What Else Are You Reading - XVII

My computer was reluctant to load the old thread, which had reached a whopping 480 posts, so I'm starting the next instalment.

I'm currently reading The tidal zone by Sarah Moss and thoroughly enjoying this. I imagine it will resonate most with parents, but Moss has managed to hook me on this story of the vulnerability of life. Her prose is outstanding.

And I'm persevering with Hermione Lee's massive biography of Edith Wharton (NOT Plato's Republic as the touchstone suggested!). I think the problem I'm having is that she goes into so much detail about the people and world around her subject that Wharton herself is getting a bit drowned out.

My computer was reluctant to load the old thread, which had reached a whopping 480 posts, so I'm starting the next instalment.

I'm currently reading The tidal zone by Sarah Moss and thoroughly enjoying this. I imagine it will resonate most with parents, but Moss has managed to hook me on this story of the vulnerability of life. Her prose is outstanding.

And I'm persevering with Hermione Lee's massive biography of Edith Wharton (NOT Plato's Republic as the touchstone suggested!). I think the problem I'm having is that she goes into so much detail about the people and world around her subject that Wharton herself is getting a bit drowned out.

My computer is also reluctant to load LT in general. For some reason it takes several minutes. This does not occur anywhere else so perhaps is LT specific????

I am still waiting to read the second Sarah Moss which has been on my PBS wish list for about 5 years now. I have so much else to read so am resisting buying Moss on line.

Good idea - I'd been thinking myself that the thread was getting a bit long.

I am reading Mikhail and Margarita, a novel featuring Bulgakov and Mandelstam - good so far!

>1 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you, Claire.
I understand that your Sarah Moss book has quite a bit about the bombing & reconstruction of Coventry Cathedral. Anything regarding the Cathedral, I have always found fascinating. So thanks for the reck there.

>3 romain:
Good morning Barbara. I have not had any issues with L/T loading on my laptop but it suddenly makes me sign in each time.
Sarah Moss doesn't seem to have a major following here and I am not familiar with her works. What is the one you have read?

>4 kaggsy:
Hi Karen. My guess is that those of us who have read The Master and Margarita will be wanting to read this one, but I think I will wait to see your blog when you review it before snapping it up.

I am reading The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge and am loving it so much.

I've just cracked open The Golden Compass.

>5 rainpebble: I always have reservations about books using real people as fictional characters, Belva - and I don't think this is going to be a flawless read - but it's certainly interesting. I'll be reviewing it for Shiny New Books eventually, but I'll link that review on my blog.

>6 LisaMorr:
Ahhh Lisa, if this is your first endeavor down that path, I envy you. Quite brilliant & fun as well.

>7 kaggsy:
I would give you a thumbs up if I knew how. lol

>4 kaggsy: Oh my goodness, I didn't know about that one! I will have to track it down as I have read a lot about and by both Mandelstam and Bulgakov.

Belva - I've had Night Waking on my list since June 2011. There are 5 people behind me and every time I think about removing it from my wish list I think - Damn I'm not going to let number 2 have my book after 6 years! :) I read - and loved - Cold Earth back in 2011. (Set on an archaeological dig in Greenland.) The answer is, of course, to get Night Waking on Inter Loan and be done with it. And if her newest is about Coventry Cathedral I am on board with that too.

I am now listening to another Ruth Ware on audio. Sort of bitchy chick-lit stuff with a murder thrown in. This one is set in a remote house in the Northumberland woods, during a pre-wedding 'hen' party. 20-somethings who have hated the bride-to-be since high school etc.

So I go on my library site to Inter Loan the Moss book and they now want $3 in fees. I can buy it on line for only $2 more (including postage), so I ordered it from Amazon. Her latest book The Tidal Zone is getting great reviews.

I must get to Cold Earth - Night Waking and The Tidal Zone are brilliant.

Reading
Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood
The Lie of the Land, Amanda Craig
All Change, Elizabeth Jane Howard
English Animals, Laura Kaye
Birdcage Walk, Helen Dunmore

A bit of a record to have to correct 4 touchstones in one post - All Change comes up as The Hunger Games, And and English Animals as Animal Farm.

Another lovely Elizabeth Fair read - gentle but acerbic and I see tinges of Margery Sharp there https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/book-review-elizabeth-fair-a-wint...

>8 rainpebble: Yes, my first time! Enjoying it!

>5 rainpebble: >6 LisaMorr: Interesting little coincidence for The Golden Compass and The Little White Horse (filmed as The Secret of Moonacre {IMDb}). In both films, Dakota Blue Richards played the lead, as Lyra Belacqua and as Maria Merryweather.

My favorite scene in all fantasy literature comes in the third book of the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, the scene of Lyra and Pan on the dock. I won't say anything more, to avoid SPOILER, but anyone who's read the trilogy knows what scene I mean.

>15 CurrerBell: Wow - your favorite scene in all of fantasy literature! I'll need to complete the trilogy sooner rather than later!

>4 kaggsy: That sounds like fun.

>17 SassyLassy: Well, it isn't - I've sort of abandoned it for a bit because I wasn't really happy with the portrayal of Bulgakov (or the way she's just re-written Mayakovsky's death). We'll see...

>18 kaggsy: Thanks for the warning. I saw Mikhail and Margarita on a B&N shelf and was tempted to get it, but I've got a lot of other reading (ROOTing) to do and don't need to add new acquisitions unless I'm really excited about them. (And personally, anyway, I do tend to be skeptical of biographical novels in most cases. Not a hard and fast rule, but generally, let it be a novel or let it be a biography.)

>5 rainpebble: The main character is writing an audio guide for Coventry Cathedral, and retreats into its history and the bombing of the city while he is coping with the stress in his everyday life. Having finished the book now I highly recommend it.

I'm currently reading Nana, as I work my way through the Rougon - Macquart series. I will be sorry to reach the end.

>19 CurrerBell: It hasn't worked for me at all - like you I'm skeptical about biographical novels, and it lost me when she had Mayakovsky being shot in the head by an agent (the picture of him on his death bed shows him with a wound in the chest although there are of course conspiracy theories). Bulgakov chasing a non-existent Margarita off to exile in Siberia really is a bit silly...

>20 Sakerfalcon:
Claire, The Tidal Zone is now on my wish list and noting what all of you are saying about this author's books, probably the rest of them as well. Thanks for the reck.

>13 LyzzyBee:
Liz, I read my first Elizabeth Fair, Bramton Wick, last month and I quite enjoyed it. I found her writing reminding me a bit of Pym and even Taylor, in that nothing much really happens but you don't realize it in the reading for you are so drawn in by the prose. I will be reading more of her. She is a very comfy, cozy author.

I did 100 pages of Tana French's The Trespasser and then abandoned it. It gets many glowing reviews on this site but I'm with the minority who found it tedious and boring. I have read, and loved, all her others but this one was peopled by a bunch of unsympathetic characters and I bonded with no one. I kept trying to go back to it but just did not have the heart for it.

Beautiful weather here in NJ and I spent the weekend weeding and sunbathing. While sitting on my deck, browning my legs, I read a book I picked up in the thrift store called Fire Monks. This was an account of the 2008 wildfire that threatened the Tassajara Monastery, near California's Big Sur. No reason to be overly interested and yet I was riveted. 5 very courageous monks, including one woman, stayed behind to fight the fire. Very life affirming, very enjoyable, plus it revived my interest in the whole Zen thing of my teen years. Highly recommended!

>23 rainpebble: I hope you enjoy The tidal zone and any of Moss's other books that you try.

A few chapters into Night Waking and finding the heroine's relationship with her children very frustrating. Trust me - I walked the floor night after night with an active toddler, plus we never smacked - but the scene where the toddler will not hand over the shovel, leaving her to plant a tree with a trowel, made me want to throttle the woman!

>27 romain: I found her and her relationship with her children very frustrating too! I posted about it at length when I read the book some years back and someone (I think it might have been Belva actually) pointed out that the author must be pretty skilled to have created characters that got under my skin so much!

I am so relieved it's not just me being a bad Mummy, Dee! I was a pushover mother. We called Michael The Little General because he was so awful. But even I would not put up with this sort of nonsense.

>29 romain: It was a few years ago that I read Night Waking and I don't remember it fully but a few details really stand out. I really wanted the mother to just give her little boy a hug at times, she seemed so cerebral. And her relationship with the dad chilled me because it was so awful and so believable in an everyday kind of way. He wasn't evil or even nasty but so, so rubbish!

I'm not a parent, and Night waking made me glad of that! I remember thinking that Anna seemed to make things so much harder for herself than they needed to be. Dee is right that Moss creates characters who really get under your skin, and not always in a good way!

I continue to read Night Waking as I sit out on my deck. I feel a combination of both of your views. Like Clare, I keep thinking - why is she making this so much harder than it has to be? And - as Dee says - She has this fabulous older child who is crying out for attention and affirmation and a toddler who needs to be put firmly to bed and told to shut up. However, I was a stay at home mother, who slept when the baby slept. I was not trying to write a book while mothering. My husband was wonderful with the middle of the night stuff. And it took 11 nights of being put firmly to bed for my toddler son to get the message. 11 nights! So I am perhaps not being fair to our heroine.

I would have to say that I am reading a bit of mediocrity with The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. It is an interesting concept which might have been better, perhaps, in the hands of a more experienced writer. IDK

Finally finished Night Waking and children's issues apart it was an excellent book. My great-grandmother was from the Shetlands and escaped to London at the first opportunity. Exchanged island life for West Ham. I don't know anything about the Shetlands of the same era but, if Moss is to be believed, West Ham was a doddle compared to the Hebrides of the 1880s. This is a picture of St Kilda, on which she based her fictional island, during that time.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kwMfRmKxd5M/UcH6uysjecI/AAAAAAAAA1U/z_GP3FjAVQQ/s1600/...

Starvation was the norm and for a 150 years they had a 60% infant mortality rate.

>34 romain: I've just finished reading Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie which is a collection of essays mostly about the natural world and our relation with it. One essay is about St Kilda, and several others talk about remote, now deserted, islands in the north Atlantic. It makes an interesting companion to Night Waking.

Claire - I can't imagine growing up there. I had no idea they lived so primitively. I realized it was crofting but I had no idea it was such a hard life. Well... I mean... I knew it was cold, hard and boring but not absolutely bloody awful. Sightlines is in my local library. I'll at least read the St Kilda part. Thank you!

I have read some great books lately. Including Persephone title Madame Solario by Gladys Huntington. Reviewed on my blog. Has anyone else read it? I still keep thinking about it.

http://heavenali.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/madame-solario-gladys-huntington-1956/

Now reading a furrowed middlebrow title by Elizabeth Fair. Seaview House.

After The Golden Compass, I read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - very well done. And am now reading Lonesome Dove. I don't read westerns generally, but this has been so highly recommended to me and it did win a Pulitzer, so I decided to give it a try. And it's awesome! McMurtry has such a way with words and the characters are so well-developed.

>39 LisaMorr: I highly recommend the miniseries Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit {IMDb} starring Charlotte Coleman and Geraldine McEwan, screenplay by Jeanette Winterson. It's three episodes, each as I recall about an hour long, so it can be watched in one long sitting if you'd like or can be watched as individual installments.

I just finished A Wrinkle in Time. What a wonderful book for the young at heart.

>37 Heaven-Ali: I bought Madame Solario when we all went to the Persephone bookshop at the last Virago meet-up. I'm looking forward to it, having just read your review.

>40 CurrerBell: I'll look for that - thanks!

Claire - I got Sightlines out of the library and read all the Hebridean sections while sitting on my deck yesterday. I went to Uni in Dunedin, New Zealand which, you may or may not know, has street and suburb names from Scotland. St Kilda is a lovely beach resort in NZ and a hell hole in the Hebrides. Having been raised on films like I Know Where I'm Going, I have ridiculously romantic ideas about Scotland and the islands, but in reality it was pretty horrible.

>44 romain: I thought the author captured the beauty and the reality of life on those islands very well. She didn't romanticize them.
I found the essay about the Hvalsalen in Bergen very interesting too.

>37 Heaven-Ali: I've got Madame Solario and looking forward to reading it
>39 LisaMorr: You have to love McMurtry - I'm a massive fan of his modern novelss

I've just finished Ada Leverson's Love's Shadow which is marvellous. A lovely Bloomsbury reprint. I have six of her books in a Kindle collection, do they have to be read in a certain order does anyone know?

Answering my own question, the Little Ottleys trilogy is made up of

Love's Shadow (1908),
Tenterhooks (1912),
Love at Second Sight (1916)

AND it was published as a virago, so I have been reading a virago all along!

>47 LyzzyBee:
Don't you love when that happens, Liz? It just gives me a 'warm heart' rush.

I am currently reading Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge and am really enjoying it.

I am reading Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. She is one of my favorite writers. The book's gentle humor is especially enjoyable. I have preciously

read Ruth, Sylvia's Lovers and Mary Barton and loved them all.

I'm reading The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. Has anyone else read this? My daughter says she started it and didn't like where it was going, so put it down. I'm enjoying it so far, but hope I won't be disappointed as she was.

>50 laytonwoman3rd: I was disappointed by The little Paris bookshop. The characters acted in ways that were totally unrealistic in order to serve the plot, and I ended up not liking the protagonist or his lost love. I hope you enjoy it more than I or your daughter did!

