What Else Are You Reading? - Part V

How on earth did the previous thread make it to 300+ messages?

I'm reading The Invisible Bridge, a 600-page chunkster that was on this year's Orange Prize longlist. I'm about halfway through and liking it.

I'm reading The Invisible Bridge too, but Laura can't talk to me about it because I'm only about 30% through. But I like it. I'm also reading and not liking so much The Female Man and love, love, loving Dark Fire. From time to time I put in another 20 pages of Robin Fox's Pagans and Christians; at this rate I'll finish it before the year's out - maybe!

Finished Hotel du Lac this morning and thought it was fab. Anita Brookner has a new fan. Thanks to the ladies who recommended it.

Anita Brookner fans take note! On July 16, 2011, Thomas at My Porch Blog is celebrating......

!

From previous thread, Fleurfisher's post: If they hadn't offered the Denise Mina through Vine I'd probably have bought it, it was on sale at paperback price on Amazon when I last looked. I did ask a new website I'm reviewing for to request a copy, but hadn't heard anything so I was soooo happy when it showed up on Vine.

I'm still reading The End of the Wasp Season and it hasn't disappointed me - there's a very negative review up but I love it. It will probably get some flak as it's the plot takes on lots of issues, but Mina is a very issue driven writer - I first came across her as a speaker at an event and she said she got angry reading Patricia Cornwell and wanted to write something that was compulsive but was also feminist. It works for me - I rushed off and bought Garnethill and Exile and have read all her others as they've come out, some in hardback, some library then paperback.

I've also just started The Somnambulist by Essie Fox (my other Vine pick) and have a message from LTER to say I'm getting Gillespie and Me by Jane Harris, which looks to be another Victorian set historical novel. I previously entered a Waterstones Read and Review draw for it and didn't get it so I'm pleased by that - it will probably jump my ER queue (2 other books).

I'm also still reading Nadine Gordimer's collected non-fiction writings, currently an essay about Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (which I haven't read but plan to).

Sh*t Elk! Denise Mina looks right up my street AND my local library has 12 copies of her books. There are days I can't stand how many books I have on my TBR pile and here I am adding a new author... The Scots are really heading the pack in fiction these days, aren't they?

Which ones does your library have? Wasp Season is her 9th. Garnethill, Still Midnight and Field of Blood are all first in series if that's what you after. Her standalone, Sanctum aka Deception is still a good book but seriously lacking in likeable characters if that matters to you, so I would start with a series book.

I had spare credits at PBS and ordered Field of Blood and (too late) Sanctum. I can then read them at leisure rather than have to get them back to the library. Thanks for the tip. I'll let you know when I get to them.

I'm 2/3's of the way through Manja by Gmeyner. The end is going to be heart-breaking, I just know it.

My early review copy of Among the Missing A Novel by Morag Joss arrived Thursday and I have 70 pages left.

I just have to say it.

WOW!~!~!~!~!

I just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and though I had to work a bit to stay in the first part of the book..........by the end, I was rendered nearly speechless. I found the swearing in the first part a little disconcerting but getting beyond............I didn't even notice it. This book doesn't end up anything like it begins and it is a powerhouse. I, not knowing much of Santo Domingo's history, was very thankful for all of the footnotes and will be looking for a book or two on the apparently horrendous history of that country. Diaz's characters are very easy to get into and I am sure they will be rattling around my brain for a time. I give this one 4 1/2 stars.

~6 Elkiedee - I am interested in Nadine Gordimeras well. Have you read any of her fiction?

Just completed Coventry by Helen Humphreys - a wonderful five star read set within the city of the title and spanning the first and second wolrd war.

>12 rainpebble:: interesting, Belva. I couldn't get into Oscar Wao at all, but perhaps I should have been more persistent. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I've read quite a lot of Nadine Gordimer over the years but much of it was a long time ago and I'd like to try and read/reread her work now. I just read (probably a reread) her first novel, The Lying Days - I have that and Occasion for Loving in VMC and others in Penguin and Bloomsbury, though I think currently a lot of these books are in print from Bloomsbury.

I started Crampton Hodnet this afternoon. I've never read Barbara Pym before, but she's a fine antidote to Not So Quiet. I'm glad I have more Pyms waiting in the wings.

>16 Leseratte2:: I haven't read that one yet but I really enjoy Pym -- you're in for a treat!

I've just read Bestsellers: Popular Fiction Since 1900 by Clive Bloom which was ATROCIOUSLY proof-read and copy-edited, so much so that I had to list everything I'd found!

>17 lauralkeet:: She had me on page three with her description of Miss Doggett. "She was a large, formidable woman of seventy with thick grey hair. She wore a purple woollen dress and many gold chains round her neck. Her chief work in life was interfering in other people's business and imposing her strong personality upon those who were weaker than herself." Love it.

I stayed up until 2:00 this morning to finish Crampton Hodnet, even though I had to be up at 6:00 to get ready for work. It was totally worth it.

>20 Leseratte2:: I love it!

I am reading a most interesting book entitled The Hours by Michael Cunningham. It isn't a Virago but it should be. He has taken Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and blended it with the story of Virginia as she is beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa; the character from said book, and Laura, a Los Angeles housewife who is beginning to feel the constraints of home and family. It is a fascinating take on M.D. Have any of you read it? It has been around for a while as the copyright year is 1998. Anyway I am really enjoying it. The perfect read after oral surgery this morning.

Ah - I love The Hours and all Cunningham's other books. The Hours was made into a film which isn't bad except for the Woolf character.

Now reading The Perfect Summer, by Juliet Nicolson, a fascinating look at English society in the summer of 1911. Virginia and Leonard Woolf are players in the story, as is the author's accesses, Vita Seville-West. It's very interesting!

I just started The Bell, by Iris Murdoch. I'm undecided about this one; I'm only on chapter four and already I'm seriously irritated by her addiction to the word "upon". It's okay to just say "on"', Iris. Really. Truly. It won't make you any less of an intellectual, I swear. Okay, I'm going to change out of my cranky pants now.

I loved The Hours too, Belva! I seem to remember *everyone* read it back when it was published in the '90s. Really good stuff.

I've just finished a quick one-day read of Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer - an odd but oddly satisfying little story of an email romance.

Leseratte, good to see you're reading it ... ! And I am looking for all sorts of reactions!!

Is anyone else still interested in reading The Bell as a group? At one point there were 8 or 9 of us who were considering it.

I just finished Manja by Anna Gmeyner and wrote a review. This is an amazing, powerful book about five children growing up in Germany in the 1930's. If you are a Persephone reader, please add this to your list. (I had to make due with the 1939 edition I got from the library. I want to add this to my library with a Persephone copy so I can read the introduction by author's daughter.)

This is another novel that, like Not So Quiet, should never have been out of print. Cheers to Persephone Books for bringing it back. And why isn't this a movie!

I just finished The Case of the Missing Servant, first book in the Vish Puri series by Tarquin Hall, which I heartily recommend to all mystery lovers in here. The tone is reminiscent of Alexander McCall Smith, the story well plotted and the characters thoroughly captivating.

I now started The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. I really like her style.

I'm reading Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie - I just came back from a visit to Greenway, her holiday house, and the setting of this book. It's fun to read it and picture the house and garden exactly as she describes it.

#29: Thank you for your excellent review of Manja, Liz. I didn't know much about this one before but it has now gone to top of my Persephone wishlist!

Helen - I read the entire Christie oevre as a teen and re-read Dead Man's Folly last year. It is impossible for me to separate my teen response from my 60 year old re-reading and I have continued to find most of her books as fresh and entertaining as when I first read them. Notable exceptions being stinkers like The Clocks, of course. Her very early and very late books are her weakest but there are still some brilliant ones among her 60s stuff.

What Dee and Barbara said!
Meanwhile, I just finished The Invisible Bridge and I'm having to wipe away tears. As I said elsewhere, I totally see why it made the Orange longlist and not the shortlist. It's a major story, but the writing is competent and that's all.

