Which Virago Are you Reading? Part XVII

Time for a new thread, methinks.

Yesterday I started Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop. Several LTers read it earlier in the year, which piqued my interest.

Well, I'm here whine a little about the Virago I'm reading now - TERRIBLE print - I'd like to read the book but I don't know if I can. I guess they photocopied an old edition or something, but the ink on some pages is black and smudgy and on other verging on faint.... just when I can't bear it, it will settle down for twenty pages or so. It's shameful is what it is! I'm not sure I'm going to love the book either (Ada Cambridge The Three Miss Kings - it's dated, not uninteresting but written a bit in that sort of fluttery ladylike way of yore.... so..... if I stop I know I will never seek out a better copy of the book. But I would read it if the print was better, because it has merit. Quandary. I will trudge on and see if the story picks up, I guess.

But it leads me to wonder - the Virago books are a bit uneven this way, some seem lovingly printed and edited and others, like this one, appear to be seriously low-budget, including paper that is yellowing more than some others I have of the same age.

Back to say - Marvelous that you are reading Death Comes For the Archbishop - it's an extraordinary book!!!

>3 sibylline: I really enjoyed The three Miss Kings, although I do seem to remember it taking some time before it gripped me. I agree about the varying print quality of Viragos; there are some that are on my shelf unread precisely because I open the first page and see a small, dense typeface that I know will be a chore to read. I suppose it depends if they used an old set of plates to print from, or whether it was reset.

And I agree - Death comes for the archbishop is a wonderful read!

>5 Sakerfalcon: Good point - some of the books are very obviously from old plates and they can be a struggle - particularly if you are getting older (ahem!) and your eyesight isn't as fresh as it was!

Even when I have a paper copy I quite often read a book on my kindle these days, especially if it is out of copyright and therefore available free.

>3 sibylline: I really liked The Three Miss Kings. It is slow to start though I think.

I finished the Cather and really enjoyed it!

I have been rather slack about my Viragos this year to date, but I have just finished Hudson River Bracketed, one of the lesser known Whartons, it seems, and I have the sequel, The Gods Arrive, on the TBR.

>10 lyzard: I liked Hudson River Bracketed, but for some reason have never actually read the copy of The gods arrive which has been sitting on my shelf for several years! I really must reread HRB and then continue onto the sequel.

I'm currently reading Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick. It's reminiscent of Colette, Rhys, and Frame, in the style of muscular prose that does so much with the smallest touch.

>12 Korrick::
Aubrey, I enjoyed Sleepless Nights when I read it & felt much the same as you in regards to Hardwick's style. I hope you are enjoying it.

I am trying very, very hard not to rush through the last 50 pages of Miss Mole. I really want to, though.

I mentioned this on the WWI thread but I'll check in here too - reading We that were young. It is a very good read so far with engaging characters who find themselves in interesting situations due to the war. Not too dark yet, but a couple of the girls have fallen in love and I am preparing myself for the worst ...

>15 Sakerfalcon: We That Were Young is in my plan for this month. It is nice to see several good comments about it.

Lyzard - that's why we have All Virago/All August!!!!!

>12 Korrick: I loved Sleepless Nights

>15 Sakerfalcon: I really want to read We that were young but I don't have a copy - yet.

I am just starting A Particular Place by Mary Hocking.
Thank you Ali for hosting this Mary Hocking remembrance month read.

I have just finished Miss Mole which I really enjoyed. I had a really tough time going back to the office after my lunch hour with only two more chapters to go, but return I did, and spent the rest of the afternoon wondering how it all would turn out for Miss Hannah Mole.

Have now started Beyond the Glass by Antonia White. I so loved the other books in the series I hope it turns out to be just as good. I haven't read much yet as I was out this evening with friends.

Have been on hiatus but still continuing my Virago reading. I just finished rereading. Jenny Wren by E H Young and liked it just as much as the first time. I have liked all of Young's works. Will try to post more regularly as my reading has become very important to me.

^ What a coincidence. I just started The Lost Traveller yesterday and am already seven chapters in.

I started Salem Chapel today, it's part of the Chronicles of Carlingford. Similar to Trollope but without the satire.

>24 lauralkeet::
Laura, is this the first one of the "Chronicles" you've read or did you 'begin at the beginning' & if so, how did you find the first? I was thinking of taking them up for AV/AA this year.