>51 Sakerfalcon: Yeah, it's not thrilling me either. I like the concept of the "literary apothecary", but other than that there doesn't seem to be much point to it. I expect I'll finish it, nonetheless.

I just started Swing Time by Zadie Smith - it's really drawing me in.

I am 100 pages into the latest Connie Willis Crosstalk - a Christmas present I have been looking forward to. I am reading it on the deck with my legs up to catch a bit of sun, and it is fine for that purpose. But basically it's a bit of a let down after some of her others. Not much more than a lightweight romance.

I've been reading a lot of light stuff as I'm recovering after an operation. I SO enjoyed D.E. Stevenson's Mrs Tim of the Regiment, and am desperate to read the rest of them now.

Im reading an ARC of some historical fiction - The Shadow Queen by Anne O'Brien which features Joan of Kent (mother of Richard 3). Wish it wasn't so over-written....

I just finished Mary Ellen Chase, A Goodly Fellowship (3½*** review).

Chase (1887-1973) was the successor to Sarah Orne Jewett among Maine novelists and an English professor (and eventually department chair) at Smith College from 1926 until her retirement in 1955. This memoir of her teaching life, published in 1939, is a sequel to her more interesting memoir of a Maine childhood, A Goodly Heritage.

I gave this 3½*** because of my personal interest in Chase and in Maine literature generally, but most readers will probably rate it lower.

Finished Crosstalk by Connie Willis last night. 500 pages. It picked up in the middle 200 pages but resorted to zany light fluff again at the end. The zaniness in To Say Nothing of the Dog was pure joy. This was just annoying

I'm reading all of everything at the moment and posting a review almost every day, as I'm recuperating from an operation and have lots of time on my hands!

Feel better, Liz.

Me too Liz. One always dreams of being sick and having time to read. How wonderful for you that you can actually do that. Hope the op wasn't serious. When I had Hepatitis about 50 years ago I was too sick to read and when I had my Caesarean all I could manage was magazines.

>60 rainpebble:
>61 romain: Thank you. It has been nice to have time to read, though I've had to build from Debbie Macomber to Francis Brett Young, but when you can ONLY read, it's a bit frustrating, to be honest! I'm not sick in myself, which does help.

Okay Liz - here's something to distract you. The Air Force is going to run a few cargo flights to Iceland this summer. We can get on for a free trip as military retirees, although whenever we think about doing these hops there are always hundreds in line ahead of us. My question is - in the event that we get on a flight and spend a couple of days in Iceland - what is the hair drying situation, plugs-wise? European? Or some strange version of their own? This question reveals just how superficial I am, right? Never mind the beauties of the place, what about my hair????

>63 romain: European plugs, don't fret! And go go go!

Currently among my reading, along with the Virago, is a bio entitled Lara: The Untold Love Story and Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago by Anna Pasternak. I am only beginning the 2nd chapter but am finding it quite interesting. I believe that Anna would be Pasternak's niece.

Liz, hope recuperation is quick and the books draw you in anyway!
Barbara, WOW! Look at Iceland for me - I do so hope that you get to make the trip.
Meanwhile, I'm here to thank Jane for guiding me to The Love-charm of Bombs. What a book for Virago readers! It is now my Alpha Book, and I'm loving its look at E. Bowen, G. Greene, Henry Yorke (H. Green), Rose Macaulay, and Hilde Spiel as they endure life in London from 1941 on through the war. Besides insights into their lives and writing, we also see glimpses of V. Woolf, S. O'Faolain, R. Lehmann, M. Sarton, S. Jameson - to name a few. This is prime reading for a Viragoite.
I'm pretty sure that The Heat of the Day is up next for me.

For the RTT group's May read, I just finished Paula Blanchard's Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and Her Work (5*****). For Cather-ites, the closing chapter includes a discussion of the relationship between Jewett and Willa Cather and Jewett's influence on Cather.

>51 Sakerfalcon:, >52 laytonwoman3rd: I did end up ditching The Little Paris Bookshop. It just wasn't working for me. I'm reading Paula McLain's The Paris Wife now (so as not to make Paris feel bad, you know). I am enjoying it a lot so far. It's so good to hear Hadley's voice, and to meet the young, handsome and charming Ernest.

I just read a Persephone and found the LT group surprisingly inactive - do we just talk about them in here now or something? Anyway you might like my review of Dorothy Whipple's Every Good Deed and Other Stories esp as there's a picture of my terrible wicked book purchases from Saturday ... (no Viragoes, alas).

Yep - we just talk about them here. I have posted over there a few times but no one ever seems interested.

>68 laytonwoman3rd:
I too, abandoned The Little Paris Bookshop but when I read The Paris Wife I really enjoyed it. I have appreciated all that I have read about Hadley and of course the curiosity & fascination of Hemingway never fades for some of us.
Enjoy.......

>70 romain: in that case I'll actually add the link (doh) https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/book-review-dorothy-whipple-every...

Liz, I'm impressed that you're still writing reviews while you recover, hope you heal quickly and well.

I'm reading very slowly - the 4 books I finished last month were all at the start of the month and presumably mostly read in April, but when I do get to it, my current books include:

Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible - possibly her only novel I'd not previously read for some reason, and it is as brilliant as many people have said.

Edmund Gordon, Angela Carter: A Biography

Caryl Churchill, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (a play about the English Civil War in the 17th century)

Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters' Street - a household of African prostitutes in Brussels, and one has been murdered

Charlotte Rogan, Now and Again - second book by the author of The Lifeboat - the first was Virago but this is from another publisher, and very different

>73 elkiedee: Thank you, I'm pretty well back to normal now (running yay housework boo) and I found it quite reassuring after the first few days to climb back up to my study and review books as normal (I think I scheduled a few for the week directly after the surgery).

The Poisonwood Bible was the one I hadn't read, too, and I really enjoyed it. Well, I really do not fancy The Lacuna, but we just got "Animal, Vegetable" from the charity shop. Happy reading!

I just finished Gail Godwin's just-out Grief Cottage. It wasn't bad, but it was disappointing. The ending really went flat for a "ghost story" and any comparison with The Turn of the Screw is completely misplaced — it doesn't have James's sense of "ambiguity." In fact, it really isn't a "ghost story" so much as a coming-of-age story, and while I love coming-of-age, in this case the eleven year old boy is just too unrealistically precocious.

After the Pasternak I read Linnets and Valerians, which I loved & Let Them Call It Jazz which is so weirdly wonderful that I wanted Rhys' short stories to go on forever. I find her writing to be intoxicating!
Currently I am reading a bit of fluff in the historical fiction of Wives of War.

I'm currently reading a review book - Joyce Carol Oates short stories. Very, very dark....

I'm sorry I've been so inactive. The past few months have been a tiny bit tough. My fiance's car has been in the shop for a while and I'm dealing with bronchitis. Happy to be back though!

Right now I'm reading Crime and Poetry the first in a cozy mystery series "Magical Bookshop" by Amanda Flower, and I'm rather enjoying it!

>77 kaggsy:
Karen, I am looking forward to what you will think of the Oates shorts. I too, find them to be very dark but I do love her short stories. I think she really excels in that medium.

>79 rainpebble: I actually loved the book, Belva. As you say, she's very dark but such a clever writer. I'm reviewing it for Shiny New Books when I get my act together.

Now moving on to a fascinating book about trawling the Sylvia Plath archives, also for SNB!

>80 kaggsy:
Talk about deep and DARK; I think you are in that territory with Plath. I was looking at some photos of her the other day, having forgotten how beautiful she was.

>79 rainpebble: Yes, very dark indeed. I love Plath - get very emotional about most stuff to do with her, and this book has some wonderful unseen photos. I suspect I shall find the whole experience of reading it very moving.

I am listening to an audio of The Heirs by Susan Rieger which is new, well-reviewed, literary fiction. So far, so good.

>77 kaggsy:, >79 rainpebble: I've been reading a collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates for over a year now - I am no one you know. Each story has been excellent but so dark that I feel in the mood for something different when I've finished it. Which is why it's taking me such a long time.

Some of the stories do come into my head and haunt me from time to time.

>84 Soupdragon: I know what you mean Dee. This is a short collection so I could handle it but anything of length I think would need something to contrast with it to keep you sane! 😉

I have just finished reading Old Filth by Jane Gardam. I was unfamiliar with her works but someone on our Virago list recommended her.

(apologies for my forgetting whom). At the library where I borrow my books there were a number written by her and I have added them to my list.

So many of the modern novels by women contain violence which I think is gratuitous and I wonder if it's not the profit motive that inspires it.

Fictionalized violence was always the province of men and that women are following suit I find discouraging.

Did you enjoy Old Filth? I've loved her other books with female central characters but was unsure about this one ...

I am reading The Ladies by Doris Grumbach which is somewhat biographical and I am enjoying & finding it most interesting. It is a combo of the relationships, the ladies (Ladies of Llangollen), environs & society at that particular time in history (18 century).

Just finishing The Heirs which started off great but (IMO) devolved into a much less sympathetic novel. It's been compared to Edith Wharton, in that it's set among NY's modern day aristocracy. But a couple of the lead characters are so difficult to like (and not in an Undine Spragg way) that I found myself not giving a damn who did what, and to whom.

Well, Swing Time took forever for me to finish, in fact I only ending finishing two books in June - that one and A Peacock in the Land of Penguins, a short, illustrated fable about diversity in the workplace.

Now racing through Judas Unchained the second (and final) book in an alien invasion series by Peter F. Hamilton.

I just finished Parable of the Talents (4****), which I didn't particularly care for in the beginning; but as it went along, Larkin's voice in the framing narrative got better and I started to realize that her voice wasn't an entirely reliable one in her relationship with Lauren. I need to get hold of the Paternmaster series, and eventually I want to get back to Kindred, which I started a long time ago but got distracted onto something else.

Of all the vampire novels I've read (though I'm not a vampire junkie), I think Butler's Fledgling is the best, and Bloodchild is one of my all time favorite stories (not just scifi, but stories period).

I just stumbled across my copy of At Freddie's and started in on it. That will leave me only Innocence yet to read. I want to get on to Hermione Lee's Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life, but I've been wanting to finish all of the novels and stories first (and she doesn't have that humongous a canon, with her novels also being fairly quick reads).

ETA: I bought Parable of the Sower (preface by Gloria Steinem) and Parable of the Talents (preface by Toshi Reagon) because I saw them in new hardcover editions on the shelf at B&N. Caution, though, that these new "Seven Stories Press" editions are poorly edited with annoying typos. The typos don't go so far as to prevent an understanding of the text, but they are annoying in regularly priced hardcover editions.

>LyzzyBee

I did enjoy Old Filth. One of the reasons I liked it was that O F was a retiree and aged. Both of which I am. There are so few books written about the elderly. It's probably that at that stage

of life many people have health problems or other drawbacks related to aging. I also think that the concept of aging is not very pleasant to anticipate when one is young especially in a

country like the US that is so youth oriented. I look forward to reading more Jane Gardam's books featuring women protagonists. That is one of the great things about VMC. Viewing life from

a woman's perspective.

I am now reading another Margery Sharp book, Summer Visitors. It isn't as enjoyable as the first three of her books that I have read but I do like her writing style and her humor.

I finished Judas Unchained on Friday night and then raced through Ender's Game, finishing it on Sunday. Started The Drawing of the Three today, the second book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

I have some books I 'am supposed' to be reading for certain challenges but I don't know if I will get to them. I have gotten so caught up in mysteries & police procedurals: No Second Chance by Harlan Coben & The Black Echo by Michael Connelly, among others, and am finding them enjoyable & relaxing. Sometimes I plan way too much of my reading and right now I just want to pick up 'stuff' off my shelves & read.
:-)
I am nearing the end of the Connelly.

I'm reading a Francis Brett Young, The Black Diamond about football, coal mining and the Welsh reservoirs Birmingham gets its water from, and Rewild which is a fascinating book about getting back some connection to nature.

>95 rainpebble: I'm with you, Belva. Summer is time for just going with the flow, and for me it's mysteries and scifi.

So far this month I have read:
The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell; a police procedural; (3*),
a bit of fluff mystery entitled Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs; (1 1/2*), and
Whistle for the Crows by Dorothy Eden; a nice old gothic lit; (3 1/2*).
I am currently reading a piece of nonfiction by William Stevenson. 90 Minutes at Entebbe which is about the events surrounding the 1976 Air France Flight 139 which was hijacked by terrorists and flown to the Entebbe Airport in Uganda. In the following agonizing days, Israeli passengers were singled out and held hostage. A week later on July 4, one hundred Israeli commandos raced 2,500 miles from Israel to Entebbe, landed in the middle of the night, and in a heart-stopping mission that lasted ninety minutes, killed all guerillas and freed 103 hostages. Good reading, this stuff.

Decided to read The Secret Garden again, to decompress. Lovely, as always.

>99 toast_and_tea:
That is also one of my 'go to' books as well, Shy. It is indeed lovely.
One can't beat Hodgeson Burnett or L.M. Montgomery for decompressing, as you say. Children's literature is wonderful for grounding oneself when our world or our reading has become too intense.

At the moment I seem to be alternating War and Peace with Georges Perec - an interesting combination! I've discovered that I do own a Rumer Godden, however, so I may get onto that this month...

Just finishing the latest (to me) Anne Tyler - Vinegar Girl

>98 rainpebble: I've read some of those tea mysteries - very entertaining.