35: i just finished reading the same! I thought it was very good. Whenever i read a thick book like this one, it had better be an epic, something I want to stick with for the long haul. This was a page-turner in the cliched sense of the phrase!

Hi everyone - Uni's finished for the minute so I just polished off Quartet in Autumn - I know many of you have read it already and Tiffin wrote a marvellous review - much better than my clumsy one - but it's heartfelt....I think I read this at an awkward time of life - I struggled with it a bit - I'm not really retired but wonder sometimes if I might be, if you know what I mean!!! Thanks for letting us know about Thomas' Anita Brookner Day - that should be fun :)

34: Barbara, I did the same! Read them all (or nearly all) when I was a teenager. Is that a phase all girls go through? Like ponies? ;)

>34 romain:, 38: Yes, it must be. I went through it too, after ponies and ballet books! I recently reread And then there were none and it held up very well.

ETA Touchstones on the blink again.

So did we all hear the hoo-ha about Roth and Callil and the Booker International?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/18/philip-roth-booker-international-pri...

Callil has held up very well hasn't she? She seems to improve with age. As to her views on Roth. I have loved many of his books but do think she has a point as he aged. Also - I thought the Booker was only open to British and Commonwealth authors?

Saker - I think all older readers had a transition period in their teens where they tried out adult books. One jumped from The Famous Five to mysteries, romance or sci fi. Modern teens have YA fiction which was not available to us in the 60s.

The Booker, yes...the Booker International no....interesting to see the different photos of Callil portrayed in the Guardian...one is distinctly unflattering.....

Didn't realise there was an International Alex. Thanks. I loved Portnoy's Complaint. I am not sure if I would still love it but I remember as a teen laughing till the tears rolled down my face. I also loved American Pastoral and I Married a Communist. Thought they were both brilliant. I am not sure if I would've loved Roth in person and I fully appreciate Callil's Emperors Clothes remark because that's how I feel about other famous prize winners. Just not Roth...

I've only read The Plot Against America - I want to read the trilogy which includes American Pastoral and I Married a Communist. The shortlist didn't seem very international in the end which is a shame. I love Anne Tyler's work too, I haven't read Marilynne Robinson though I own the books (I would think someone should have written a bit more actually), but can't believe there weren't serious contenders worthy of shortlisting from other countries....

Yes the International one is a new one to me too....just discovered it this year....I have all the shortlisted authors lined up beside the bed...well some of them.....I haven't read Marilynne Robinson either...hadn't read quite a lot of them actually....couldn't get a couple through the local library system either...think I've only read one Roth which was quite good...I think it was Everyman but can't be sure...isn't that awful? Too many books!

Can't stand Roth, and Callil is my new heroine.

#46 Your post made me smile :)

Now I feel better about never having read Philip Roth. And I shan't be changing that anytime soon!

>41 romain:: Yes, I agree. There was YA lit around when I was a teen in the 80s, but I still wanted to try books actually written for adults. I think it is still true to some extent today; a friend of mine has a god daughter who is just starting Georgette Heyer at 14.

I read a Philip Roth novel in my early twenties and I can't remember anything about it except my reaction which was to think that maybe I wasn't all that keen on fiction written by men and that I would mostly stick to women authors in future! Which I mostly have!

Alex - I hated Everyman. I love those of his works that deal with New York Jews in the 40s and 50s. It is one of my favorite eras and cities and he is also a wonderful writer. In fact he was voted the best writer in America a few years ago. However Dee is right - he is also a very MALE writer with many of the tedious sexual hang ups of Updike and Mailer and there are books of his I can't stand.

American Pastoral really got to me. It is the story of a privileged young woman who joins the Weather Underground in the 60s, murders someone for the cause, and then goes on the run for 20 odd years. The ripple effects of this on her respectable, liberal family and indeed on herself over the next couple of decades made compulsive reading.

Marilynne Robinson is wonderful and probably should've won.

I'm almost done with The Bell and quite surprised that it doesn't suck. I didn't like Under the Net at all - it seemed to be populated entirely by fools and jerks, as I recall - so I was expecting more of the same with this one. And for a while I was sure that was what I was getting. But I might actually end up liking this one, depending on how it all turns out. Iris still has about 60 pages to muck things up by drowning someone in the lake or something.If she does, I'll be pissed.

Don't like Roth---not because he's male, but because he's so determinedly male about all those tedious sexual hang-ups Barbara mentioned. Whining and posturing at the same time. Just get over it, Phillie. I grant that some of his work is well worth reading. But international-prize-worthy, not so much.

And those of you who have Marilyn Robinson languishing on your shelves----READ HER!

I'm reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. It's basically a bit of fluff, but it is well-written fluff so I'm enjoying it.

Reading Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex for the first time. Who knew it would be a laugh-out-loud book. I am enjoying this read.

I love Middlesex! I'm reading The Two Mrs Abbotts by D.E. Stevenson. Loving it!

Jenn Ashworth, Cold Light - two young women remember events 10 years earlier and the boastful, fascinating Chloe, now dead - to review for CuriousBookFans

Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine - she came to do a webchat on Mumsnet the other night and it was a reason to dig it out - a couple deal with the shock of being new parents, and another story about a woman starting a first job in London in the 1950s

Rona Jaffe, The Best of Everything - Young women in secretarial jobs in publishing hoping for better things in NYC in the 1950s - review book for Amazon Vine

Tessa Hadley, The London Train - Orange Prize longlist, library book and it's taken a while to get hold of, probably won't be able to renew, so reading it now

Ruma Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray - A 15 year old Lithuanian girl and her family are deported to Siberia in the 1940s - YA novel - I'm finding it hard not to compare with The Endless Steppe, a memoir of a Polish girl and her family deported to Siberia which I've just reread

Also a rather trashy looking chicklit book by Rachel Gibson which I won in a Twitter competition - I like some chicklit better than other chicklit

A Man About the House by Francis Brett Young. I remembered someone in this group raved about this book and I grabbed it when I had the chance. Glad I did, too!

Just finished The Siege by Helen Dunmore. A remarkable story set during the first year of the siege of Leningrad. Now I must find the sequel.

I found a copy of Housekeeping in a used bookstore this evening, so I bought it on laytonwoman's recommendation.

Oh, the responsibility now weighs heavy on my shoulders! I hope you enjoy it. I haven't actually read that one yet! Gilead and Home, however, both went immediately to my "Best Reads EVER" list. So I expect nothing less from Housekeeping which I believe some people liked even better.

I've just started reading My sister my love, which will be my first ever Joyce Carol Oates book.

I finished The Earth Hums in B Flat, which I enjoyed - not as much as I expected, though - and am now reading Auntie Mame, which is just what I need right now to chase away feelings of sadness and mild depression.

OMG! I read Auntie Mame as a 13 year old and laughed till I cried. Let me know if it's stood the test of time.

I read Auntie Mame in high school. I still remember "Bubbles" and her gaudy red and gold prom dress.

So far I have found it hilarious! I was trying to stifle giggles on the train (but not trying too hard anyway).

I'm reading The Story of England (no touchstone???) by Michael Wood, looking at England's history as it played out in one village, and Nine Wartime Lives which is about Mass Observation and WWII and is fascinating. Also How I Wrote My First Novel which is an e-book of slightly more limited interest...

>66 LyzzyBee:: oh, Michael Wood is interesting. I'm not sure if I've read any of his books but I know I saw a TV programme once.

I've just finished Miss Buncle's Book (and War and Peace - AT LAST!) and am starting Henrietta's War. I'm in the mood for short, easy books for a few days at least!

I bought 6 Persephones in London and if they're all as good as Miss Buncle's Book I'm in for a good few months of reading.

>67 lauralkeet: I don't much like him on the telly but this book is excellent.

>69 LyzzyBee: I just saw Michael Wood at the Hay Festival speaking about that book, along with fascinating slides. It sounds really good!

