What Virago are you reading? Part XII

The previous thread was well over the 300 mark, I'm surprised the thread police haven't rounded us all up by now. So I will repeat what I posted there ...

I've just started reading my first Molly Keane, Two Days in Aragon.

I've gone back to The Wedding by Dorothy West, with an eye on Mt. TBR and "What next? what next?" in the back of my head. Hopeless.

I loved The Wedding Andrew, despite it being an Oprah book/movie. I am reading crap at the moment but enjoyable crap.

Finished Two days in Aragon, and it was wonderful

I'll pipe up to say that I'm finally getting into The Orlando Trilogy. I like it a lot. She does some interesting things with chronology - or maybe I just mean time. For example, there's a short paragraph about Orlando in his first car that is relevant to what came immediately before; followed by a paragraph about Orlando in his next car, one about Orlando in the car after that, and Orlando in his last car.
I'm all for crap so long as it's enjoyable crap, Ms. Romain. And I totally agree about *Aragon*, Laura. Glad to see another convert! I sigh to have read no D. West but to have them lined up for sometime, Andrew.

#5 I haven't heard of that one at all, Peggy - or Two Days in Aragon. Sooooo many to explore!

I loved The Living Is Easy but am finding the internal racism in The Wedding a bit hard to take. Ditto the character of Lute. I might not be able to finish this one.

The tension builds and builds in The Wedding Andrew. Which decision will she make and will it be for the right or wrong reasons? I was on the edge of my seat to the very end.

I've just started One Fine Day and am absolutely adoring it.

Barbara - I'll persevere for a few more chapters, but the fact is, I don't like any of these characters so far. But I have not met the adult Shelby yet, so maybe she'll redeem this novel.

I'm reading Excellent Women by Barbara Pym.

Ah elkiedee, I really enjoyed Excellent Women when I read it for AV/AA. I hope you do as well,
hugs,

Have devoured most of The Group o my plane ride back to the States, and am trawling the shelves for my next read... no shortage there...

Ooh I loved The Group - I first read it when I was 14 but reviewed the Virago Modern Classics reissue when it was published a couple of years ago. They're bringing The Company She Keeps out in VMC in November.

I have Two Days in Aragon, The Wedding, One Fine Day, The Orlando Trilogy and The Group all on my TBR shelves and want to read them all! Now! So many books....

Loved, loved, loved Excellent Women, my favourite Pym!

Recently finished The Misses Mallett, though not in VMC edition, and blogged about it... not as good as the others I've read by EH Young.

And now reading another Virago-not-in-Virago-edition! Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim

A fan of The Group here as well.

Now reading Testament of Youth.

>18 Kasthu:: ooh, fabulous book.

I'm reading Precious Bane and absolutely cannot put it down. The descriptions of nature and the countryside are beyond beautiful.

>20 miss_read:: I thought so, too! I was surprised how much that book captivated me.

>20 miss_read:: Precious Bane had that effect on me too when I read it years ago.

I'm wrapping up The Wedding. I like the family history portions better than the "contemporary" storyline, but even so, I'm glad I stuck with it. Too bad Dorothy West only wrote two novels. Circles of Deceit will probably be next. I sampled it at the library and it looks really good. And then I might continue my Pilgrimage pilgrimage. I am hoping that there will be less "pill" and "grim" wrt Ms. Miriam in Interim. Girlfriend really needs to lighten up.

Very clever Andrew. Am saving it for the new year. Twill be my tome for the year. At least that is the plan for now.

I am getting ready to begin Cousin Rosamund by Rebecca West; the third in the trilogy that I began in AV/AA that began with The Fountain Overflows, then followed by This Real Night. They were both 4 star reads for me and I am hoping that I enjoy this one as much.

I also loved Precious Bane and the one other Mary Webb I read Gone to Earth. I know people laugh at her style but I also thought it beautiful.

I put this on my 75 thread, but I'm so excited to be reading a VMC again that I have to put it here too!
Just a word about Isabel Colegate's Orlando King, the first in her *Orlando* trilogy. I finished it today, and like it very well for its construction. It's a riff on the Oedipus story; our Orlando does have a hand in his father's death and later marries his father's wife, but she's not his mother. I don't have a problem with telling what would be a gross spoiler in another book because Colgate is playing with time so well. I can't guess from one paragraph to the next what particular time I'm going to find. On the other hand, there is a movable "now" in which Orlando progresses. She also sometimes telescopes time. For example, when he gets his first car, there's a paragraph about that. The next paragraph describes him driving his next car; the next, the car after that; and the next, "his first Bentley." I'm on to Orlando at the Brazen Threshold, and I think that this is a Virago that I'm going to be able to recommend with enthusiasm.

Finished The Wedding a little while ago and I'm really, really glad that I didn't return it to the library half-read. The plot turn I feared most didn't happen; the ending was completely unexpected; the writing itself was marvelous, in the Zora Neale Hurston mold. Why couldn't West have written another 10 novels between The Living Is Easy and The Wedding? I feel so robbed...

>25 romain: I'll put Gone to Earth on my list, then! Thank you!

Yes Andrew - we all feared that terrible ending that didn't happen. Thank God! I would've thrown the book across the room if it had. I was on the edge of my seat till the last few pages.

>29 romain:: Me too! That would have made it a 1/2 star book for me, instead of a 4 star one.

I own The Living is Easy Andrew. It's good?

Yes, Barbara; in fact, it was so good that I've earmarked it to read again, something I rarely do.

I'm about halfway through Circles of Deceit, my first Nina Bawden. I like her style, although it's odd to be reading a VMC with 80s references.

I can't even read the title of The Living is Easy without singing 'Summertime' from Porgy and Bess. Maybe if I read the book I will get past that. All of that aside, I love Dorothy West. A remarkable woman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_West

Are any of the rest of you Langston Hughes fans? We studied him 2 quarters ago and I love his works.

You've probably all read it by now and I'm way behind as usual but I have just finished Paula McLain's The Paris Wife which in the end I did enjoy. There were times in reading it that I thought the dialogue or structure a bit sentimental or insubstantial but, now, having read the last third in a marathon reading session, I think that it was after all a fine job and any perceived sentimentalism was perhaps a reflection of the times. It reminded me a bit of Simone de Beauvoir's She Came to Stay - a heartbreaking account of the third party breaking up a marriage and how difficult it is for anyone to remain elegant or do anything "right" in those sorts of situations. Now of course I just want to read Hemingway and Stein and all the other books mentioned in the acknowledgments which isn't fair because I already have a great stack of books to read.

It actually wasn't nearly as sentimental as A Moveable Feast which I read afterwards.

Isn't that interesting????? Now I will order it from the library...the cad obviously realised the error of his ways.....

Just finished Elizabeth Taylor's The Wedding Group: a rather fascinating, if somewhat grim, little book about Cressy, a young woman who escapes her arty, religious, communal family only to become entrapped by marriage and pregnancy in another suffocating family. Taylor is best at delineating characters and exploring the choices that lead individuals to box themselves into unhappy situations.

If I had to choose between West's The Wedding and Taylor's The Wedding Group, I'd definitely go for West!

Jane, I've not read the Taylor (or indeed any Taylor), but The Wedding is one of my favourite books that I've read this year.

After moving house, the Viragos are the first books to have found shelves and been recatalogued, so I'm suddenly reading them after a long period of neglect. At the moment I'm reading The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey, which is interesting. I think it's my first non-European Virago too.

I would opt for West as well. I have read one and tried to read another of Taylor's books. She does nothing for me.

I, on the other hand, love Taylor, but The Wedding Group is one that I'm saving.
I have just finished The Orlando Trilogy, which I liked a lot but could never bring myself to love. I guess that love is not what Colegate was after anyway. I'd love to talk about it with somebody just to compare reactions.

I can say that I have enjoyed most Elizabeth Taylor's. But I LOVED At Mrs Lippincote's and The Soul of Kindness. I had a 'friend' at the time who was exactly like Flora in that last book and I enjoyed every word of it. I did not like Angel at all and was sort of indifferent to Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. I think it helps that she was my first Virago author. I have an enormous fondness for her for introducing me to VMCs.