I'm currently reading Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Years ago I saw the wretched movie that was made of it, or at least I thought it was so bad a movie that I stayed away from the book, but I'm glad I decided to give it a try, at last.

I'm also starting in on The Girl from the Metropole Hotel by Lyudmilla Petrushevskaya.

I'm reading a non virago book by a virago author - as music and splendour by kate O'Brien.

I should be reading my ER ARC; instead I'm enjoying The Fishing Fleet. I know I had to have learned about it from somebody here, but I can't remember.... I see only one reference to it by Kay Davis, and that one was so brief that I don't think it can be the one.
(Barbara, did you enjoy Vinegar Girl? I thought it was fun, but that's about all.)
Oh, Joan, I keep meaning to read *Dr. Z* and not reading it. In my defense, my copy has tiny little eeny-weeny print.

Peg - I was staining the deck and listening to Vinegar Girl as I worked. I have always hated Taming of the Shrew so had low expectations of this book. It was short and kept me occupied as I painted the railings but I was never engaged beyond that.

I am currently reading The Widow by Fiona Barton as I brown my legs on the aforementioned deck and listening on audio to Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry as I cook and clean. Both are British thrillers and both are holding my attention in a lackluster way.

I'm saving mine up for next month!

I should be reading the next part of War and Peace but for some reason just picked up a Beverley Nichols.....

>110 kaggsy: how odd, however did that happen?! :)

>111 lauralkeet: I blame my BFF - we met up at the weekend and she presented me with a gift of two new Beverleys. How could I resist???? 😉

Just realised this is the what ELSE thread so my reply didn't make sense - I'm reading everything ELSE this month to save my Viragoes for August!

Currently reading When God Spoke English which is marvellous, I would read anything Adam Nicolson wrote and almost have read everything. Just finished A Boy of Good Breeding, which I loved, although it did have a few icky bits.

I'm a little more than halfway through The Mysteries of Udolpho; it started quite slowly but it's coming along.

What a fun thread to be catching up on. I got a few recks so thanks for those. You ladies have been busy.

I just finished Emmeline by Rossner, the autumn offering by Persephone. Devastating.

>116 Liz1564:
That one is on my wishlist, Elaine. It sounds good.

I've just begun Reading the Pattern in the Carpet: a personal history with Jigsaws by Margaret Drabble. A few years ago I began doing jigsaw

puzzles. I have no idea why? I had never been very good at spatial relations so don't know why I chose that pastime. It has been wonderful for me.

I have graduated in the number of pieces I am able to do and the current one is three thousand. It is the third one that I have done with that many

pieces. I had thought that 3,000 pieces was the maximum number that one could purchase but began shopping for new puzzles on line. Lo and

Behold there is one with 24,0000 pieces. I am in my late seventies and estimate that that one would do for the rest of my life. I'm mulling it over.

I can imagine myself trying to drag myself off of my death bed to finish it. On the other hand the challenge of finishing it may encourage me to live

to be 100.

>118 kayclifton:
Look at you, kayclifton.........rocking it!~! :-)

>118 kayclifton: When I was in junior high school, I took some sort of aptitude test, and based on the results our guidance counselor recommended that I do jigsaw puzzles to improve my grasp of spatial relations. This may have been the only useful advice I ever received from a guidance counselor (stories for another time!). Our dining room table at home became jigsaw puzzle central, and the whole family enjoyed working on them. I haven't done any in a long time, but occasionally I still get the urge, and spend some winter evenings with a new one. But I never attempted 3000 pieces, and don't think I will! Kudos to you Kay. And as for the 24,000 piece one---I say if you have the room, go for it! Just don't ever put that last piece in.

I love puzzles too. I did one a few months ago and probably do a couple a year still. It was very difficult when the kid was small and when I had 5 cats. Despite all precautions, including towels and even that mat thing you roll up, that last piece would sometimes have left the table on the bottom of a cat. Once we found it - days later - in the garden.

>118 kayclifton: I'll bet they'd be fun and I've even got a box up on top of one of my bookcases. My only problem is, I've got so many books piled up all over the place that I don't have any clear table space (or even floor space) to lay out a jigsaw puzzle.

"that last piece would sometimes have left the table on the bottom of a cat" LOL! Yeah, I just realized I haven't done any puzzles since we got our cat, almost 4 years ago now. THAT changes things. Although she never seems to get on the dining room table, she has a perch in the window of the dining room, from which I imagine she might see those lovely little bat-around-toy-like-things and take quite an interest.

>121 romain: on the bottom of a cat ... and later in the garden. Ho ho ho!

We enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles but we do them infrequently, really only at Christmas when the whole family is gathered. The NYT Crossword provides our puzzle fix the rest of the year.

Spurred on by Belva's mention and the excellent reviews of others in this group, I read They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple. Verbal/emotional abuse is a hot button issue these days and yet Whipple, writing in 1943, knocks it out of the ball park as Geoffrey slowly murders his wife's soul. Lesson learned dear readers - fight back! And don't even get me started on Vera who abandons her children for 'love'... although I must admit to being very amused when she is reduced to bad dye jobs and being physically done at 40. We've come a long way since then, right? A delicious treat of a book. 5 stars.

I finished The house of fiction which was an interesting read although (perhaps obviously) we don't learn what Elizabeth and Leonard's reasons were for the elaborate lies they told to their family. Different family members and friends seem to have been given different pieces of the jigsaw, but for various reasons it wasn't until Susan started asking that anyone put them together. This mystery is at the centre of the book, which is basically a memoir of Susan's life. She was quite an ordinary person apart from the deception practiced upon her, so much of the narrative is showing Susan's life in 1960s and 1970s England, growing up with her mother and almost no other family. As such, it's an interesting piece of social history. But obviously, if it weren't for the mystery of her father and stepmother's behaviour she wouldn't have written the book. It would have been nice to know what the Jolleys were thinking, but this is real life not fiction and so there are no easy answers. When Susan finally saw her father again and met Elizabeth she couldn't bring herself to ask the now-elderly couple about their lies, or tell them how her life had been affected by their behaviour. It's frustrating to the reader but understandable. Despite this, it is an interesting book especially to anyone who's read Jolley's fiction. I have a couple of her books on the tbr pile and I suspect I'll be reading them soon.

I am reading and enjoying a nice little book that is a alternate telling of the last day in the life of Virginia Woolf. The White Garden begins with her writing her last note to Leonard Woolf and then leaving the house and walking to the river. As she does so she hears a lone bird whose song sounds to her as if it is singing "Life! Life! Life!". "In Latin, the word would be vita." And so she turns, going to the village station and on to Sissinghurst and Vita.
Well, this sucked me in right at the beginning. Mind you, this is not great literature but instead an interesting piece of fluff mystery with bits about these legends of literature. Also the portions of the story relating to the gardens & gardening are so interesting.

Claire - I did a bit of on-line reading after seeing your comments above. Australian papers mostly. It was actually more complicated than I thought. As you of course know - there were two baby girls, one the child of the marriage (Susan) and one (Sarah) the child of his affair with Elizabeth Jolley (his wife's friend), both born within weeks of each other with the poor unknowing wife - Joyce - stuck babysitting the second child while knowing nothing of its origins.

Then when Elizabeth and Leonard scarpered to Australia they sent pictures of Sarah to relatives, pretending she was Susan, while also pretending to be the original couple, Joyce and Leonard. And to complicate things further, Elizabeth Jolley wrote to Susan, pretending to be the child's father and then to a grandfather pretending to be Susan. I mean... you couldn't make this stuff up!

God knows why they did it. Either misguided respectability or pure maliciousness. The Sydney Morning Herald describes Elizabeth Jolley as 'caught in a web of denial and fantasy.'

I've read The Newspaper of Claremont Street and The Sugar Mother, both of which reminded me of Beryl Bainbridge. Not a big fan of either writer.

Just finished The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, which was very good.

>128 romain: It's incredible isn't it? Yet near the end of the book Susan mentions meeting people at book signings who described similar situations in their own families. I just can't fathom that behaviour, or the effort it must have taken to maintain the web of lies.

Actually Claire - we met a German woman when we were stationed there whose American officer husband had two German wives, and two half German sons born within weeks of each other - both of whom were named after him. This was in the days before the Internet. I'm thinking it would be a lot harder to do now, but I may be wrong.

Claire, thanks for sharing more about Elizabeth Jolley and Barbara, thanks for your sleuthing. It's unbelievable! I can't believe the effort required to keep up the deception over the years -- and why??!! I agree it would be far more difficult to do today. What a story.

I reviewed Oliver Sacks' On the Move which Belva gave me for Christmas as my NSS and which I was a bit scared to read but was fine https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/book-review-oliver-sacks-on-the-m...

For me, Oliver Sacks is an author to savor. Though I've yet to see the movie Awakenings, I fell in love with Sacks during the reading of the book. My brain was totally entrenched in all of the information & the studies he shared with his readers. As I recall it took me quite a while to complete the book but this 5 star read was so worth the time. I am sure that at some point I will pick up his autobiography but I am not ready for it now.
I liked your review Liz.

I've been catching up on series reading this month - finished Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead (sci-fi) and Robert Jordan's The Great Hunt (epic fantasy). Just opened A Spool of Blue Thread, which starts in an interesting manner.

>134 rainpebble: Glad you liked the review and thank you again for sending me the book - it is hard to start but very well worth reading. I've never seen the film, either; I didn't want to see someone else being him!

>131 romain:, >132 lauralkeet: The author does say near the end of the book that she doesn't think such deception would be possible today, with all our technology keeping us connected.

I'm now reading Madame Solario which I bought in the Persephone shop at our last Virago London meetup. It is very good, especially the sense of place which is vividly evoked.

> 137 Hooray for Madame S! I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

I've been madly reading NetGalley books but was underwhelmed by the new Arnaldur Indriðason series https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/book-review-arnaldur-indridason-t...

Today I'll post a review of a book I bought five years ago at our LT Virago Group meetup in Oxford!

I just finished Melissa Scott's Night Sky Mine, which I read for a ROOT and which I've had around the house for ages. My 2**-rating is probably ungenerous and fans of cyberpunk would find it more interesting, but I found it confusing.

>138 LyzzyBee: I finished it last night and loved it! Unfortunately my internet just winked out for a minute and LT lost the comments I'd written so I'm not sure I remember what I said. The sense of place was so wonderfully vivid that you feel as if you are on the shores of Lake Como, yet Huntingdon doesn't need pages and pages of description to achieve this. The characters come to life as well, and watching the constantly shifting relationships and social statuses is fascinating. Madame S herself is an intrigue especially as we only see her through the eyes and talk of others so we can't tell what she thinks or feels, or how complicit she has been in the main events of her life. The middle section did feel overlong at times, with the endless repetitive conversations, but once part 3 got underway it soon picked up again. The characters, setting and relationships reminded me of Henry James, but written in a way that was actually pleasant to read. I will certainly read this again, hopefully in the Italian lakes!

>139 CurrerBell: I've read a couple of Scott's SF novels and liked them a lot, especially Shadow man. I wish she'd written more in that universe. I also love her fantasy-mysteries that she wrote with her late partner, Point of Hopes and sequels. They are set in one of the only fantasy worlds I'd actually want to live in.

>140 Sakerfalcon: Glad you enjoyed it! That's a lovely summary of it, we obviously felt the same about it.

I just completed Ilsa by Madeleine L'Engle which I very much enjoyed. I have begun Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, a book of her short stories which is quite good.

I finished A Spool of Blue Thread, which started strongly, then I thought I was going to Pearl-rule it, but then it got very interesting again. Not a normal family tale! Glad I read it.

I've started The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk. It's going slowly but I'm enjoying it so far.

>143 LisaMorr: I really enjoyed A Spool ... and thought it a return to good form after some patchy work.

I've been reading madly as have been on holiday, the most recent was Society Within and if you look at that one there are links at the top to work backwards through them. https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/10/08/book-review-courttia-newland-soci...

I will post what I'm reading but I just wanted to point something out that might interest some members of the group:

Of particular interest to those who like reading Virago Modern Classics, Persephone books and early to mid 20th century fiction - Dean Street Press, and its wonderfully named Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, is offering a few freebies today on Amazon Kindle, by Frances Faviell and Persephone/Virago authors Rachel Ferguson and Winfred Peck. Heather (souloftherose) enjoyed and reviewed some of Frances Faviell's work a few months ago.

>145 elkiedee: ooh, goes to look! Thank you for the heads-up!

I was a bit shocked by The House of Fiction when I read it too. I read and loved The Vera Wright trilogy and reviewed it for www.thebookbag.co.uk a few years ago, in which Vera Wright grows up, works as a nurse, becomes a single mother I think, and then we meet her as a married woman and qualified doctor moving to Australia. You may imagine that Susan Swingler's book sort of turns upside down what I thought I was reading about Vera Wright/Elizabeth Jolley in her version.

I first read some Elizabeth Jolley in my early 20s, when I found something in the library - I don't know what, perhaps some short stories, but in these pre-internet access, Amazon etc days I always looked for more by her and couldn't find it, apart from a couple of stories in anthologies, until I read the Vera Wright novels in 2010. I've read The Newspaper of Claremont Street since and acquired several of her other novels and the memoir Central Mischief.