>62 aluvalibri: Last year Mari Strachan came to our local library to talk about The Earth Hums in B Flat and she was so lovely and charming! I read the book after that and my liking her so much probably coloured my view of the book, which I adored.

I read an interview with Mari Strachan on her website, and I liked her very much. I can only imagine how lovely she can be in person!

You've probably all read it already but I have just polished off Oranges and Sunshine in 24 hours flat and loved it - as much as one can love a book that tells of so much grief.....originally published as Empty Cradles - re-titled for the release of the film starring Emily Watson. Will try and see the movie tonight. Absolutely amazing story.

I am reading Doctor Zhivago, and I wonder why I waited so long, since I bought a copy of the new Pevear-Volokhonsky translation as soon as it came out.
As marvelous as I thought when I read it in Italian, many years ago.

I've been on a crime spree, so to speak, and think I might read one of the noir novels I bought recently. I'll have to start browsing through them to see which one grabs me.

ETA: Patricia Highsmith won. Sorry, boys.

Which Highsmith, Andrew?

I'm starting at the beginning: Strangers on a Train. I've never seen the movie, oddly enough, so I have no idea how this is going to turn out. I'm 12 chapters in and things aren't looking good for Miriam.

If this is your first you have many wonderful books ahead of you. My absolute fave is Ripley's Game which was made into a very decent movie (Wim Wenders) with Dennis Hopper as Ripley. But the book is different to the film and a great deal better and Hopper, despite being VERY good, was really nothing like Ripley. The Talented Mr Ripley movie was very disappointing but, again, the book was marvelous. I envy you just starting on her Andrew.

Oh, you are in for a treat, Andrew! I love Highsmith!

In addition to the Wenders film (which was called "The American Friend"), there was a 2002 film made of Ripley's Game, starring John Malkovitch as Ripley. Haven't seen it, and am not yet a fan of Highsmith because I haven't read any of her novels, so I don't know how well it was done. I was not taken with Matt Damon's Mr. Ripley.

I started reading it late Thursday night and will probably finish it this afternoon. That's how good it is. The Barnes & Noble near my office has several other Highsmiths in stock, so I won't have to go far when I need a fix.

ETA: Finished Strangers on a Train on my way back from the dry-cleaner's (yes, I read while I walk, but only in the 'burbs, because everyone else drives). The ending was a bit of a let-down, but overall it was a terrific read.

Just put down Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. A quite worthy Pulitzer Prize winner. There were a couple of slow parts for me, but I really liked this fairly different book. I liked the characters and loved the way the heritage played into almost all aspects of the storyline. Very good book.
Now, since I can't seem to get back into Pride and Prejudice, I am going to begin Beowulf when I go to bed in just a few.
hugs all,
belva

Oh and must say that I really liked the Ripley books as well. I, too, love Highsmith!~!

I thought Middlesex was fabulous when I read it.

Have only read The Talented Mr Ripley by Highsmith but polished it off in 24 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it too.

Now reading Don't Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier.

Am about to start Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Have no idea what to expect.

I am reading The art of racing in the Rain by Garth Stein - it is a really great story - very well written and very moving. (translation - read with tissue in hand!)

Just finished Train to Pakistan about the partition of India in 1947. This book is one of Carmen Callil and Colm Toibin's Top 200 in The Modern Library. I had zero expectations going in, but it proved to be an exceptionally fine novel.

Oh and Andrew, I just can't believe that you are passing off Angela Carter. So sad for you.
big hug,
belva

Belva, do not be surprised if a copy of Wise Children appears in your mailbox one day. :)

Vomitus extrordinaireynus!~!~!
LOL!~! Andrew, you are just too cute for words!

I'm switching back and forth between One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Coco Chanel: The Life and the Legend by Justine Picardie. Keeps me on my toes. ;)

Now reading There Were No Windows, which is stunning--the main character is very much like my grandmother right now. Very scary.

About 1/2 way through Beowulf, 2/3 through Roman Fever and Other Stories and still trying to get into Pride and Prejudice. I anticipated Austen to be very easy to get into, but this is my third one this year and I have struggled at the beginning of all of them. Must just be a belva & Jane thingy. The other two books, I am finding to be wonderful! Loving both of them and they couldn't be more different.

I'm re-reading Look at me by Anita Brookner very slowly, and seemingly nothing is happening but everything is happening. Brookner makes my heart sing.

I've just started reading Night waking by Sarah Moss; it's coming on holiday with me due to being set on a remote Scottish island - I like to travel with books that reflect my destination in some way.

I'm reading Miss Mapp by E. F. Benson after having enjoyed Queen Lucia last month. It's definitely agreeing with me so far :-)

I am still with Doctor Zhivago, and loving every minute of it, so much so that I am reading it in small installments so it will last longer (I did the same with The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt).

P.S. The title of The Children's Book does not appear in the touchstone list, can you believe it?

#95 If you haven't read the others in the series yet, you have a real treat ahead when the two ladies encounter each other, in Mapp and Lucia. This is a series I have read and re-read and I envy anyone reading them for the first time.

@#96:
Paolina,
If this is your first go-round with Doctor Zhivago, I am certain it will not be your last. It is one of my most favored books in the world. I read it the first time in 7th grade and was fascinated by the love stories. My 1st re-read was in the 9th grade at which point I was fascinated by all of the politico of the book 'and' the love stories. Since then, I think I have probably read it at least once every 5 to 10 years. There is so much between the covers of that book. I am excited to know that you, my dear friend, are reading this wonderful book because I love it so much and because I think so much of you and your taste in books. I hope you love it as well.
Apparently I need to get a copy of The Children's "Book as it is one of Byatt's that I do not have. If I recall, it has beautiful cover art.
Hope you are well; didn't meant to turn this into a letter.
hugs,
belvina

Claire - Night Waking looks right up my alley. I put it on my wish list at Paperbackswap (the only person to reserve it so I might get it inside a year) and ordered her first novel, which was available.

No, Belvina, it is not the first time I read it.
I read it in Italian the first time, when I was a teenager, and totally fell in love with it. You may know that, when the book was smuggled out of Soviet Union, it was published in Italy for the first time ever, and of this I am very proud.
The translation I am reading (Pevear & Volokhonsky) is absolutely marvelous.
Do get a copy of The Children's Book, it is an amazing book.

I saw Dr Zhivago the movie a few years before reading the book. The book was wonderful and different enough from the movie to make it well and truly worth reading. Unfortunately it was so good I was at a loss what to read for months afterwards.

You are absolutely right, Barbara!

The book was wonderful and different enough from the movie to make it well and truly worth reading.

Glad to hear that. I did not like the movie, so I've been a bit reluctant to buy the book.

Bernadette, actually the book is much more complex than the movie. The movie centers on the love story, which yes, is part of the book, but not the main issue.
The book is actually the story of the Russian Revolution, and marvelously told. So, do not be reluctant any longer and get a copy!

Great! Thanks for the feedback, Paola. The Pevear & Volokhonsky translation is suppose to be quite good, isn't it? I believe the trade PB of it is due out here in October. That will give me time to clear a few other "chunksters" off my TBR mountain first. ;)

My "Virago of the Month" is My Antonia, which I'm finding easy going and enjoyable.

I agree Paola - if it had been just a love story the Russians wouldn't have banned it. In Pasternak's own words, it is about people for whom 'the fate of the universe is less important than the victory of the revolution', while Zhivago believes that 'salvation lay not in loyalty to forms but in throwing them off'. For me - and I realize this is very subjective - it was one of those books I 'lived' in while I was reading it. This doesn't mean that book is always a great book of course, only that, for whatever reason, it grabbed me... But trust me, in this case, it IS a great book.

And I loved the movie. My sister and I used a personal day from work to see it when we were in our teens. We sat shivering uncontrollably in the air conditioned cinema, watching an icy cold film, and then emerged into the 108 degree Australian heat. The highlight of the movie for me was not the two dimensional Zhivago but the multi-faceted, much-flawed, Strelnikov. In the book Zhivago is presented as a fully developed human being, warts and all.

