Marissa Keeps On Reading in 2022

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Marissa Keeps On Reading in 2022

1Marissa_Doyle
Déc 31, 2021, 11:36 am

Starting off the new year about 12 hours early (local time), but what the hey. I hope that this year will be full of good books and witty, thoughtful discussion of them for all Green Dragoneers.

And starting 2022's reading (overlapping from 2021) is an Angela Thirkell, The Brandons. Great fun, emotionally non-challenging, and slyly humorous. This is one of her pre-war books, so the bitter edge of the late- and post-war books has not yet crept in.

2Marissa_Doyle
Déc 31, 2021, 11:38 am

Eek! The new 2022 thread changed the name of my 2021 thread. I don't think it's ever done that before...

3jjwilson61
Déc 31, 2021, 2:00 pm

It looks like your 2021 thread is still there with the right title, but you're new thread is duplicated

4Marissa_Doyle
Déc 31, 2021, 2:25 pm

>3 jjwilson61: Oh yes, you're right. Strange...

5libraryperilous
Déc 31, 2021, 5:13 pm

Happy New Year and new thread!

6haydninvienna
Déc 31, 2021, 9:23 pm

Happy new year and happy new thread!

7clamairy
Jan 1, 2022, 8:18 pm

Happy New Year & Thread! I will be donning the kevlar before visiting. ;o)

8jillmwo
Jan 1, 2022, 9:12 pm

I'm not seeing a duplicate thread so I hope I've gotten to the right one to wish you a happy new year ahead with many good books available to you.

9clamairy
Jan 2, 2022, 5:41 pm

>8 jillmwo: I just saw the second thread because Meredy posted in it. I'm going to attempt to delete it for you, >1 Marissa_Doyle:.

10clamairy
Jan 2, 2022, 10:36 pm

And, that didn't work...
So I changed the topic and deleted the messages.
I'm sure MrAndrew will find it and have some fun with it.

11Marissa_Doyle
Jan 2, 2022, 10:48 pm

>10 clamairy: Thanks, clam! I'll email LT tomorrow and ask if they can delete it. No clue why it duplicated itself...

12Meredy
Jan 3, 2022, 2:51 am

>9 clamairy: I dont quite understand what happened. The thread in which I greeted Marissa was deleted?

13clamairy
Jan 3, 2022, 9:28 am

>12 Meredy: Yes, sorry. I was going to message you. LT hiccupped while she was posting and she had duplicate threads. Everyone just posted in this one, except you found the other one.

14Sakerfalcon
Jan 3, 2022, 11:13 am

Happy new year and happy new thread! I hope this hiccup is an aberration and the rest of the year goes smoothly! I have no doubt you will hit me with more than a few BBs!

15Meredy
Jan 3, 2022, 8:15 pm

>13 clamairy: Well, that certainly explains why no one had posted ahead of me. Thanks.

Since that comment is gone, I'm free to tell you that it was incomparably witty, warm, and jolly, not to mention irreproducible.

So I'll just say >1 Marissa_Doyle: following you, as usual, and I hope it's a great year for words both incoming and outgoing.

16MrsLee
Jan 3, 2022, 11:56 pm

>15 Meredy: I saw that post. You are not wrong! :)

17Meredy
Jan 4, 2022, 12:40 am

>16 MrsLee: I have no idea what it said!

18pgmcc
Jan 4, 2022, 2:54 am

>17 Meredy:
I took a screen-shot and for a small consideration I will delete all copies.

19Marissa_Doyle
Jan 4, 2022, 9:29 am

>18 pgmcc: Did you get the photos, too?

20pgmcc
Jan 4, 2022, 11:00 am

>19 Marissa_Doyle: The negatives are stored securely. None of this digital nonsense for me.

21Meredy
Jan 4, 2022, 7:39 pm

>18 pgmcc: The owl plays pinochle at midnight under a new moon.

22Marissa_Doyle
Jan 5, 2022, 7:29 pm

First book of the year finished! Angela Thirkell's books about the inhabitants of Barsetshire are lovely when one is busy or distracted, and The Brandons is one of her pre-war books, before she grew tired and bitter and angry at how England had changed. Quite funny in spots, but in a wry smile/gentle chuckle sort of way.