Recently read:

Tracy Chevalier, New Boy - One of the Hogarth series of Shakespeare retellings - this one relates to Othello - Osei is an African diplomat's son on his first day at a new high school in the US in the late 20th century - have seen references to it being set in the 1970s - not my favourite of her books or in this series, but an interesting read.

Sarah Hall, Madame Zero - collection of short stories including the award winning Mrs Fox

Ali Smith, Autumn is a short, thoughtful novel about growing up, ageing, cross generational friendship

Catherine Merridale, Lenin on the Train - about Lenin's long journey from Switzerland on a German train, with other revolutionary exiles, to Russia, being governed by a provisional government following the Tsar's removal from the throne. As well as the train journey there are looks at what was happening in Russia and Germany, still at war with each other in 1917. It's a serious and thoroughly researched historical account, but she brings imagination and wit to her writing about the journey etc. I have a different view to Merridale about Lenin and the revolutions in Russia, but would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in the events of 1917 and the people involved.

Now reading:

Sarah Winman, Tin Man - Her third novel, for review through Amazon Vine - friendship, love, marriage, secrets, death, illness, bereavement, grief - I started reading this without paying enough attention, and have had to go back to be beginning and skim read again to understand this (was wondering who is this character? and where do they fit in?}, but having done so I'm finding it really thoughtful and moving so far.

John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World - sympathetic American journalist about the October Revolution - reports lots of conversations and detailed appendices contain lots of long extracts from translated speeches. Warren Beatty's film Reds was about John Reed and the events he reported on. There's an accidental theme in my reading at the moment.

Helen Dunmore, House of Orphans also has a theme connnection, as it's set in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century, but is a story of what came before the Russian Revolution.

Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is her second novel, a long time after the first.

Fredrik Backman My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologises - another story of bereavement from the viewpoint of a child. Sadly I think this might be another accidental theme for me at the moment, as the first anniversary of my mum's death after a very long illness looms.

Thanks for the heads-up about the FM titles Luci - I managed to nab them!

Currently *still* reading Crime and Punishment....

>145 elkiedee: It's good to see you here again Luci! Thanks for the heads-up about the Furrowed Middlebrow freebies; I have just been and downloaded some.

So sorry about your Mum Elk. Been there done that...

I did smile though that you had to go back and skim read to find out who a character was. This is a particular problem for me with audio. I have learned to accept that Johnny or Jill was someone introduced while I was distracted by life going on around my head phones. I move on without going back now. Just slot them in and trust they will say something later to identify themselves.

>148 elkiedee: Thanks for the reminder about Lenin on the Train, a title I had lost before I managed to add it to my wish list.
You might be interested in this site: https://project1917.com from Pushkin House, which follows events and people in Russia day by day throughout 1917 through diaries, letters, events, newsreels and so on. It is quite addictive. You will find John Reed there fairly often. I am finding entertainment in Mathilde Kschessinska, prima ballerina and "associated" at various times with two Grand Dukes and a future tsar. This was her dilemma from March 11

On the 26th, a Sunday, General Halle telephoned me once more to warn me that the situation in the city was very serious, and that I should save what I could from my house before it was too late. He telephoned repeatedly all through the day. Although he still considered the situation very serious, he hoped it might improve "if the abscess burst". His advice to save what could still be saved placed me in a real dilemma. Although I never kept my large diamond jewellery at home, but left it with Faberge, I still had at home a great number of small jewels, not to mention the silver and other precious objects with which my rooms were decorated. What was I to choose? What was I to take away, and where?

Today she is writing from Kislovodsk: It soon became clear that there was no point in even thinking of returning to Petrograd. My hopes of recovering my home vanished daily. Moreover, in view of the general situation, it was better to spend the winter in Kislovodsk. So I started to look for a new house.

As the year progresses, naturally the pace is picking up. Then there is Thomas Mann on reading War and Peace, the destruction of Yasnay Polyana, the Nijinskys leaving Buenos Aires after a tour with the Russian Ballet and Rubinstein, and their ballet company leaving on another ship: As we waved good-bye to the slowly moving boat from the quay of the Rio de la Plata, we knew that we had said farewell forever to the Russian Ballet.

All this in just the past week. It is not particularly deep, as it is done in Facebook format, but followed day to day it does give an incredible picture of the year.

>152 SassyLassy: Thanks for that, it sounds great!

I'm going to be reading a lot of "else" for the next 26 months, as I'm hosting an Iris Murdoch readalong - info on my blog https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/the-great-iris-murdoch-readalong-...

>145 elkiedee: Thanks for the heads-up on Rachel Ferguson. I got Evenfield as a freebie and A Harp in Lowndes Square for $4.99 on Kindle – a couple of Ferguson's that I don't have, and I do have quite a bit of her work in treeware.

I finished reading aloud The Best American Short Stories of the Century earlier this month. We had started this with a Willa Cather story about two months ago and then just kept on with the rest of the anthology. It's nearly 800 pages long and a bit of a "mixed bag" but, because we both liked the story by Alice Adams in that collection, we are now reading The Stories of Alice Adams. Neither of us had heard of her before which now seems a bit surprising given what we have read about her since.

>145 elkiedee: Different Furrowed Middlebrow freebies this week - Rachel Ferguson's A Harp in Lowndes Square and 3 books by Frances Flaviell including A House on the Rhine, a memoir re Germany just after WWII.

Thanks for the heads up Luci - off to check these out!!

Finished Earth and High Heaven (Persephone) in bed last night. Anyone over a certain age grew up with parents who spouted all the same nonsense as Erica's parents in this book and look where we are today: interracial, interfaith and same sex marriages. I had the same reaction as someone else in this group (who?) - I was on the edge of my seat praying that Erica would have the courage to choose her Jewish boyfriend over her prejudiced parents, which given the age of the book was not guaranteed. This book should remind us all just how far we have come and just how bad it was for those who worked for that change. Highly recommended.

>159 romain: I loved that book, one of my highlights of the year.

For the "Reading Through Time" group's November read (Noir or Darkness) — Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories, which conveniently includes Strangers on a Train and The Price of Salt along with thirteen short stories. The only Highsmith I've previously read has been, on Kindle, A Suspension of Mercy (3½***). I've finished Strangers on a Train (4****) and several of the stories and I'll be getting to The Price of Salt shortly.

>159 romain: that sounds really good! I'll keep it in mind.

>161 CurrerBell: Strangers on a Train and Carol aka The Price of Salt have both been published by Virago in the last few years.

I've just read "Greensleeves" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and it was ADORABLE - I know my review has made someone else in here buy it already, and I bought and read it following Simon's review, so I think you will ALL love it ... https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/book-review-eloise-jarvis-mcgraw-...

I have been spending most of my reading time on Y/A Kindle downloads from the library. Easy & quick to read, I get to laugh & cry within the covers of each slim volume & I've come across some pretty fine (but not fab) authors.

Nearly finished O Pioneers by Willa Cather; my first book read by her. Absolutely loving it

Be careful Penny - she addictive!

>166 pennyinsole: >167 romain:
Feeling & sharing the Cather love here!

Welcome pennyinsole :-)

>166 pennyinsole: I love Willa Cather. I have read all her novels but still have some letters and short stories to read.

I grabbed The Happy Tree (Persephone) at random off my shelves and read it over about a two week period. I see that Ali gave it 5 stars but I remained unmoved by the book, as evidenced by the time it took me to finish it. Helen is in love with Hugo, but Hugo is in love with himself. And I didn't like either of them. :)

I have just finished reading the Innocents by Margery Sharp. and loved it. The Eye of Love is a Virago but Cluny Brown her most well

known is not on the list. Her characters and plots are unusual. Both The Eye of Love and The Innocents have children as important characters

and Sharp's portrayal of them is very sympathetic. Antoinette in {The Innocents is a mentally challenged child. There are very few novels that

feature children in important roles. They are usually coming of age stories and most of those are trite and formulaic.

Not a virago but a virago author, Over the Mountains by Pamela Frankau it's the third in her Clothes of a king's son trilogy.

>172 Heaven-Ali: I've just started Slaves of the lamp - really enjoying this trilogy!

I finally finished The Black Book by Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk and am still musing over my comments. It took me forever to read, but I still wanted to finish it.

I then raced through Edith Wharton's Summer, which was a wonderful novella.

I'm now reading Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism.

>173 Sakerfalcon: yay! Glad you're reading this trilogy Claire, really hope you enjoy it.

Just finished Miss Buncle Married. Lots of fun.

I am reading the second book in Pamela Hansford Johnson's Helena trilogy (on my kindle) An Avenue of Stone enjoying it so much.

Finished Dimanche and other stories (Persephone) last night. I'd already read Suite Francaise and I wondered if these stories were just published to cash in on that. Not so. Brilliant in their own right. Highly recommended.

I seem to be the only person who doesn't love The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, which is what I'm desperately trying to finish this morning. I don't hate it, but it's so. very. slow.

The 'Quartzsite Crud' has caught up with both the hubby & myself. That coupled with my 2 1/2 month long migraine has insured my reading of nothing other than pure unadulterated rubbish. Doctors seem to think that pain is not a priority when it comes to dealing with headache. But we do know that I don't have brain cancer, a tumor or a bleed......so that is something.

OMG Belva! 2.5 month migraine and they don't know what's causing it??? I guess they've eliminated the worst, but really?

I know, REALLY! I have been tempted on a couple of level 10 days to borrow the hubby's glock & head out into the desert but he hides the ammo from me. I never knew what pain could drive a person to do until this year.

Belva, that's awful. I cannot imagine. And I don't know what to recommend. Botox? Some people say that works although I am not sure how or why. I get occasional migraines and they are appalling. Mine always end with my head in the toilet. But we are talking once or twice a year.

Wow, Belva, that sounds dreadful! I can barely cope with a day of headache so I can't imagine how you've stood it.... Hope things will improve soon! x

My younger son's life has been hugely impacted by migraines. They are just awful and two and a half months is so long. I hope it passes very soon Belva, thinking of you x

My sympathies too Belva. Migraines are a scourge. I suffered from them all of my working life. In recent years I found that Imigran (Sumatriptan) tablets 50-100mgs gave me very good relief.
I expect you have probably discussed that option with your treating doctors.
I hope you can find some meds that will work for you.
Best wishes

Belva, I'm so sorry to hear about your migraines and sincerely hope you find relief soon.

I just finished a library copy of Prussian Blue - the latest Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr. I read it using an orthodox Jew book mark made for me by Elaine. Thank you Elaine! It was of course excellent but I am beginning to wonder just how many Nazi incidents Gunther has left to insert himself into. Zelig anyone?

I just finished Don't Tell Alfred (not a Virago) by Nancy Mitford. It's not as good as her more famous ones. I had recently reread her The Pursuit of Love and enjoyed it more than the first time. I suppose author's can't always duplicate their successes.

I just finished Dietrich and Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives by Karin Wieland. I knew very little about either of the women and also have always been repelled by what little I knew of Leni Riefenstahl--and so I didn't expect to find this book very absorbing. But it was interesting from start to finish--and probably well researched.

Painting my downstairs powder room during two days of snow. Listening to an audio of The Martian as I work, and loving it.

Currently reading Stella Gibbons The Bachelor I have had four of her books tbr for ages. This one is so good. Getting through it quite quickly.

Re-reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen--listening to a recording of it.

And now I'm reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

I'm a bit more than halfway through Brontë biographer Juliet Barker's Wordsworth: A Life, reading it for the Reading Through Time group's 19th century quarterly read.

>194 wordswordswords: I absolutely loved that book!

>194 wordswordswords:, >196 kaggsy: Me too!

I'm reading a biography of The Peabody sisters, three influential women in C19th New England. They knew the Alcotts, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller and really everyone who was anyone in literary and cultural circles. It's a great read so far.

Words - I've reserved an audio of the Towles book from my library. Thank you.

>194 wordswordswords:
I just added it to my kindle & look forward to reading it soon.
Thanks for the rec.

Listening to Ethnic America by Thomas Sowell on my commute. It's a little dry but very informative. So far I've learned a lot about Irish, German, and Jewish Americans. The chapter on German Americans was especially interesting on a personal level, as my grandfather grew up in a distinctively German American family/community and I recognize many of the cultural traits Sowell describes in him and what I know of his upbringing.

Enid Bagnold, The Squire
Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Read for iamnobird321's Persephone readathon.

>201 CurrerBell:
Mike, I hope you are enjoying Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I found it truly delightful.

>201 CurrerBell: >202 rainpebble: Agreed! Miss Pettigrew is possibly my favourite Persephone - just wonderful! :)

I'm currently reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I'd forgotten just how good a writer he is until I was knocked out by The Noise of Time last year.

>202 rainpebble: >203 kaggsy: Agreed. It's like "Jane Austen meets Lemony Snicket"! I'm not a Janeite, but I say that as a compliment. It's got that "Lemony Snicket" kind of pace to it.

Karen - I read that last year and then watched the movie. I loved it.

I'm currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it's already made me join a food buying collective locally! Who knows what will happen next ...

>207 LyzzyBee: that's an inspiring book, isn't it? I read it quite some time ago, but it inspired me to do more veg gardening and also seek out local food sources. Some of that worked well, some didn't, but the awareness has stayed with me. We moved recently and I'm looking for the best locally-sourced meat and produce options here.