I also have an enormous fondness for The Wedding which, like Andrew, I read with great trepidation. The suspense almost killed me.

I've just finished Circles of Deceit, which I liked but did not love enough to get my own copy. Back to the library it goes. At some point I'm sure I will get around to reading the two Bawdens I do own (much earlier works) but not anytime soon. So now the question is, do I continue with Pilgrimage or prolong my "vacation"?

I too enjoyed the Taylors that I've read : Palladian and The soul of kindness and am looking forward to reading more next year. On the other hand, the two Nina Bawdens that I read left me unmoved (they were The ice house and Tortoise by candlelight). Mind you, her children's books were never among my favourites when I was younger, either. But life would be boring if we all liked the same things.

Pilgrimage it is. I began Interim on the train this morning. That wacky, lovable funster Miriam is yucking it up with Grace and Florrie and Mrs. Philps. Needless to say, I have no idea who Grace and Florrie and Mrs. Philps are, and Richardson isn't likely to tell me. But that's okay - chances are they'll drift out of the story like so much flotsam. Flotsam and leave 'em, that's our Miriam. (Thank you, Mrs. Parker.)

I have only read two of Elizabeth Taylor's books: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and A View of the Harbour and must say that I loved both of them. I am looking forward to reading more of her.

Mystery solved. Grace and Florrie and Mrs. Philps were in one of the earlier installments of Pilgrimage - I think it was the second one. Richardson kept mentioning a few details about Mrs. Philps's parlor and then the bell went off in my head and I remembered who they were. I think this was part of Richardson's idea that the reader should be an active participant. She wasn't just going to tell me outright.

She was teasing you Andrew!

I am going to begin The Well of Loneliness in about 5 minutes when I hit the hay. Good night fellow Viragoites.

I can see it now, Dottie scribbling away in her attic room, chanting "Betcha can't guess, betcha can't guess, neener, neener, neener!" Such a card.

LOL!~!

I have just begun to read Nadine Gordimer's Occasion for Loving and am anticipating being enthralled with it.

I'm reading The summer house trilogy, recommended by romain (I think). I'm really enjoying this, very well written.

I'm reading The return of the soldier - nearly finished and wondering how it is going to resolve!

Just managed to post my review of Women Against Men - I have been keeping my notebook up to date but not my online reviews! My review is not as good as the other two reviews on here, although I may have enjoyed the book more!

Now reading The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton, which is a perfect fall read!

Still working on Interim. Miriam got a new blouse for Christmas. How, oh how, is Richardson ever going to top this? the suspense is killing me!

ETA Just realized I made a bad pun there. Sorry.

Yeah, right Andrew. LMBFAO!~!~!

>54 Kasthu:: ooh, good choice. I need to read that someday.

Belva plans to read all four volumes of Pilgrimage - over a weekend :)

Much as I like to snark about Pilgrimage, it is strangely interesting. I'm starting to see a pattern emerge out of this seemingly random series of "slices-of-Miriam-Henderson's-life". Each chapter-novel focuses on a different aspect of Miriam's progress from sheltered girlhood to independent womanhood, starting with the traditional route for the poor, unmarried, 19th century woman (teaching) and then making a detour along the New Woman road (becoming a secretary/dental assistant). At some point I am sure Miriam will have an affair with an H. G. Wells type, get dumped, and start writing.

There you go again Barbara, being the evil instigator.
I plan to read all four volumes of Pilgrimage over the year of 2012 silly girl. I do, however, plan to read the entirety of Arabian Nights: A Thousand Nights and a Night by Richard Burton during the upcoming 100 hour ReadaThing. But you know what they say about plans. Someone shared with me that they began that book beginning of the year and are at 1/3 of the way through so we shall see.
But regards Pilgrimage, don't Andrew's comments just make you want to run right out, get the book and dig in? They do me. So tell me...........which is the more fascinating: Pilgrimage or Andrew? Hmmmmmm and things that make you go hmmmm.

I really want to stick my tongue out at you right now Barbie.
hugs,
belva

Last night I started reading one from the library The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann. I have come to love Rosamond Lehmann and this is proving another wonderful read. Need to put it down now and clean my house.

>61 Heaven-Ali:: Need to put it down now and clean my house.
Why? :)

The Echoing Grove is her masterpiece and I loved it despite disliking one of the characters very very much.

I have found that occasionally that one character that I dislike terribly is the one that drives a very well written book.

Now reading Company Parade.

Last night I started reading Violet Trefusis' Hunt the Slipper. This is in preparation for reading A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers next month. I read an amazing review of the latter in a recent NYT Book Review, and was intrigued by the whole Violet-Vita thing. Thought I'd best read something of Violet's first.

I enjoyed Hunt the Slipper very much, although for some reason I hadn't expected to.

Still reading Richardson. I found this bit amusing:

"...She flung forth to the music, the shining fronds of distant palm ferns; sipped her liqueur with downcast eyes and thought of an evening along the digue at Ostend, the balmy air, the telescoping brilliant interiors of the villas, the wild arm-linked masquerading stroll, Elsie had really looked like an unprincipled Bruxelloise. Foreigners were all innocent in their depravity. To taste the joy of depravity one must be English."

@#68:
Darn, now that just isn't right. I want to taste the joy of depravity. Does being part English count, I wonder? lol!~! That is funny Andrew. But I am not reading her until January. I love your comments on the series. You keep whetting my appetite which is a good thing. Because if I come out of this series saying: These books really sucked!~!; you know full well who I am going to blame. lol!~!

As to what Virago I am reading now; I am reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton for a group read and I am going to follow our Laura's example and start Violet Trefusis's Hunt the Slipper to be followed by A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers by Michael Holroyd and hope that it is better than the non-fiction I have been reading of late. The whole Violet-Vita thing fascinates me as well but then so does the Virginia-Vita thing. Lots of 'things' going on back then. One reason I love 'all things Bloomsbury'.

Happy to have a sort of mini read along with you Belva!

>68 rainpebble:: Well, so far they don't suck, but I would like to know who Elsie is and when Miriam was whooping it up in Ostend. Dorothy's being a tease again.

That Dorothy; what ARE we going to do with her.....

Yes Laura, it should be interesting.

I finished Hunt the Slipper today. I was mildly enjoying it most of the way through, but didn't find anything special about it. And then, the last 20 pages or so packed a huge punch. Just as you think the central conflict has been resolved you find out no it hasn't but then it twists at least twice more so the ending was quite unpredictable. Nice technique.

Laura,
I am only about half way through. The first part I really liked. I found it really humorous and caught myself giggling aloud quite a bit. But then the middle comes along and oh, the drama....the obsession........I am hoping that I will come to an end of that bit soon.
Right now they are both back home and Nigel has come to visit Caroline. Her mother in law wanted 'to slap her face' and I was thinking: do it; do it!~!
Anyway I am not bored with it, am enjoying it. Just chuffed at a few of the really dramatic bits in it but all in all it is reading smoothly and well.
Going to see if you put up a review of it Laura.
hugs,
~belva

Laura;
Get over there and put up a review. There is not a single one. Move it, move it, move it!~! hut, hut, hut.....

I hope to write one today Belva!

;-)

I posted my review this afternoon!

Very nice Laura. Thank you. And you got a thumb's up from me. You are really good about spoilers. I was rather hoping that this particular time you might not be. lol!~!
hugs,
belva

>78 rainpebble:: it was difficult, Belva! As you will see when you get to the end ... I really wanted to say, "Then she did this, ... he did that ... and oh, my!" But I didn't.

I did indeed see. Wow, I was shocked by several turns. A good read though. And I am proud of you, Laura, that you didn't give a single thing away. It would be hard not to in this case.

Wishing all a good day. We will have a difficult one as we attend the funeral service of the 42 year old daughter of a school chum of mine. I was her mother's maid of honor and all three of each of our children share the same birth year and thusly all attended school in shared classes with each other. It will be a very sad reunion for all of us, parents & children alike.