I began at the beginning, Belva. The first two are in one VMC edition, The Rector and The Doctor's Family. I liked them well enough to keep going! I think I have the complete series, although I need to double-check that.

I finished We that were young and thought it was an excellent read. Towards the end some things happen that seem just "too bad to be true" but in fact, as I read afterwards in the introduction, these were based on her life. I liked following the women through their work and seeing some of the many ways in which women lived through WWI. The nursing scenes were even more vivid than those in Testament of youth, I thought, and you may not want to read some of them while eating! The only weakness really is the rather purple prose that takes over in the romantic scenes which are very sentimental. But they are short and infrequent so this is a small flaw.

I'm now reading Good daughters and really enjoying it - I've flown through half the book already!

Just finished Beyond the Glass by Antonia White brilliant!

I've found some of my cache of Viragos buried in the shed, including We That Were Young which I'd forgotten owning.

Maybe I'm due an Antonia White reread, it's probably more than 10 years.

>29 elkiedee: What fun Luci - a hidden cache of Viragos! Every reader's dream..... :)

It's ok so long as they're still in reasonable condition. There are some very damaged books in the shed and I fear that some of my books are still being destroyed now. I've thrown away some books and there are more I would probably throw out if I could find reasonable replacements for. I haven't yet found any completely destroyed VMCs, just a couple that aren't great.

Here's hoping that the remainder of your stored 'greenies' are in A-1 condition Luci.

Although it's not a Virago edition I'm reading The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen.

How do you like it so far? I enjoyed the first two Elizabeth books but wondered how I'd feel about a novel set outside Nassenheide.

I really enjoyed Elizabeth in Rugen; the descriptions of the area are lovely and Elizabeth's exploits amusing. I'd love to visit that part of Germany.

Good to know. I've never been off the German mainland, and the village I lived in was surrounded by pastures and forests. Nothing very von Arnim-like about Oldenhütten and its environs.

I am reading We That Were Young and at just twenty some pages in am already fascinated. I hope it continues. I have been looking forward to reading this for our Great War Theme Read.

I confess I never really warmed up to The Three Miss Kings although I also have no regrets about having read it.... my review is a bit lackluster, but it is here

The print remained awful throughout.

Sorry Luci. I hope your next read is much better for you.

I just finished China Court by Rumer Godden which I loved although I was left a bit unsure by the final scene in the book which seemed to be getting uncomfortably close to the 'man hits woman and it does her good' belief.

Now reading The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby.

I'm putting all of the Viragoes and Persephones on my TBR to one side for AV/AA - I have about 16 in total, which should make for a good month with some choice within the batch.

>40 souloftherose: China Court is one of my favourite Rumer Goddens but it was only in my last, recent, re-read that that last scene struck me (no pun intended) - I really hadn't noticed the violence of it before. I think I had just taken it as part of its time - still not acceptable, I know.

>42 CDVicarage: "I think I had just taken it as part of its time - still not acceptable, I know."

Yes, although I think I can accept scenes like that more easily in older books where that was the prevailing view than in a contemporary book. I still really enjoyed the book.

I started The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen this morning. It's proving to be a refreshing antidote to Friends and Heroes. And having been something of an outsider in German society myself, I enjoy her gently snarky take on Prussia/Pomerania, which is where my mother's side of the family hail from.

I'm reading The House on Clewe Street and when I was looking for reviews of it to check the author's name (I was up top, the book was down the bottom of the house) I came across Verity's review of it on her Virago blog, so even though my copy is an old Penguin, I am reading a Virago. Very good it is, too!

I'm reading Company Parade by Storm Jameson. Just after WW1, a young woman, Hervey, has left her son in another woman's care in Yorkshire while she earns money and tries to forge a career in London. She's married but her husband is the kind of character you long for the heroine to leave, and he has no desire to leave a seemingly cushy airforce position to live in London with Hervey and have their child living with them.

Reading your post elkie, I got curious and checked out my Storm Jamesons and found that I have 7 or 8 if you count both volumes of her bio and have yet to read any. That is just wrong! I will try to get to one in August.
Company Parade sounds interesting but also frustrating. Sounds like the hubby needs to be kicked to the curb.