>208 lauralkeet: Yes, it's not the most modern book but the concepts seem to stand the test of time - it's about the only book of hers we haven't read and I think my husband is going to read it too. That's interesting that it inspired you to make some changes - what was the best thing you did and the least useful, if you don't mind me asking?

>209 LyzzyBee: I don't mind at all! One of the interesting things we did was find a local milk source. We lived in a semi-rural area with lots of small Amish farms (which are also good sources for produce). I bought milk from a farm for a while, and it was delicious and fresh but also full fat, so at some point I went back to buying low-fat milk in the supermarket.

I also started a veg garden, but in some ways this was both the best thing and the least useful. I had a notion that we could supply "all" our veg by growing it ourselves and I got into canning jams, salsa, tomato sauce & tomatoes (success) and attempted a root cellar (fail). I loved being able to cook with garden tomatoes all year. BUT ... I went overboard on the number of "crops" and quantity of each. It took far too much effort to maintain so there was often a lot that didn't get harvested, let alone consumed.

Short version: I should have gone with a CSA box from a local grower!

Brilliant, thank you - that bears out my decision not to try to grow my own in my dark tunnel of a garden, but to get food from local producers via this community thing!

As part of my reading for the Reading Through Time group's February theme ("Going Hollywood"), one of the books I read was Gore Vidal's Hollywood (4½**** review), which includes a supporting-role appearance by Virago author Elinor Glyn (Three Weeks).

I'm just finishing Lucy Mangan's Bookworm and if you're from the UK and in your 30s to 50s you're going to LOVE LOVE LOVE it, everyone else will love it. Superb.

>213 LyzzyBee: Ooh - wishlisted!

>213 LyzzyBee: Your book bullet has caused a fatal wound! Onto my wishlist it goes!

Yes, I'm sure you will love Bookworm Heather and Claire.

Mwah hah hah my work here is done!

In the Shadow of Agatha Christie: Classic Crime Fiction by Forgotten Female Writers: 1850-1917 (4**** review). Really nice selection of Victorian and early 20th century women's lit – but be aware of what you're getting, because these in most cases aren't "mysteries" so much as they are crime, "sensation," and Gothic stories.

I'm still in my reread mode. I have a terrible fear that I'll eventually run out of books to read. It's so unrealistic but "there you are". The rereading has been interesting. Some books have improved on rereading and others have been disappointing. I just gave up on Anita Brookner's Leaving Home. It falls into the latter category.

Oh that's interesting, what about it had changed? I'm fascinated by the process of rereading!

For the past month or so I have been reading mostly Scandinavian crime fiction with a little women's fiction thrown in.

I am reading a Persephone edition of Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple. I haven't previously read any of Whipple's book and am enjoying this one very much.
The print in the Persephone editions is easy to read:-)

Just finished rereading The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for Ali's #ReadingMuriel2018. I think I rate Memento Mori higher, but that's likely because of my love for the Jean Brodie movie – and one of these lifetimes I've got to get around to the Geraldine McEwan miniseries. My next Spark (reading them in order) will be a reread of The Girls of Slender Means (like Jean Brodie a non-VMC, I think), then on to The Mandelbaum Gate, a fairly long novel by Spark standards.

Meanwhile, though, I want to catch up on my E.H. Young reading for the March monthly read. I'm starting on The Curate's Wife, following up on my read of Jenny Wren.

I'm reading The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen. I didn't realize she wasn't a Virago author. I got about 1/3 of the way through The Death of the Heart last year and hated the story too much keep reading, but wanted to try something else by her. So far I'm glad I did.

>224 surtsey: I love Bowen and her wartime short stories are fabulous and maybe a good way into her work if the novels aren’t quite working for you.

I just got distracted away from The Curate's Wife and into Robert Beatty's middle-reader fantasy Serafina trilogy. (Or is it a series? I'll see when I finish the third book – I'm currently on the second, Serafina and the Twisted Staff – as to whether it's open-ended for a further sequel.) Wonderful 12yo girl character, 1899 North Carolina mountains, shape-shifting catamounts.

The House in Paris was my first Bowen. She varies. Loved some. Others, not so much.

>227 romain: Which ones did you love?

Whenever anyone mentions Elizabeth Bowen this line comes to mind:

"But were there not those who said that everything has already happened, and that one's lookings-forward are really memories?"

The Heat of the Day and The Little Girls and a couple of books of short stories which I really liked, including Look at all Those Beautiful Roses. My reading log shows that I found The House in Paris 'difficult'. The Little Girls I describe as 'elegant, stylish, warm and very enjoyable' I go on to say that she is not as appealing as Elizabeth Taylor but more on a par with Anita Brookner. My reading log covers only 1989-2001, so I have nothing written for The Heat of the Day, but I do remember being very angry at the situation the heroine finds herself in and wishing she would just murder Harrison and be done with him.

Bowen also appears in the Selina Hastings bio of Rosamond Lehmann. They were BFFs until Lehmann stole Bowen's lover.

I've read Bruce Springsteen's autobiography but not reviewed it yet - it was marvellous! And Souvenir by Rolf Potts which was also excellent, that's one for Shiny New Books so a review will come out in time.

I have recently read My Friends, the Miss Boyds by Jane Duncan and just loved it. I think that maybe it's on the VMC list.The novel is told through the eyes of a young girl living in a small isolated town in Scotland just after WW1.

Belatedly I also will chime in on the Elizabeth Bowen thread. Two of my favorites were {The Death of the Heart and The House in Paris. I think that as with Jane Duncan's book, I really like reading those which revolve around the lives of young children (not adolescent coming of age) Bowen is one of my favorite authors. Edith Wharton's book The Children is also a favorite and to me it is interesting that neither of the three authors had children of their own.

I've abandoned The House in Paris for now. I had checked it out on OpenLibrary and it was returned right as I was getting into the flashback part. It's just as well because I've been trying to read more non-fiction. Now I'm reading A Lot to Ask, Hazel Holt's biography of Barbara Pym (though this isn't really what I had in mind when I made my non-fiction resolution.) It makes me want to re-read Jane and Prudence, since Barbara said Prudence was the most like her out of all her characters. On a side note, I thought she and Elizabeth Taylor were close friends, based on Taylor's biography--but I looked in the index and there are only two mentions of her.

>230 romain: I think I'll try The Little Girls next, if I don't return to The House in Paris.

I don't think that I remember any discussion on this thread about Jean Rhys. I read many of her books a few years ago and found them fascinating though disturbing and very depressing. I am considering a reread of a few of her books. Has anyone else read any of her works. If so, what did you think of them? Wide Sargasso Sea has certainly withstood the test of time in terms of its popularity and Rhys's portrayal of the Bertha character was very clever.

>234 kayclifton: I've read Jean Rhys: The Complete Novels as well as the supplementary materials in Wide Sargasso Sea (Norton Critical Editions). The canonical status of Wide Sargasso Sea speaks for itself. As to the others, it's been a while and I'd have to reread them to speak more intelligently, but the ending of Voyage in the Dark (the doctor's words, "She'll be alright. […] Ready to start all over again in no time, I've no doubt.") somehow reminds me of the conclusion of Nella Larsen's Quicksand (she'll be having another baby).

I wouldn't actually call her a "novelist" – like Muriel Spark, she wrote novellas, not novels. (My omnibus edition of The Complete Novels, five in all, comes to less than 600 pages).

I've also read Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography, some of Jean Rhys: The Collected Short Stories, and Lilian Pizzichini's The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys, the latter of which I gave a 2½** review.

I'm reading The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend which is a Swedish novel about small-town America and is charming so far.

>236 LyzzyBee: Ooh, that one is on my TBR pile! I hope you continue to enjoy it, otherwise I will probably add my copy to the pile for the charity shop.

I'm reading a non-Virago book by a Virago author - The light-hearted quest by Ann Bridge .

>234 kayclifton:, >235 CurrerBell:
I think that I have all of Jean Rhys works but have only read two of them: Wide Sargasso Sea, which I have read numerous times, and her Let Them Call It Jazz. (which I need to reread as I neglected to review it afterward)
I loved them both. Sargasso has a special place in my heart. I know some don't find it so wonderful but it simply draws me in and when I have finished I cannot help but to sit and wonder. I find her marvelous.

>237 Sakerfalcon: It's adorable and I'm nearly done. It works in themes of empowerment and diversity brilliantly within a nicely done story. Go for it! Oh, and I loved that Ann Bridge, too.

I reviewed 401: The Extraordinary Story of the Man Who Ran 401 Marathons in 401 Days and Changed his Life Forever yesterday, such a meaningful book to me as I've met the author a couple of times and he's had a big effect on my life, not just my running life. So much more than just a book about running. AND the actual author has commented on my review (plus his mum and his partner's mum have commented on it on Facebook, squee!) https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2018/04/10/book-review-ben-smith-401-the-ext...

>239 LyzzyBee: Hooray!

>235 CurrerBell: I don't agree - Jean Rhys and Muriel Spark's books seem relatively short by modern standards, but my copies are generally between 150 and 200 pages in Penguin and Virago single book editions. A lot of Virginia Woolf's books and many other novels are also that short. An omnibus edition will probably find a way of printing each novel on fewer pages to make the book size look more manageable.

>242 elkiedee: Not that there's anything wrong with dear old Henry James's "blessed novella"....

I'm currently a bit poorly with an horrendous chest infection, so am able to read quite a bit.

Recently finished

Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf - a fascinating work in translation
The Year of the Flood by the fabulous Margaret Atwood
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens

Just spent time updating my Goodreads and LT with pasted over reviews - phew!

>244 Heaven-Ali: Well done!

I just finished Doctors of Philosophy: A Play, Muriel Spark's only play, for Ali's centenary read-a-long, although it's not specifically included in her reading list. I've posted a short review that includes a link to an interesting and quite recent article about the play in the Scottish Review of Books.

Incidentally, this year is Dame Muriel's centenary, but it's also my kid sister Emily's bicentennial, and just coincidentally, one of Dame Muriel's earliest works (predating any of her novels) was Emily Brontë: Her Life and Work. I've got it on my Muriel Spark shelf and I'll be getting to it in the near future (but I think I'm first going to take a spin at All the Poems of Muriel Spark, or at least read them a bit at a time off-and-on for the rest of the year). I'm taking some of this reading a bit out of order from Ali's reading list, but it gives me a little break from the novels.

I'm really enjoying Paul Theroux's Deep South after not enjoying his newest collection of essays. Very absorbing.

My next read will be My Friend Muriel by Jane Duncan. I had previously read her My Friends: The Miss Boyds which is a favorite but I didn't finish her My Friends: Tom and George.
Her books are light reading which I enjoy at times.

Currently reading Four Days' Wonder by A.A. Milne - I coveted it for ages and only just found out it was back in print. Frothy and funny and tongue in cheek and wonderful! :)

>249 kaggsy: I have just finished Four Days Wonder by A A Milne such good fun, perfect weekend reading.

I am now reading a novel in translation called The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Yan Ge (touchstones on't work) which I got through my subscription to the Asymptote book group - highly recommended for people who like translated fiction - or like I did want to widen their reading horizons. (https://www.asymptotejournal.com/book-club/)

Since I retired I have fallen into a reading trough. I just keep picking up mystery after mystery for relaxation and, having finished every Michael Connelly book ever written, I am now working my way through Robert Crais - who has a similar lead character in a similar location and is proving a worthy successor.

This summer I am converting a large marshy area at the back of my property into a sort of Zen Garden and while I work I listen to audio books. I am currently listening to the latest Maisie Dobbs. I have never loved Maisie Dobbs but they pass the time as I weed and plant. But the woman who reads the series on audio is driving me bananas. Her English accent is so appalling it would be downright funny if it wasn't so annoying. eg: She says 'garse' for gas and 'carf' for caff. That last one had me really puzzled until I realized that people were walking down to the caff (café) for a cup of tea.

>250 Heaven-Ali: it’s such fun isn’t it Ali? Pure escapism!

I just finished a collection of essays by Lillian Ross, written between 1947 and the 2000s. The title is Reporting Always. The pieces appeared originally in The New Yorker. It was quite a mixture--mostly profiles of well-known people, including Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, and Charlie Chaplin.

I am now rereading A Bowl of Cherries by Shena Mackay. She's a Virago author but I don't think that the novel is a Virago.I enjoyed it the first time.

I'm reading Women Writers of the 1930s: Gender, Politics, and History by Maroula Joannou. Since I've been so drawn to 1930s women writers over the past couple years, I'd really like to better understand the period and their place in it. It's not the easiest reading and I'm not familiar with many of the authors mentioned so far. Looking forward to the chapter on Rosamond Lehmann's political philosophy.

Does anyone have any Spanish language book recommendations? I'm trying to work on my Spanish - I might start with Neruda but am looking for short novels (preferably by women).

>255 surtsey: I have Joannou's Ladies, Please Don't Smash These Windows and I think I might give it a shot in August for the Reading Through Time group's "Between the Wars" theme.

I have recently read a couple of books by Jane Urquhart. I really enjoyed The Map of Glass but was disappointed

with Away. Has anyone read any of her works?

I am still confining my reading to the works of women novelists. So this thread has been helpful as I rarely read

bestsellers or reviews of current books. Someone in our group recommended The Tin Toys Trilogy because I had

inquired about wanting to read books that had children in prominent roles. I am looking forward to reading it.

I recently saw an obituary for Mavis Gallant a novelist and short story writer and she had a very interesting life.