23reading_fox
Jan 6, 2022, 7:09 am

Happy New Year

24Marissa_Doyle
Jan 6, 2022, 11:51 am

>23 reading_fox: Thank you! A Happy New Year to you as well, and to all the denizens of the pub.

25Storeetllr
Jan 6, 2022, 12:10 pm

Hi! Happy New Year! I'm slowly getting around the threads - now that I'm a granny-nanny, there's not nearly enough time for that. Even when I was working a 9-6 job, I had more time for social media. And now I remember why I seldom read a book when my daughter was small, at least not during those first couple of years.

Anyway, dropping a star and hope to be able to keep up. We'll see!

26Sakerfalcon
Jan 7, 2022, 4:56 am

>22 Marissa_Doyle: I too enjoyed The Brandons, though I think my favourites of the Barsetshire books so far are Summer half and Pomfret Towers. I have them up to the end of the war books; after that I've heard that they decline in quality so I shall stop there.

27Marissa_Doyle
Jan 7, 2022, 10:36 am

>26 Sakerfalcon: I haven't read any of the post-war books in years...but yes, the books set later in the war and just after that I have read--I don't know that it's a question of quality, per se. I think she was tired and disillusioned and a bit angry at the changes to her world: I imagine it was hard to write humorous, gently satirical books about England after the war.

28Marissa_Doyle
Jan 7, 2022, 10:49 am

Just finished Maine Ghosts and Legends, a carry-over from my spooky streak last fall. Nicely chilling, especially an account of a house that held a chair occupied by a mid-19th century ghost with a nasty, suggestive smile holding a knife. Searching the Nook for my next read...

29-pilgrim-
Jan 7, 2022, 12:30 pm

>27 Marissa_Doyle: That was much the reason Dorothy L. Sayers gave fir stopping writing about Lord Peter Wimsey; she could not imagine him pootling about whilst the world was at war.

30libraryperilous
Jan 7, 2022, 6:14 pm

>22 Marissa_Doyle: I recently stumbled upon the Furrowed Middlebrow books from Dean Street Press. I ultimately decided they wouldn't be my cup of tea, but Elizabeth Fair is one of the authors they've republished. The poet Stevie Smith said of Fair's novels, "Miss Fair’s understanding is deeper than Mrs. Thirkell’s and her humour is untouched by snobbishness; she is much nearer to Trollope, grand master in these matters."

Smith was one of my favorite poets when I was a cynical teenager. It's hard for me to picture her enjoying either Thirkell or Trollope!

31Marissa_Doyle
Jan 8, 2022, 12:06 am

>30 libraryperilous: Ooh! A new author to dip into...and all her books are available in ebook from Barnes and Noble for $2.99...

32jillmwo
Jan 8, 2022, 2:20 pm

>30 libraryperilous: and >31 Marissa_Doyle: Somewhere on my Kindle is a copy of Elizabeth Fair's Bramton Wick but I haven't yet read it. I think it caught my eye because the marketing blurb referred to the series as being comedic about domestic life which sounded somewhat soothing.

33libraryperilous
Jan 8, 2022, 5:23 pm

>31 Marissa_Doyle: >32 jillmwo: I stumbled on the Dean Street Press website because I was looking for Mary Stewart readalikes. I'll be interested in Marissa's review if she decides to read one of Fair's novels. I agree they sound soothing, especially the locales of the stories.

34clamairy
Jan 8, 2022, 8:35 pm

>31 Marissa_Doyle: Okay, you let us know how they are. And it looks like you got beaned by a barrage of BBs in your own thread.

35Marissa_Doyle
Jan 9, 2022, 4:40 pm

Wildwood Whispers Contemporary fantasy. It was on sale on B&N for 1.99, so I said 'what the heck.' I'm glad I didn't pay more. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't very good, and I skimmed the second half. Sterner editing would have helped.

Before I jump into the handful of Dean Street Press books I picked up, I'm sneaking in The Scientist and the Psychic, a biochemist's memoir of his mother, a well-known and gifted Canadian psychic, and her powers: are they real? Can science explain them? Fascinating stuff.

