novelist) is an interesting character, but I didn't like her very much. The fall of Melmotte was well-done, but once that was accomplished, it seemed the novel was pretty much over and the next 100 pages or so was just wrapping up other plot lines that weren't all that interesting.

I also had just finished re-reading Little Dorrit in which Dickens has the fall of the great financier Mr Merdle. Mr Merdle is based on the same real-life men that Trollope based Melmotte (including ending in suicide). And I have to say that although we don't see Mr Merdle as much in Little Dorrit as we get of Melmotte, Merdle's crash was so much more dramatic and moving, and it has this tremendous ripple effect through the remainder of the novel. So maybe it was reading the two "great" novels close together that I didn't give Trollope all his due.

I've definitely marked it as "to read again" and I will at some point, perhaps on audio.

And yes, Barbara Pym is a favorite of mine, too. Both Trollope and Pym were also favorites of my mother; I took her advice on Pym and read them while she was still alive.

But I scoffed at Trollope at the time. After she died, I reluctantly picked up The Warden from the hundreds of books left in her house because it was the shortest Trollope 🤣. And I loved it, and truly regretted that I gave away her huge Trollope collection after she died and have since had to replace them all!

A BB for the Pym and Collins novels!

>121 Tess_W: The Pym is a long-time favorite and The Dead Secret is a great story, if you don't mind some drawn out scenes. It also has two main female characters that are interesting and fully fledged out. Collins creates great female characters in his books.

Hello and happy May to you! Like you, I was struck by the similarities in Journal of the Plague Year between then and now, like people wrapping a scarf around their necks to hide their buboes and going out to go to market because they were tired of being stuck indoors.

My first (but not last) Trollope was La Vendee and I really liked how he presented those historic events about which I knew absolutely nothing. His women characters were also deeper than anything Dickens wrote.

Have you listened to Hard Times on audio? It looked from your photo that you might have but I wanted to make sure. Hearing it with the dialects really made it a better story for me than when I read it a few years later in print. You're right, though - it does sound like it's Dickens' points about poverty and the industrialization of the north more so than a story about characters.

And thank you for the link to the photos of Riis. Oh my gosh! You're absolutely right - without photographs, there are just not the words to convey the awful conditions these people lived in.

Hope you have a Merry Month of May reading!

>120 kac522: I had a similar experience with Trollope. My dad had a collection of his books, it may have been complete. When we had to move my mom (years after dad passed), we were overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we had to clear out of her house. I wound up keeping my dad's sets of Dickens and Sir Walter Scott, but I didn't have room for everything and let the set of Trollope go. At the time I was thinking I could always pick it up in e-books. But I find I still greatly prefer print, and I also found that it's really hard to find Trollope in print. Dickens is still around everywhere, but not Trollope. I should have just brought the set of Trollope home with me.

>124 atozgrl: Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one! I split my mom's books by (and about) Jane Austen with my sister; I had all of the Dickens anyway; and I did take all of her Thomas Hardy books. She had one of those hardcover sets of all of his works--I let my son take the ones I'd already read, and I kept the rest. So I have some lesser-known Hardy novels and story collections.

It has taken me about 10 years to replace those Trollope books I gave away and accumulate all of Trollope's novels, mostly from online used book sites like worldofbooks.com. I also happened to find at the Newberry Library book sale one year where somebody had donated a ton of Trollope--I think I walked away with about 15. Most of my copies of the less popular novels are the old World's Classics editions from the 1980s when they reprinted all of his works, like this:



If you haven't read Castle Richmond, it's an interesting novel, one of the few (for its time) set in Ireland during the famine.

>123 threadnsong: Thanks for visiting! Yes, I was not expecting Defoe to be so eerily relatable!

I enjoyed La Vendee, too--I think we are in the minority there, and it's really hard to find a copy. My library had a very beat-up copy. Just recently I found a copy for myself online; it is definitely due for a re-read--maybe in June after I've re-read A Tale of Two Cities. Might be interesting to compare the two back to back.

Yes, Hard Times was on audiobook, read by Martin Jarvis (I just updated that entry--forgot to cite the narrator). I think he did a good job with it. All of my Dickens re-reads are on audiobook; most are read by Simon Vance, but I don't think he recorded this one. The more I look back on that book, the less I like it as a novel. It was more of a morality tale, I think.

Those photographs by Riis and his associates really tell the story the way simple prose could not. It took me most of the month to read it, but I am glad that I did, and the extra online resources I found helped enhance the reading.

>125 kac522: Wow, you were so lucky to find that collection of Trollope at a library book sale. I have not read Castle Richmond, I'll have to check it out. I do have his works in ebook format, but I would still like to locate good print copies.

ETA: I just took a look at worldofbooks.com. I hadn't found that site before. It looks like a good source.

>127 atozgrl: Yes, worldofbooks is a pretty good site, and I think they have a lot of British books. They ship from Florida, I think.
BUT--warning here--sometimes they stuff too many books into one package, so I would caution against buying too many at once. I've had packages come that are split open because they were just too tightly packed.
Stick to ordering 2 books, at the most 3 small ones, at one time.

>128 kac522: Thanks for the advice! Very good to know that. I'll try to remember to be careful.

>125 kac522: Oh wow, I am definitely putting Castle Richmond on my Wishlist! Thank you for mentioning it. After reading The Great Hunger several times, I would love to read Trollope's exploration of this part of Irish history.

With this discussion going on, I checked my local library and they have about 15 Trollope books. The one I picked up was at a local bookstore that is near a University campus so I may order a copy from the bookstore, if they can get it. If not, will check out worldofbooks.

>125 kac522: Oh wow, I am definitely putting Castle Richmond on my Wishlist! Thank you for mentioning it. After reading The Great Hunger, I am interested in seeing how Trollope navigates the class system and the Irish famine. I checked my local library and they have several copies of his works, though not this one.

I bought La Vendée on a whim at a local used bookstore; I'll have to see if they can get in a copy of "Richmond." They are near a university and college, so they tend to have more classics than one would expect. If not, I'll check out worldofbooks.

>130 threadnsong: I got my copy of Castle Richmond at a library sale, but I have gotten other of his lesser-known novels from worldofbooks.

Thinking back on the book, I do remember that Trollope had great compassion for the Irish people, their economic plight and describes the devastation of the hunger, but at the same time he seems to justify the actions of the British as doing the best they could. Of course, we know now that the famine could easily have been prevented and the British could have done much, much more, but that sort of historical knowledge might not have been available to the average person living through it. I don't know. Who knows, maybe years from now scientists will tell us the Covid pandemic all could have been completely preventable.

At any rate since Trollope was living in Ireland during the famine years, he observed the famine first-hand. And I think he shows remarkable understanding and sympathy of Catholics in the book, given how much prejudice there was at the time. It's not his greatest story ever, but given its historical perspective, it's one of the few novels about the famine written during or right after the famine, so it is interesting for that historical aspect.

I need to re-read La Vendee--I read it so many years ago and have forgotten much of it. Right now I'm doing a re-read of The Tale of Two Cities on audiobook, so a re-read of La Vendee would be good while I still have the French Revolution on the brain.

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?

Completed

✔Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence, Joseph Ellis on audiobook; for June HistoryCAT
✔Greenery Street, Denis Mackail
✔A Day of Pleasure, Isaac Bashevis Singer; childhood memoir
DNF: In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden; for Virago read

Currently Reading....
--Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2022, Margaret Atwood; for June Monthly Authors
--The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, D. H. Lawrence; for June BAC
--The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, on audiobook
--Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; for ROOTS Read for Julia challenge

Upcoming Reading
--Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie; for June RandomKIT--your initials
--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 Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, James Baldwin; June AAC

The Possibilities Pile from the TBR
--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.

>133 kac522: I agree with you on the ending, one of Dickens' best, if not THE best!

>135 Tess_W: Yes, it is. It's not my favorite over-all (probably David Copperfield or Little Dorrit or Bleak House--whichever I've read recently!). But that ending....leaves me speechless.

You caught my eye with They Came Like Swallows, especially with the central Illinois setting. I've put it on my list.

I think A Tale of Two Cities has the best opening sentence AND closing sentence that I've ever read.

>133 kac522: As always, your post is a treasure trove and I enjoyed reading it immensely!

>137 japaul22: Just about anything by Maxwell has unforgettable prose. I read a couple other of his books a long time ago; time for a re-read.

It's true about the opening & closing sentences of ATOTC--I guess I overlook them because the opening has become so over-quoted and over-used. But you are right; it does set the tone for the whole book.

I think my experience on audio this time was enhanced by the fact that I had purchased an Oxford Classics edition of the book, with outstanding notes. So after each "listening" session, I'd read the appropriate notes and that made me appreciate all the research Dickens had done, chiefly from Thomas Carlyle's history of the French Revolution but also other sources.

>138 MissBrangwen: Thank you! I hope you find a book or two that peaks your interest.

>139 kac522: Now that's a good idea - having a print edition with copious notes as well as the audiobook. Especially such a popular boook. The print edition I read was my Dad's copy (held together just barely) and I remember how moved he was by that closing sentence.