I just finished Tove Jansson's Fair Play and I am looking forward to starting South Riding.

My lunch read is Le temps des poisons, Tome 1 : On a tue la reine! but I don't know how far I'll get. Juliette Benzoni is no Sharon Kay Penman.

Oh no! I'm reading the exact same books I was reading in post #66, 2 weeks ago!

Blame my business doing really well! I love my business, but I do miss my own reading time! Next step: lose the day job. I only need to work the equivalent of 4 days a week at the business to make what I was making full time at the library, so that's in my sights ... and so is getting back my reading time!

I just finished Night Circus. It is one of the most beautiful books I've read in a very long time. I have to think about it before I write my review.

I just finished The Memory of Love and urge Viragoites to rush to find a copy. I'm not going to review it since good reviews are already on the work page. I join the voices that say, "This should have won the Orange," without having read *Tiger Wife*>

#107> Barbara, I LOVE how you explain the book, its depth and yet its appeal. Yes, I am living in it too, and I remember I was when I read it, so many years ago.
I saw it when it came out, in 1965. I was nine years old and fell in love with Zhivago.

Bernadette, I am waiting for the paperback edition to come out, so I can get a copy for my son. He loves Russian lit and was ranting and raving about the Pevear Volokhonsky translation of Anna Karenina. However, since he is very absent minded and can be sloppy (he just turned 17), I am NOT going to let him handle my first edition hardcover (which I know he covets also because there is a bookplate signed by the translators).

>112 LizzieD:: That one is on my "must read" list for Orange July.

I took some time out from my regularly scheduled reading for The Glimmer Palace, recommended by a coworker who knows my interest in old movies and Berlin in the 20's. It could have been a good novel, but, unfortunately, it wasn't. Oh, well.

Andrew - have you read Philip Kerr? Again not great, but an interesting concept and quite entertaining. Private Eye working in Berlin in the 30's, as the Nazis come to power.

116> I did read his Berlin Noir trilogy years ago. It wasn't bad.

My main gripes with The Glimmer Palace were a) you never really got to know the characters and b) the author didn't take full advantage of the setting. It didn't help that she made her protagonist an actress - a profession that neither the character nor the author seemed to have any real interest in.

Am excited for Orange July and beginning to get my ducks in a row for that. Have decided to attempt to read the/or part of the following:
The Tiger's Wife,
The Memory of Love,
Great House, loved it!
Annabel, (should be good following Middlesex)
Room, very good; a couple of hiccups
Grace Williams says it Loud,
The Lacuna, awesome
Black Water Rising,
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, and
The Boy Next Door.

But before I can start on these, I needs must finish my R/L B/C selection, Amaryllis in Blueberry, which is very good. Our best one so far this year by far. I will garner it at least 4 *.
belva

I absolutely loved Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum. It is the story of a family of 6. Ma, Pa, and 4 girls, all named Mary something and who go by their middle names except for Amaryllis who is the baby and goes by Yllis. The father is a bit jealous of the mother and thinks/knows that Yllis is not his birth child and in talking to their priest about this, decides to take his family from America to West Africa where all manner of things happen to them. The story is told beautifully. Each chapter is told by a different character in the book. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I hated to see it end excepting for the fact that I am eager to begin my books for Orange July. I gave this one 4 1/2 stars. It won't be leaving my library.........I can tell you that.
hugs,
belva

I am reading a British murder mystery and listening to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on audio. I am deep cleaning my house and mulching my yard while the audio book plays in the background. In the evening I am watching DVDs from the library - catching up on some missed Prime Suspects - and watching TCM - yesterday a very good movie version of Knight Without Armour, another of James Hilton's wonderful romantic novels. I start summer school on 1 July.

Having just finished Great House for Orange July by Nicole Krauss, I just have to say: WOW!~!
What a wonderful book with a totally unexpected ending. I really loved this book. Accidentally the second book I have read this week in which each portion/chapter is told through the eyes of a different character. I wish I had purchased this one instead of checking it out at the library. I know one day I will want to read it again.

I think I will begin Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna tonight when I go to bed. I have heard nothing but praise for it and I think it is the only actual Orange Prize winner that I have chosen for Orange July.

I'm reading Gordon by Edith Templeton my oh my.

I've just finished The Constant Nymph and, while I mostly enjoyed it, I had to have a break in the middle when it became obvious that is was all going to end badly...

I don't know what to read next; I'd like something fairly light and cheerful but most of my unread Viragos seem to be rather serious in tone.

Errata - I clicked on the link and understood enough of the Spanish/Italian review to get that Gordon has voracious sexual appetites. Tell us more....

CD - I had the exact same reaction. The first half trotted along very nicely and then I decided I couldn't be bothered finishing it and skipped to the last few chapters. I did read more of her however and I remember loving Troy Chimneys but cannot tell you one thing about the book now, or why I loved it.

>124 romain:: "Louise is an elegant and insecure girl. Gordon is a psychiatrist witha voracious sexual apptite and a taste for the unconventional. They meet in a bar and almost immediately find themselves in a relationship of domination and madness, where sex without restrictions, pain, desperation, and pleasure are the main elements." My Portuguese isn't that great, but that's pretty much what the review says.

Yes, Andrew, same here. I understand some of it, even though I never studied it and thus could never speak it, just because of the (few) similarities to Italian.

I've studied it a bit on my own, so I can read it okay, but I don't claim I can speak it. One day I will get serious about it, although the grammar is more complicated than Italian or French.

Thank you Andrew. Portuguese eh? Going back I can see all that you said is there fairly plainly for anyone with a smattering of Latin and French. I'll wait Errata's review with interest :) but will probably not bother with horrible Gordon. Now The Sheik on the other hand... I am presuming that the rape scenes in that are confined to glowering looks, hot breath fanning her bosom, and lots of dot, dot, dots? And let's not forget that he turns out to be an Englishman in disguise, which makes it all okay in the end, right?

As always I'm reading various things but top of the pile is Natasha Solomons, The Novel in the Viola in which an Austrian Jewish refugee following the Anschluss of 1938 (unification with Hitler's Germany) has come to work in England as a maid. But she's not really of the servant class.... I'm loving this read, an certain I will cry at some point, (her parents are still in Austria, clearly not good). It reminds me a little of some of Eva Ibbotson's books (I'm sure there's one about a refugee from Nazi Europe) or Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit in tone.

Further amused by Elise mentioning her reading in one paragraph of the novel - no less than 3 novels which have been reprinted by Persephone - Solomons is clearly a fan.

Elk - this is another book that looks right up my alley. No sign of it in the library system and it is very expensive on Amazon ($18 plus postage) so I will get my library to buy it and be first on the list. Britain, wartime, a romance and Persephone mentions. How can it miss. Plus our lovely FleurFisher gives it a great review.

Just done it over the phone and hopefully they'll contact me in about 6 weeks. By then I will have seriously reduced my TBR pile. Ha ha! I did have another purge of my books a week or two ago. They were in the interim cupboard, awaiting a decision. A lot of Brookner who I loved but will never re-read, Waugh etc. I am still listening to the Stieg Larsson and enjoying it thorougly. Sometimes really popular novels are also really good.

Was the $18 the hardback? There is also a paperback, currently being sold on Amazon UK at £3.99.

Did I mention Essie Fox's debut historical, The Somnambulist here? It's published by Orion but I'm sure Virago readers would enjoy it. FleurFisher and I have both been lucky enough to get review copies through the Amazon Vine program and have posted our reviews elsewhere including here on LT.

I posted my review to a group blog I've been invited to review books for and was asked to think of some questions for an email interview with Essie Fox. The results are now up here:

http://www.curiousbookfans.co.uk/2011/creative/7367/qa-with-essie-fox-the-somnam...