Back tonight or tomorrow.
~belva

I'm having a bit of an Edith Wharton month. Read The Custom of the Country on holiday earlier this month and currently rereading The Age of Innocence for a goup read in another group. I really adore her writing at the moment.

>81 souloftherose:: I loooove Edith Wharton!

I loooove Edith Wharton!

Fancy that, I would have never thought........;-)

>81 souloftherose:: The custom of the country is one of my favourite books of all time.

>83 aluvalibri:: LOL!
>84 Sakerfalcon:: me too!

Love love love Edith Wharton! In fact, coincidentally, I'm trying at this very minute to decide between two Whartons for my December book group read (it's my turn to choose). I'm torn between Custom of the Country and Ethan Frome. I prefer the former, but Frome is shorter which might suit me better during the busy lead-up to Christmas.

Custom of the Country is definitely one of my favorite books of all time as well.

Custom of the Country is one of my fave Whartons, too. I think I read that right after The House of Mirth, which I adored.

The Virago I'm NOT reading is Pilgrimage, Vol. II. I've been rather bad lately, spending the morning commute daydreaming or dozing instead of reading, but I finished The Tunnel this evening. Miriam buys a bike. Damn, I've given away the entire plot. Sorry.

Seriously, though, this one is a sort of pendant to Interim, which focused mainly on Miriam's experiences at work. The Tunnel focuses on Miriam's life in the boarding house.

So now I am sampling The Rector's Daughter. It could well be my next VMC.

># 88:
I have missed your little digs Andrew. Can't wait for 01/01/12 as that is when I begin Pilgrimage. All due to you; aren't you proud? I will try not to hold it against you when I get to The Tunnel, that you gave it away. hee hee

># 86:
My dear miss_read.......Please do not force Ethan Frome upon your December group. I love Ethan Frome, but it is such a downer to be reading at holiday season time. just sayin'

big hug,
~belva

I wonder what will happen in Deadlock - 229 pages and endless possibilities. Miriam goes out for fish and chips. Miriam gets a flat tire. Miriam has some liqueur AND smokes a cigarette. Oh, wait, she probably already did that during her week of debauchery in Ostend with Elsie.

My hat is off to you, Belva, for wanting to read Richardson despite all my snarking.

> 89 - Belva, you're right! I know, I know, I know! But after being forced by another book group to read Wild Swans at over 600 pages, I'm just in the mood for something shorter. Don't despair yet, though - I'm holding off on making the decision for a few more days just to give it a bit more of a think.

I've just started reading Peking Picnic.

I loved Peking Picnic, and hope you will enjoy it too.

So glad to see other Edith Wharton fans :-)

#92 & 93 I've heard good things about Peking Picnic.

There is all that snow and sledding in Ethan Frome. Ah, never mind....

But Ethan Frome is such a bummer! If I'd read it first I might never have bothered with Wharton again.

I'd choose Peking Picnic any day over Wild Swans which is another book I read from the library on base in Germany and couldn't get into. I've read every one of Amy Tan's books and loved most of them, but Wild Swans - despite being wildly popular - did nothing for me.

Andrew! What can I say?! Life is too short!

Barbara; I did read Ethan Frome first and have gone on to purchase 14 others by her and read 4 more. I still find Ethan Frome very disturbing when I read it but I love it as I love everything I have read by this woman.

Andrew; Ever stop and think that perhaps I wish to read Dorothy Richardson BECAUSE of all your snarking? hee hee

Elaine, Elaine, Elaine; what are we going to do with you?

"There is all that snow and sledding in Ethan Frome. Ah, never mind...."

You make it sound like Louisa May Alcott's Eight Cousins, you silly................

I don't like Wild Swans much - I think the author is self absorbed and whiny. My mum knows her and doesn't like the book much, but I get the impression she also thinks that of the woman.

I do like Amy Tan's books - but Jung Chang's book is about growing up in China, Amy Tan is Chinese-American, I wouldn't bracket the books or authors together.

Belva, querida, you'll have to wait a while for more Pilgrimage snarks. I'm now reading The Rector's Daughter, which is off to a good start.

Now that I'm halfway through Wild Swans, I have to agree, elkiedee. It's nothing at all like Amy Tan, whom I adore. It seems to fall sort of midway between being a novel and being a history textbook, and so far it hasn't really worked for me on either level.

Interestingly enough, I loved Wild Swans but didn't get on at all with Amy Tan when I tried to read her!

I believe that Wild Swans is non-fiction while Tan writes novels so I most likely would approach the books in a different mindset. I was just wondering if that could be part of the dissatisfaction coming through with the read for you miss_read.

Elk - Amy Tan based some of her earlier novels in China, but I take your point. For me to really enjoy a book I have to engage emotionally and Wild Swans just didn't grab me in that way.

102 - Yes, it is nonfiction, but at times it reads as if it's trying to be a novel ... or as if it wants to appeal to readers on that level. I'm still plugging away!

I finished Peking Picnic last night. What a beautiful, fascinating novel. (While set in China I think it is a totally different animal to either Wild swans or any of Amy Tan's work!) I didn't find PP quite as engaging as Illyrian Spring by the same author, but it shared the same wonderful evocation of a foreign landscape with attention to the details of flora and fauna (and yet I never felt I was reading a textbook on the subject), and sensitively drawn characters who learn and grow and change as a result of their experiences. Just wonderful.

I'm about to launch into Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Now that the weather is chilling off and it's nearly time for the clocks to go back I'm feeling the urge to read Victorian novels, so this should fit the bill nicely.

>106 Ygraine:: I really enjoyed Lady Audley's Secret!

#106 & 107> me too!!

Ditto here!

Braddon is an underestimated writer, I think. I need to read more of her. (And I recommend Aurora Floyd, if Lady Audley whets the appetite.)

It's actually been ages since I read a Virago, although I've been reading Virago authors - Father by Elizabeth von Arnim and Challenge To Clarissa by E. M. Delafield. But that should change soon: I've just ordered myself a second-hand copy of Susan Spray - any thoughts on that one?

I read Hunt the Slipper over the last few days on the recommendation of several on this thread. I found it light, amusing and easy to read. I was not enough engaged with the characters to worry how the love triangle was resolved. However, the ending did give me a little chuckle.

>111 romain:: I know what you mean about not worrying as you read. It didn't matter to me one bit which way things went, although I was surprised by the ultimate outcome!

The ending was totally unexpected by me. And I enjoyed the book as well. I found it to be a very leisurely read.

I finished Mandoa Mandoa by Winifred Holtby earlier today, it's pretty hard to get so was reduced to reading it on my kindle - as much as I love kindle as a tool I would much rather have had it in a virago edition to read. Anyway I really enjoyed it.
My review:
http://heaven-ali.livejournal.com/323804.html

>#114 I know that feeling - I was most frustrated earlier this year when I couldn't get hold of the "right" edition of Poor Caroline.

Hmm...something about Winifred Holtby??

Sssshhh... don't tell anyone ... I have Mandoa Mandoa and I haven't even read it!

116: so do I! And I have Poor Caroline unread on the shelves too! I guess I'm trying to save for the right time the two Holtby novels I haven't read.

I'm definitely savoring my Holtbys!

I still have Poor Caroline and The Land of Green Ginger yet to read - neither are greens - but in the latest pretty editions with railway poster covers.

I have Poor Caroline (a green) unread - it's the only Holtby I've managed to find so far. Looking forward to it.

Joining in the Holtby report: Mandoa, Mandoa!, The Land of Green Ginger, AND The Crowded Street all in green and all unread. Richness! Also her biography of Virginia Woolf, not a Virago.

I have green editions of The land of green ginger and Poor Caroline waiting to be read too. Maybe next year . . .

I have Mandoa, Mandoa!, The Land of Green Ginger and Poor Caroline waiting to be read, as well as Virago's collection of short stories by Holtby, Remember, Remember! which I was delighted to find in the Oxfam bookshop in Bloomsbury considering how expensive it can be online. It feels a bit greedy to hoard them all, but I'm rationing myself, otherwise I would have read them all within a week of finishing South Riding and then I would have no more new Holtby books to read and that would be terribly sad.