Your June reading sounds wonderful, and I can't wait to read your review of the Margaret Atwood collection!

>140 threadnsong: Thanks for stopping by! Lately I've made it a habit, unless I know the book really well (like Jane Austen), to have a copy of a classic with notes while listening on audiobook. However, I would caution AGAINST the Penguin edition of A Tale of Two Cities. I had purchased a used copy at a library sale for the first time I read it and I was completely annoyed because it has all kinds of spoilers in the NOTES. I've learned to NOT read the Intro of most classics until I'm done to avoid spoilers, but to have spoilers in the notes is unforgiveable!

I'm really enjoying the Atwood collection. She writes on a variety of topics and it's so easy to just pick up and read a few every day. Most are under 10 pages. Last night I read her tribute to Doris Lessing after her death and then a talk to a conservation group in Canada about climate change and the environment from 2013. This collection covers her pieces through 2022, and I know there are a couple essays about the pandemic near the end, which I think will be very interesting.

I did give up on In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. I know so many people love this book, but it just wasn't speaking to me at all. It's a 600+ page book, and I read 200 pages, so I think I gave it a fair shot.

>141 kac522: The first time I tried to read In This House of Brede, I didn't finish it. It just didn't hold my attention. The second time, a number of years later, it just worked better for me.

>142 NinieB: Yes, it wasn't holding my attention, and I was tired of the nuns and their petty snipes at one another. I'm sure it gets better, but I didn't have the patience for another 400 pages.

Good for you to give it a second chance and have it work; right now I doubt if I will, but that can always change.

I agree with your choosing to have a print copy with the audio version. I especially like it when the audio has lots of foreign names, because I need to hear how they are pronounced and how they look in print. I often find myself googling when all I have is the audio. ATOTC is in my top 10 reads of all time.

>144 Tess_W: I really appreciated the Oxford classics paperback I have for ATOTC since my knowledge of the French Revolution is hazy at best. The notes explained Dickens' sources for details of the French Revolution, and how closely he kept to the actual events. There is also a chart that matches the book's plot in time with the real events which was helpful.

I think it made this 3rd reading via audiobook my best so far (my first time was in that terrible Penguin edition and the 2nd was on audio only).

>145 kac522: That's a very helpful comment on the Oxford edition, thanks! My Dickens are all Penguin, and I've been unhappy with some of them.

>141 kac522: "I've learned to NOT read the Intro of most classics until I'm done to avoid spoilers, but to have spoilers in the notes is unforgiveable!" I always read the introduction after the story for that same reason, but to have spoilers in the notes is truly annoying.

>146 MissWatson: I have a mix of Penguin, Oxford and Norton Critical for most of my classics. This particular Penguin was a relatively new one, too. The Oxford I bought to replace it I got at a library sale, was a little worn and is from the 1990s, but so superior.

>147 MissBrangwen: I was so annoyed I made this comment in my notes: On a side note, I was really perturbed at the Penguin edition. I generally find these editions so good....but the editor's notes (Richard Maxwell) had spoilers in them! In one note, he even says "as we'll learn in the next chapter..." and then proceeds to give away the plot!

>148 kac522: Ah, mine is older, edited by George Woodcock. I guess I should re-read and take notes of the notes. In the past such things didn't bother me as much as they do now.

>149 MissWatson: Hopefully your edition is not as bad as this.

Mid-Year Check-In---Not bad, but not great:

😧Challenge I. 24 Virago and Persephone books from my TBR (>2 kac522:)
25% Completed only 6 toward 24 goal--needs work!

😊Challenge II. 24 books in my "Complete the Author" challenge (>3 kac522:)
75% Completed 16 toward 24 goal--on track

🤞Challenge III. 24 of the Oldest and Newest books on my TBR (>4 kac522:)
37.5% Oldest: Completed 2 of 12; Newest: Completed 7 of 12 Newest; Total 9 Completed of 24 goal--could be better

😧Challenge IV. 24 Short works: short stories, novellas, plays and essays (>5 kac522:)
21% Completed 5 toward 24 goal--also Currently reading 2--still needs lots of work!

😂Challenge V. 24 Books for Challenges on LT and elsewhere (>6 kac522:)
100% Completed 27! Goal met!

😊Challenge VI. 24 Classics and Re-reads (>7 kac522:)
79% Completed 19 out of 24--almost there...

Note--I do count books in 2 challenges, if they qualify for both.

At any rate I've completed 55% toward my goal (79 out of 144), so not as bad as I expected, but I do need to read more Virago/Persephone; more short works; and more very old TBR books.

Well, congratulations indeed on your reading accomplishments! I especially admire your Virago and old TBR reading lists. I used to take for granted the Virago imprint, but no more.

>152 threadnsong: Thanks! Still have a long way to go.

I've found that most of the Virago books I've read I've enjoyed. There are a few authors that didn't work for me, but in general the ones I've read have been books that were definitely worth re-publishing. I commend Virago on making these women authors better known to all of us. Without Virago they would have been lost.

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
✔ Pride and Prejudice, Austen, on audiobook, read by Juliet Stevenson, re-read
✔ Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811)
✔ Celia, E. H. Young
✔ Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood (2023)
✔ Jane Austen's Wardrobe, Hilary Davidson (2023)
✔ Five Windows, D. E. Stevenson (1953)--Interlibrary loan
✔ Domestic modernism, the interwar novel, and E.H. Young--Interlibrary loan
DNF Therese Raquin, Zola for monthly authors

Currently reading:
--Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing (2024)
--Little Women, Louisa Mae Alcott, a re-read for my RL Book Club
--All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot--BAC July--animals
--Two Days in Aragon, Molly Keane--Virago July author

Jane Austen reads:
--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:
--Mr Mac and Me, for July HistoryCAT (spies)

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

>154 kac522: Did you know that Isaac Bashevis Singer had a sister who wrote a Virago? Esther Kreitman wrote Deborah, which I keep meaning to read but never get around to.

My reading month was pretty paltry too, and I'm not sure this one will be any better.

>156 kac522: I really liked Evelina. And All Creatures Great and Small is desert island material for me--I hope you like it.

>157 NinieB: Thanks for connecting the dots between Esther & Isaac! I knew he had a sister who wrote and I've seen that Virago title mentioned, but didn't put the two together. I'm going to see if my library has it, in any edition.

I've read Burney's Camilla, Cecelia and The Wanderer--the last one my favorite because it's so unusual. Evelina looks a bit shorter than the others and I've had it around here for awhile. I really want to get to the Herriot books before next season's series, which I love, but understand the series is not 100% true to the books.

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 my "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
50% published in the 20th century

>158 kac522: That's encouraging that you liked The Wanderer; it's the only one I haven't read. Yes, Evelina is shorter, and really it just flies by.

As for Herriot, I have not seen the series and now am wondering why they changed anything!

>160 NinieB: The Wanderer deals with a lot of issues not generally brought up in literature of the time, including women's illness. It does get a bit repetitive, but worth the read. Liz (lyzard) did a group read of it some years ago, and that greatly enhanced my reading: https://www.librarything.com/topic/294385#6541193

From what I understand (although I haven't read the Herriot books), the housekeeper is a bit younger--perhaps 40s?--and they've added storyline there, I think. Also James' wife plays a more important role--she has a lot of dialogue and back story. I'm sure there are other small things as well. It's still a lovely series on its own, and the cinematography of Yorkshire is outstanding.

>160 NinieB: >161 kac522: I think you're right, Kathy, about the changes to the stories in the new All Creatures series. My guess was that they didn't want to repeat the original series, which did stick fairly well to many of the stories in the books. They've also got many fewer episodes per season, which made James and Helen's romance feel really rushed to me in the new version. They've only got 7 episodes per season, and every 7th episode is a Christmas episode, which is too many Christmas episodes compared to the total number of episodes. However, despite these failings I do really like the new series, and you are right that the cinematography of the countryside is gorgeous.

I have read the Herriot books, more than once, although it has been quite a while, and loved them. I hope you can get to them soon.

>155 kac522: Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy is another Rumer Godden nun book. Much shorter than In This House of Brede, but I liked Brede a bit more. Celia is on my wish list so I'm interested to see what you think.

>162 atozgrl: Thanks for confirming, Irene. I never watched the first series, so don't have anything to compare with this one. I do look forward to the books. I know it will become a favorite--I just need to get to it!

>163 pamelad: I read 200 pages of Brede, and I got tired of some nuns being subtly nasty to one another. I'm sure the book improves but I was not in the mood. I went to 8 years of Catholic grammar school taught by nuns, and I was mostly afraid of them, so there's no warm place in my heart. In fact, when I was in first grade, the nun told my parents at parent-teacher conferences that I would "never learn to read." Only a nun would have the audacity to say that to parents with their first child in school.

Needless to say, I can read. I appreciate your suggestion, but if I read another Godden, I'll probably choose one without nuns 😂.