EF's own blog The Virtual Victorian is worth a look too:

http://virtualvictorian.blogspot.com/

I saw that Elk but by the time we do the exchange rate and postage it's not cheap either. I'll wait for the library. I have two other books to read in the meantime that someone on here recommended. A Denise Mina and a Sarah Moss. Was that also you?

Halfway through The Lacuna, I am loving it. To me it reads like it is historical and not just fiction. I can already tell that it is going to lead me in several different ways but hopefully I can put it off until after All Virago/All August. I am especially fascinated with Trotsky. Frida, I have studied in the past but now I want to go back and do it again. What a story, what a book!~! If you've not read it, please do. It is very good once you find your way into it.
hugs all round,
belva

Denise Mina might have been, directly or indirectly. I haven't read any Sarah Moss so that was someone else.

I finished listening to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on audio. I enjoyed the first half immensely and then it went into serial killer mode, as opposed to financial/computer hacker mode, and I became rather put off. If you've read one serial killer book, you've read them all and I found the ending really cliched and predictable. I never read these books but stick purely to audio so I don't feel it was a waste of time, given that I did other things while listening. And it certainly held my attention. But not a great book after all.

@ # 138:
Barbara,
I am sorry that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo did not live up to it's L.T. hype for you. That doesn't bode well for me as I have it up and coming for fall. (bury it a little further under the RBR pile) LOL
Hopefully your next read will be much more satisfying for you.

After finishing The Lacuna (wonderful book), I have begun The Boy Next Door. I am only 3 chapters in but it looks to be one that will hold my interest and I love books on or about Africa so I'm fairly confident with this pick. Another Orange lister.
Read on peoples.
hugs,

>139 rainpebble:: Belva, your touchstone for The Boy Next Door leads me to a Meg Cabot book and not the fine Orange-nominated work by Irene Sabatini, which I know is what you're actually reading !

Oh, thank you Laura. I shall try to fix that one posthaste.

(moments later) I think I got them all. Thanx again Laura.
hugs,
belva

I have finished The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini. I could not put it down and it kept me up all night.......not necessarily reading but the mind would not stop racing and whirling. My heart breaks for Africa. I suppose that is the reason I read so many books about or based on or in Africa.
I am now on to The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey. This is yet another racially, politically driven story. Seems I am on a roll. I am going to have to read a non-Orange listed book soon, I am afraid. These are all so very good, but they do make me think too much and I get too tense and nervous; not good for someone who has had a nervous breakdown. I am loving the books I have chosen for Orange July. They are all very good but I find I am looking forward to ALL VIRAGO/ALL AUGUST and the peaceful relaxing reads of my Viragos.
hugs all round,
belva

Finished The White Woman on the Green Bicycle and am reading a bit of fluff today: Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans. These Oranges have gotten a little intense. After this one I am back on the Orange wagon with Black Water Rising by Attica Locke.
Good reading all,
belva

I know exactly what you mean by Orange intensity, Belva. I'm about ready for something else Viragoish from another century, and I only just finished *CC Farm*. Not only am I reading A Visit from the Goon Squad for Orange July, but I'm also to Africa and picking up the first slaves in Sacred Hunger - not a comforting book at all, but so good! I should feel comforted by Lord Peter in Unnatural Death and fantasy in The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, but the intellectual demands of Pagans and Christians keep me stirred up. Anyway, those are the main things I'm reading now.

I'm reading Filthy Shakespeare, which has a much better concept than it does execution, sadly. After that I'm moving onto Cold Comfort Farm as I read The House in Dormer Forest (one of the books it satirises) in May and I can't wait to see what Stella Gibbons does with it. It was dire!

Have reviewed The Tiger's Wife and Crampton Hodnet and Our Iceberg is Melting. Goes without saying that Crampton Hodnet was deeply satisfying...the others were a bit ho hum. Am now trying to read The Art of Racing in the Rain - will it get better? should I persist? and still enjoying Muriel Spark's Mary Shelley

I'm in the middle of four books, which is unusual for me as I'm generally a one-at-a-time kind of reader. And I don't really like having so many on the go! It's confusing me!

I was reading Coco Chanel by Justine Picardie, but it was too heavy to take on holiday with me, so I had to abandon it a couple of weeks ago. Then, while on holiday, I started reading Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox which I was absolutely adoring ... until I reached page 186 and found that the next 50 pages were missing! Not fallen out, just never printed! So that's now on hold until I can get to the library to find a complete copy. Then I started Gormenghast for one of my book groups. I have to read the full trilogy by September. And I'm *hating* it. Just not my cup of tea at all. So I gave that up for the moment until I'm in a more tolerant state of mind. I then turned to good old Molly Hughes and A London Family Between the Wars, which was exactly what I needed. Sweet, gentle, faintly amusing and always comforting.

I finally finished Night waking by Sarah Moss, having failed to find time to read more than 20 pages while in Scotland. It took me a while to get into as I am not a mother and found the minutiae of daily childcare juggling a bit heavy going. But it picked up as other issues came along and I was gripped. It also dealt with Highland history, which I found interesting to relate to that of the island I had been visiting. Recommended.

I just finished a collection of short stories by Angela Slatter entitled Sourdough and Other Stories. If you like fairy tales, revisionist fairy tales, or Angela Carter you must read this book. It is awesome. Five stars!!! I also highly recommend Dear Dead Women by Edna Underwood.

I just finished Black Water Rising by Attica Locke yesterday and have almost completed A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore. Ohhhhhhhh, this one is soooooooooooo good. It coulda/woulda/shoulda been a Virago.

Mary!!!! You're back!!!! I'm just surprised Belva missed the reference to Angela Carter.

>150 rainpebble: - I'll put A Spell of Winter on my list! I do love Helen Dunmore.

Where?????????// Where??????????/

found what I missed.............ewwwwwwwwww

I just finished A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore and how easily I see that this book had to win the Orange Prize. What a wonderfully drawn story.
A Spell of Winter is an exquisite story of an illicit relationship between siblings. The thought may make one go "ewww", but this book is written so tastefully and beautifully that I do not think I can recommend it highly enough. It is quite possibly going to be my # 1 read of the year. 5 stars +

Just happened to come across a copy of Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell at a 2nd=hand bookshop earlier this week and am devouring it. Best book I've read this year so far I reckon. Just can't beat the old classics.

Ah Luvvie, lucky thing, you. I have been looking for a copy of that one. It sounds so very good and I am so happy that you like it. I totally agree that you cannot beat the old classics.

This evening I read another 5 star Orange listed book, One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden. Very good!
Next up is: The Invention of EVERYTHING ELSE by Samantha Hunt

Dear Belva, wow you are whipping through them! I have not heard of any of these titles but will certainly keep an eye out for a Spell of Winter. Would you like me to pass on Mary Barton to you when I'm done? It's just the kind of book one wants to share with others.

@ # 158:
Luvvie;
Would you like a good laugh? (along with LW3rd, Paolina & Barbara, who have all busted me with this previously......ha ha....I can hear the snortz & mocking laughter clear out here on the W.Coast!~!) I have the book. **hangs head in shame** ;-)
I will seek no longer......................for this one.
However, thank you for the beautiful offer.
hugs,
belva

Yep, Alex, it's called Belva-itis and it involves buying a book you already own because you buy so many books you have no clue it's already there on the shelves. I don't actually bust on Belva for it because on two occasions I have bought books I already own. But I did name it after her as she is one of the worst offenders. I am still buying second hand Persephones on line and several times have come close to buying the same book twice. In thrift stores I buy any Virago, even if I own it, as some of mine are in very poor condition and the new one may well be an improvement.

Barbara and Belva, I have Belva-itis as well!
Do you know how many times I buy books I already have? I don't mention it often because I am ashamed, but it happens quite a lot (blushes).

I suspect that all of us have occasional lapses. I know I do, and it drives me nuts. But then, you put the thing on PBS and hope for the best.

I usually give them away to friends. I don't participate to PBS.

O thank goodness other people have this condition too. When I purchased Mary Barton I purchased another copy of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow so if anybody would like a copy of that I am happy to send it their way.