Still reading the book, but it sounds as though the author had a much happier second marriage. A lot of her books have been reprinted in paper and ebook format by Bloomsbury Reader, some sound really interesting and I may investigate further, but I should probably read all 3 of the Mirror in Darkness trilogy, which happen to be VMCs and already in my possession, first.

Her nephew was a colleague of my mum's in the 1970s and a family friend, so I heard her name when I was young without getting round to reading the books.

How fascinating! I started Company Parade once but got bogged down by wanting to smack the husband. Maybe I should try again!

I'm reading The lost traveller which is very good. Not sure why it has taken me so many years after reading Frost in May to get to the sequel, but I'm glad I have.

>50 Sakerfalcon: Then keep on goin' cos there's still two more. :-) Actually, I think The Lost Traveller is the weakest of the quartet, so you've got a couple good ones still coming up.

The House in Clewe Street is a Virago even if I read it in Penguin, and I linked to Verity's review since it's top of the search results! http://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/book-reviews-112/

>51 CurrerBell: I have all four books, and the next two must be something special if book 2 is the weakest - I'm very impressed with it so far!

>49 kaggsy: Kaggsy: I had the same reaction to Company Parade. I'm pretty sure the husband (can't recall his name) is the main reason I haven't progressed beyond the first book. I may give volume II a try next month, however. My goal this year is to make some headway on the various series I have started, and The Mirror in Darkness trilogy is on the list.

>54 Leseratte2: Glad it's not just me! I would like to have another try with this, because I did like Jameson's writing. I'll really have to have another go during AV/AA!

>54 Leseratte2::
>55 kaggsy::
The first two in Jameson's trilogy are rated 3 1/2 stars on L.T. with the last at 2 1/2 stars. However, I very rarely let low rated or downer reviews affect my reading choices. Beings I've never tried her I may read one or more of her trilogy in August. Would be so lovely if they 'carried me away'.

>53 Sakerfalcon::
Claire, I have read all four and was taken with each one though I do agree with Mike that The Lost Traveler was probably the weakest link in the quad. I neglected to rate & review that latter 3 of the series so I have an excuse to revisit them. :-)

>51 CurrerBell:, 56 I have just finished The lost traveller and have my suspicions as to why, perhaps, this is your least favourite book of the four. I felt Charles' death to be pure melodrama, very out of place in this otherwise subtle book. Was this the problem you had with it? Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to following Clara further into womanhood in the next 2 books.

There are only 4 and 3 ratings of the other two books in the series. Annejacinta rated Love in Winter 4* and hasn't read Company Parade (but would like to) and it sounds interesting, and the 3rd book deals with the General Strike, which really makes me want to read it now, but I wonder if the subject itself put off some readers?

>Sakefalcon: I finished The Lost Traveller recently and agree with you re the spoiler. I still had a hard time putting it down, and am looking forward to the next one.

>57 Sakerfalcon: >59 Leseratte2: No, my problem is really more basic than that. As to Frost in May, I love boarding school stories. As to The Sugar House, I really love the material about Clara's experiences "on the road" in the acting company. And the mental hospital (though I don't think that really is a spoiler) in Beyond the Glass is so very well described. I really just found The Lost Traveller to be a bit bland, a bit of a come-down after Frost in May.

My own ratings of the quartet (in order, favorite to least, but not in any way suggesting that the lower rated ones are by any means bad):

1. Frost in May
2. The Sugar House
3. Beyond the Glass
4. The Lost Traveller

Incidentally, White also published an anthology of short stories (some of course better than others), Strangers, which you definitely ought to read if you really like Beyond the Glass because it has a short story on the Beyond the Glass subject (I'm being vague to avoid spoiler). There's also a story in there titled (if I recall correctly) "The Exile," which is one of my all-time favorites. It's a positively hilarious monologue by a whack job who wants to be a nun but the bishop won't have anything to do with her! (It may help the humor along if you grew up pre-Vatican II RC.)

>60 CurrerBell: I have Strangers so will have to read it after I finish the Clara books. I too love boarding school stories and hadn't expected to like The lost traveller so much because it leaves that setting, but I found the examination of her relationship with her parents to be interesting and moving. But I am really looking forward to the next two books as you think so highly of them (and because I too like books that deal with the backgrounds you mention).

Edited to add that, starting AV/AA a little early, I am now reading Pilgrimage 1.

>61 Sakerfalcon: Ooooh - enjoy Pilgrimage! I loved it!