I'm just starting her A Fairly Good Time, with green water, green sky Most of her work is short stories but for some

reason I prefer novels.

>257 kayclifton: Re Jane Urquhart: I haven't read The Map of Glass, but have read Away and others of hers. While I always admire her style and language, there is something cool and detached about her that stops me from being completely won over.

If you're reading Canadian (Urquhart and Gallant) and looking for children in prominent roles, may I suggest Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald? A couple of novels by American women also spring to mind: Delta Wedding and The Member of the Wedding. It's a great theme to follow.

>SassyLassy: a very belated response. I just googled Fall on Your Knees and would find themes in the book very disturbing especially the incest issue. I always wonder if authors who write

books about incest and other traumatic issues have had the experience themselves. If so, I wonder if they'd incorporate it into their books.I was a teacher of young children and one of our

responsibilities was the reporting to higher authorities of any sign of child abuse sexual or otherwise in our pupil,s experiences. We would be legally liable if there were evidence that we knew

about it and didn't notify the authorities. I also don't usually read best sellers or other books that haven't withstood the test of time.

I think Fall on Your Knees was an Oprah book. Yes? I gave up reading Oprah books because they were all such bummers. I also was a mandatory reporter.

>259 kayclifton: Well I did look up Fall on Your Knees online after reading your post, and have to say that had such synopses been available when the book first came out, which is when I read it, I would not have read it. To me, the online summaries distort the book's feel and power. MacDonald certainly does not condone or advocate incest, which is a small though powerful part of the book, but seems to be the focus in the online world. MacDonald has said that much of her writing is autobiographical, and indeed the Cape Breton Scottish father and Cape Breton Lebanese mother accurately reflects her heritage, but to the best of my knowledge she has not discussed the matters you raise.

In 2004, she did say "I never write from cynicism. I write from love, which doesn't mean gilding the lily or only seeing the bright side. It means turning things over and seeing absolutely everything one can possible see." (from http://annmariemacdonald.com/category/past-tense/page/3/)

Here is a review that perhaps gives a better feel for the book: https://quillandquire.com/review/fall-on-your-knees/

I would just add that Jane Urquhart's Away was published in 1993 and MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees in 1996, so the two are close in time and were both bestsellers. Although I primarily focus on nineteenth century writing, I see no harm in reading more contemporary fiction.

>260 romain: I don't follow Oprah, but see that this book was an Oprah pick in 2002, some time after its initial publication. Perhaps much of the online discussion reflects Oprah's perspective rather than MacDonald's?

>259 kayclifton: and >260 romain: While I agree completely with mandatory reporting and have worked in environments where it was required, I am not sure what it has to do with the book discussion.

Probably nothing :) Just showing solidarity with Kay on the subject of mandatory reporting.

>260 romain:
Barbara, I find that nearly always Oprah's recs underwhelm me. Nice to be in the same club as you. :-)

Hey Belva! Where have you been?

I've been trying to remember to vote daily in The Great American Read, the PBS poll that is going on until October 17. October 1. I was dismayed about some of the books that had been chosen as the very best books and am diligently trying to make sure that the books I like get plenty of votes.

I just finished 13 Stradomska Street: A Memoir of Exile and Return by Andrew Potok, who wrote this book when he was in his mid-80s. I had read another of his books many years ago--Ordinary Daylight: Portrait of an Artist Going Blind.

Now I'm on a book with an odd title--Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. It's an account of some murders that took place in Oklahoma in the 1920s.

I have just finished rereading The Gate of Angels and The Bookshop both by Penelope Fitzgerald and liked both of

them and felt that they both were worth the rereading.

I read The Gate of Angels for the first time quite recently too. I need to read several other books by her still.

>266 kayclifton: >267 elkiedee: The only novel I haven't read yet is Innocence. (I've also read The Means of Escape, a short story collection, but I didn't particularly care for it.) I went on a "Penelope Fitzgerald binge" back when Hermione Lee's biography was published, planning to read all of Fitzgerald before going on to the biography, and in the end I still haven't gotten to the biography. Maybe I'll give it a try before year's end. I'm not quite sure where my copy of Innocence is right now, but if I stumble across it while doing some much needed cataloging and boxing I'll get to that too.

My favorites were probably Human Voices (the wartime BBC) and Offshore (houseboats on the Thames). The Golden Child was a mediocre mystery but a fun read for the satire of museum staffs. The one novel that really fell flat for me is The Blue Flower (biographical novel about Novalis), her last novel and the one that's seemingly most highly rated.

I also loved Fitzgerald but faltered over the Russian one because of animal cruelty. My favorite - sorry Mike :) - is The Blue Flower which I thought was amazing.

>269 romain: Maybe if I'd heard of Novalis before I read it.... My failing, not Fitzgerald's!

I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver's Unsheltered having actually bought in hardback on the day it came out, because husband Matthew and I were both so keen to read it (him on audio - narrated by BK herself!). It's wonderful so far, although a bit depressing.

I feel like I have the opposite of a reading slump at the moment as I'm reading three books, all of which I absolutely love and am torn between which to pick up next: the Booker winner Milkman (recommended if you like Eimear McBride); Saffron and Brimstone by Elizabeth Hand (strange and evocative short stories) and Making It Up, (Penelope Lively at her wonderful best).

I'm also (kind of) reading Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks which is pretty good too, but longer than it needs to be and I've put it to one side in favour of the above. Plus Fortune Cookie by Jenna Crake: a wonderfully appealing and readable collection of poetry which I read most of in one sitting but then deliberately put aside so that I could carry on enjoying it later on.

Mike is collecting a reserved copy of Milkman from the library today.

I'm reading The Artificial Anatomy of Parks about a young woman discovering family secrets (so far!).

I am about to start Despised and Rejected, a Persephone reprint of a WW1 novel which was very controversial at the time it was published. Does anyone else listen to Home Front on Radio 4? It's a drama about WW1 which has been broadcast in 15 series between 2014-2018. The book and its author are part of a storyline there. The book has been banned and copies are mysteriously appearing in the lending stock of the library and being borrowed by readers there. (I do love subversive librarian stories, as I wanted to be one).

>272 Soupdragon: your recommendations are always so reliable, Dee, because I know we have similar taste in books. I'm always happy to discover another Penelope Lively. Her books are always a sure bet for me.

I'm continuing to make my way through The Forsyte Saga, having finished The Man of Property and Indian Summer of a Forsyte and just starting In Chancery. Though not a VMC, this family saga touches on many issues we read about in VMCs.

>273 elkiedee: I think you'll enjoy Milkman, Luci. I'll also be interested to hear what you think of The Artificial Anatomy of Parks as I have it to-be-read on my kindle.

>274 lauralkeet: I've recently rediscovered Penelope Lively and am finding her even better than I remembered.

>275 LisaMorr: I have some nice Penguin Classic editions of The Forsyte Saga books looking pretty on my shelf and do wonder from time to time if I should actually read them!

>276 Soupdragon: They are very readable; once I get started, I have made my way through them very quickly. My copy has a huge family chart in the beginning, which is helpful to keep everyone straight. It's a big family!

I'm finding The Artificial Anatomy of Parks a really good read so far.

I just finished Mike Jackson's Yuki Chan in Brontë Country. It's an odd one that I rate at 4**** but that very well might not appeal to non-Brontëans. It's not actually about the Brontës and in that sense reminds me of The Brontës Went to Woolworths, with the Brontës being more in the nature of a MacGuffin. It's about a Japanese "girl" (she's in her early 20s but there's an immaturity, a tendency to fantasize, about her similar to the characters in TBWTW) who journeys to Haworth in an effort to come to terms with the death of her mother.

Including my own, there are now eleven reviews posted here on LT, and you'll see from the reviews that this one tends to be love-it-or-hate-it.

My son gave me the Bob Woodward book Fear for Christmas. I'm about halfway through but, of course, it is already out of date :)

Currently reading the recently published Scribe: A Novel by Alyson Hagy, short but it seems to be taking me a while to get through it. Also reading Carolyn Chute's Merry Men, a doorstopper that I've had around for ages.

I've just finished Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl which I thought was going to be her last novel but no, the new one comes into paperback soon. Really enjoyed it.

>282 LyzzyBee:: I enjoyed Vinegar Girl too.

I'm reading Fiona Kidman, All Day at the Movies which tells the story over more than 50 years of siblings trying to move on from their difficult childhoods in New Zealand. I think this is her most recent novel and the 4th I've read, and three quarters of the way through I think this might be the best of the 4. A UK publisher has published this and her previous novel and one of her previous ones, Songs from the Violet Cafe. Violet Cafe tells the story among others of Jessie who is the older sister of the central characters in All Day.

>280 romain: I just finished reading that one too. While so many things have happened since March 2018, when that book ends, I still found it interesting. Also, there where a lot of a-ha moments in the book, considering certain things that happened with the various investigations.

I'm currently reading John Buchan's The Thirty-nine Steps.

I just finished The Quintland Sisters, a November ER win. WOW! A devastating account of the first five years in the lives of the Dionne quintuplets. I'll post my review tomorrow. Even thought it is historical fiction the author did an outstanding job depicting the no-win situation for the quints and everyone else involved in their lives.

I've been fascinated by them since I was a kid. My great-aunt visited Quintland and brought back all these souvenirs:
five tiny babies in an apple crate; books about the little girls; and supposedly five genuine tiny handprints in a five-colored frame. (Each quint wore a special color to distinguish her from her four identical siblings.)

I have read and reviewed three great novels from the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint of Dean Street Press recently, Alice, Mrs Tim Carries on and Spring Magic. All recommended (reviews on my blog https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/

I am reading Mrs. Tim of the Regiment and enjoying both the story, the style and the writing. D.E. Stevenson is marvelous!

Ah I love that one and Dean Street Press have just republished the sequels!

287> Belva - D.E. Stevenson has been one of my favourite authors since I read Peter West a long time ago.
Did you know Amazon has just released several of her books on Kindle?

>289 mrspenny:,
Hi Trish. Yes, I am thrilled that her books are offered on Kindle. I am attempting to keep my aquisition of 'real' books to a minimum as we are planning to move house & state within the year. I am actually reading this Stevenson on my Kindle. :-)

>290 rainpebble:
Belva - there is a website that provides information regarding the series and links between Stevenson's books..

it is https://dalyght.ca/deslinkedbooks (hope that is an effective link)

LibraryThing has catalogued some the series but doesn't appear to have made all the links.

>291 mrspenny: You say: "LibraryThing has catalogued some the series but doesn't appear to have made all the links."

That's because it's not LibraryThing per se - there might be some information imported from Amazon etc where this is displayed but otherwise it's mostly just done by LT members per se. When I'm reading a series book or cataloguing one (and it can take me a while to catch up with dead tree acquisitions and I've never caught up with Kindle purchases, I generally go and add any missing series inforrmation I can know of and combine different editions of the same book where these have been entered separately. I may have done some tweaks on some D E Stevenson, I don't remember, but most of LT's series info is done by people like us.

I am reading volume one of James Lees- Milne's diaries, the unabridged version which covers 1942-3. He is one of seven staff members for the National Trust which puts him into contact with the owners of country houses who are thinking of donating their homes to the NT. For the Virago reader, he is good friends with Harold Nicholson (a former lover) and Vita Sackville-West, Rebecca West, Ivy Compton Burnet and others. He has connections to most of the social, political, and literary figures of the day. Nancy Mitford often stays with him,

Here is a sample entry:

Friday, June 26

I dined at Braemar Mansions where there was a lot of plain cooking to be got down....Speaking of Dorothy Wordsworth Miss Compton-Burnett said she was "sadly" in love with William, who reciprocated the passion. It was definitely incestuous, she affirmed. Miss Jourdain ( Ivy's partner) denied this. Miss C-B said that she knew Virginia Woolf to speak to when they met, but that she thinks she was not a great novelist, but a great writer in other respects. She did not enjoy Between the Acts, which betrayed muddled thinking, and was "too flimsy". We talked of diaries like Pepys's which had been expurgated in the nineteenth century. When unexpurgated editions came out these days she was invariably disappointed. She said the Charlotte M. Yonge was "a potential strayer". It amused her that in Cranford when Lady X after her mesalliance with the doctor, explained that the two of them had long had an "understanding", the ladies of Cranford found the word coarse. The Duke of Windsor had had an "understanding" with Mrs Simpson right enough.

Fun reading and a great primary source for England during WWII.

P.S. And just a bit more...

Tuesday March 16

Sybil Colfax read us Nigel Nicholson's (Harold and Vita's son) last letter to her from Tunisia. I am bound to admit it an entirely good letter. When I told Jamesey (James Pope-Hennessy) afterwards, he said Nigel is sure to be killed so that we must endure the chagrin of hearing him described as a Julian Grenfell.

I have been reading a number of books by Jane Gardam. I just finished Bilgewater. I've liked some of her works and didn't like others and Bilgewater fits the latter category.

I am now readingSpring Magic by D E Stevenson and it's a light read and very enjoyable. I had borrowed a book by May Sinclair The Allinghams and read a few pages but abandoned it. I have read a

number of Sinclair's books and some I like and others not but will try again. I obtained the book from a library and it was the original edition published in 1927.

I've finished the four Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante. I was totally immersed in them and think that the author has something important to say.