I'm enjoying Lady Audley's Secret enormously, although it's not panning out how I had expected. I ordered a Virago edition of Aurora Floyd, suggested by lyzard (thanks!), soon after starting it and the book arrived today. When I opened it, a postcard fell out with a picture of Eliot Bliss and information about the author, which is apparently number 13 in a series of Virago Collectors' Cards. According to the few details on the postcard, there were 40 of these issued between 1982 and 1984. Has anyone come across these before?

SCORE Ygraine!~! What a find. I have never even heard of these cards previously. Kudos.

I've never heard of them either!! How wonderful!

>#123 Yike! I always find it a little unnerving when someone takes one of my recommendations - I hope you enjoy it!

Don't worry Lyzard. We've all recommended books that people turn out not to like very much. On the other hand, sometimes you get everyone loving one of your favorites, which, of course feels great. I haven't read Aurora Floyd, so can't comment.

Virago Collectors' Cards! Oh my. Too late now but I am trying to get all the Persephone book marks. Unfortunately they don't seem to come with copies sold by other dealers, even when purchased new. Has anyone bought the book marks from the shop and do they really charge a pound a piece?

I always buy from the shop, and have bought a couple of bookmarks to complete my collection, they were 50p each. They send out random bookmarks with the Biannually.

Son't worry lyzard, I'm having a whale of a time with Lady Audley, so I should imagine I'm going to enjoy Aurora Floyd just as much.

Interesting that no one else has come across these cards either. The internet is refusing to reveal any information thus far, so they remain a mystery.

Those cards sound fascinating; sorry I too am unable to shed any more light on the subject. Is it possible to enquire through the Virago website?

Daunt Books in Marylebone had the latest Persephone titles complete with bookmarks. That is the first time I've seen them sold together apart from at the Persephone shop. Sometimes I've been lucky and found second hand copies with the bookmarks still inside.

I think I enjoyed Aurora Floyd even more than Lady Audley.

"I think I enjoyed Aurora Floyd even more than Lady Audley."

Now that is a joyful note Saker. Must, need to, hab to find it now. ;-)

I've read four Braddon novels to date and Lady Audley's Secret is my favorite. So far. I liked Aurora Floyd and John Marchmont's Legacy pretty well, but I didn't like Trail of the Serpent at all.

I'm half way through Crewe Trainby Rose Macaulay. What a strange little novel. Has anyone else read it?

I am about half way through Pride and Prejudice and absolutely loving it. Certainly would like to reach into my book and slap a couple of people though. Namely Mr. Collins. After Emma, this is wonderful.

>133 Liz1564:: It's on Mount tbr. From the blurb it sounds right up my alley (awkward outsider trying to fit in socially). I should bump it up the pile, but my edition is a 3-in1 of Rose Macaulay so a bit big to bring to work. I very much look forward to hearing what you think of the book when you finish.

Me too Elaine. I loved The Towers of Trebizond (which other people in this group did not like) but remember being a bit bored by Told By an Idiot. I can no longer remember why I felt that way about the latter.

>136 romain:: I looked at my book journal to see why I gave away Told by an Idiot, but it wasn't particularly helpful - "the occasional clunky sentence" and "the tendency to overstate her point" don't equal "won't read again." But thinking about it, I recall that there was an awful lot of telling and not much in the way of direct dialogue to draw you in. I vaguely remember feeling distanced from the characters as a result.

Well what I will be reading later (no time right now) is Frost In May by Antonia White which I first read many years ago - and now have a copy to re-read. Really looking forward to it - and this time I hope I will eventually read the following 3 novels in the quartet. Will probably start it later in bed after I come home from a bonfire night party (bizarre British tradition)

Now reading The World My Wilderness.

138: I found a copy of a daughter, Lyndall Hopkinson's memoir of Antonia White, Nothing to Forgive in Bloomsbury Oxfam yesterday. I've had her other daughter's book Now to My Mother for ages and never read it. I also found a copy of Jane Dunn's Virago paperback bio of her in a charity shop (and it was quite a cheap price too I think) a few months ago - I have read that from the library. I love Frost in May and she also translated a lot of Colette's best known work into English.

elkie, I am a huge fan of Frost in May as well as the other three and love to read them in tandem. It just builds on to each book. Makes for very satisfying read.
I think that we, here in the U.S. deserve a Bloomsbury Oxfam and charity shops that carry the green as well. Beginning to feel very discriminated against. :-(

I just picked up Company Parade - I can't say why - and for some reason I'm surprised to find such lovely writing. So onto the current list it goes, and I'll have read it in another month or two. Then what am I going to do? I'm not sure how to find copies of the other 2.
"'Never you mind, my dear,' I said to me, 'I have just ordered them both from AMP sellers for less than $15.'" (Anybody else a Beyond the Fringe fan?) YAY!

I've just started reading Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker.

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton - which I was going to post under 'What ELSE Are You Reading' until I realised it was a Virago. Mine's a deliciously tacky '70s paperback.

I've gone on a bit of spree, starting lots of books at once, two of which are Told by An Idiot by Rose Macaulay and The Rector's Daughter by F M Mayor - so far I'm enjoying the former and only *just* enjoying the latter... was hoping for more, given how much so many people love it.

Well I didn't read it - I listened to Love by Elizabeth von Arnim read by Eleanor Bron. Has anyone else read it? At first I wanted to strangle the two main characters....particularly the young man - he did go on and on....but by the middle of the book I was really into it and laughing out loud at the extraordinary situations of the characters. She really does have a delicious sense of humour Ms Arnim. She cuts to the bone of the matter that's for certain. Some really quite haunting writing towards the climax too.

#146 I read it many years ago - it was the first Von Arnim I read after Elizabeth and her German Garden. I must have been too young to appreciate the humour (at least I don't remember it) and I thought that Catherine was silly to attempt to get back her youth. I was too young to realise that I would be 40 one day! And then the ending is sad.

Currently reading The Little Ottleys. Bruce is such a twit.

>146 alexdaw: read by Eleanor Bron How wonderful that must have been!

>133 Liz1564:: I read three Macaulays this year and Crewe train was my least favourite. On my challenge thread I wrote that reading a biog of Macaulay alongside helped me understand that Macaulay was exploring parts of herself through the characters in this book but that I didn't really think it should be necessary to read a biography to appreciate the author's work!

>136 romain:/137: I found Told by an Idiot interesting but more as an ironic social commentary than a novel.

My favourite of the three was The World, my Wilderness but I believe The Towers of Trebizond is generally believed to be her strongest book. I don't have a copy of that, unfortunately.

>148 marise:: Bruce drove me mad!

Had a couple of slightly stressful/tiring days so escaping into the soothing Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

#133, 149 - oddly, of those I've read, I think Crewe Train is my favourite! The only real dud was Staying With Relations - very dull. But I haven't read The Towers of Trebizond or The World, My Wilderness - although I do have both somewhere...

I did quite enjoy Told By an Idiot - I have the VMC edition but Bloomsbury Readers have just rereleased it as an ebook - in the UK it's available for £1, and 3 other books which aren't very easy to find - I don't think they've been reissued before in bookclub or paperback editions - are on offer for under £6.

Would like to jump into discussion. Yesterday, I received through an inter-library loan, Catherine Carswell's "Open the Door" and Winifred Holtby's "The Crowded Street". Was quite excited about getting the books because they came from college libraries in the state where I live and were posted to my local library. They're both VMC's and the pages are all yellowed. Began "Open the Door' last night and very much like it so far. Read a bit of bio info on Carswell and she had an interesting life. Her husband tried to murder her. I always love getting information on the authors whose books I read especially the obscure and forgotten women.

It's not a VMC but Carswell also wrote a memoir which was published by Canongate a few years ago.

Now reading Ordinary Families, which kind of jumped off my TBR shelf this morning as I was looking for my next read (after Penelope Fitzgerald's wonderful The Bookshop).

thanks for that heads up. I would be interested in reading more about her.

#155 I read both "Ordinary Families" and "The Bookshop". Liked the latter better than the former but both were great reads.

>153 kayclifton:: I read Carswell's other novel. The camomile for All Virago/All August this year, and loved it. I'm looking forward to Open the door!.