I went to a talk given by Louisa Treger yesterday. Her forthcoming novel 'The Lodger' is based on a period of Dorothy Richardson's life, and her knowlege and love of her subject was lovely.

Having the ticket for the talk had already given me the push I needed to begin Pointed Roofs and I have to say that I am very taken with it.

I have begun doing VMC rereads to see how I feel after a second reading and if my opinion is the same or different from before. I am starting with my favorites.

Just picked up A Stricken Field by Martha Gellhorn - inspired by reading about her in Sybille Bedford's Pleasures and Landscapes!

I liked A Stricken Field when I read it years and years ago. I'll be interested to know what you think of her style in this one.

>66 Leseratte2: I'm reserving judgement on that at the moment - her style so far is more like reportage than novel, but what she's writing about is heartbreaking.

>67 kaggsy::
As Martha Gellhorn was a foreign correspondent reporting from the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, World War II and the Vietnamese conflict, it would have surprised me greatly if her fiction did not have a reporting style to it Karen. I hope that doesn't take away from your appreciation of her work and it doesn't sound as if it is.
hugs,

>68 rainpebble: No, I kind of expected this Belva, and it's a very powerful piece of work so far - and I think has great value as a record of man's inhumanity to man.

Last week I read West with the Night, Beryl Markham's memoir. I didn't realize it was a VMC until Heather mentioned it on my 75 books thread. It was quite good.

And I'm now reading The Enchanted April. I saw the film years ago, when it was first released, and didn't know it was based on a book until I started collecting VMCs. This seems like a good time to escape to a medieval Italian castle for a while. See you on the other side :)

My review of A Stricken Field:

http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/

and my goodness, what an emotional and intense read....

I've just started reading Cromartie vs the God Shiva by Rumer Godden, one of the quite recent VMC reprints - I was looking for a book about art theft/forgery to read and it seemed like a good time to dig this out of a box of relatively recent shiny new acquisitions. This must have been one of Godden's last novels, published in 1997 when she was 90 (she died in 1998).

How have I been so oblivious to the fact that she wrote so many books other than the dolls' house ones and The Diddakoi and The Peacock Spring and The Greengage Summer?

>72 elkiedee::
elkie; according to Wiki she wrote more than 60 books of fiction & nonfiction. I own 12 and have not yet begun to scratch the surface of her works. I sure love her writing and am very happy that Virago has been coming out with editions of her work. Some of them have been really difficult to find. This will certainly make that easier for us. A couple of my favorites have been An Episode of Sparrows and The Kitchen Madonna. My first Godden was The Greengage Summer which I think we did as a group read a few years ago.

>72 elkiedee:, 73 I just reread Coromandel sea change but not in a Virago edition (not sure if they have actually reprinted it yet, although it is a companion to Cromartie.) The depiction of India is marvellous as always, as are the scenes of everyday hotel life, but the main characters didn't feel quite real and the drama was rather soap-opera-ish. And some scenes of cruelty to animals reminded me why this isn't among my favourite Goddens.

I finished Pilgrimage 1 having enjoyed a fascinating and immersive read. One quickly gets into Miriam's head and starts to see the world through her eyes which, while sometimes confusing, is usually interesting. I was expecting the book to be rather a slog, as a friend described it as "completely impenetrable", but was pleasantly surprised to find this was not the case. It is filled with tiny everyday details which some may consider trivia, but for me this just gave a clearer picture of the place and time. I could picture the rooms of the various schools, the streets of North London (a far more alien place to Miriam than Germany!) and the green commons around the country house. Reading this seems to me to be as close as one can come to actually living as a woman in the late C19th/early C20th century.

I discovered Rumer Godden in my great aunt's bookcases when I was in my early twenties. Have read everything she ever wrote but somehow missed the Cromartie one. Some are brilliant, some are not, but all are at least good. Her masterpieces - IMO - are In This House of Brede and Kingfishers Catch Fire.

>75 romain::
Will have to remember that about her masterpieces. I'm planning to read In This House of Brede for AV/AA this year. And I love all of her pieces that I have read. Especially The Kitchen Madonna and An Episode of Sparrows!

I just yesterday began a 1927 edition (also handed down to me from my Pop) of The Love-Child by Edith Oliver and am truly being carried away by it.