>165 kac522: My mum had terrible memories of the nuns who taught her and so did my grandmother. I wasn't sent to a Catholic school!

>166 pamelad: I had an aunt who had a good experience with nuns, so I think it depends on many things. I have read & enjoyed The Poor Clare by Elizabeth Gaskell, which is a novella about monastic nuns in Antwerp. It's a bit dark, but thoughtful, and explores a real group and time period.

>151 kac522: Seems as if you are on track with 55% at this tie of the year.

>168 Tess_W: Thanks, so far, so good. Just hoping July doesn't bog me down.

So just stopping by to ask, how is your July going??

>170 threadnsong: Thanks for asking! July is going pretty good--although re-reading Little Women on audio is taking longer than I expected. It's for my RL book club this Thursday and I may have to sit down & read the remaining chapters rather than listen to them. As I've been listening, I've been reading the annotations in Little Women: an annotated edition, which is excellent, and adds so much to my appreciation of Alcott and her times.

Otherwise I've finished most of what I minimally set out to do--I have 3 more books I really want to read by month's end, but not sure if I'll make it.

One very interesting read was Jane Austen's Wardrobe by Hilary Davidson (2023), which is about dress, fashion and clothing in the Regency era. Davidson takes a quote from Austen's letters where she mentions a piece of her clothing, and then Davidson expands on it, with illustrations from the era, construction, fabric, how it was worn, how you bought it, etc. It includes gowns, coats, shoes, jewelry, even handkerchiefs! It was easy to dip in & out of.

Another good one was Burning Questions, a collection of 60+ essays, lectures and other nonfiction pieces by Margaret Atwood, covering the years 2004-2022. On the whole I found these excellent; there were a few that I just skimmed. Two of my favorites include an essay on the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables, and her reflections on the 30th anniversary of The Handmaid's Tale. Another one easy to dip in & out.

I had to DNF Therese Raquin by Zola--it was too miserable for me. To make me feel a whole lot better, I started reading All Creatures Great and Small and am loving it--and I'm not even an animal person. It is so lovely, and I've already forgotten Zola (almost).

How's your July reading going?

>171 kac522: Taking a BB for Jane Austen's Wardrobe!

>172 christina_reads: It's a good one--I borrowed it from the library, but I'm sorely tempted to purchase my own copy.

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.

>171 kac522: These are great recaps, and I'm glad you had a successful July. The novels of Zola can be difficult, and when I read the plot just now for "Therese Raquin" I can understand why you would want to put it down. He did write a somewhat gentle book, Le Reve, with plenty of details about embroidery and books of the saints. It does not have a happy ending, as one would expect from him.

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:
The Rector's Daughter, F. M. Mayor
Can You Forgive Her?, Trollope; on audidobook
The Cross of Redemption, James Baldwin; essays for the Monthly Author Read
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot--a multi-month read
Composers who Changed History, DK Publishing--a multi-month read

Completed/DNF:
❤️Greenbanks, Dorothy Whipple
❤️Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens, on audiobook, a re-read
The Feather Thief, Kirk Wallace Johnson, nonfiction for my RL book club
The Last Bookshop in London, Madeline Martin, Reading Through Time and RandomKit
Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
Towards Zero, Agatha Christie
❤️Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor (Virago re-read)
DNF The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray; leftover from Jane Austen July
DNF Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy--library book

On the possibilities pile:
Evelina, Fannie Burney--leftover from JA July
No Name, Wilkie Collins--200th anniversary of Collins' birth
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (Julia's Reads)
The Ghostly Lover, Elizabeth Hardwick (Virago)
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!

>175 threadnsong: Some years ago I read The Ladies' Paradise after watching the BBC TV mini-series, and I did enjoy it. It had dark moments, for sure, but on the whole it was OK.

I'm OK with it, though--I have SO many books I really want to read and SO little time that I can pass on Zola. Check back with me in 2043 when I turn 90--maybe I'll have time for Zola then 😂

>174 kac522: I saw Little Women the other day when I was looking for something else and thought: I need a re-read! I think perhaps I shall go and try to locate the annotated version of which you write.

>178 Tess_W: I really appreciated it because the annotations brought so much of Alcott and her times into my reading of the book. I think if you read it without that context, it can seem preachy and old-fashioned and a bit saccharine to a modern reader.

One thing to note is that this annotated edition is an over-sized coffee-table type book. It's bulky and heavy (600+ pages). I ended up listening to the book on audio, and then reading the notes at the end of each audio session with the book in my lap. But it's a beautiful book, with lots of illustrations from various editions of the novel, photographs of the Alcott family and more. I borrowed it from the library.

>179 kac522: Ooooo, don't like the "big" book at all. Will have to think on this!

>174 kac522: Great wrap up! Glad you enjoyed the Jane Austen dress book - it was just so beautifully put together.

For your August plans, Our Mutual Friend is a Dickens I haven't read and am considering. I was feeling sort of done with Dickens, he's really not my favorite, but I've heard several good things about Our Mutual Friend lately, so I'm tempted.

>180 Tess_W: Right, I wouldn't use it as the main book for reading the text (although it's all there), but rather as a supplement for reading the annotations, which is why I listened on audiobook to the text.

>181 japaul22: Thanks for visiting, Jennifer. Our Mutual Friend is nearing the end of a 2-year Dickens read-along I've been participating in (off and on) with Katie Lumsden from Books and Things. If you need some encouragement, here's her video introducing the book (no spoilers):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LPxEt76ceg&list=PLw2Mjecd2B-N78cDOsDuTK0FoV...

Katie talks fast, but her enthusiasm is contagious. I'm listening to the book on audio (read by Simon Vance) and am about 200 pages in. I've read it a couple of times before; once in print, once on audio. It's probably the most complex plot from Dickens; there are so many threads that seem unrelated, but of course, all come together at the end.

>176 kac522: Why was The Murder of Mr. Wickham a DNF for you? Just curious, because I am enjoying that series but would love to hear a different perspective if you disliked it for some reason!

>183 christina_reads: It's a good question that's hard to answer. I have a difficult time with most books that use Austen characters. I think because I've re-read JA so many times, I have certain ideas about the characters in my head, and I'm particularly critical when another author's portraits of the characters don't fit my own.

I only got about 70 pages into the book, so maybe I judged too quickly. In this particular book I didn't mind the new characters (the children), but many of the old ones felt "off" to me.

Take Wickham. Since it's so early in the book, I suppose it's not a spoiler. He shows up unannounced to the house of Mr Knightley basically to create havoc. And yet we know that in P&P, when Wickham is specially invited to be at a gathering that will include people with whom he's had difficulties (Darcy), he finds a way to avoid it. By the end of P&P we find out he's left places often, avoiding his debts and unpleasant confrontations. He takes Lydia to London, basically to hide. And yet in Gray's story, he _purposefully_ comes to this house to be confrontational. Snooping in people's rooms. That just seemed very un-Wickham-like to me.

There were other character things that bothered me, too, and I just decided that I can't let go and enjoy the book as it is, and accept another author's ideas of characters that conflict with mine. I know I'd spend most of my time being critical and comparing and it wasn't worth it. I saw someone else's take on the 3rd book in this series, and she said she's starting to really dislike Mr Darcy now! That's a place I don't want to go!

I remember mostly enjoying Longbourn and Miss Austen, because these focused on characters I didn't know. I had issues with some portrayals in The Other Bennet Sister, although it was written well enough, especially about Mary Bennet, that I did finish that book. But most other books of this type haven't worked for me.

Live and learn.

>183 christina_reads:, >184 kac522: I should add that I know most people love this series like you do. I also DNF'd Stephanie Barron's first book in her Jane Austen mystery series--somehow the writing just didn't feel like Austen to me, although I know it's also a very well-loved series.

I usually don't go on at length about books I DNF or don't enjoy because I feel these are my own personal takes, that I'm probably an outlier, and I hate disparaging books that other people love. (My only exception is Wuthering Heights, which I've read several times and dislike more each time. I've gone on at length about that one in the past when asked, although again, I know many, many people love it so much.)

After all that DNF talk, I have to mention that I just finished (inhaled!) and absolutely loved Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple (1932), a Persephone book I acquired last year. This is my 3rd Dorothy Whipple and I am in heaven! There is something so wonderful to be completely absorbed with a book. And 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.

The book's story covers from about 1909 to about 1926 in northern England; Greenbanks is the name of the house, and the two main characters are a young girl and her grandmother, along with a cast of other relations and characters. Really lovely, yet not always happy.

>184 kac522: I feel the same way about books based on the classics I've loved. As a fan of E. F. Benson's Lucia Series, for example, I had to stop reading when Tom Holt had quaint Irene, a lesbian character, fall in love with a man. Same with people finishing other writers' books e.g. the characters in Thrones, Dominations, a Dorothy Sayers fragment completed by Jill Paton Walsh, turn into different people when the Sayers section ends.

And the later TV adaptations of Agatha Christie's Poirot books! So dark, and the plots are changed. Changing an Agatha Christie plot is a travesty, I think.