>155 Kasthu:, 157: I didn't like Ordinary families as much as I expected to. Perhaps I really wanted to be reading Arthur Ransome's Secret Water instead, which is set in the same area.

I've just started reading Crewe Train, as I was intrigued by Elaine's comments earlier in this thread.

I'm reading Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker.

Just finished A Death in a Life by Dorothy Salisbury Davis . Blah and double-blah. Hated the heroine, the pop psychology, the stereotypical characters, the plot. Guess you might say I didn't enjoy this book. Not even gonna write a review.

I didn't hate that book Elaine. I read it during All Virago, All August the year before last and thought it o-kay. I have found that the few who-dun-its Virago published are not that great. I did enjoy the Celia Fremlin but thought the Celia Dale very poor stuff.

I know this sounds rather dumb of me but how does one activate Touchstones and is that the way to get books and author's highlighted? I just noticed that they're linked in everyone else's messages.

I usually can't answer any technical questions but this one is something I know. Put at the beginning and end of the title or author's name and then double check on the right if you have the right version of that title. Click 'others' if you don't.

Well fudge, that didn't work. Let's see if the edit works :)

2nd Edit - Nope. Okay let's try again. Put square brackets around the title or author's name.

Okay - I give up. Over to someone else :)

Kay, normally square brackets around the title - eg Ordinary Families - it can be rather hit and miss though.

Or if it's an author you want to link to, use double square brackets on each side of the author's name.

Finished Crewe train, which is indeed a bit odd, yet I enjoyed it. Denham is basically a caricature through whom we see the absurdity of the "chattering classes" into whose world she is thrust. Yet she is drawn so well that I still felt sympathy for her despite her extremes of behaviour, and her fate at the end of the book had me in despair. There were similarities with Barbary (from The world my wilderness), in that both are young women taken from a "primitive" upbringing and forced to try to fit into a shallow upper middle class social world. I was also reminded of the main character in Making conversation by Christine Longford, who also has difficulties fitting in due to her inability to converse; however, she wants to belong, whereas Denham doesn't care. I wish my copy had an introduction as I would love to read some commentary on this novel.

>167 Sakerfalcon:: How perfectly you sum up Crewe Train, Claire!

My VMC copy has an introduction by Jane Emery, the author of an excellent biography of Macaulay which I read alongside Crewe Train.

In the introduction to Crewe Train, Emery compares Denham with other Macaulay heroines who also have androgynous first names and resist maturity. She links this with Macaulay's "tomboy"ish youth which is obviously discussed much further in the biog.

There is an explanation of the book's title which apparently alludes to a popular ballad of the same name with the words:

"Oh, Mr Porter, whatever shall I do?
I want to go to Birmingham, but they've sent me on to Crewe!"

Denham is seen as a traveller, "meandering alone up a mountain path with only mindless pleasure as a destination" who "ends dismally in a suburban drawing room"!

Touchstones don't seem to be working.

Thank you very much for that, Dee. The title had me very confused so I'm especially glad to have had that cleared up. I noticed that a character called Rome Garden plays a small part in the novel; isn't she from Told by an idiot? That is also in my 3-novel Macaulay collection so I shall have to read it soon.

>167 Sakerfalcon: great summary of Crewe Train! I wrote an essay comparing Crewe Train and Keeping Up Appearances once, based on the premise that they are to do with subjectivity/objectivity in viewing society - Daisy has the myriad personalities and social strata in Keeping Up Appearances, in an effort to see society as objectively as possible - whereas Denham is almost without any sort of social awareness, and finds objectivity that way. I.e. both see society objectivity, one through being socially everything and one through being socially nothing!

>169 Sakerfalcon:: Yes, Rome is a character from Told by an Idiot. She is a more worldly character than Denham or Barbery but does seem the one closest to Macaulay's own self. Though I get the impression all Macaulay's protagonists carry one element of her!

>170 Stuck-in-a-Book:: Interesting! I do see what you mean though I haven't read Keeping Up Appearances. Perhaps that's a good excuse to buy myself a copy- I need it to check your theory! I have told myself not to buy anything until after Christmas so as not to upset my secret santa but it's going to be very difficult when the new Bloomsbury Compton-Burnett, Macaulay and Delafield reprints all roll in together at the beginning of December!

Dear Claire,

I have every confidence that Denham will take an ax to her aunt three days after the end of the book! I didn't care that much for Denham because her character was too broad for me, but the really mean thing that was done to her in regard to her safe haven had me sputtering.

Elaine

Yes, her aunt was a monster. I would have taken an axe to her myself!

>171 Soupdragon: - definitely worth buying! And so nice to hear again another Ivy C-B fan. We are few and far between.

>163 romain:
>164 romain:
>165 elkiedee:
>166 Soupdragon:
Belated thank you to all of you for your help especially romain who obviously was trying to accomplish the task while typing the message. I'll give it a try now. I just finished reading Open the Door and oh gee! it worked. You people are clever. I also did a review of the book, its first one.

Congratulations Kay. I am very proud of you. I knew you could do it! ;-)

>174 Stuck-in-a-Book:: I've just read the one I C-B, The House and it's Head but found it delicious and am keen to read more. I loved uncovering the dark secrets behind the dense, unlikely dialogue! Looking back to my comments when I read the book in 2009, I said there was something "dark and awful" about the story but that reading it had been "a complete pleasure". You probably do need to be in the right mood for her though!

>175 kayclifton:: Pleased you got your touchstones sorted, Kay! And thanks for your thoughtful review of Open the Door. I have it to read and you've given me a better idea of what to expect.

>177 Soupdragon: - yes, ICB does dark things deliciously well! A House and Its Head is one of the ones I've read - I think I've liked them all more or less equally, because they're all so similar. Which means you can't really go wrong!

>177 Soupdragon:
>178 Stuck-in-a-Book:

Have read about 4 ICB's after forcing myself to read the first one. They seem to grow on one if in the mood. I usually begin thinking of reading another one when I'm feeling depressed and want something to read that is dry and detached. Then I enjoy her work.I've had my eye on Mother and Son as my next choice. Has anyone read it?

>179 kayclifton: - Inasmuch as any of them are my favourite, I think Mother and Son is! Although they're all pretty similar, Mother and Son wins by having the most wonderful cat in it!

Belated reply! It does seem odd that when I try to remember any characters from the ICB books that I've read they just all seem to jumble together. Like you, I don't have any favorites. I have read a biography of her though and she was an interesting woman and made no apologies for the lack of life in her characters or in her style of writing.

I have to say that I'm fascinated by this discussion because I slugged down The Mighty and Their Fall last year as though it were cod liver oil without the O.J. I can handle "dark and awful" most of the time, but I found that one simply disgusting. "Dense unlikely dialogue" also turned me off....I'm quoting Dee here. So I simply bow to the exigencies of personal taste and hope that your discussion continues. Kay, I'll take file your comment that they may grow on me for later because I bought several and am honor-bound to give Ms. C-B another trial another time. I just wish that I already owned Mother and Son so that I could look forward to the wonderful cat!

I have just started reading O Pioneers! by Willa Cather 95 pages in and loving it. I vaguely remember reading My Antonia and The Professors House many many years ago, I no longer have the books, so maybe will be ones for re-reading when I can get hold of them.

Just finished The Loving Spirit, fantastic, and about to start on The Camomile.

>184 Kasthu:: I loved The camomile when I read it this August. Carswell predated Virginia Woolf in her statement of a woman's need for creative space.

>@#184:
Kasthu; I truly loved The Loving Spirit when I read it a couple of years ago. I hated for it to end.

Read a short while ago Open the Door and was disappointed in spite of very much looking forward to it.
Thought that I had heard some negative comments about The Camomile somewhere and so had decided not to read but now will rethink that with your recommendation. Am not familiar with The Loving Spirit. Is that a Virago?

It is a Virago; a Daphne du Maurier; it has everything; the passion, drama, suspense, and the always beautifully described landscapes of the Cornish coast. I believe that this was her first novel but it doesn't read like it.

Yes, The Loving Spirit was fantastic!