36Marissa_Doyle
Jan 11, 2022, 1:58 pm

Not necessarily book-related, but definitely LT related. I was looking for something on the Colonial Williamsburg store website and found this--how did I not know about it?

"The Green Dragon Tavern was the most celebrated of coffee houses in Boston. It stood in the heart of the town from 1697 to 1832, providing newspapers and a kind of privacy for business dealings to its men-only clientele. Here they could gather to freely discuss the news of the day over coffee and tea. The basement tavern was used by several secret groups and became known by historians as the "Headquarters of the Revolution". The Sons of Liberty, Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Boston Caucus each met there. The Boston Tea Party was planned there and Paul Revere was sent from there to Lexington on his famous ride. In January 1788, a meeting of the mechanics and artisans of Boston passed a series of resolutions urging the importance of adopting the Federal Constitution pending at the time before a convention of delegates from around Massachusetts. The building was demolished in 1854."

It made me think more about how history is taught: yeah, in American schools (or at least Massachusetts ones) you hear a lot about Paul Revere's ride and the Battle of Lexington and Concord. But if they framed it with tidbits like the fact that a lot of the planning happened in the local pub--gave the historical facts more human underpinnings--attention levels in history classes might improve...

(/rant)

37clamairy
Modifié : Jan 11, 2022, 4:55 pm

>36 Marissa_Doyle: Agreed! And the way to interest kids in history isn't to read them a list of dates and events, like the nuns did back in my day.

Isn't the Green Dragon still in Boston? One of the first Library Thing real life gatherings was held there. I just checked and it is indeed the same place, though I doubt much of the building is original. (Although there is a house a couple of miles from here that was built in 1656!)

https://www.greendragonboston.com/

38Marissa_Doyle
Jan 11, 2022, 4:59 pm

>37 clamairy: I don't know if it's still physically in the same location, but the original building seems to have been demolished in the 19th century.

I mean, having a factoid like a tavern named the Green Dragon is a great way to help remember facts...

39MrsLee
Jan 11, 2022, 6:17 pm

>36 Marissa_Doyle: So add the detail of the pub to the history, and to really cement it, have the kids brew some ale and invite the parents to a "revolutionary" plotting session. :D

40Meredy
Jan 12, 2022, 1:27 am

>36 Marissa_Doyle:, >37 clamairy: I just looked it up on Google Maps, and--that's my old neighborhood! (I have several old neighborhoods in Boston and Cambridge.) Haymarket used to be my subway stop, and I'd walk up Hanover to Clark Street. Ragged little third-floor apartment, $70 per month. If there was a Green Dragon Pub then, I didn't know about it. It looks like it's pretty close to where Durgin Park used to be.

If--no, when--I get back to Boston, I'm going there, for sure, and I hope we can meet up.

41Marissa_Doyle
Jan 12, 2022, 10:30 am

>40 Meredy: Durgin Park. Sigh. I will totally meet you anywhere when you come back. Last time was lovely.

42Marissa_Doyle
Jan 13, 2022, 4:49 pm

The Scientist and the Psychic was a very interesting read, though perhaps more memoir-ish than the cover copy indicated. I found the author's conclusion--that genuine psychic abilities (such as his mother seems to possess--simply aren't explainable because we don't have the tools yet to see what's going on in the brain. I found the memoir aspect a little hard reading at times--especially when the author discusses his abuse at the hands of his mother's second husband--but still fascinating.

And a report on Bramton Wick: underwhelming. Angela Thirkell's books are just funnier, and I found her characters much better drawn and more sympathetic even if many of the depictions of servants and the "common folk" in her books can be cringe-y. I doubt I'll bother reading more of Elizabeth Fair. However, some other Furrowed Middlebrow books caught my interest, and I picked up Much Dithering (love the title!) and Nothing to Report in e-book. Another one I'm dying to read is A Footman for the Peacock, which sounds hilarious.

43Sakerfalcon
Jan 14, 2022, 8:10 am

>42 Marissa_Doyle: I have a few Furrowed Middlebrow books, although as usual I haven't read all the ones I own. I can recommend Table two and Alice from those I have read. I'm also excited that they have reprinted some previously hard-to-find titles by Margery Sharp and Stella Gibbons.