>187 pamelad: "Changing an Agatha Christie plot is a travesty, I think."

Absolutely! It's probably one of the reasons why I haven't watched Christie TV adaptations, except for the mini-series based on And Then There Were None which came out some years ago with Charles Dance, Anna Maxwell Martin and Aidan Turner. Have you seen that one? It felt fairly true to the original.

As I haven't seen any others, which Christie adaptations would you recommend?

>185 kac522: LOL, Wuthering Heights is my fav novel of all time!

>189 Tess_W: No worries! I get it--sort of 😏

>184 kac522: Thanks for your thoughtful reply! That's a good point about Wickham's character being avoidant rather than confrontational, which I didn't notice when I read the book. And I'm with you on disliking many Austen spinoffs because they change the characters too much (and are never as well written as the original books!).

>187 pamelad: >188 kac522: Agree on the new Christie adaptations -- they're far too dark and dreary, and often change the murderer's identity! One recent miniseries I liked a lot, though, was Hugh Laurie's adaptation of Why Didn't They Ask Evans? It stays pretty true to the book (though there are a couple new elements) and is actually fun to watch!

>191 christina_reads: Thanks for the rec--I enjoyed Why Didn't They Ask Evans (the book) and will see if I can find it.

>188 kac522:, >191 christina_reads: I've been watching the David Suchet Poirot series on BritBox, catching up on the episodes I've missed. They're nice and light, which is what I want from Agatha Christie. I also enjoyed the all-star cast Christie blockbusters from the seventies: Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express. I haven't yet watched the most recent Death on the Nile because I'm not keen on Kenneth Branagh, but might give it a go. Not at all keen on the John Malkovich version of the ABC Murders.

This article ranks the actors who have played Poirot.

>186 kac522: Oh I just love that feeling, too! When you find yourself totally lost in a book and reading and the world just stops for you. I am so glad you found that space with Greenbanks.

And I'm also a fan of Wuthering Heights and I get how others are not as drawn to the story. Thank you for your honesty!

>176 kac522: I'll be interested in what you think of the Wilkie Collins. I've only read The Woman in White but I'm beginning to think I should read more of his works. I enjoyed it, too.

>194 threadnsong: I'm just finishing up an audio re-read of Our Mutual Friend and it's hard for me to stop listening....a very good feeling!

I've started Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. It's keeping my interest, but I'm not sure I'll end up loving it like her North and South.

I appreciate Bronte's writing and atmosphere in Wuthering Heights, but all the main characters are full of hatred and revenge. Not for me.

I don't think I'll get to No Name this month, but I'm determined to read more by Wilkie Collins by the end of the year. It's the 200th anniversary of his birth. Probably October for Victober (Victorian October).

>195 kac522: Not heard of Gaskell's Sylvia's Lovers. On my WL it goes.

>196 Tess_W: It's set on the north-east coast of England in the mid-1790s, during the time of the "press-gangs." Gaskell sets a love triangle in the midst of the real social and political upheaval of merchant sailors and whalers being "pressed" into service (legal kidnapping, really) for the Royal Navy which was desperate for men. I'm about 2/3 through; it's not her best work, but I admire they way she tackles bigger issues alongside domestic drama.

Hi Kathy, I enjoyed finally catching up with your thread! I took lots of BBs, especially for the Jane Austen books and the Viragos.

>198 MissBrangwen: Thanks for stopping by, Mirjam! Jane Austen's Wardrobe is such a fascinating and beautiful book. I'm not a fashion person at all, but this was so interesting and well-researched.

Right now I'm reading The Rector's Daughter by F. M. Mayor, a Virago author that is new to me. In fact my edition is an old Penguin that I picked up at a library sale, but it was also published by Virago AND Persephone Books. It is very quiet and not much happens, but it is very perceptive and observant. A great way to end my summer reading.

>199 kac522: The Rector's Daughter was really good. I read an old Penguin as well! I am keeping my eye out for The Squire's Daughter, but no luck so far.

>200 NinieB: Of course it is--because anything you love, I do, too!! I'm going to have to find The Squire's Daughter as well.

My current audiobook is Trollope: Can You Forgive Her?. It's a re-read for me, but my mind is wandering because I'm now at the hunting chapters....

>199 kac522: Well-drawn characters in The Rector's Daughter but not likeable, particularly the rector. Awful man!

>202 pamelad: Oh yes, I'm only 50 pages in and he is insufferable and downright cruel.

I'm done with my August reading, and will post my summaries in a few days.

I'm already planning my Victober (Victorian October) reading and it includes several chunksters.

So for September, I've decided to make it a "Shorty" September: all the books will be under 300 pages, most under 200 pages. I've stacked up about 25 possibilities, including some short story & essay collections.

My Shorty September TBR stack COMPLETED:
✓Poems of the Great War 1914-1918, 145 pages
✓The Little Virtues, essays by Natalia Ginzburg, 137 pages
✓A Bad Business: Essential Stories, F Dostoevsky, 284 pages
✓A Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather, 85 pages
✓Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner, 184 pages, a re-read from the 1990s
✓The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey, 206 pages
✓A Particular Place, Mary Hocking, 216 pages
✓A Month in the Country, a play by Ivan Turgenev, 123 pages
✓Great Short Stories by American Women, 200 pages
✓also (not short) Can You Forgive Her?), Trollope, 675 pages on audiobook

Waiting on the Stack:
At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald, 160 pages
The Doctor's Family and Other Stories, Margaret Oliphant, 205 pages, a re-read
The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups, A. A. Milne, 312 pages (has short pages and lots of illustrations, so will be quicker than it looks)
The Edwardians, Vita Sackville-West, 222 pages
The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, Ann Radcliffe, 113 pages
The Violins of Saint-Jacques, Patrick Leigh Fermor, 139 pages
At Fault, Kate Chopin, 130 pages
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton, 181 pages, a re-read
Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively, 208 pages
So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell, 135 pages
Human Voices, Penelope Fitzgerald, 144 pages

Currently reading:
March, Geraldine Brooks, 273 pages
Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (for my RL book club)

These are the most likely candidates, and I'm going to try to get to as many as I can!

>204 kac522: Some good possibilities there! Funny, I had Moon Tiger on my list of possibles too. It's looking unlikely that I'll get to it, though.

I try to do the 75ers British Author Challenge (when I have books on my shelf that fit) and the September prompt is "1980s". Moon Tiger, Hotel du Lac, A Particular Place and At Freddie's were all published in the 1980s by British (women) authors.

It's nice to see a William Maxwell on someone's list. I have this same book waiting its turn. I read it before I joined LT and I don't remember it well, but I do remember I thought highly of it at the time.

>207 clue: I read So Long, See You Tomorrow about 10 years ago, but I don't remember much of it, except that the Chicago high school in the book is not too far from where I live, and I remember his description was very true to the building and neighborhood.

In May the 75ers American Author Challenge featured Maxwell:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/360463

so I read They Came Like Swallows, which I absolutely loved. You may be interested in checking out the thread to see how others responded to his works and think about what else you may want to read of his.

>208 kac522: I did read the thread, thanks so much for including it.

>209 clue: You're welcome...enjoy! I'm glad to find another fan of Maxwell. I was the one who suggested his name for this year's AAC and I think most people enjoyed what they read.

>204 kac522: - I like the idea of a "shorty September" and am going to keep this idea on my list of ideas for the book club I manage. (Not for next year; maybe 2026)

>211 dudes22: I usually do this in December, when things are busy and I feel less inclined to dive into bigger books. But I think it will work now, because I read quite a few (for me) longer books over the summer, and have too many planned for October. So pulling out short ones for this month seemed a good plan.

And whatever I don't get read now, I can shift to the December TBR....

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 kac522:, 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

>213 kac522: - Book 77: I took a BB for this a few years ago but maybe I should go back and look at what was said about it. I've been purging books and maybe I should look at purging some book bullets too.

>214 kac522: I am tentatively planning to do a read-through of Mrs. Gaskell's fiction next year. While I've read several of her novels, it's been a long time and I don't remember them that well. Sylvia's Lovers is one I haven't read.

>213 kac522: I just read Towards Zero and I had the same reaction to it. I really liked the story, but NOT the ending! I think it was the silliest romance I have encountered in her novels so far and I even found it a bit creepy and unhealthy. The last two sentences especially! "Last time I had my hands on you you felt like a bird - struggling to escape. You'll never escape now..." This sounds like the start of a horror novel!

>217 MissBrangwen: Boy, at the time it didn't strike me so hard, but you are SO right! And the mystery was so good up to those last couple pages.

>216 NinieB: Ninie, it is not her best novel, but there are so many things going on that I think it's worth the time to read. The historical part about the press-gangs of the time is was new to me and well-done. I have a biography of Gaskell that I'm reading through slowly (as I read each novel) and I need to read the "Sylvia's Lovers" chapter. I'm hoping that the author of the bio, Jenny Uglow, can shed more light on the novel for me.