Thanks for the recommendations! I have been hesitant about reading DuMaurier I don't like historical fiction so that eliminates a number of her books. I did read The Parasites and found it interesting but not one of my all time favorites.

I just read The Parasites this week for one of my book groups, and I'm still not sure what to think about it. Although I'm generally not a fan of historical fiction, I do think du Maurier does it very well, so those are the only of her books I'd ever read before.

Work has been hell most of this month, and I had spend what little free time I had apartment-hunting, so it took me forever to get through The Rector's Daughter. It was pretty good, but it didn't knock me back. Just started The Crowded Street.

I'm reading the new in VMC edition of The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy. It's not The Group but it's interesting. I was about to order this from Amazon when I came across an as new copy in Oxfam last weekend.

I just finished The Rector's Daughter which I absolutely loved and then shortly after read The Crowded Street which I liked but not loved.

Still reading through all of the 'dialogue' of Mansfield Park. Definitely not my favorite of Austen's!

>194 kayclifton: - I'm still reading a few pages of The Rector's Daughter here, a few there... not loving it, sadly.

I just started reading All The Dogs of My Life by Elizabeth Von Arnim. So far, I'm loving it! I hope it's really sentimental because I'm in the mood for that right now.

I have loved everything I have read by von Arnim and I hope you do too Mary.

194, 196 ,192: Loved, didn't love, somewhere in between! I'm going to have to get around to my own copy of The Rector's Daughter and see which camp I'm in!

194: The Crowded Street gets a definite "loved" from me! My favourite Holtby and one of my favourite VMCs.

199: The Rector's Daughter - me too, and I'll need to reread The Crowded Street

I read the Von Arnim, Mary, and liked it very much.

Just about to go up to bed with latest Virago edition of Poor Caroline by Winifred Holtby it looks wonderful.

I have just finished Poor Caroline - oh why did it have to finish? I loved it so. Just written up my review which doesn't at all do it justice, I have fallen in love with Winifred Holtby this year. Many many years ago I read The crowded street, but can hardley remember it now, and am hoping to get a copy one of these days so I can re-read it. Earlier this year, lovely Liz gave me a duplicate copy she had of South Riding which I gobbled up, I then treated myself to the pretty new editions of Anderby Wold Poor Caroline and The Land of Green Ginger, having now read the first two I only have one left *sob* I also read Mandoa Mandoa on kindle a few months ago. How I wish there were more Holtby's out there.

203: isn't Winifred Holtby wonderful? I can't get enough of her. I'm saving Poor Caroline and Mandoa, Mandoa for a rainy day.

i'm now reading Vita Sacville-West's Family History; she's another favorite author of mine that I'm trying to parcel out one book at a time.

I love Winifred Holtby as well! I have Poor Caroline and The Crowded Street still unread on my shelves, and I may just have to read one of them this month. I think the only one of hers I don't have yet is Mandoa, Mandoa

>203 Heaven-Ali: what did you think of Mandoa, Mandoa? I like to know about books before I buy them other wise I feel disappointed. I also want to read a biography of Holtby and Vera Brittain's Testament of Friendship the story of their relationship. Tragically, Holtby died so young.

I liked Mandoa Mandoa, my review is on LT. It is unusual, and quite dated in placess, it possibly takes a while to get into, but overall I really enjoyed it.

Still fumbling & bumbling through all of the lip and mouth noises of Mansfield Park. I want to live my life AND talk; not just talk. Not enjoying this one but I will finish it. Can't take too much of it at a time though so always something else being read at the same time.

Unfortunately I cannot agree with you, Belva. I love ALL Jane Austen's books.

Arrrrrrrrghhhhhh!~! Maybe next time around I will like it better.
But I think your remark a very positive one. I want to love all of her books. This year with the Austen-a-Thon that Stasia is hosting, it is my first attempt with Jane Austen and I am down Emma, which I thought just okay, Sense and Sensibility, a 5 star read for me and Pride and Prejudice, again a 5 star read for me. I think I gave Emma 2 or 3 stars; can't remember. The reading I must do this month from here on is all Austen; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and I am confident...........I think.
hugs,

Belva, Persuasion is one of my favourites, along with Pride and Prejudice (n.1), and Sense and Sensibility (n.2).

Belva dear,

Mansfield Park was my least favorite Austen novel. I totally agree with Paola that Persuasion is a really lovely book.

Persuasion is gorgeous.

See Belva? Listen to them and read Persuasion next!

Mansfield Park was also my least favorite Austen but that is not to say it was a bad book, just the least of a group of wonderful books. Pride and Prejudice remains my favorite and I loved Emma perhaps only because I found it in an Istanbul market and read it while on the road in Turkey. Such memories attached to it apart from the plot! My best friend's fave is Northanger Abbey but I was not nearly as impressed. Individual taste again.

My Austens, in order of preference:
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility / Emma (tied)
Northanger Abbey / Mansfield Park (tied)

Ooo, Austen's novels in order of preference? Yes please!

Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Northanger Abbey
Juvenilia
Mansfield Park
Persuasion

Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Mansfield Park
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Northanger Abbey

Though sometimes Persuasion and P&P swap and so do Emma And Mansfield Park

Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Sense and Sensibility
Emma/Mansfield Park (tied)

At the risk of sounding ingenuous, I intend to reread Persuasion next year, when I'm the same age as Anne, and hopefully I'll appreciate it more the second time around.

Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Persuasion
Mansfield Park
Emma
Northanger Abbey

>220 Stuck-in-a-Book:: oh my. I'm planning to re-read Emma next year. Are there any 50-year-old characters in that book? :)

At the risk of sounding my age Simon, I've heard people say they appreciated Persuasion more as they got older. I didn't read it until I was in my 40s so I can't speak from experience.

Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Mansfield Park/Northanger Abbey

222: I don't know how old Emma's dad is (maybe he's only in his 40s) - if I think about the ages of the characters in Jane Austen's books, I start to feel ancient at 42.

Ooh fun!

Northanger Abbey (I first read it during a course at University that covered the Gothic horror novels just before N.A. so I have always found it hilarious)
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
Emma/Persuasion (these are the two I know least well. I want to re-read them in 2012 so we'll see if they move then!)

Yea!~! I am in the ball park with Mansfield Park then. So my favorites in order thus far are: (having just read on to 4)

Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Mansfield Park

I have yet to read Northanger Abbey up next book and that to be followed by Persuasion.
Per the Austen-a-Thon; we are reading them in order of publication.... I believe. I think I am doing pretty good for just having introduced myself to Jane Austen this year. And after reading some of her books I think that she is an author that will draw me back time and time again. Does she affect any others that way?

#226 I re-read Jane Austen frequently - in print and on audio. One of the main advantages of owning a Kindle (which I carry with me all the time) is that I need never run the risk of not having some Jane Austen to hand.

Belva, last year I re-read P&P and that convinced me I should re-read one Austen every year. Someone -- I think Tui(tiffin) -- inspired me by saying they repeatedly re-read the cycle. So that's what I'm trying to do: read one a year and when I've completed them all, start again. Joy for life. :)

Like Kerry, I have them all on my Kindle now and also added her juvenilia which I intend to read someday.

I just finished reading the juvenalia. Interesting reading, but a bit patchy (understandably). Still she was amazing at any age!

Laura, I think that I will follow suit on you and Tui. I am beginning to enjoy this one now; beginning to.....
I have found just by reading (now into) four Austen books, that if I once find the humor in her writing, I am all good. This one is just taking longer and I may have missed some of it in Emma, my first. I don't know if Jane A. was a wit in R/L, but she definitely knew how to use it in her writing.

>229 miss_read: I think the Juvenilia is fascinating - I loved it, it's a much more irrepressible humour than in her novels, where the humour is less over the top, and more about character than silliness. I love the silliness, and nothing amuses me more than the critics who take Jane seriously, either in her Juvenilia or her letters. Even the 'two inches of ivory' quotation, in context, is clearly meant ironically.

>231 Stuck-in-a-Book: - Yes, I agree it's a much more blatant sort of humour than in her novels. And who can resist Lady Susan?!?!