Coromandel Sea Change is in print from Pan Macmillan - I have it on Kindle and their most recent pb edition was last year. I didn't know it was linked, will have to look but probably when I get home as my Kindle paperwhite is Wifi not 3G and I don't really want to change the settings!

>75 romain: I've read Brede and Kingfishers recently in the reprint editions, Cromartie is the 3rd of about 12 VMC Goddens I own (I think that's all of them in VMC paperback editions). I plan to get The River next year in paperback unless I find a bargain copy of the special hardback.

I found a lovely condition copy of Anderby Wold for my mum today, 60p in a Deal charity shop - it's the railway poster cover edition but I don't like the fact that they haven't reprinted or written new introductions apart from South Riding - I have an old green copy.

>76 rainpebble: rain pebble:

I read The Love-Child a couple of years ago and it was one of my all time favorite VMC's. It is so poignant. I think that I'll do some research on Edith Olivier as I believe that The Love Child is her only work on the VMC list.

Hi, all.

I wanted to let people know that in a couple of weeks, Heather (souloftherose) and I will be embarking on a joint read of Aphra Behn's Love-Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister, and that anyone who felt like joining in would be more than welcome.

This is (hopefully) the first step in a long-term project of reading Viragoes chronologically by original publication date, and anyone who would have any interest in tagging along for that would be very welcome too.

I finished The Last King of Sark last night and that's my last Virago for a good long while, as the only one I have left in my TBR is the copy of The Edwardians that Kaggsy kindly sent me, and that's nearly at the end of it!

>79 lyzard: That sounds like a very interesting project. I don't have a copy of the Behn, but will certainly keep my eye out for when you reach title I do own (I suspect Millenium Hall will be my earliest(.

Right now, I'm about 2/3 through A model childhood It is intermittently absorbing, but interspersed with analytical style sections that are less interesting.

>81 Sakerfalcon: From memory Millenium Hall is the second book on the chronological list. I couldn't possibly guess when we might get to it, but I will certainly post a heads-up here when we do.

>79 lyzard::
Count me in Liz & Heather. I would love to be included in the reading project. I have other books that I want to/need to read as well but this project would definitely help me keep my hand in on reading the Virago.
Thank you for the head's up.

We would love to have you, Belva!

At the moment it looks like we will be starting with Love-Letters in the middle of the month - I hope that's convenient for you? I will post a link her when I have set up the thread.

>84 lyzard::
Works perfectly fine for my Liz. Thank you. :-)

>84 lyzard: I'd like to join in as well! Just yesterday I was dithering over which of my Viragoes to read in September, and nothing was grabbing me. But this sounds interesting, and I also rather enjoy long-term projects -- at least at the beginning, LOL!

Do you (Liz or Heather) have a list with original publication dates? We could expand our Virago Collection Tracker, with a new column perhaps for year of publication. I can assist with adding the information, or can provide editor access to the spreadsheet.

Do you want to "host" the project from this group (i.e.;, create threads here)? Or will it have a home elsewhere?

Welcome, Laura! If you enjoy long-term projects, you've run into the right bunch of obsessives. :)

I suppose it would make more sense to set up the threads through the Virago Group; as you know we ordinarily run these sorts of things through the 75ers.

I have a spreadsheet somewhere with the chronological publication order up to the end of the 19th century - frankly, I haven't thought any further forward than that! Happy to add into the Collection Tracker - possibly as we go along, rather than all at once, so I don't start hyperventilating...

I suggested mid-September to Heather as a starting date because she was also committed to the Martin Chuzzlewit group read (under way), but it's not a problem for me if anyone would like to start a little earlier.

>87 lyzard: Liz, I sent you a PM about providing you access to the tracker. I'm also willing to help.

Also: today on the VMC Readers FB page someone asked whether there was a list in order of original publication! They were specifically interested in titles published in 1915. Anyone have any info about that year?

Willa Cather's The Song Of The Lark was first published in 1915, and so was the first volume of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage, Pointed Roofs. I don't know of any others.

>88 lauralkeet: funny, but the person who originally posted the query figured this out too!

I am currently reading New York Mosaic by Isabel Bolton and have just finished

The Little Ottleys by Ada Leverson. The latter book is a trilogy and in parts hilarious but it is

long and when I got to the third part it started to drag and wasn't humorous anymore. I then read

the foreward and the writer had praised it highly and had pointed out some of the book's literary

merits so I went back and read the part that I had skipped over and it helped me to appreciate it

more.