>215 dudes22: I should have qualified my review of The Feather Thief in that this was a book I read for my RL book club. Everybody (four women, all retirement age) loved the book, and we had a great discussion about it. I was the only one somewhat put-off by the author's insertion of himself toward the end of the book. None of us knew a thing about fly-fishing or fly-tying and yet everyone found that part of the book fascinating, as well as his description of the theft and the eventual trial.

I'd say don't buy the book, but if you can get it from the library, it's worth it.

Two more short books finished yesterday:



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.

Currently reading:
A Bad Business: Essential stories, F Dostoevsky
Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner (a re-read from the 1990s)

and my long-term audiobook is Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope, a re-read narrated read by Simon Vance

Hi Kathy, I finally got round to your thread. So many good books in August! I really need to find some by Dorothy Whipple, your reviews are truly inviting.

>220 MissWatson: So far Whipple has been a complete match for me. Here in the U.S. her books aren't readily available, except as Persephones. I was lucky to receive several of them from an elderly lady (more elderly than me, that is!) here in Chicago who was whittling down her books to a manageable level. And I've slowly purchased the remaining ones from Persephone--I have a couple left to get.

You've put Whipple on my radar.

>222 Tess_W: I've read 3 of her books and they all worked for me. They might be too quiet or slow for others, especially if you want lots of plot.

Some books acquired in the past week:

Ordered from Blackwell's: new copies to replace older ones:


I had beat-up copies of these favorite classics, so it was time for new copies. The middle book is a Picador Classic, the other two are new Virago Classics editions.

From the Lake Forest Public Library book sale ($2 each)--all in excellent condition:


I was pleased to find 2 Dean Street Press books that I haven't read, another Barbara Pym replacement copy and The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler. I loved his novel A Whole Life.

And found at Half-Price Books:


This is a short (about 100 pages--text-only, no pictures) biography of Elizabeth Gaskell, with an excellent bibliography. It is part of the Hesperus Press "Brief Lives" series. The author, Alan Shelston, is a past president of the Gaskell Society, Manchester.

Finally, from worldofbooks.com, two used short story collections of Elizabeth Gaskell:

Two more short books finished this week:



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)

>224 kac522: Great books! What is the one on the end of the Lake Forest books? Something about Jane Austen? I have A Winter Away as well, also a book sale find.

>226 NinieB: Oh, sorry, that image just didn't come up well; it's called In the Steps of Jane Austen by Anne-Marie Edwards. Here's a different cover that's a lot easier to read:



It's a biography of Austen told through a group of walking tours of where she lived and visited. It's relatively short and has a lot of photos, so it looked like a nice quick read.

>219 kac522: This is one of those fascinating bits of history, the Princes in the Tower. I read the account of them by Alison Weir a number of years ago, and "Daughter of Time" sounds like a more modern investigation of this mystery.

>224 kac522: Congrats on a great book haul! And for replacing some of your older, well-loved books with newer copies. Looking forward to your reviews!

>228 threadnsong: From what I've read, the theory about the Princes in The Daughter of Time (which was written in 1951) was based on a book from 1906 by Sir Clements Markham. Tey's book is still a great read, as the Inspector uncovers details bit by bit, and the dialogue is witty and fast-paced.

I've been buying a lot of "replacement" copies these days--they make me feel less guilty about buying books, since I always donate the old copy. I did grab another Dean Street Press and a British Library Women Writers edition over the weekend. I've got one more big library sale next week, so I'll probably be reporting in here soon with more finds. Then there aren't any major library sales until next year...so my poor over-loaded bookshelves will get a reprieve....

>225 kac522: Will put this one on my WL. I admire your reading of short stories...I can barely......

>230 Tess_W: Interesting that you bring that up, Tess! I've just "finished", sort of, another collection stories, and I only enjoyed a few, but they were very, very good. I'm finding that stories are always a mixed bag for me, and yet for some reason, I'm drawn to them at book sales--they look short and easy to read.

The Dostoevsky had one brilliant story for me, and the others were just OK. But if you like him, you may enjoy more of the stories, especially with his ironic tone. I read a small collection (also published by Pushkin Press) of Turgenev stories Love and Youth: Essential Stories, in which 2 stories were wonderful and the rest were just OK.

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.

>232 kac522: I really struggled with Can You Forgive Her? the first time but it has grown on me with re-reading. I liked the Phineas books the first time I read them (and I'm planning to re-read Phineas Finn next month). My real favorite in the series was The Eustace Diamonds, my first ever Trollope book. I'm looking forward to see how it stands up in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

I gave "A Jury of Her Peers" 5 stars when I read it last year. Her book Fidelity was the second Persephone and a very interesting plot. Persephone published another of her books, Brook Evans, but I haven't read it.

Ethan Frome is my favorite Edith Wharton.

I'm a very late visitor here, apologies.

To thank you for the nudge re picking up some of the green Viragos I have on the shelves, and also the new-to-me books I now want to look out for. I am in the middle of trying to work out what to do with some of my mum's books (and those she kept from her dad and other family members) so your discussion of the Trollope made me pause.

I've just finished a WW2 set book (Stella) otherwise I would be looking for a copy of A Chelsea Concerto right away.

I'd seen the Whipple books around and about but lovely to read your enthusiasm for her work. Those Persephone editions are always tempting.

>233 NinieB: Ninie, I'll be listening to Phineas Finn in October (part of my Victober line-up that is slowly coming together), so we can compare notes at the end of the month. I have to admit that The Eustace Diamonds is my least favorite book among the Pallisers, since the Pallisers themselves only briefly make an appearance. Also, I just didn't like most of the characters. I think my favorite is The Duke's Children, especially after I read the restored version that came out about 2016. The relationships between Palliser and his adult children were so well done in that book.

Thanks for the tip on Glaspell; I'll have to check out those Persephones. When it comes to Edith Wharton, I find I like her shorter works--stories and novellas--more than her full length novels. I hope to finish Ethan Frome tonight or tomorrow.

>234 charl08: Thanks for stopping by, Charlotte. If you haven't already, check out the Virago Group here on LT--lots of incentive to read those lovely green books and get recs for the best ones. Virago was not on my radar until I joined LT back in 2009, and since then I've amassed quite a collection. And they are not easy to find here in the U.S. any more; they are fewer and farther between.

Your story about your mum reminded me of mine. During her lifetime my mother raved about Trollope, and I just shrugged! I didn't see what the fuss was about--he couldn't come up to Austen or Dickens or Gaskell or Hardy, could he?

After my mother died in 2004 she left hundreds of books, many that she had accumulated on her yearly trips to Britain. And of course there was TONS of Trollope. And like an idiot, I gave them ALL AWAY, except The Warden. I figured it was the shortest one and I would give it "a try". Ha! I've spent the last 20 years trying to find and read every last book he wrote! Serves me right. I only wish she were here now so that I could discuss Trollope with her.

I hope you find a copy of A Chelsea Concerto--I think it's a Dean Street Press book. And Dorothy Whipple is a new one for me just this year and so, so worth it.

>232 kac522: How did I overlook your reading The Annotated Anne of Green Gables? I got that as a gift a few years ago and I loved every page of it, being a huge Anne fan.

>237 NinieB: We're reading Anne for our book club (my suggestion--I can't believe nobody else in my group has read it, although they'd all seen the screen versions), and so I picked up the Annotated version from the library. Wow--there is a TON of material in that book, almost overwhelming. I'm listening to an audio version (so-so) and then reading the annotations as I go along.

I re-read Anne last year after reading an essay by Margaret Atwood, that she wrote for the book's 100th anniversary in 2008. If you like Atwood (I find people either love her or hate her), you may enjoy the essay: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/mar/29/fiction.margaretatwood

>238 kac522: Obviously your group members lived deprived childhoods! I have never watched a screen version; I know I'd be disappointed and hugely annoyed at every little thing they changed from the books.

Thank you for sharing the Margaret Atwood essay. Atwood doesn't put Anne on quite as high a pedestal as I do, and seems a little embarrassed that she likes Anne, but I enjoyed it, especially the discussion about Montgomery's life. I once passed up an opportunity to buy several of the Montgomery journals for a stupid low price, and I've been kicking myself ever since.

>239 NinieB: The most remarkable part of the essay for me is her observation on Marilla, and how it's Marilla who changes the most throughout the book. I'm not sure if that's completely true, but I had never paid attention to Marilla's character arc until I read Atwood's comment.

My favorite TV series is the one with Megan Follows. I saw the more recent one with Martin Sheen as Matthew; it was OK and he was probably the best thing in 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" contained in My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories, 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

>241 kac522: The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow looks interesting and I'm a fan of Mrs Oliphant so I've downloaded the book from KoboPlus. And it's short!

>241 kac522: Looks like you've got your Victober all set and ready to go! I'm suitably impressed and looking forward to reading your reviews of these books. Both Trollope and Wilkie Collins are two authors I discovered while I was in my Dickens book group, and I look forward to reading more of their works some day.