Belva I am so glad you have a copy. Well done. Now start reading it ! :)

I've done that several times now too. The thing is I don't carry my LT catalogue with me at all times. I'd be interested in Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow too if you can send it this far (i.e. NZ).

One of the things I'm liking a lot now is Sacred Hunger. Has anybody else read this amazing book?

#165 Dear Grant I'm afraid Paola pipped you to the post by a couple of minutes....if I find another, I promise to let you know :)

>166 LizzieD:: I borrowed Sacred Hunger from the library when I was newly graduated, jobless and penniless . Unfortunately (for me anyway) whilst I was reading it, the book won the Booker prize and I was unable to renew it even though I was only three quarters of the way through. As I couldn't afford to buy the book and there was no way it was going to be free at the library for some time, I gave up on finding out how it ended.

I suppose it's probably available now though ;)

>166 LizzieD:: I really liked Sacred Hunger! Glad you are enjoying it.
>168 Soupdragon:: great story, Dee. Yes, I think you would probably find it in your library these days. And perhaps even in an Oxfam shop!

Gawd! Exhausted from reviewing Anita Brookner's Leaving Home for International Anita Brookner Day http://brooknerday.blogspot.com/.....has anyone else read it? Is anyone else participating in this event?

Ah, Dee, I remember those days! I got my very handsome pb copy from PBS, so they're around.
Meanwhile, I just finished A Visit from the Goon Squad which I really loved. I suppose Egan may not be everybody's delight, but she is mine: bubbling with cleverness and depth to support it!

I've got an ongoing project this year to read the Dance to the Music of Time sequence of novels by Anthony Powell - I'm aiming for one a month and am just about to start The Valley of Bones. I've also been making my stately way through Austerity Britain as well - it doesn't seem to matter how slowly I go through this, and I'm finding it fascinating.

>172 vestafan:: I've got an ongoing project this year to read the Dance to the Music of Time sequence of novels by Anthony Powell
Really?! I just discovered this series myself, all thanks to LT member LizzieD, who is also in this group. I've read the first six and have every intention of reading the rest, at least 3 more this year. I'm trying to stay ahead of my husband who just finished the first 3. How did you discover Dance, and is this your first reading of it?

>172 vestafan:,173: I also love A Dance to the Music of Time. A college buddy recommended them to me years ago as being both literary and "bubble-gum" reading at the same time, but I didn't actually get around to them until a few years ago, and now I look forward to rereading them all.

There's a pretty good BBC mini-series adaptation of it too, some eps of which feature the yummy James Purefoy.

I'm not reading any Viragos at the moment; am on a Faulkner tear, leavened with dips into John McGahern and Frank O'Connor.

#171 Dear Peggy - good to hear about A Visit from the Goon Squad - I shall move that up to the top of the pile ! :)

A ditto dear Peggy.
I was fortunate enough to 'win' A Visit from the Goon Squad over on the FaceBook Orange January/July Thread. I am so excited because everyone seems to love it. I think that will be one of my firsts for Orange January.

I am still reading The Invention of EVERYTHING ELSE, am about 2/3 through it and while it did take me a bit to get into it, I am quite enjoying it.
Interestingly, yesterday while sitting & waiting for the hubby to get in to his eye Dr., I was reading and just for the heck of it........I turned and asked him if he had ever heard of Tesla. He proceeded to supply me with said gentleman's first name and an entire history of the man, where he was from & how and why he came here, what he invented, how he did not patten most/all (?) of his inventions, that he just wanted to better mankind's lot, about how another inventor named Marconi had taken credit for a great many of Tesla's inventions, about Tesla and Thomas A. Edison's limited relationship........... and so on. He was still sharing with me when they called him in a good twenty minutes later.
On the way home I asked him how he knew so much about Tesla. (I didn't even know he was a real person; I mean I am reading a novel) His answer: "I watch the Discovery and History channels." My man, the quietly well articulated & salt-of-the-earth man that I love and have been with since the hippie days of 1972 (we celebrated our 37th yesterday) surprised me once again.
So when I went to bed last night and picked up my book to continue reading, it was with a whole new & fresh attitude. This caused me to enjoy this Orange listed read even more than I was before.
'Ain't life grand?'
belva

I liked A Visit from the Goon Squad very much too, mine was a library copy but I definitely need my own.

Having finished The Invention of EVERYTHING ELSE I am on to my next read, The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna. I hope it is as good as most of the books I have been reading.
I can't wait for my copy of A Visit from the Goon Squad to arrive. So many of you are reading it.
belva

I just finished The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell and absolutely loved it. Now I'm halfway through The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith - a bit unsettling for beach reading, but I'm enjoying it.

I really liked The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox which I read in 2007, I think - have since accrued a few more Maggie O'Fs, including her latest - The Hand That First Held Mine - but have yet to read anything else by her.

I haven't read The Hand That First Held Mine yet, but After You'd Gone had me sobbing like a baby!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, which I think I read when it first came out. Right now I am reading Turgenev's On the Eve. It is not really what I crave at the moment, but it will have to do. I have read several stinkers lately, just barely decent enough to finish but that is the best I can say.

I was one of the few who weren't fans of After You'd Gone I and thought My Lover's Lover was awful. I wasn't planning on reading any more Maggie O'Farrell after those experiences but then read the first few pages of The Hand That First Held Mine and was transfixed! There's something immediate and appealing about the writing and she really brings alive the visual appeal of fashionable life in the 1950s. I would probably tag it as 50s retro!

just finished Muriel Spark's The ballad of Peckham Rye and am now reading The rules of life by Fay Weldon.

I'm reading The Pursuit of Love and wondering why exactly it's taken me this long to read Nancy Mitford.

Ygraine, Nancy Mitford is one of my favourite authors. Next, if you can, read Love in a Cold Climate.

I finished Field of Blood by Denise Mina which I thoroughly enjoyed, despite the fact that it was gritty and ugly and not particularly life affirming. (A couple of sordid murders in the Glasgow slums solved by a 'fat' teenage girl.) The teenage girl, who is not as fat and ugly as she thinks she is, has a sanctimonious wet for a boyfriend and a truly ghastly family. But I liked her well enough I have ordered the follow up book from PBS, along with two of Mina's other books. Thanks Elk for recommending her. Always wonderful to have a body of work to look forward to.

I am not sure what to read next. I am longing to read The Sheik which I was saving for August. I might just do that and then lie and say I read it on August 1st.

Barbara;
No hard and fast rules. In fact, NO RULES. I began Orange July early because I just couldn't stand to wait any longer to read Great House. So if you are wanting to get your head into The Sheik, by all means dive right in. (I pretend this one was written by a distant relative....lol!~!)
Satisfy yourself and read what you want, by golly.
big hug,
belva hull-pendergrass hee hee

I have been reading lots of YA fiction. Whenever I read a really spectacular book, I feel dissatisfied and head for the YA abyss.

Because she's a Hull? A very shy lady it seems who lived on a pig farm. No wonder she needed to invent the Sheik! I had to go round and feed a friend's cat today and sat there for a while socializing with it while I dipped into a Helen Dunmore I've had on my shelves for 5 years. However, I have a lovely hammock in my own backyard oasis so this weekend I might just take Ahmed Hassan out there and get cracking. It's going to be really interesting to see whether the thrill of the romance blots out the extreme lack of political correctness.

From our own dear Tiffin. This really made me laugh.

14tiffinEdited: Oct 16, 2010, 10:49am 48. The Sheik by E.M. Hull

A recent Virago Modern Classics acquisition for my collection, this bodice ripper from 1919 was quite the tale. Here's an excerpt from the Introduction by Kate Saunders:

For modern readers, however, the story's blatant racism and sexism are offputting, to say the least. So any introduction must begin with a warning: suspend political correctness, all ye who enter here. I can only illustrate "The Sheik's" continuing power with my own reaction upon first reading it--which was profound envy. If I were taken by force to a luxurious tent with an en suite bathroom, pampered by servants, loaded with jewels and rogered senseless by a gorgeous millionaire, it would be several years before I got round to shouting for help."