I have found that I can get photos of the authors whose works I have read. It's just wonderful to

see them. Most of you probably had already discovered the photos.

I have also printed them with the lists of their writings None of the women look the way that I

had imagined. I am very much interested in the author's lives and have been reading many of

their biographies. Most of the women were remarkable. Storm Jameson is an example.

>91 kayclifton: I loved The little Ottleys when I read it a couple of years ago. I'm glad you were able to appreciate it in the end.

I finished A model childhood last night which was a good, although difficult, read. I'm going to pass it on to my sister who is studying German and is interested in the country's history and culture.

>93 Sakerfalcon: I have started Christa Wolf several times then got stuck - but I will be spurred on by your success! Glad it's not just me who finds her prose difficult!

>94 kaggsy: It was the jumping between the two narratives - that of "you" and that of Nelly that took some getting used to. Nelly's story was frequently absorbing but it took me a while to find "you"'s more analytical ramblings interesting.

>86 lauralkeet: I'd be happy to add some dates to the tracker too. Exciting to see so much interest!

>91 kayclifton: I read The Little Ottleys in eBook format last year and found them quite slow going at times too. I didn't have the benefit of the introduction in the Virago edition and did wonder at the time whether that would have helped.

Read The Last Kings of Sark for AV/AA - didn't love love love it http://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/book-reviews-117/

I just finished my first Virago "All Passion Spent": http://shypagesniffer21.booklikes.com/post/994011/virago-modern-classics-maratho...

I'm now reading The Semi-Attached Couple & The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden for the first time. It's very Austeneque while being unique. I think I will enjoy it!

I set up a reading list for my marathon, my next one will be The Little Ottleys.

Didn't you love All Passion Spent Shy? It was my first book by Vita Sackville-West and I was so taken by it and by her.
I was also quite taken by your review. Very nice.

Thanks, rainpebble!

>98 toast_and_tea: I love the Emily Eden novels, they do have the same mix of affection and satire as Austen, while in some ways feeling a bit more modern. And The little Ottleys is a great companion to it, so a good one to have picked as a follow-up. Your Virago marathon is getting off to a great start!

I'm reading a library book The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth Von Arnim.

I'm reading The Rector's Daughter by F. M. Mayor and I'm loving it. Her writing is so exquisite and dry. I can't believe I've not read any of hers before.

I just finished reading Ankle Deep by Angela Thirkell and am not sure if it is a Virago as my list isn't up to date. It was enjoyable. I am now reading Manhattan Memoir by
Mary Cantwell and I think it is wonderful. The first part is a record of her childhood and I found that there were many parallels with my own. Now I am reading Part two Manhattan When I Was Young. The next stage of her life. It is one more book that I've discovered that I think deserves more attention. Books about women's lives are sadly overlooked.

> Book Truffler I read the Rector's Daughter a few years ago and thought it was one of the best Viragos I have read.

I loved loved loved Manhattan When I was Young - but then I love Manhattan!

Reading and loving The Constant Nymph which Liz loaned me as I'm not supposed to be buying books.

Have just read part of Over the Frontier by Stevie Smith. I couldn't finish it. The writing style seemed

amateurish and Smith's views and relationships seemed childish. Has anyone else read it. I'd like to hear what

what people have to say.

I am now rereading The Rector's Daughter by F M Mayor. It is one of my favorites and so far it remains so.

>107 kayclifton::
I don't believe that you are the only one who has issues with the writing of Stevie Smith, Kay. I have only been able to force myself through one of her works though I have 3 or 4.
Nice to know you will be loving this current read you have going. :-)

That's how Stevie is - I like the style but can only read one at a time. And it's SO hard not to write like that yourself when you've been reading her

I just looked back at my message and was surprised to see that (not really surprised, I'm always doing dumb things) that I had listed The Rector's Daughter as currently reading and

instead it is Mary Olivier: a Life by May Sinclair). I think that what confused me was that both books deal with unmarried women who have a parent that sadly they cannot separate from

in adulthood.

Today I have just started The Tortoise and the Hare which I have heard described as ssomething of a masterpiece. Hope it lives up to that accolade.