I've just read chapter one of Northanger Abbey for the first time in years and it is just as wonderful as I remembered. And, as Lyzzybee said, hilarious.

My friend who loves Northanger Abbey also thinks it hilarious. When I read it, it just didn't make a very strong impression on me. I can't even remember the plot.

Just started Pirates at Play by Violet Trefusis - a BookCrossing copy (so Ali, you're up next!) which looks great fun. Realised with horror that I didn't add it to my library on acquisition, but if my Secret Santa has happened to happen upon it for me, it's fine, as I would like my own copy!

yay! : ) haven't read any VT (except her letters to Vita) but have had another one TBR for ages.

I read Echo by Violet Trefusis which was wonderful, a bit like Saki, and then I read Broderie Anglaise which I found rather dreary. I have a few others on my shelf, waiting...

I just popped in to say how much I like Winifred Holtby. I'm reading The Crowded Street and really enjoying it. It was also a real pleasure, on opening the book, to be reminded that I received it from Dee (soupdragon). There was a lovely card still inside.

238: So pleased you're enjoying The Crowded Street, Laura. I loved it and was very happy to be able to pass a copy on to you, especially as my own copy was sent to me by Louise (framheim).

Funny actually, I've only just got up and was just lying in bed idling considering next years reading and thinking about how much I like Holtby and how I will try to read another of hers next year!

My last Virago of the year is Letty Fox, my first Christina Stead. Letty is an entertaining, rambling narrator and I'm enjoying reading about her chaotic family life and her exploits in '30s New York.

All this month, among other books, I've been reading Rebecca West - first The Fountain Overflows, then This Real Night and now I'm in the middle of The Birds Fall Down. I can't even say how much I've enjoyed these books -- the pace of the writing and the very uniqueness of the characters, although there are echoes, especially in her description of the pre-war era, of The Years. I always had a rather negative impression of West, based on a biography I read years ago which had a lot of nasty details about her feud with her son Anthony. And as much as I enjoyed This Real Night she really has it it for one of her sisters, whom she portrays as a sneaking hypocrite.

I'm reading and loving The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue. Highly recommended especially to Sarah Waters fans.

My favourite Emma Donoghue is Life Mask, another of her 3 historicals, but The Sealed Letter is perhaps joint second with the very different Room.

#241> Lcanon, since you have read and enjoyed The Fountain Overflows and This Real Night, you should complete the trilogy with Cousin Rosamund, which is just as good as the first two.

I am going to read a Virago next - maybe the next two reads will be Virago - I feel in a Virago kind of mood. But I can't decide which next - I keep changing my mind.

Help! which would you choose?

>

I will be out for a couple of hours at the most - and then I need to decide -as I am having a mainly lazy book day.

The House of Mirth if you can handle gloom. One of the best books ever written in my opinion. Fenny if you want to be in Italy between the wars. But in the end you will assess your mood and decide on your own.

OOOOOOoooo! Read The Brontes Went to Woolworths if you're in the mood for whimsy with a point or Losing Battles if you're in the mood for solid family saga! Doesn't look like a loser in the stack!

Another vote for The Brontes Went to Woolworths from over here ... Don't read the Elizabeth Taylor till it's time in our reading plan for that one. Pirates at Play is fun and we can talk about it then.

Either The Brontes or Holtby or Wharton!

Loved The Lying Days but you will need to choose something for your mood. Good luck to you...........I don't think there is a dud in the bunch!~!

Thanks I started reading The Brontes went to Woolworths earlier - a hundred pages in now - and enjoying the bonkersness (is that a word? - it should be).

Hooray!

Oops. Totally posted the wrong info,.

#251 Bonkersness is a great word and should be added to any dictionaries that don't have it straight away!

: )
Well it was a quick read and I finished it a couple of hours ago. I will be having a change of pace next with The House of Mirth

Now reading That Lady.

After a long haitus, during which I got bookswiped by Golden Age mysteries, I am back on the Virago trail with Susan Spray by Sheila Kaye-Smith.

I'm traveling on business this week and had a long cross-country flight, so I came duly loaded with reading material. I am now 50 pages into Molly Keane's Good Behaviour, and oh my it's wonderful!

Try Anything Twice - thanks to my VMC Secret Santa!

258 : Isn't it just, Laura?! Molly Keane is February's choice at the Monthly Author Reads group so am looking forward to an excuse to read some more of hers next month. Will also be reading Palladian so it looks like being a wonderfully Virago kind of month.

Hmmm. When I finish The Tiger's Wife, which so far is only O.K. for me, I want to sneak in either Cindie or Fenny. I see that both have their proponents here - often the same persons - but I can't decide which to try first. At any rate, I hope to have whichever read so that I can join the group in Palladian in February.

I love them both but Cindie is by far the better book - IMO. Of course, that could mean you will feel the exact opposite Peg :)

Barbara, I totally agree with you about Cindie. Laura, I LOVE Molly Keane!

I've just finished Sin by Josephine Hart which I think is now my least favourite Virago Modern Classic ever! I can understand why Barbara and Jane were raising eyebrows at the addition of Hart to the list last year.

Now reading Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien.

>264 Soupdragon:: oh dear ... Note to self.

>264 Soupdragon:, 266: I have to admit, upon looking at reviews and plot summaries I will be giving her books a miss. There are too many more compelling books competing for my time.

>262 romain: Cindie is the one I chose, Barbara. So far so good!

I didn't like Holtby's The land of green ginger and don't know why the touchstone came up with Noel Langley et al as the author. Whoops! Just checked and it's a children's book. I did like The Crowded Street. I also liked The Children which also came up with a different touchstone, David Halberstam's name as the author. I wonder if authors can copyright the titles of their works. What do you think?

Just started Treasure Hunt by Molly Keane

ummm sort of scared to say this so I'll whisper.. I don't think I have ever read a Molly Keane book before.

*slinks away*

>270 Heaven-Ali:: I've read two and they were both wonderful. I think you're in for a treat!

I read and enjoyed Good Behavior and just mastered the glitch that I was encountering in the Touchstones and am very proud of myself. I also read Full House and remember so clearly the governess who was plagued by the facial hair. I did try to start reading Keane's Loving Without Tears but quickly became bored so gave up. Keane's work is good for a light read, I think.

I'm halfway through Gamel Woolsey's One Way of Love. I'll have plenty to say when I review it -- it's uneven as a novel but very moving and unsettling as a portrait of a young woman in the 1920's trying to 'find herself'. It was unusual for the time and was not published until Virago took it on, because it is very very blunt, amazingly and very disturbingly so, about sex. Having just read a very muscly and modern book about the same thing -- Jaimy Gordon's She Drove Without Stopping -- it's tempting to write an essay about the two books, really, I am sorely tempted because I think there's rich stuff to be dug up if I could force myself to think more deeply about it........

Interesting comments, Lucy. I look forward to your review. Or essay. :)

I finally managed to think clearly enough about Susan Spray to get a review written. I found this a very strange book - does anyone else have any thoughts on it?

Orphaned and homeless, but with a small income, Mariana, raised very alone by her grandmother at the failing seaside plantation in South Carolina, goes to New York. There she attracts a young Englishman, Alan Douglas. Mariana is elf thin, dark haired and dark-eyed, bewitching to him, but he has a 'cold' nature. He is in love with her and reasonably kind, but his aim is to bed her - he is interested in little else about her, other than the lust she arouses in him, precisely because she is, to paraphrase, a wild thing, and not at all prepared for or interested in sex. Woolsey makes it clear though that Alan loves her as much as he has loved anyone, that he opens up to her and makes an effort that is met in part. One of the joys of the novel is that nothing is in black and white. Having just read a novel about a woman with an ardently sexual nature, it is interesting to read about a (beautiful) woman with no interest. Lonely Mariana has a child's desires and outlook and unfortunately much of her attraction to men are these qualities - a very dark implication. Alan and Mariana marry, they are not happy together but no one speaks openly about it, she gets pregnant..... the doctors won't allow it to go on, Mariana's health appears to be pre-tubercular (is that possible?) and to everyone's relief (Alan loathes pregnant women) the child is aborted. The description of the procedure is a demonstration of Mariana's deep immaturity for she feels nothing but relief and rather shocks the doctors and nurses with her cheerfulness.
There is a dreamy distance to the narrative, it's a fairly close third person and yet due to this quality of Mariana's personality the reader feels some of the same 'at arm's length' that her lovers feel. The sex act, for her, is always uncomfortably close to rape - she does not ever dare say no, as she feels that this is her 'payment' for what she wants, really, a warm place on the hearth, no more no less..... I can understand why publishing firms didn't want to touch it eighty years ago; there is a childlike frankness about sex, a naivete that makes Mariana's felt experience quite explicit and the implications are shocking. I've never read anything quite like it, a very original work. ****1/2


I'm adding a link to this fascinating place: Hervey . There is much about the book that is clearly directly derived from Woolsey's own experience - Mariana and Alan and then Mariana alone spend a lot of time at this colony (thinly disguised) in the summers and autumns....... utterly fascinating!!!!!