Written during the first World War with her husband off fighting that war, leaving Edith Hull at home to manage the pig farm, the book's success surprised everyone and brought unwanted notoriety to the intensely private author. This is nothing short of a woman's private sexual fantasy and for its post-Victorian audience, it must have been a steamer. The sexism and racism I took as representative of the times (fortunately largely gone). Forget plot. Forget the flights of overwrought languge. But as a representation of sexual fantasy writing, as Kate Saunders notes: Yet in its peculiar, mesmering way, this is a masterpiece. Remember, it is a female sexual fantasy, speaking directly to the sexual fantasies of other women, in a way that has rarely been bettered. In the scanty literature of women's sexuality, E.M. Hull's "The Sheik" is a milestone."

I loved the bit about being rogered senseless!

I love that too. Have never heard that expression other than in the privacy of my bedroom, being married to a 'Roger'. LOL!~! And this from our Tui? Loved it.

And why but of course, Barb.

And remember my aunties! In order to enjoy sex they would literally have to be overpowered and "forced" to endure the passion. If they initiated it or even looked as though they might enjoy it, they would be damned to hell with the other scarlet women in Hamburg, North Dakota!

PS I did post a picture of their copy of "The Sheik" in my profile gallery.

>186 errata:
errata - what did you think of The Ballad of Peckham Rye? I love Spark, although haven't read this one yet - but did buy it recently.

I read 50 pages of Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore, and decided life was too short to bother finishing it. A deeply depressing book but worse, a deliberately confusing one that jumps all over the map. Shame, because I usually like Dunmore. The Sheik is assuring me he will not disappoint me, but I am still resisting.

You cannot resist that cheesily evil leer indefinitely, Barbara.

O.K. O.K. I yield. The Sheik is free on Kindle and I just got it. Bring him on!

Beware The Sheik, especially when he is "free"....

Bwahahahahahaha!~!~!

Paola, unfortunately Love in a Cold Climate is somewhere in a pile in my new flat, while I am still stuck with my parents for another two months, otherwise I'd be diving straight in.

I see! I have books in boxes and piles, and so I know how difficult it is to locate something when you are looking for it. When you get to it, just grab it and read it, it is a lot of fun!

Even if I give in and read The Sheik early I will pretend I didn't and save my comments for the 1st of August. I had hoped to distract myself with the Dunmore but alas find myself back to square one. It's going to be fearfully hot here this weekend and I will be more or less trapped inside. I have a feeling I will succumb to him then.

Get thee to a library! :)

Helen - I again had to go feed my friend's cat and took a book to read while socializing with him. I grabbed Princess Priscilla's Fortnight by Von Arnim which seems to be an Edwardian Roman Holiday thingee. I am hoping it is silly enough to keep The Sheik at bay.

Just finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters; 4 1/2 stars.
Now on to my next Orange read: The Road Home by Rose Tremain. I have heard so much about Tremain and own three of hers (although this one I confess is a library copy) so I am excited to finally be delving into her work.
Good Reads All,
belva

I have just finished reading Muriel Spark's Momento Mori. I did not enjoy it quite as much as some of her other work. Currently, I am reading My Faraway One, volume one of selected letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. I am quite enjoying it although it is really long.

>206 romain:,

Princess Priscilla's Fortnight is a kind of fairy tale with a bit of Voltaire's Candide thrown in.

>207 rainpebble: Belva, I loved The Little Stranger until the ending... also read it in a Gothic old youth hostel, and terrified myself.

>208 urania1: My book group is reading Memento Mori (on my recommendation, actually, although I've yet to read it) - I love the Sparks I've read, with Loitering With Intent being my favourite so far.

>207 rainpebble: I adore Sarah Waters but could not get the least bit involved in The Little Stranger. :(

I'm currently reading some total beach-worthy rubbish: Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross. Actually, the early part about the history of model agencies is really fascinating!

>183 miss_read:,

I too sobbed by the end of After You'd Gone. I didn't particularly like the first fifth of the book, but then I was hooked.

I have put aside The Road Home for the time being. I have given her 62 pages and just can't get into it at the moment. So I have turned to The Seas by Samantha Hunt which is suiting me much better. Will try to get back to the Tremain later in the week.

I am reading Heir to the Glimmering World otherwise known as The Bear Boy to readers in non-USA countries. It is long but thus far quite mysterious and engaging. How will it all turn out!

P.S. It has an orphan in it (the narrator) for lovers of orphan stories and a quite perspicacious orphan at that.

I'm fully engaged in Maisie Dobbs right now. I'm waiting to see how the first two parts of the book come together in the end. Maisie could easily be mistaken for a Virago character.

Like Elkie I have read The Novel in the Viola by Natasha Solomons and loved it - a great four star read and it was just what I needed. I am now reading a strange, for me, book in the detective genre called The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris. Set in post war Scotland with the plot involving a man under threat of the death sentence ...... Not sure who recommended it to me - please own up if it was you!
~154 Belva dear - on your recommnedation I am going to read the Helen Dunmore A Spell of Winter. Hope it isn't too many pennies on the Baron!! I am in la belle France for our Summer holiday so could get it whisked to me via my 3G :) Aren't I a lucky girl!

Just started Memento Mori by Muriel Spark, and loving it so far. Not sure if it was ever a VMC... my edition is the only nice Spark cover I've seen, from 'Time-Life Books' - I think maybe given away or sold with Time magazine at some point?

~199 Lizzie D you wrote 'O.K. O.K. I yield. The Sheik is free on Kindle and I just got it. Bring him on!' Are you .com or .uk ? I wonder if that makes a difference. I cannot even find The Sheik on .uk Please could anyone assist me?

Julie, I found The Sheik on Project Gutenberg, if that helps.

Julie, I apologize for not getting back here. I'm .com. Wonder why that makes a difference?

Just finished The Seas by Samantha Hunt and am ready to begin another Orange Prize listed book: The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey. Looks like I am on a Samantha roll. lol!~!

~220 oh, silly me, of course you are! I am .uk! I wonder why that makes a difference as well. Well, I will simply get it from the library instead :))

Having just finished the fourth book in the Her Royal Spyness series (which I heartily recommend if you are in need of an entertaining cozy mystery), I started Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith. I read it when it was serialized in the Telegraph, and quite enjoyed it, and I am now re-reading it in book format. I am eagerly waiting for the sequel, The Dog Who Came in from the Cold, as soon as it appears in paperback.

Finished Cynthia Ozick's Heir to the Glimmering World. I highly recommend it although it has a couple of loose ends. I think her novel Trust is much better. I am almost finished with Madame de by Louise de Vilmorin - amusing morality tale written in the style of an eighteenth century novella.

I am alternating The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight (not a VMC although by Von Arnim) and Cold Earth by Sarah Moss. I am enjoying both for quite different reasons but the plot of Cold Earth is right up my alley. A bunch of archaeologists are trapped in Greenland while a pandemic ravages the rest of the world. Who recommended this author to us?

>225 romain:: I just read Night waking by Sarah Moss, so not sure if that or a previous mention was your inspiration. The Von Arnim sounds like a fun read.

Yep, it was you. I reserved Night Waking at my swap club (PBS) and took this one because it was available. It's very good so far. Have you read it?

For those of you who do not eschew ereaders with indignation, Girlebooks has a free version of Princess Priscilla's Fortnight available in a variety of download formats: http://girlebooks.com/ebook-catalog/elizabeth-von-arnim/princess-priscillas-fort...

Girlebooks also has lots of other titles that might interest Virago or Persephone readers.

I'm a fan of Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time too!

I just finished volume 4 of the Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson--written at the time when he was seeing Treasure Island and A Child's Garden of Verses through their publication.