44Marissa_Doyle
Jan 15, 2022, 6:07 pm

Alas, the best thing about Much Dithering was the title; the actual book read like poorly written Angela Thirkell fan fiction. Thank you for the tips on those books in >43 Sakerfalcon:; I will be more cautious in future.

Have started Lady Rosamund and the Poison Pen; while it feels more Victorian than Regency, I'm still enjoying it.

45Marissa_Doyle
Jan 17, 2022, 2:41 pm

Finished Lady Rosamund and the Poison Pen, and loved it; the mystery aspect was excellent in that the misdirection as to the identity of the villain was strongly effective. I also very much enjoyed the character of Lady Rosamund, quietly battling an obsessive-compulsive disorder. So I'm on to the second in the series, Lady Rosamund and the Horned God.

46Marissa_Doyle
Jan 22, 2022, 10:29 am

Finished Lady Rosamund and the Horned God. Perfectly good and readable murder-at-a-house-party mystery; I appreciate that all the clues were present mixed in with plenty of red herrings, and no last-minute vital pieces of information introduced out of the blue at the last minute. Not quite as good as the first book, but I do like the main characters and will look for the next book if/when it comes out.

Onto another cozy-ish Regency mystery, A Bachelor Establishment, written by Jody Taylor of St. Mary's time travel fame under a pseudonym.

47Marissa_Doyle
Jan 23, 2022, 3:39 pm

Finished A Bachelor Establishment; a cute pastime with flashes of the author's humor, but not particularly memorable. I still have the Regency itch, though, so I may resort to a Georgette Heyer re-read or two.

48Marissa_Doyle
Fév 10, 2022, 11:23 pm

Well, the Georgette Heyer itch is a persistent one: I've reread The Quiet Gentleman, Black Sheep, Lady of Quality, Sprig Muslin, and currently in False Colours. I tend to reread old favorites when I'm about to be busy with writing, because I know they won't tinge my words. Brains are funny things.

49Marissa_Doyle
Juin 23, 2022, 11:31 am

Er...hi.

I'm not dead, just very, very busy writing and editing and have almost no time to read for pleasure--even before-going-to-sleep reading is non-fiction related to my subject (though between January and April I did succeed in re-reading almost every single Georgette Heyer Regency novel, plus one or two others. My "books read" tally this year will not be impressive.)

The good news is that I love the stories I'm writing (and releasing one per month through Book View Cafe). The bad news is that I have no life. I'm just today finishing planting my vegetable garden when it should have been done over Memorial Day weekend, though one of the intervening weekends was spend on a road trip to the Finger Lakes of New York with my husband to visit all our favorite wineries after not having been able to for years, in celebration of our (about to happen) 35th anniversary.

50MrsLee
Juin 23, 2022, 1:46 pm

>49 Marissa_Doyle: Happy Anniversary! Glad you stopped by to check in. I see you here and there on FB, and I am thrilled to hear about your writing.

51pgmcc
Juin 23, 2022, 6:21 pm

>49 Marissa_Doyle:
Happy Anniversary!

52clamairy
Juin 26, 2022, 10:36 am

>49 Marissa_Doyle: Happy anniversary! Hope you get to relax soon...

53hfglen
Juin 26, 2022, 12:37 pm

>49 Marissa_Doyle: What Clare said.

54Karlstar
Juin 26, 2022, 2:09 pm

>49 Marissa_Doyle: Happy anniversary! I love the Finger Lakes region, will you be visiting Watkins Glen (the park, not the racetrack)? Enjoy!

55Sakerfalcon
Juin 27, 2022, 8:22 am

Happy anniversary! I've been enjoying your facebook posts and hope that all is going well with the book releases.

56Marissa_Doyle
Juin 27, 2022, 2:23 pm

>54 Karlstar: Thank you! We didn't make it to Watkins Glen this time, but we have walked the gorge before. My son went to Hobart, so we've gotten to know the area pretty well.

>55 Sakerfalcon: I have been having far too much fun with those Facebook posts. :)

57libraryperilous
Juin 30, 2022, 6:24 pm

Happy anniversary!