Now I'm reading Room with a View by E. M. Forster. I had seen a televised dramatization of it but can't recall having read the novel before.

>296 wordswordswords: I loved the Neapolitan novels. The first book has been made into a TV series (in Italian, with subtitles) which aired on HBO. I really enjoyed it and hope they plan to adapt the other books.

>297 lauralkeet:, lauralkeet, I'm glad to know you liked the TV series. I watched a trailer for it and was really interested from the outset because the two girls resembled so precisely the mental image of them that I had formed from reading My Brilliant Friend.

In addition to making my way through Pilgrimage, I've also been continuing with the Wheel of Time series, finishing A Crown of Swords last week; I also read Daemon, a cyber-security thriller by Daniel Suarez and Dead Beat, the 7th book in the Dresden Files in June. Currently reading Four Past Midnight - 4 novellas by Stephen King and Guns, Germs and Steel, an interesting book that looks at how certain humans evolved to get the things in the title and succeed over those that didn't, by Jared Diamond.

I am currently reading and loving The Murmur of Bees. The time frame is during the Spanish Enfluenza and the wars of that time. I am finding it pretty fascinating.
In the past couple of months I have read works by Dorothy Whipple, (a favorite author), Shirley Jackson, Muriel Spark, Dorothy Parker, Edith Wharton, and Irène Némirovsky. I wish that Némirovsky had been given more time to share more of her thoughts with the world. She is wonderful.

>300 rainpebble: Hi Belva! That’s an impressive list of authors! Totally agree about Nemirovsky- I’ve read several of her books and they’re soooo good.

I'm revelling in Iris Murdoch's The Philosopher's Pupil for the umpteenth time at the moment - pure joy!

I'm reading a Persephone - The far cry by Emma Smith.

I am now rereading Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. She is one of my favorite authors and I'm especially fond of her books that are more obscure e.g, Ruth. Cousin Phillisand others.

The next book on my list to read is The Three Cousins by Frances Milton Trollope. I have borrowed it from the library. I had hope to read another of her books The Adventures of Michael Armstrong Factory Book about the travails of child labor in the 18th century. She visited a textile mill during the Industrial Revolution and began publishing the book in monthly installments after that. It's certainly unusual for of woman of her time to have an interest social justice. In the state where I live the public library has access to books from all over the US mainly from college and university libraries. I read a lot of nonfiction and have obtained many books through the system, The Three Cousins is also one of them.

I'm reading The Good Apprentice as I come to the last haul on my Iris Murdoch re-reading a thon. It's a great book but I've been distracted and harried this month so not a great time for it.

I am rereading The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble. She's not one of my favorite writers but I am rereading many books to discover how I feel about them the second time around.

It's been an interesting experience.

That's been in my bookcase for ten years Kay. Let me know how you make out. I DO like Drabble but just never got round to it.

in addition to reading a number of Drabble's novels I have also read books by her sister A S Byatt. in both of their writings there is a strong undercurrent of sibling rivalry ( I believe). Sometimes it borders on hatred.
It's interesting that the title of the former's book is the Seven Sisters because the book is written from the point of view of a mother of three daughters and she's vicious in her criticism of them.
It's the main reason why I stopped reading the book.

Hmmmnnn. Yep Drabble/Byatt don't like each other apparently. Are you supposed to believe the mother? Or is she supposed to be a horrible character?

Belatedly replying. The protagonist had experienced an acrimonious divorce and the daughters appear to have taken the father's part which the former obviously resents.

Let me know what you think if you read it.

I am now reading novels by Sarah Orne Jewett.

"Sarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near the southern seacoast of Maine. Jewett is recognized as an

important practitioner of American literary regionalism"

( description from Wikipedia)

I live in New England and am familiar with the milieu in which her novels are set.

>311 kayclifton: I love Sarah Orne Jewett's writing. The New England setting really comes alive, as do the characters.

Lots of else here, all blogged about at http://www.librofulltime.wordpress.com - can't remember when I last updated this!

In addition to Pilgrimage 3, I'm reading Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan and Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe.

>314 LisaMorr:;

Ahhh, the brilliance of Poe cometh forth. Tis the season.
Enjoy, Lisa.

>315 rainpebble: Yes! I read The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Purloined Letter, but then laid it aside because I didn't want to take another big heavy book on my trip. Suitably gothic!

I finished The Path of Daggers and Proven Guilty, and now back to my two VMC reads, until I get home and can dip back into Poe.

I haven't stopped in for so very long. I am reading Another World by Pat Barker and when looking up info on author, I found that she is a Virago author. I am still trying to read Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage but have to confess that I've fallen way behind and it will be a challenge to finish by end of year which is what I want. I also read Summer by Edith Warton this fall.

I love Pat Barker!

I'm reading Elizabeth Spencer's short story collection Jack of Diamonds. I can't remember if she's a Virago author. I've fallen way behind on my reading goals for this year.

Unusually for me, I'm getting into the holiday spirit and looking for some good holiday/winter mysteries. Any suggestions?

I've just started a new book which intrigued me when I read about it in a Guardian article about "witcherature" - Water shall refuse them. It's good so far - English family moves to rural Wales for a month to try and get over a family tragedy.

I have just finished reading The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood. I it is a work of fiction based on fact. At the center of it are the Dionne Quintuplets. The book is written from the perspective of a

fictionalized young woman who was involved in the rearing of the five girls. The Dionne's were a worldwide sensation when they were born in Canada. It is an unusual book and was very enjoyable.

I am reading a Persephone book. The second book of Persephone short stories which I bought on eBay. It is fabulous.

Peggy McLean recommended that I read Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway books. No doubt others on here have also recommended them but I missed it. I am halfway through book one and have ordered the second from the library. Hopefully it will arrive before the world closes down for the duration.

Of course I have plenty to read in this house so I will be fine, including about 20 unread novels in French, which I have to read with a dictionary close at hand. I always used to say I would love 6 weeks in bed to catch up on all my unread books, but when I had Hep A (when I was 21) I was so ill I just lay there in a miserable funk and read nothing.

I am now reading the Gipsy in the Parlor by Margery Sharp. I love her novels. So many quirky characters.

I have been reading To war with Whitaker by Hermione Ranfurly (from Slightly Foxed) which was a really interesting view behind the scenes of WWII around the Mediterranean.

<324;
Kay,
Absolutely love Margery Sharp & read everything of hers I can beg, borrow or download. Her works just make me happy.

>324 kayclifton: That was my first Margery Sharp, and I promptly went and ordered several more when I finished. It was that good!

I really liked To War with Whitaker.

I'm currently reading a Persephone, the very wonderful The Carlyles at Home by Thea Holme - it's excellent, and a welcome distraction from real life. Somehow, the domestic disasters befalling Jane Carlyle seem minor compared with what's going on nowadays.

One of my favorite Persephones, Karen. I LOVED it!

I just finished Winter's Heart, the ninth book in the Wheel of Time series. I'm continuing with The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and The Thief of Always.

>328 romain: Me too, and it inspired me to reread another Slightly Foxed War memoir, John Hackett's I was a stranger, which felt very timely.

That also looks good, Alvaret. Right up my alley. No place to find it at the moment but I know I would enjoy it.

I am currently painting the downstairs of my house and listening to lightweight audio books as I work. Joy Fielding's Someone is Watching was my last one. John Grisham coming up next. I am also about to start my second Elly Griffiths murder mystery, which I got in book form from the library. Binge watching the second season of Donald Glover's 'Atlanta', which my son turned me on to, and which is very very funny.

Reading Paul Magrs' Does it Show and just finished David Hockney and Martin Gayford's A History of Pictures which was amazing.

I just finished the monumental The eighth life, a novel chronicling the lives of one family through the 20th century in Georgia (former USSR, not USA). Not surprisingly, it is frequently traumatic, but the characters are so fascinating and well drawn that you keep reading anyway. It is really interesting to see the rise and fall of the USSR from the POV of one of the Republics rather than Russia itself, as I've read a fair amount of the latter. There is a very slight element of magical realism but it is so slight you can ignore it.

>335 Sakerfalcon: sounds fascinating Claire!

It is! I thought of you as I was summarising it. It is over 900 pages though, so not a minor commitment!

I ended up reading John Tyler instead of finishing The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler - I wanted to read a biography before getting into a detailed history. I also finished The Thief of Always: A Fable, YA by Clive Barker and The White Plague by Dune author Frank Herbert. Just started The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

I am half way through My Grandmother and I by Diana Holman-Hunt. It has been on my shelves since 1977 when I bought the book at Wightwick Manor near Wolverhampton. I had forgotten it was autographed by the author to help raise funds to purchase some original Morris wallpaper

Elaine

I'm just starting Elizabeth Strout's Amy and Isabelle for the Reading Through Time Group's March theme of "Mothers and Daughters." OK so far but a bit slow taking off, nowhere comparable to Olive Kitteridge of course.

>324 kayclifton: I'm reading Margery Sharp too! Discovered her last year and she quickly became one of my favorite authors. Listening to Brittania Mews now.

Simultaneously reading The China Governess by Margery Allingham and Riverside by Patrick Hamilton (I think this is more commonly known by another title but I forget what). I've had a busy few months and it took me an embarrassingly long time before I finished my first real novel of 2020! Which was my second Pamela Hansford Johnson, An Avenue of Stone. I'd love to read more by her but there aren't many available to borrow.

Just wanted to note that there are several Barbara Pym audiobooks coming out this year. I'm excited! Pre-ordered one I have yet to read, Less Than Angels.

I mowed my lawns yesterday and then, because it was such a beautiful day here in NJ, I sat out on my deck and finished The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths. I am enjoying this series as much for the Norfolk location as the mysteries themselves. I listened to a John Grisham audio book while painting my den and am now working in the dining room with a Jane Green audio as company. Light listening, but definitely great for painting.

I'm reading Difficult Women which very nicely has my name in the acknowledgements (not as a difficult woman!).

I'm Impressed! What did you do to earn that Lyzzy?

I finished the last of my library audio books, which I've been listening to on CD as I paint the inside of my house. Start room 4 today, but no more audio. :( In the past I have tried to download e-stuff from the library but it just hasn't worked for me. This time I tried again and had the same problems getting audio onto my iPod. So I switched to Overdrive and voila! I am up and running with more lightweight stuff to keep me working.

On my third Elly Griffiths, which I read in bed at night. Thanks for the rec Peg. I'm really liking the series!

Lyzzy - I'm sincerely interested. Do tell.

>344 romain: I worked on the transcriptions of the author's interviews with her subjects. I have worked on all sorts of books, usually for ghostwriters, where I am even more invisible than the writer, so it was nice to be acknowledged!

I've just finished Queenie, sitting up late last night to get it done as it was compulsive reading.

I've read a ton more than normal for me in April; with not much else to do, reading has been a good distraction. Read Time Storm, an interesting take on time travel. Then finished up The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. Dead and Gone, the ninth book in Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries with Sookie Stackhouse, which was a fun entry in the series. The Siege by Ismail Kadare was next - really enjoyed this story about a Turkish siege of an unnamed Albanian citadel. Flew through The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which probably everyone else has already read or seen the movie! Then In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - which was excellent!

Finished my VMC for the month, Lantana Lane, over the weekend and continuing with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which is about reincarnation and also time travel, apparently.

Just started My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes, one of the new British Library Women Writers series - lovely so far!

>349 kaggsy: I'm trying to just read from my shelves but I keep seeing this mentioned everywhere and am so tempted. I love Mollie Panter-Downes. If you end up leaving a wonderful review, that will be it!

Though I am somewhat diverted towards Elizabeth Bowan after seeing your photo on Twitter and have plenty of them unread to keep me busy. Oh, and I think I've committed to reading Middlemarch for a readathon!

Yay Middlemarch! I'm deep in magic realism in the NE and Edinburgh with Paul Magrs Could it be Magic and reading a massive but really well done history of running that takes in the whole world!

>351 LyzzyBee: And now I really want to buy and read those Paul Magrs books Phoenix Court books too! I've never heard of them before but they sound great. There is no hope for me!

Oh do get hold of them, they're bizarre but great and they've been republished by a small press and he's struggled to keep a mainstream publisher so ...

>353 LyzzyBee: Just read the beginning of the first Phoenix Court and loved it so I will!

>350 Soupdragon: I think you would love it Dee! Don’t quite know why more of her stuff is not in print, she seems very much an author who should have been published more widely by Virago or Persephone.

As for Elizabeth Bowen I’ve gone down a real wormhole there and have been spending much too much time online searching out obscure books.... 😱

>355 kaggsy: I've spent time down the Elizabeth Bowen wormhole too. No-one else writes quite like her so it can be difficult to move on from her books to anything else.
Most of mine are the fairly common Vintage paperbacks though. I'll be interested to see what you come up with when you emerge from the wormhole!

Ditto on Bowen and thanks for the rec for Queenie Lyzzy - looks right up my alley at the moment!

>356 Soupdragon: LOL! I imagine there will be pictures on Twitter..... Do I follow you on there????

>358 kaggsy: I've only been on Twitter for a few days so probably not.
Son 1 (21), was a bit protective of me when I told him I was joining Twitter and wanted to make sure I was aware of all its potential dangers. I told him I was aware, would try to avoid getting into arguments with alt-right psychos & would mostly focus on bookish stuff 😊.