I discuss it on my books blog at http://wordswordswordsbooks.blogspot.com/

>227 romain:: I haven't yet. I've seen mixed reviews which put me off a bit, although the premise is very appealing. I think I'll request it from the library though, as you are enjoying it.

I am still reading the letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. I also started a book entitled Goat Song about - you guessed it - goats.

Singing goats?

I just started The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

I've started Paradise by Toni Morrison.

Good luck with that Linda!

Will I need luck, Barbara? So far I'm enjoying it a lot. I always admire Morrison. but I know there could be some emotional whirlwinds waiting to catch me up.

I'm loving Safety Pins by Christopher Morley, a collection of essays. The one on visiting a bookshop is wonderful - I've typed it out on my blog, if it's not poor etiquette to say so?! (stuck-in-a-book.blogspot.com) - I know that everyone here would shout a loud 'Amen!' to his essay.

I just read the first essay, by Nancy Mitford, in Nobless Oblige, which gave me more than one or two good chuckles. What a wonderful sense of humour!

Linda - I am famous (or infamous) for loathing Morrison, so don't mind me.

I devoured the rest of Cold Earth this evening. It was totally my type of book. The archaeologists are stuck in Greenland in their flimsy tents as winter comes on. The food has almost run out, they are freezing to death, and any would-be rescuers are preoccupied with the world pandemic. All is not lost, however. Nina, the English Lit major and the one non-archaeologist in the party, has had the foresight to pack dozens of Victorian novels into the bottom of her backpack...

I enjoyed the book on many levels, including the potted history of Greenland, the Vikings and the medieval ice age that probably wiped them out.

#238 Ahh....everybody to their notion, as my grandmother would say!

Isn't "Goat Song" the origin of the word "tragedy"? I Remember my father telling me that when I was about 9. I was reading a novel called Goat Song by Frank Yerby at the time.

Frank Yerby, now there is a blast from the past. I loved quite a few of his which I believe I read in grade school. I remember so clearly The Serpent and the Staff.

>240 Leseratte2: - You are correct.
>241 rainpebble: Belva, I too read frank Yerby in grade school. I especially liked the ones with a bit of bodice ripping Jarrett's Jade for example. Of course The Sheik makes Jarrett's Jade look tame in comparison.

LOL!~! love ya girlfriend!~! Birds of a feather and all that!~!

I thought that The Girl from Storyville was hot stuff when i was in 5th grade. "Frozen Fannie, the Coldest Wh*re in Storyville." Well, shet mah mouth. Talk about scandalous doin's.

>238 romain:: I will definitely be looking for that at the library now!

I've just finished reading a lovely Persephone book, Tea with Mr Rochester. It's a collection of very English short stories that on the surface are very calm and delicate, but which conceal deep secrets and emotions. I loved it; Towers' prose evokes summer afternoons in the country and the rituals of English tea to perfection.

Finished reading The Hanging Shed - not one of my usual genres but a three star read with detectives, crime, post war poitics and Scotland all playing a part. Now, I am nearly through a memoir on adoption and family matters as a Nigerian/ Scottish author tells her story - Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay it is a brilliant read and so far, highly recommended.

I really liked Red Dust Road. I downloaded The Hanging Shed for my Kindle at the weekend after hearing the author speak at a New Blood panel at a Crime fiction festival, and learning what it was about - it's at quite an affordable Kindle price and I'd been a bit wary before that

>245 Sakerfalcon: I loved Tea With Mr. Rochester back in 2004 or thereabouts. Should re-read.

232 My OH, Matthew, was quite shocked by that one as it took an odd turn part way through. Be interested to hear what others here thought of it!

I mostly seem to be reading about WWII, before, during and after at the moment - I've finished reading two novels about the Kindertransport, Alison Pick's Far to Go and Jake Wallis Simons, The English German Girl and am still reading Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War and another novel, Patricia Wastvedt, The German Boy.

I'm also reading a non-fiction book about women at Oxford, A Serious Endeavour - unusually, the author looks at the scouts (domestic staff) as well as students and academics.

I have been staining my deck and listening to an audio of Sarah's Key as I work. It certainly kept my attention but for some reason did not grab me emotionally. Given the subject matter I am reluctant to admit this, but I felt just a tinsy bit manipulated.

I have my "currently reading" list that is sort of accurate, but what I'm really reading are the following: Mayflower, The Wise Man's Fear, Bel Canto, and Friday's Child (a reread). I'll have to eeny-meeny-etc. to decide whether to take *BC* or The Prefect to accompany me to sleep.

I've just finished Cold Earth as recommended by @romain. I couldn't put it down (luckily it was a quiet night at work and I could read at the issue desk!). I agree with the reviewers who found Nina irritating - I would have slapped her much sooner than happened in the book - but that actually was part of what hooked me. I'm still trying to decide if I wish Moss had stopped at the end of the penultimate section and left us with an ambiguous ending. All in all, an excellent read, and I'm very glad that Barbara encouraged me to pick it up!

So are we appreciating Sarah Mosses work? And recking her highly? just askin'

Belva - Claire recommended a different title by Moss and when I couldn't find it, I read Cold Earth instead. Then she read it. I will get to the other title when it turns up on PBS or in my local thrift store.

I read the "other" Sarah Moss: Night Waking last month. It was interesting. The character telling the present day story is a very intense, cerebral woman struggling with motherhood. She really got under my skin as I could identify with her in some ways but not at all in others. I sometimes wanted to shout at her to pick up her young children and just hug and enjoy them!

The depiction of the marriage was very well done with all-too-believable descriptions of the small things that can accumulate and threaten a relationship.

Edited to add that the dual story from the past never came alive for me but I did find it ultimately interesting and the historical "facts" were convincing.

>255 romain:, 256: Night waking was slow going for me at first, as I don't have children and spent a lot the time thinking "I never want to have kids! It sounds horrible!" I agree with Dee about the main character being both easy and hard to relate to. But once I got into the book, I found it compelling. And I did like the historical sections, although I began to wonder if they would ever link up with the present-day plotline. On the whole, I preferred Cold Earth, but am glad I read Night Waking as it did resonate with my summer trip to a similarly remote Hebridean island. And others may empathise more with its treatment of the Career/Children dilemma which is the core of the book.

I just finished Tove Jansson's The Summer Book. I loved it. My garden is sorely neglected. I have come down with mysterious disease, but my doctor assures me I am not dying of anything serious.

You know, like it/them or not, it sounds as if both of you were engaged within the story-lines enough to have emotions about what was going on and who to get angry at, etc. They sound decent reads to me if I can get them from the library. Thank you both.

Finished Sanctum (aka Deception) by Denise Mina today. Read it in two chunks and was totally hooked from page one. I think it was Elkiedee who recommended Mina on this thread and this is quite different to the last one I read by her. I think Elk did not wholly approve of this book - too many unlikeable characters she said - but I was not put off by the whiny, self pitying narrator at all. In his position I think I would've behaved no better.

I liked Sanctum but not as much as her other books - I'm glad you enjoyed it. Although it's my least favourite of her books it's actually the one I've read twice because it was chosen by a reading group I used to go to, and actually it's worth a reread because there's so much that's distinctly open to interpretation in it.

If you're looking for a book for a girl ~10 (who is a good reader), I highly recommend Michelle Loviric's The Undrowned Child, which I am currently reading.

>262 urania1:: I also liked that! Very whimsical and exciting, with good characters. And a librarian . . .

Yes Elk! I had to go out immediately after finishing it and as I drove I thought about all sorts of things. When I came home I re-read a few sections to see if what I had thought was true. I can't say more without spoiling the book for others but I thought my initial acceptance of certain facts as true may have been wrong.

>263 Sakerfalcon:,

How nice. Someone else who enjoys children's literature.

I do too. I buy books for my niece and nephew and read them myself to make sure they're good enough to give to them...my niece is only 8 but is a good reader so I might try to find The Undrowned Child for her if it's available here. So thank you for the suggestion.

I started us a faster loading new thread.