>242 pamelad: Pam, my Persephone edition also contains another short one, Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond. Between the two, I think they'll make a welcome change from the longer books. I've read all of Mrs Oliphant's Carlingford Chronicles books and Hester. I liked some works better than others, but overall she is an interesting writer in that she focuses so much on domestic details that get over-looked by the grander male authors of the time.

>243 threadnsong: Oh yeah, I'm set 🤣 If you haven't already, I hope you get to Trollope's Barsetshire series, which I absolutely love from the first book to the last. Collins can be hit or miss for me: I loved The Woman in White, thought the The Moonstone was good, but The Dead Secret was a miss. I've heard good things about Man and Wife, so I've got my fingers crossed.

>241 kac522: Wonderful reading plans, I'm already looking forward to your reviews!

>244 kac522: I read The Warden several years ago and never continued with the Barsetshire series although I really want to!

>241 kac522: Thanks, I'm excited about some of the things I'll be reading, especially The Heir of Redclyffe and Man and Wife.

Autumn is a great time to read Trollope---do it!

>241 kac522: Nice list! My original plan for religion was to read The Daisy Chain, so we were thinking along the same lines there. But since I realized the DC is 670 pages, I'm more inclined towards counting this month's Linda Tressel.

>247 NinieB: Yes, I'd go with the shorter book, unless you really want to read The Daisy Chain.

Yeah, most of my "musts" are long, hovering around 500-600 pages. Which is why I'm reading a bunch of short ones this month. And Phineas is on audiobook, so that doesn't count, because it's just hours listening in the car....

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

>249 kac522: Parker, Taylor, and Jackson are all authors I would like to read more of; I still haven't read any Taylor, really need to get to her. I'm glad Ethan Frome worked for you. One by Wharton that I think is more Frome-ish is Summer--have you read it?

>250 kac522: I have a copy of Hotel du Lac and will have to try to get to it since you liked it so much.

>251 NinieB: I think Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is my favorite Elizabeth Taylor, and it was the first one I read. I'd highly recommend starting there; if you like that one, you will like most of her others. I did read Wharton's Summer ages ago and don't remember a thing; it's due for a re-read. I heard that she sort of "paired" them, since Ethan Frome is set in Winter.

Anita Brookner is a writer you either get on with or you don't. Hotel du Lac won the Booker, so it's a good place to decide if she's for you. Very internal; the text is often inside of somebody's head, sometimes even contradicting (or lying to) themselves. You can't read a bunch of her books in a row; too intense. At least her books aren't long--usually around 250 pages or so.

>249 kac522: Not a Wharton fan, but I dearly loved Ethan Frome!

>253 Tess_W: Yes, I think I don't always get on with her, but sometimes I am amazed. One of my favorites is Fighting France, which is nonfiction, I think based on essays sent back to the states during WWI. She traveled right behind the French troops, coming upon towns after they had been devastated by war. I think the eyewitness account, particularly from a woman's point of view--noting all the everyday things that were upended, was very moving.

>241 kac522: Hi Kathy! I love your Victober choices and the pile of possibilities. I've watched lots of the videos and keep getting new ideas! I love the Palliser series, and do intend to reread them. I've read the first and third ones twice (I think The Eustace Diamonds is my favourite Trollope) but all the politics in the Phineas books was a bit difficult to get to grips with. I have the Penguin Classics editions, though, with notes, so I must do better!

>255 susanj67: Thanks for stopping by! Yes, sometimes the politics are confusing to me, as I don't fully understand the British system, let alone what it was like in Trollope's time. I'm trying to get a better handle on it--I bought a new copy of the Oxford Classics Can You Forgive Her?, and there's a massive chart in the back. It has a timeline comparing the real politics (Disraeli, Gladstone, etc.) with Trollope's characters (Daubeny, Gresham, etc.), but it's still fuzzy, to say the least. I'm also trying hard because my son & his family now live in Sheffield, and I want to be at least semi-conversant with him about what's going on in the UK right now.

I finished my little bio of Elizabeth Gaskell yesterday and have only about 70 pages left in The Heir of Redclyffe, which I am enjoying. It's not going to be an all-time favorite, but there are a lot of things in it that are done well. I think some parts dragged on a bit too long, though. But that's the Victorians!

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

>257 kac522: On The Heir of Redclyffe, your reaction and feelings are what I would expect to have, whenever I get around to reading Yonge.

I am probably 3/4 of the way through Phineas Finn (Phineas is hearbroken over Violet's engagement to Chiltern). I had forgotten how much politics it contains but as always I am enjoying the domestic drama. I have so much left to read this month . . .

>258 NinieB: There's a lot more going on in Yonge's book, if you read the introduction (which I did afterwards). She puts a lot of indirect philosophy of the Oxford movement into the book, without it being obviously religious. But you do get a strong feeling of "heart" over "mind", and the heroine being a sort of Madonna.

Right, I had forgotten how much politics is in Phineas, too, but I should have known better. They are supposed to be political novels. Sometimes it's all right, when I understand what they're talking about, but sometimes I don't get it at all. Boy I hate Mr Kennedy. I do admire Trollope when he lets women express their frustration with their place in the world--just miles ahead of what Yonge was encouraging.

>259 kac522: I get the broad strokes of the politics but sometimes it takes me a few chapters. I'm reading an old Oxford edition from the 70s without any notes, and I'm wishing I had read a newer edition with notes. Surely they would have helped. I won't make that mistake with Phineas Redux.

I think I had let the politics drift out of my mind because there are so many good, memorable characters, whether we love them or hate them.

>257 kac522: Well, congratulations on a good first half of Victober! I had read a book referencing Stevenson's journey with a donkey, it was more speculating on what he was thinking when he made that journey.

Much success with your Shaw plays, though anything with Patrick Stewart and Helena Bonham Carter would be easy viewing. What else has Simon Callow been in? His name is familiar.

And I'll be interested in reading your review of Phantom of the Opera when you finish it. And what your book club thought of it as well.

>261 threadnsong: Nothing of Callow comes to my mind, but he's a familiar face and been in lots of theater, film & TV:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Callow

The Phantom of the Opera will be my focus this week; we meet on Thursday evening.

I am having flying through Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins.

Overall, I had a very good Victober, probably the best ever. My highlights were:

Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins, a real page-turner, that looks at the absurdities of Victorian marriage laws
The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow & Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond by Margaret Oliphant. Two novellas about marriage; I wasn't expecting much, and Oliphant really surprised me with two thoughtful looks at marriage in the Victorian era.
An Eye for an Eye by Anthony Trollope, short, sad and uncharacteristically dark (for Trollope).

Here's the full list of titles I finished during Victober 2024:

✔️Serialized: Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, a re-read on audiobook, read by Simon Vance
✔️Form: Round the Sofa by Elizabeth Gaskell, linked short stories, which were good; several of the stories I had read before.
✔️Religion: The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte. M. Yonge; I liked this, but didn't love it. Has a very interesting and enlightened portrayal of disability
✔️Play: G. B. Shaw, I watched "Mrs Warren's Profession" and "You Never Can Tell", both were amusing and thought-provoking.
✔️In memory of Alice: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle on audiobook, read by Simon Vance. A first-time read for me--I was surprised by some of the content, part of which is set in Utah.
✔️In memory of Jennifer: Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins, one of my highlights for the month.

Additional titles I finished:
✔️The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow & Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, Margaret Oliphant--one of my Victober2024 highlights.
✔️Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson--nonfiction travel memoir that was actually laugh-out funny in parts.
✔️Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell by Alan Shelston, short biography (less than 100 pages) and gives a good sense of Gaskell's life and work.
✔️An Eye for an Eye by Anthony Trollope, another highlight, though sad.

I did not read The Doctor's Wife, as I read that last year.

The only book I didn't get to that was on my TBR was Red Pottage, by Mary Cholmondeley, a "New Woman" book which I didn't get to last Victober, either. 😖 Maybe in 2025????

I'll do longer reviews in a day or two.

>263 kac522: So glad you had a great Victober! I'll look forward to your more detailed reviews.

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.

Not much reading has gotten done around here this first week in November. I've got plans, though (I always have plans....):

Currently reading:

On Freedom, Timothy Snyder--just in from my library hold which I am going to start tonight.
The Spinoza of Market Street and other stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer, for Nov American Authors Challenge
Fanny Herself, Edna Ferber, for Nov AAC, just starting
Composers Who Changed History, DK Publishing, a library book I've been working on & off for months--a one-volume encyclopedia of composers, with fantastic illustrations and informative text
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", on audiobook read by Simon Vance, from The Complete Sherlock Holmes (The Heirloom Collection)

On the Possibilities Pile, as the mood suits:

Benjamin Disraeli, Adam Kirsch, biography
Thank Heaven Fasting, E. M. Delafield, for the British Authors Challenge
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot--started this a couple of months ago, but put it down. Time to pick it back up, me thinks
The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather, for the Virago monthly challenge
Chatterton Square, E. H. Young, last book by one of my favorite authors
Mandoa, Mandoa and South Riding, Winifred Holtby, finish up my reading of her works
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, for the Read for Julia challenge

Looks like a wonderful Victober! Congrats!