>359 Soupdragon: Aw that's so sweet! It's fine on Twitter as long as you stick to the bookish types! Let me know your name on there and I'll follow you! :D

Downloaded an audio of Metropolis by Philip Kerr to listen to while I paint (touchstone not working). I still haven't got to his next to last novel in the series but this last book is a prequel so they'll be no spoilers. I presume Elaine has read it already. I wish Philip Kerr had lived to write more books. I love Bernie Gunther.

I really must get to a couple of Persephones during this enforced staycation, even if it's just a couple of Whipples.

PS. I reserved an audio of Queenie but there are 3 people ahead of me for that.

>360 kaggsy:, Thank you, Karen. My Twitter name is currently dee bookdragon - I may change it!

>362 romain: I'll be interested to hear what you think of Queenie when it's your turn, Barbara.

>363 Soupdragon: Found you! :D

I just read one of the Vintage Margaret Kennedy reissues, Return I dare not. It was an enjoyable read though not as good as some of her better-known novels. This one featured a group of largely unlikeable, morally suspect people at a house party weekend. As usual though Kennedy nails the darker side of people's characters beneath their shiny social surfaces.

>361 romain:;
My dear Barbara, there is no such thing as “just” when it comes to the works of Whipple! She is devine. 😉

I am currently reading Celia’s House by D E Stevenson. It is lovely to be reading her again. I believe her “Buncle” books are the last I have read by her.

>366 rainpebble: Lovely to see you here, Belva. Hope you're doing okay?

>367 Soupdragon:,
Hello Dee. It is so good to ‘see’ all of you here again as well. I am weathering the storm, so to speak, as is the rest of the world. Thank you for asking. I hope that you & yours are faring well also. 🙏🏻

I am looking forward to being able to hug neighbors, friends & family once again without being under the threat of citation or jail. 😩 And of course I will be thrilled when we can all return to our library branches.

I have been reading quite a lot this winter. Not a lot of depth, but much comfort & mystery in my choices. Reading has been such a good distraction in these trying times.

hugs & praying all of you are safe & well,
belva

Hey Belva! Given that you turned me on to the Bosch books - have you watched the tv series on Amazon Prime? It's a pretty good adaptation of the books.

I loaned my copy of Doomsday Book (Connie Willis) to a friend recently - very fun and quite relevant right now. Time traveler stuck in the 14th century during the Black Plague while her colleagues are all laid low in 2050 Oxford during a modern day pandemic. Too sick to rescue her. I know many of us in this group read it about ten years ago.

>368 rainpebble:, >369 romain:: I love the HarryBosch stories. Our SBS station runs the series from time to time. I am a keen viewer every time:-)

>370 mrspenny:, Hi Trish, good to see you here too 😊.

>371 Soupdragon: Hi Dee, it is good to be here again. We lost the internet for about 3 weeks which was frustrating but did get a solid block of reading done.

I've just read Martha in Paris by Margery Sharp and am continuing with Martha Eric and George. Martha is such a great characters, I've not met anyone quite like her before. Wonderfully funny stories, just right for this time.

I continue to paint my house and weed my yard while listening to audio books on my iPod. Currently halfway through the latest (to me) Robert Galbraith/J K Rowling. I started with the Overdrive app but switched to Libby two weeks ago. Much easier. The biggest problem I'm having is the waiting lists for most books. I fear all my reserves will come in on the same day :)

Am also reading a book about Doc Holliday by Mary Doria Russell. The Wild West is not usually my cup of tea but, so far, I am loving it.

Read Crossfire by Miyuki Miyabe (sort of a Japanese Firestarter), then A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (starts in the Bodelian Library at the University of Oxford and has witches, demons and vampires), then Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli. Finished Crossroads of Twilight yesterday, the tenth book in the Wheel of Time series, which I will finish this year!, and now reading A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. All good reads this month.

I'm late to the party but happy, happy, happy to be here and to see Belva posting again! And Joan!!!!
Barbara, I'm also 3 happies that you are enjoying Ruth Galloway. I'm taking my time on the penultimate one and already sorry that soon I will have read all on offer right now. Doomsday Book is one of my all-time favorites and timely as you say. I'm not due for a reread yet though. Nor have I gotten myself together to read Epitaph, which I know will be a good one.

>375 LisaMorr: Lisa, I didn't realize until now that you've been Wheeling. I've only just finished Crown of Swords, which was the last one I finished in my first attempt to read the series. You give me courage to get on with *Path*. You are really breezing through them. I wanted to love the first D. Harkness, but it was only O.K. for me. I'll try another sometime.

As for me, I just finished Dead Wake yesterday and was deeply touched by it all the way through. I'm not sure that it's quite what I needed in isolation, but Larson is always satisfying. I also finished Among Friends by Alexandra Raife, a contemporary woman I had never heard of. (Elaine had though.) Now there is a comfort book! Besides the Jordan and the Griffiths, I am hoping to finish Dead Land, an ARC from ER, this month. I always enjoy S. Paretsky. I also have a little time invested in The Rook by Daniel O'Malley: fun so far. I'm slapping my hands to keep from putting Underland on my Kindle. I have another R. Macfarlane that I would like/should read first. The same slapping is true for Daughters of Chivalry.

So good to see you here Peggy 😊.

Thank you, Dee. It's nice to be welcomed back!

Me too Peg, although we are in contact off site. I am still reading Doc and looking forward to the sequel Epitaph. It seems you've read Doc, Peggy?

I am now listening to an e-audio of a Denise Mina (Tartan Noir) novel, this one a stand alone called Conviction. Who was it in the group who turned us on to Mina? Whoever you are, I am grateful!

I am now painting a 6th room, but being distracted by sunshine and garden weeds.

Thank you, Barbara! I did read Doc pretty soon after it was published. Epitaph is another one of those sequels that I long to read and haven't gotten to. I'm ashamed at how many I have waiting for me on my Kindle.
I bought or used PBS for a number of Denise Mina mysteries and have never finished even one. I read enough to know that I like her. More guilt!!!!!
AND I haven't yet read a VMC this year. What have I been up to? Unlike Barbara I don't get much home upkeep done. I am chief cook, cleaner, lady's maid, etc. for my 98 year-old mother, who is doing very well at the moment following three rough months after another spinal compression fracture. Osteoporosis is an evil condition. All of you slender, small-boned women who are approaching or leaving menopause, please get a dexa-scan and do what your doctor recommends!

Hey Peg - I started the Mina books with the Garnethill series. I liked the Paddy Meehan series less, and abandoned those. This latest (to me) was very light in comparison to some of her others and I loved the multiple European city locations.

Doc continues to be very compelling.

I keep up on all my regular medical stuff Peg and so far no sign of osteoporosis. My head has always been full of 'stampeding cattle', but the body has always been strong. :))))))

The e-audio for Queenie appeared a few days ago. I have been painting the office and listened to it as I worked. I loved it! Bridget Jones meets Fleabag on one level, and yet very political and heart rending on others.

Finished Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell, the second book in the Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday saga. Highly recommended for those who like the genre.

Hi, Barbara!!!! I do like MDR's take on the genre, and I haven't read Epitaph yet although I really want to.
Right now, I'm enjoying Clarie Tomalin's bio of Mary Wollstonecraft and The Rook, which couldn't be more different from MW. I also spent some time tonight with The Daughters of Chivalry. All in all, very satisfactory!

>376 LizzieD: Just started Knife of Dreams, the last book Robert Jordan finished before his passing - I understand from those that have finished the series that Brandon Sanderson while being faithful to the series did increase the pace, if that's the right way to say it. I have to say that reading Deborah Harkness at the same time had me wishing for more of a Robert Jordan style!

Also reading James K. Polk: A Biographical Companion continuing my American presidential biographies challenge and Deep Rivers, a book on the 1001 list by Peruvian author Jose Maria Arguedas which I'm enjoying.

>385 LisaMorr: I've taken heart, Lisa, and started Winter's Heart. It's a great pleasure to be reading new Wheel material. I'm still in the M. Wollstonecraft bio and the *Daughters of Chivalry*, but today I started The Night Circus, and I like the first 50 pages just fine. It's so good to like everything that I have going at a given moment!

I read This is the End by Stella Benson. Oddly for a 1916 novel revolving around the consequences of the First World War, it's intensely whimsical.

It begins: 'This is the end, for the moment, of all my thinking, this is my unfinal conclusion. There is no reason in tangible things, and no system in the ordinary ways of the world. Hands were made to grope, and feet to stumble, and the only things you may count on are the unaccountable things. System is a fairy and a dream, you never find system where or when you expect it. There are no reasons except reasons you and I don't know.'

I've just begun reading Living Alone, 1919, by Stella Benson, which is about a witch and a social worker during the First World War.

It begins: "This is not a real book. It does not deal with real people, nor should it be read by real people."

I'm reading Rewilding which is a new book just out about the science behind the practice of rewilding. Fascinating so far and along with Thirkell's Growing Up, ending a run of slightly "meh" books.

I'm reading Ancestor Stones by award winning author Aminatta Forna, which is a collection of short stories (or a novel with five narrators) set in Sierra Leone in West Africa, from 1926 to 1999, and following the lives of four women who are daughters of four of the eleven wives of a prosperous and very polygamous Muslim man.

I'm reading my very old red edition of Elizabeth and Her German Garden

Really enjoying it so far.

>390 spiralsheep: Oh! I've loved A. Forna, but I'm not sure that I'm up for short stories even if they are somehow tied together. We'll see.
Meanwhile, I'm really really enjoying Utopia Avenue and really really grateful to Early Reviewers for my copy!

I'm continuing my slow read of Elizabeth Cadell's extensive oeuvre, one every time I need something comparatively gentle, with Parson's House.

>392 LizzieD: I'm also not a fan of investing in characters for the length of one short story but Ancestor Stones has four stories about each of the four women and they build into proper story arcs.

I'm sure many people have seen this news already, but it's got me very excited! Forthcoming Furrowed Middlebrow reprints of rare titles by Virago authors.
Click here for details!

>394 Sakerfalcon: As a fan of Margery Sharp's adult novels, I already own The Foolish Gentlewoman, The Stone of Chastity, and Harlequin House, but I've been seeking Fanfare for Tin Trumpets for years (it's even on my extremely short LT wishlist!) and will no doubt be highly amused by Rhododendron Pie, and while I'm not a completist, I suppose there's no point leaving Four Gardens as the only Sharp I haven't read (apart from the children's books), so the publishers will do rather well out of me.

>394 Sakerfalcon: I am currently reading the new Dean Street Press edition of Rhododendron Pie, they sent me a couple of review ebooks. I couldn't wait

>396 Heaven-Ali: That is one of the titles I'm most excited about! I look forward to your review when you're allowed to post it.

I'm reading The Other Bennet Sister, which is a retelling of the story of Mary Bennet, who originally appeared as a character in Pride and Prejudice. The first chapter seems promising. The first sentence was a good start too:

"It is a sad fact of life that if a young woman is unlucky enough to come into the world without expectations, she had better do all she can to ensure she is born beautiful. To be handsome and poor is misfortune enough; but to be both plain and penniless is a hard fate indeed."

I'm reading Changes: a Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo, 1991, in the Women's Press original. It's about a woman who falls out of marriage and into love in big city Accra in Ghana, where the men prefer traditional gender roles and the women have limited choices.

Just finished the latest Michael Connelly book, while doing a jigsaw puzzle of Fifth Avenue in the rain. Belva turned me on to Connelly many years ago, for which I am still grateful.

My friend was listening to the latest Robert Galbraith/J K Rowling (Cormoran Strike) on e-audio but was unable to finish it because it was 23 hours long, and the library took it back for the next client who had it on hold. I also wanted to read it, but the holds were a mile long.

However, I lucked into the Large Print edition and am working my way though that. We used to say that Crime and Punishment made a wonderful doorstop, but this Large Print edition of Troubled Blood has to be the biggest book I have ever read. 1500 pages, library binding, and at least 3 inches thick. It's so heavy, I have been reading it in bed with the book open in my lap.

I'm reading several books, including

Dorothy Whipple, Young Anne, a Persephone, about a girl/woman growing up before and after World War I, in town rife with snobbery. Anne would love to have the chance of a really academic education but this was a time when women were expected to just help out the family until they got married, and then just take part in voluntary committees.

Sydney Taylor, All-of-a-Kind-Family Downtown - family life before WWI on the Lower East Side. This was written as a follow up to the first book about this family but the publisher turned it down and it didn't actually appear until some years later, probably as the introduction suggests because it was a bit too honest about the problems faced by some of the family's neighbours with poverty and illness.

Rachel Holmes, Eleanor Marx - trying to tackle some of my more substantial non-fiction books - I had this from the library for ages but then found my own copy in a charity shop. Quite a large hardback so now seems like a good time to read it as I don't have to worry about carting it round when I leave the house (because I don't really do that much).

I'm reading Three Apples Fell From the Sky by Narine Abaryan for a read-along on twitter. I've fallen in love with the quirky and enchanting inhabitants of a remote Armenian community. (Well, not ALL of them. There are a few really horrible characters!)
It's so beautifully written, translated from Russian.

The awesome book community on Twitter has greatly inspired reading more women-in-translation!

I've just begun reading A Tale of Two Families by Dodie Smith. It's not a Virago I'm enjoying it so far and intend to read another of her works

A Town in Bloom

I hope nobody minds if I continue this topic as it now has over 400+ replies.