The Green Leaves Tea Room

...for announcements, general chit-chat, jumble sale alerts and tips for playing whist, etc.

*pulls out notebook and waits for whist tips*

Time to start putting up separate threads where we can discuss each book. Probably best not to open them if you have an aversion to spoilers :)

Feel free to start new threads, folks.

My box of 10 lovely hardcover Pyms, with dust jackets, arrived today. They will find a place next to my set of Jane Austens and the Virago 30th Anniversary editions.

I also received two other books, the Plume edition of Civil to Strangers and a small book of criticism, Something to Love: Barbara Pym's Novels by Diana Benet.

>5 Cariola: Sounds fantastic, Cariola! Which one will you read first/next?

I think I will be returning to Excellent Women, which I started about a year ago but didn't finish. I'll be starting over from the beginning.

Oh good, Deborah! I hope you enjoy it this time around.

Well, Deborah, you've probably finished it by now. I read it again while my aunt slept in the hospital or nursing home. Love!
Now I'm carrying No Fond Return of Love for use in the same circumstance but haven't gotten very far.

Just started No Fond Return today. Viola, Dulcie and Aylwin Forbes, indexing, the conference setting. Its perfect :)

>10 digifish_books:: OK digifish, that is too weird because guess what, I started the very same book on December 24. And isn't your name Laura? So's mine ... looks like we are in the Barbara Pym Twilight Zone (which is a pretty nice place to be) !!

Anyway, I only read 6 pages yesterday and was completely taken with it after reading the opening sentence: There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.

It would be easy to zip right through this book but I think I will intentionally savor it. I have an interesting non-fiction book on the go right now too so I can intersperse these two very different reads. Enjoy !!

10, 11> So far, my favorite Pym has been No Fond Return of Love. I started it while visiting with two friends who had both just completed book manuscritps and were having problems with their indexers.

I loved No Fond Return of Love as well. I haven't read enough Pyms yet to tell if it's my favorite, but when all is said and done it just might be...

lindsacl & Cariola - Loved your reviews of No Fond Return of Love!

Why thank you! It really was a delightful book.

A small announcement: To avoid confusion, I've changed our group name to simply 'Barbara Pym' since there were already two other 'fan clubs' on the Internet when this group was created.

Just read Less Than Angels, Pym's wickedly funny book about anthropologists. If you've ever worked at a university, you'll recognise these people, and their departmental politics, straight away.

"Gertrude's work on the post-prandial fricatives, or whatever it was, would be most stimulating, Esther thought."

Wonderful.

ETA Thorold has written an excellent review.

I picked up a biography of Pym the other day at the library entitled A Very Private Eye. Has anyone read it?

>17 pamelad:
Thanks for quoting that wonderful line, which I had intended to copy down and put in my chapbook of great quotes, but then forgot (there are so many great lines in the book that once you start selecting them, where do you stop?)

>18 alcottacre:
Yes, I've read it and it is an excellent book for someone like me who discovered Pym rather late and knew nothing about her personal life at all, but since it is a compilation from her own diaries and letters, needs to be supplemented by a real biography, such as Holt's A Lot to Ask.

#19: Thanks for the input. I will look for the Holt book after I read A Very Private Eye.