>265 kac522: You really did have a good reading month. Madame Max is a real advance for Trollope in his handling of Jewish characters. As for Man and Wife, I started to read it a long while back but got discouraged by the slow start. One of these days I'll have to try again. I'm also now looking forward to An Eye for an Eye, The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow, and Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond, and especially Father. I have an old hardback of Father and I'm so glad I grabbed it.

>266 kac522: You're plannning an interesting mix this month. I liked Uncle Tom's Cabin, creaky writing and all. I wish I could remember which book(s) I read as a kid that talked about Eliza on the ice, but in any event I was happy to finally get the full story on that.

>267 Tess_W:, >268 NinieB: Thank you both! This definitely was my best Victober ever because I stuck to my plan. I think it helped that all of the selections were good, with a couple of excellent ones.

>268 NinieB: Yes, that Collins book starts out a bit slow, but it does pick up and I couldn't stop turning pages. It's on the sensational side, but he makes excellent points about the terrible marriage laws.

I hope you like Father as much as I did. The Afterword by Simon Thomas in my edition put a spotlight on the "surplus women" between the wars and how von Arnim highlights this in her story. If you're interested, send me a private message if you'd like me to scan the Afterword and send it to you.

I've been putting off and off and off Uncle Tom's Cabin. Not sure if I'll be as diligent as I was in October, but it's staying on my "this month's shelf" until I finally read it, no matter what month.

>269 kac522: It's the only Collins book that I ever stopped reading. But I had read Armadale and No Name right before, so I probably just needed a break. And of course I love the sensation plots!

It's funny you mention the "surplus women" problem, since in the intro I read to He Knew He Was Right, John Sutherland also mentions a similar "surplus women" problem in 1860s England, revealed by the 1861 census. He points out that in HKHWR there are 4 pairs of sisters of whom only 5 get married, and of course one of those marriages is a spectacular failure.

Uncle Tom's Cabin has much sadness in it, but there's also hope.

>270 NinieB: That's interesting about surplus women in 1860s England. I really do need to re-read HKHWR soon.

I've just started Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber and it's a delight so far.

Congratulations on a great Victober! It is difficult staying diligent with one's books, and you have posted some great reviews. Years ago I read both Gone With the Wind and Uncle Tom's Cabin over a summer. I so much preferred "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as it was much more realistic about slavery. Plus, the writing style had characters dropped in order to advance the plot.

>272 threadnsong: Yes, sometimes it's hard to stay on track, but I made an extra effort because most of these Victorian books I really wanted to read.

I read Gone with the Wind back in high school, I think, and wasn't particularly impressed, and have no inclination to re-read it. I want to read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but it's one I keep putting off. Good to hear that it was realistic and a good reading experience. I know I won't get to it this month and I have a big stack all set for December. Maybe next year????

>273 kac522: I've read Gone with the Wind twice and loved it both times. There is so much more in the book than the movie. I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin once, and also liked it--although I think I sobbed during parts of it. It's been about 40 years since The Cabin, so think it's a time for a re-read.

>274 Tess_W: Yeah, I know I need to get to it....eventually.

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.

November books that didn't work for me:

--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:
--A Winter Away, Elizabeth Fair, Dean Street Press find
--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. Very funny so far.
--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.
--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

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)
Death Comes as the End, Agatha Christie, for the BAC
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

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
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff, for RL book club

Other possibilities:
They Knew Mr Knight, Dorothy Whipple, Persephone Books
So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell, re-read
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, Barbara Comyns
Green for Danger, Christianna Brand
Nothing Venture, Patricia Wentworth
Arrest the Bishop?, Winifred Peck

No lack of choices....

>276 kac522: Interesting reading in November!
-I read So Big a long while back and mostly remember how hideous life was in the farming community. I might need to try more Ferber. Fascinating comparison to Thank Heaven Fasting.
-Glad to see you are continuing with Sherlock Holmes!
-I liked The Merchant of Venice when I read it for the first time a couple years ago. The climactic scene is great.
-When I was 10 or so my aunt gave me a three volume box set of the first three Herriots. Like you I was a bit dubious since I wasn't big on reading about animals. And like you I loved it! Absolutely about the people and places. I reread those books over and over as a teen. When I went to England a number of years later with my husband, a visit to the Yorkshire Dales was a must for me.
-A couple of years ago the first book I read in the New Year was Diary of a Provincial Lady--so I started the year with a five star book. Now I own The Provincial Lady in London, so I should try that trick again.

>277 kac522: A re-read of the Anne books sounds lovely. So many books, etc.
-I have read several Milne novels: The Red House Mystery, which is his one true detective novel; Mr. Pim, an adaptation of his play Mr. Pim Passes By; and Four Days' Wonder, which is a gloriously silly farce crossed with an idyll. All are delightfully witty and readable. It's really kind of sad we just remember him for Pooh.
-Lots of books on your December list that I'd like to read too. I've heard lots of good things about the Cazalets, for example. I will look forward to your reviews, whatever you end up reading!

>278 NinieB: Thank you!
Re: Ferber: I think I liked both Fanny Herself and The Girls a little bit better than So Big. All are set at least partially in turn of the century Chicago, so they're all a draw for me just because it's about the same time that my grandparents were growing up here. The Girls in particular is fascinating and is about 3 generations of women named Charlotte, and their different outlooks on life in early 20th century Chicago.

Re: Merchant: Reading it was so-so, but the other night I watched a 1972 BBC production with a (relatively young) Maggie Smith as Portia. She really makes that "courtroom" scene sizzle.

Re: Herriot: If ever we get back to Yorkshire to visit our son & family, I'm making him take me to the Dales to the Herriot museum.

Re: Anne of Avonlea--I'm over half-way, and in the book there's a huge hailstorm in May in Avonlea that destroys the crops, fruit trees, flowers and many buildings. I wonder if Montgomery based that on a real storm?? Where's the "Anne" Q&A website out there? I have questions!!!

Re: Milne: Thanks for the recs. This book has so many funny pieces; in one piece he writes about "poetry readings" and it was hysterical for me, since my husband is a poetry reading junkie. He's out reading his poems at least once a week--and occasionally I am dragged along. I made him read Milne's piece and even he thought it was pretty funny (and not too far from the truth!).

I was just reading that Milne wrote dozens of plays (news to me!) and one of them is called "Miss Elizabeth Bennet." Apparently Milne was an Austen fan. I would love to read it or watch it performed--have you heard of it?

Re: December--I hardly know what I'll get to, but Elizabeth Jane Howard is a very high priority, whether this month or early next year.

>277 kac522: You have some good books lined up for December. I really enjoyed the Cazalet Chronicles and am a big fan of Margery Sharp. Will Rhododendron Pie be your first of hers? Good to see Barbara Pym, Barbara Comyns and Christianna Brand on the list too.

>280 pamelad: Thanks for stopping by, and Yes, this will be my first Margery Sharp and Barbara Comyns and Christianna Brand and Elizabeth Jane Howard, all of whom I've heard good things, so glad to hear even more. In the last couple of months I found several Dean Street Press books at library sales, too, so I'm on a roll. The Barbara Pym is a re-read from some years ago, and it is one of my favorites from when I read all of her books over a period of months. At that time I read a library copy, but this one is a nice new edition, so I'm very pleased.

There is so much great reading on this thread! Your Victober was a big success :-) I'm another fan of the Cazalet Chronicles. I've also just got a Barbara Pym biography on Kindle Unlimited, so I might have to revisit some of her novels too.

>282 susanj67: Thanks for visiting! Yes, I think I even surprised myself with my Victober reading. I did most of Katie's Dickens read-a-long, too, but decided to skip the Christmas one. I plan to listen to A Christmas Carol closer to Christmas.

I'm glad to hear from another fan of the Cazalet Chronicles. I've read all of Barbara Pym's novels, but not her biography. Who is the author?

>283 kac522: It's by Paula Byrne - The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym. LT reviews seem to be mixed, but I've enjoyed the author's books Mad World and Kick.

>284 susanj67: Oh, right, I remember reading about it. Haven't read anything by Byrne yet, but I recently picked up her book The Genius of Jane Austen at a used book store. It's about why Austen translates so well to film, I think. I'll probably save it for July.

Hi Kathy, I finally caught up with your thread and as always, I loved your reviews and also the beautiful covers of the books. I listened to All Creatures Great and Small earlier this year and enjoyed it a lot. I totally am an animal person, but what I liked most about the stories was the kindness in it.

>285 kac522: I have really enjoyed Byrne's Austen book and the one she wrote about Mary Robinson.

>286 MissBrangwen: Thanks so much--I do love pretty covers, and somehow I react to the visuals--helps me remember the book.

And that is so true about Herriot's book and his perspective--the kindness. I've ordered the next 3 books and I can't wait to move on in the series, and get some more of that kindness.