I would like to write an essay about the two books -- but really, I can't, so what I can recommend is to read them together! (see comment 273)

It is my plan, btw, for 2012 to read one Virago per month -- I have ten or 11 'new' and unread ones, and many many that deserve rereading!

I am reading Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim on my kindle - maybe one day I'll find a nice green edition of it to add to my small virago collection - but I am enjoying reading it at least.

I've not come across One way of love- must get hold of that!

Hope you enjoy Enchanted April Ali!

276 - Such a lovely book!

277- Worth looking for, yes.

Sib - great review. I had this book down in my mind as a lesbian book and was looking forward to it as such. Perhaps it should've been. 'Mariana' might've been better off finding 'the warm place on the hearth' with another woman! I'll probably get to it during AVAA.

I did wonder about that actually, but..... she is more asexual or presexual.... childlike really, I think. There's no evident attraction to women, anyway, that I discerned.

Thank you! I worked harder on it than I usually do because there's only one other review and because I found the book surprising.

Well I finished The Enchanted April - loved it!! looking forward to more Von Arnim now.

Now settling down to start reading my VSS gift - The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton by Elizabeth Speller really looking forward to it : )

>275 sibylline: thanks for that good review! Have been interested in finding out more about that book and about Woolsey herself and just found in the Touchstones another title for a work by her but I know nothing about it. It's not a VMC as far as I know.

Looks like it's called Malaga Burning and is about Spain as the Civil War breaks out - one of the dust jackets on the page looks a bit like one of those Virago Travelers?

Phew - I've just caught up on 200+ messages! I've been hopeless at reading any VMCs but we are now back in our house in New Zealand and they are all lined up on the bookshelves with their lovely green spines. I'm nearly halfway through The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence and loving it, although I am very glad I don't have very old parents who are struggling to remain independent.

Hopefully this year I'll be able to read a few more Viragoes.

I'm reading Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood, which I'm finding so-so at the moment. The writing is wonderful, as I expected, but the stories are a bit lacking in, well, story, for my tastes. They're still good, but not particularly satisfying.

Back home for good Cush?

Yes Barbara, with over 200 boxes to sort out!! (not all of them books.) Somehow all the books I bought in Switzerland don't seem to be fitting onto the bookshelves...

Reading Ethan Frome from my big haul at Henry Pordes!

>283 sibylline: Malaga Burning was published as a Virago/Beacon Traveler with the title Death's Other Kingdom, Lucy and Kay C. At least, when I tried the *Malaga* touchstone, that's the book that turned up.

And now I'm on to Margaret Atwood's Bodily Harm.

Despite the dozens of books I have already TBR - I started reading a book I bought yesterday in a charity shop.
The corner that held them by Sylvia Townsend Warner which inrigued me as it seemed quite different to many other VMC's - I also had a sense that if I added to my TBR I would overlook it for ages and ages because I thought of it as a bit odd. So I decided to read it right away. I have only read about 45 pages yet, but so far really like it. Has anyone else read it? - there aren't many reviews here on LT

I'm dying to read The Corner that held them by Sylvia Townsend Warner but have decided to wait for the new Virago edition in March because I love the look of the new cover. I'll probably get the new edition of Lolly Willowes too, as I read it last year but don't have my own copy.

Aaaaaahhhh Ali - you are, IMHO, reading one of the top five Viragos and one of the best books I have ever read - period. It has been discussed here extensively by the few of us who have read it. If you look on the conversations tab you will find some of the things we have said about it.

I've started reading Palladian though I've mysteriously mislaid my lovely brand new VMC copy - I'm sure I would have put it somewhere I could find it again, but I've looked through all the possible boxes in the house and my stuffed on top of shelves books, I found Barbara Pym's No Fond Return of Love. Fortunately I have an ex library 1969 reprint of Palladian.

294: How annoying for you, Luci. I'm glad you had another copy.

I've just finished Palladian and started Taking Chances by Molly Keane. Molly Keane is February's Monthly Author Reads choice if anyone is interested in joining in. Link here.

I read The corner that held them last year and loved it. I really like books set in convents for some reason, and this was a great one. I'm glad you are enjoying it so far.

I've just started rereading Palladian.

Finished The Corner that held them today after work, really enjoyed it - ended up being a very good £1.50 I spent in that charity shop : )

I have just begun Palladian and am looking forward to the read.

I'm more than halfway through Mary Lavelle and enjoying it but I wouldn't classify it as great literature. I don't know if I want to read any more of Kate O'Brien as I read The Ante-Room and didn't like it.

OMG Kay - don't give up just yet! The Land of Spices is a masterpiece. I have not enjoyed all of O'Brien (did not like That Lady) but do try TLofS before deciding she is not for you.

Kay - don't give up on O'Brien until you have tried Without My Cloak. I think this is her writing at its very best.

After running through The Dark Tide (good, but not as great as Testament of Youth, and based very loosely on Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby's time at Oxford together), I was inspired to read Mandoa, Mandoa!.

I really enjoyed Mandoa Mandoa - it's unusal and rather dated in parts but I found it a good read.

Just stared Fenny by Lettice cooper - : )

>300 romain:
>301 mrspenny:
Will follow your recommendations and try both of the books you mentioned after I finish Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage Vol. 2 I'm bogged down in "The Tunnel" right now and don't know if I'll ever see the light at the end of it. It's stream of consciousness and difficult to follow. When I finish "Pilgrimage" I have to read Palladian for the Elizabeth Taylor Centenary.

Kay; I am precisely with romain and mrspenny on Kate O'Brien. I've not yet read Mary Lavelle but I have LOVED everything I have ever read by her. So please do give her another try.

I also enjoyed Without My Cloak - but I don't as yet have anything to compare it to.

I'm re-reading One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes, which I read back in 2004. Well! I liked it then, but I didn't appreciate how brilliant it is. Quite possibly going to leap onto my favourite books list at this rate - it's just so, so good! The writing reminds me of Woolf, but without the slight inaccessibility she can have. So domestic, so perceptive, such flow and beauty to the observations... love it!

>308 Stuck-in-a-Book:: ooh, I loved that one. Rachel (Booksnob) wrote an absolutely stunning review last year, that made me go out and buy it straight away.

I realized that I had been reading too many WW1-ish English domestic novels in a row, because they were starting to blur together in my memory a bit! So I took a break by reading the very interesting The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and am now almost finished with Miles Franklin's Some Everyday Folk and Dawn. Thank you again, Peggy, and thank you for your sweet note which I only discovered when I started reading!

I just finished Elizabeth Taylor's A Game of Hide and Seek. I found it wonderfully depressing. Has anyone else here read the book? If so I would like to discuss the ending with you.

>311 urania1:: I haven't read it yet Mary, but it's the May book for our Elizabeth Taylor Centenary. Can you wait that long?! :)

>308 Stuck-in-a-Book:
>309 lauralkeet:
I'm happy to see the praise for One Fine Day. I had been thinking of purchasing it and now I'll track down Rachel's review and then take the big step.

>313 kayclifton:: Kay, maybe I can save you some tracking-down time. I added a link to Rachel's review in #309.