>284 susanj67:, >287 christina_reads: OK, I lied! I have read a book by Paula Byrne--The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things. It was OK for me, but perhaps I already knew enough of her life and works that I felt like I didn't learn as much new things as I expected. I am hoping The Genius of Jane Austen offers a different insight; I've heard some people came away with new perspectives on the novels, so that's what I'm hoping for.

>287 christina_reads: I hadn't heard about the Mary Robinson book. I would like to try the Barbara Pym bio, though.

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)

I've been thinking about my 2025 Challenges. And my main goal is to read off my ever-expanding TBR. So I probably won't be participating in many Challenges, except RandomKit or an occasional Challenge where I have a book on the shelf that fits.

One thing I discovered this year, is that I'm good at reading (or more precisely, motivated to read) recently purchased books (see >4 kac522:). So thinking out loud here, my categories are going to be similar to this year, but without challenges:

1. Books published by Persephone and Virago (see >2 kac522:)--I have so many of these, I need to whittle them down
2. Books in "My Authors" project (see >3 kac522:)--need to better next year
3. Books bought in 2024 and 2025--should be easy
4. Books bought before 2024--might work better than just "oldest"--a lot more to choose from
5. Everything else (re-reads, library books, my RL Book Club, other challenges)

I'm thinking a goal of 25 per category (it's 2025--get it?), but that's only a goal, not a mandate.

Plus I am determined to not "double-count" books (which I've done for years). A book is going to be placed in one category only, even if it technically meets two (like a Virage AND bought before 2024).

I don't know--still in flux--but I definitely need to concentrate on reading off my shelf and moving the books on....

>289 kac522: "some of the "featured" composers were less familiar to me than some of the "minor" composers."

For a couple of years when I was an undergrad, I thought I might become a music teacher, so I spent a lot of time hanging out with music majors. One of their favorite recurring party conversations was the challenge of where you draw the line between the major and minor composers -- who's the most important minor composer and the least important major composer? I remember Rimsky-Korsakov coming up a lot in those conversations, though the group could never agree on which side of the line he belonged.

>291 KeithChaffee: Good question...I don't have the book now (library book), but if I remember correctly Rimsky-Korsakov came up on the "major" side, partly, I think, because of his influence on so many other composers. He seemed to be mentioned in passing in quite a few other bios of composers of his era.

As an American, the oddest one for me was Aaron Copland, who was a "minor" composer and got about 3 paragraphs. Between his film scores, ballets, songs and orchestral works, he seems equal (to me) to Bernstein, who was, of course, a "major" composer (deservedly so) and got 4 pages.

It's harder for me to judge the "major" composers, thinking that it's my own ignorance if I've never heard of them. I have heard of Amy Beach, and she made it to the Majors. But I wonder if others would quibble about that pick.

Then again, if you look at the title--"Composers Who Changed History," maybe the "changing history" played into their choices, particularly in the modern era. Hence Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds and Lili Boulanger all made the cut because they were changing history for women in music.

Anyway, it's an interesting question, and I'm glad I wasn't the editor that had to make the choices!

>292 kac522: Hmmm... I'd have had Copland on the major side of the line under almost criteria you care to choose. Beach is a minor, but as you say, a historically significant one.

Bernstein's an interesting case. Consider his output as a whole, and he's certainly a major musical figure. But strictly as a composer of concert music, I think he's one of those major/minor borderline figures. Most of what you hear of him in the concert hall is adapted from his film and theater work (the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, the On the Waterfront Suite, the On the Town Dance Episodes, the Candide Overture). The Mass has had a bit of a revival lately, but it is increasingly dated by its hippie-era rock affectations. I'd argue there are only two pure works of concert music that are fixtures: the Chichester Psalms, which is a genuine masterpiece; and the violin concerto/Serenade after Plato's "Symposium", which is a very good second-tier work.

>293 KeithChaffee: Good points. He did make classical music more accessible to the general public with his TV programs and as a popular figure, so there is that in "changing history." I do love Chichester Psalms. I got a chance to sing in the chorus of that one years ago, and it was unforgettable. Even now when I hear it on the radio I get chills.

>290 kac522: Funny, I've been thinking along those same lines. I think I will participate in fewer LT challenges next year, and the ones I do participate in, I won't try as hard to meet most of the themes if I don't have a book on hand or on my wishlist that fits. I really need to read more books from my TBR list, and this year I found myself avoiding long books because there were so many reads I needed to fit in each month. Between my RL book clubs and what's on my own shelves, I've already got a lot to read.

>295 atozgrl: "I found myself avoiding long books because there were so many reads I needed to fit in each month"

Exactly! Like I'm already worried about reading The Count of Monte Cristo in January (a group read that Mark in the 75ers is organizing) because I'm afraid I won't be able to read anything else. And yet, so what? I've wanted to give this book a decent chance. Of course, if I don't get on with it, I'll stop.

There's nothing wrong with lots of challenges; I've participated in the past and they gave me incentive to read more widely.

But right now I do really want to read books off my shelves that I'm excited to read, not just because it meets a challenge. I might use the AlphaKit to pick books. Besides my RL book club (like you), some long-term goals (authors that I want to complete) and a few things outside of LT, I'll probably just do RandomKit--I rather like the unpredictability of it. And everything else will be what I want to read at the moment.

>296 kac522: I'm joining Mark's read of The Count of Monte Cristo in January as well. Having read (and loved) The Black Count : glory, revolution, betrayal, and the real Count of Monte Cristo a few months ago, I thought it would be a good time to do a reread. The Count of Monte Cristo was one of my favorites growing up, so I hope it holds up. For me, it was one of the most satisfying books I ever read, with the hero so wronged and getting revenge on the people who wronged him. I thought it wasn't realistic, but it was still so satisfying. It's definitely a long one, and it was one of the reasons I started thinking that I should probably cut back on the number of LT challenges next year. I have quite a few long books that I still need to tackle.

I have only occasionally dipped into AlphaKit so far. Maybe I should look into that challenge more next year. But I've got so many nonfiction books on my shelves that I still want to stay with the Nonfiction challenge. Though maybe I won't go out of my way to find books that fit the challenge if I don't have one on my shelves.

>297 atozgrl: I tried to read The Count a few years ago and didn't get very far--I opened up my copy the other day and found a bookmark at page 120. Not even 10% in my edition! The edition I have doesn't have any notes (but it does have generous type), and I felt lost a lot of the time, not understanding the story or the place or time period or anything. So I've borrowed a Penguin edition from the library with notes which I hope will help me.

>298 kac522: I definitely hope the Penguin edition will work for you. I have such fond memories of the book that I want everyone to like it as much as I did.

I loved The count of Monte Cristo when I read it about ten years ago. I might read The Three Musketeers this year. Most of my favorite books are very long, so I try not to let length deter me!

>299 atozgrl: I hope it does, too, Irene. I'm glad you're joining in for the re-read; I think that will help a lot. So be prepared as a "veteran" for a LOT of questions from me....

>300 japaul22: Good to hear, Jennifer. I'm not a big fan of "revenge" fiction, but I know there's a lot of action, so hopefully that will get me past all the French names I can't pronounce 😖

>300 japaul22: Someone after my own heart! When I was growing up, I loved long books. Short books were often over too soon and I wanted more of the story. With the long ones, I could lose myself in that world. The Three Musketeers was another favorite, and War and Peace was the best because it was so long.

Unfortunately, after getting into the working world, I never could find the time for long books. I hope I can get back into them.

>301 kac522: Well, it's been a long time, but if you do have questions, I will try my best. I don't know if I've read much, if any, revenge fiction besides The Count, but the bad guys were so bad that they deserved what they got, and I couldn't help but enjoy that. And it was fun seeing how it all worked out.

>302 atozgrl:, >303 atozgrl: For me it depends on the long book. I'm scared of Dostoevsky, but Dickens is a breeze. I've re-read Middlemarch multiple times. I'm due for a re-read of War and Peace. When I read Moby Dick, it did not feel long, but I don't think I need to read it again.

>303 atozgrl: The kind of revenge story I'm thinking of is Wuthering Heights. I've read it 3 times and each time it was worse, although I do admire Emily Bronte's writing and her ability to create that Yorkshire moor creepy atmosphere.

Love to see the enthusiasm for Monte Cristo, one of my favourite books since childhood! I may peek into the group read, although I don’t know if I can squeeze in a re-read...

>305 MissWatson: Thanks, Birgit...I appreciate all the enthusiasm for The Count. I can do this!

>304 kac522: Oh, yeah, I forgot about Wuthering Heights. That was not one of my favorite books. I couldn't figure out what all the fuss over it was about. I didn't dislike it--there were worse reads in high school--but I wasn't fond of it either.

>307 atozgrl: Yeah, I'm a Jane Eyre girl.

Hello, Kathy, I'm dropping by to send you early holiday greetings. Since my DH and I will be leaving town early Monday, and I don't expect that I will be on LT again until after the new year, I thought I had better go ahead and send them now. I wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

>309 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene--have a lovely holiday and see you in the New Year!