>110 kayclifton::
Kay, you crack me up. I am forever doing things like that. lol!~!

I'm reading Well of Loneliness. I've read so much about Radclyffe Hall, visited her tomb in Highgate, and bought a coffee mug with her picture on it (a fund raiser to support repairs on said tomb). It is high time I actually read one of her novels.

Ooooh #113 you are so lucky, I'd love to be reading her for the first time again!

I was going through some of the other threads and saw the title of a book by Christina Stead that I had read a while back and then more recently another of her works. I wondered if anyone else has read anything by her. I have mixed feelings about her work and I have her The Man who Loved Children and have hesitated starting it. The two that I have read are Cotter's England and Letty Fox: Her Luck. Both very different from each other.

Oh gosh, wasn't it Cotter's England that I gave up on after 5 pages?

>107 kayclifton: I managed to read Novel on yellow paper and hated it, so gave it away, along with the other of her novels that I owned.

>115 kayclifton: I really liked Letty Fox; she was such an engaging character and seeing New York through her eyes made it come to life so vividly for me. I have several of her others on Mount Tbr, including The man who loved children, and I do look forward to getting started on it some time. I agree with you about having mixed feelings towards her work; I found both The people with the dogs and The beauties and furies to be frustrating in some ways, yet both have left positive impressions in my mind.

I just finished A Greengage Summer and liked it very much especially the first half. The second got a little melodramatic with criminals and police etc.. I like books which feature children as their protagonists either as the author's voice or written in the third person. I have read Elizabeth Bowen's The House in Paris. and The Children by Edith Wharton. I think that Bowen had a special fondness for children even though I believe that she had none of her own.

Does anyone have any other suggestions. I would prefer books that were written for adult readers.

>118 kayclifton: Fixing touchstone: Edith Wharton's The Children.

>118 kayclifton: Godden wrote children extremely well, so if you haven't read The river, An episode of sparrows or Thursday's children by her then I highly recommend them. I'm sure I should be able to think of some other authors too ...

I've just finished On the side of the angels, which was extremely good. I loved the attention to detail that Miller paid in her descriptions, and the subtlety of the relationships between the various characters. It's a quiet book despite being set during WWII, portraying the emotional and psychological changes that life in wartime brings - not just the expected ones relating to fear and violence but ones of identity and order.

Now I'm reading a non-Virago book by a Virago author - Four-part setting by Ann Bridge - and am thoroughly enjoying it.

>118 kayclifton: Not Virago but quite a few of Jane Gardam's books, some of her early and best ones weren't written for adults but they're not at all written down - I have A Long Way from Verona, The Summer After the Funeral and Bilgewater in grown up reprint editions, mainly because they go with my other books by her better, I have that rare thing for me of a line of books by the same author which coordinate, though I still have some books by her scattered around.

Oh Bilgewater is fanTAStic and she has quite a lot of child characters written for adults.

Just starting Company Parade by Storm Jameson. Not yet read any by her but have three tbr.

>121 elkiedee: elkiedee Thanks for the suggestions. Gardam has a long list of books and I will track he down. I had never heard of her.

I was also trying to think of some more books with children at their center and did find Frost in May a very moving story that I loved and especially since it had come from White's one life's experience.

Most coming of age stories focus on boys. The movies also. Most of the latter are written, directed and produced by men and so girl's experiences are ignored. It gets tiresome.

There's The Tin Toys Trilogy by Ursula Holden which is definitely child-centric, but not the most joyful view of childhood.

This afternoon I finished the delightful and yet very morose Moonraker by
F. Tennyson Jesse. I was surprised at how much I liked it. It is a good story and very well written.
Now I am on to Molly Keane's first novel The Knight of Cheerful Countenance which was published at about the same as Moonraker. I hope I enjoy it as much.

Wasn't Moonraker an odd and wonderful read? I really enjoyed it, too.

It was indeed Elaine. And I enjoyed the bit in the front of the book about the author along with the introduction. Moonraker was a very good reading experience.

I'm reading A little tea, a little chat, continuing in my quest to decide whether I like Christina Stead or not! As booktruffler pointed out when we met on Sunday, her characters tend to talk in huge paragraphs, in a way that very few people do in real life. They don't have conversations so much as ponitifcate at each other. But despite that, the characters and (especially) the settings feel real - flawed, a little gritty or tawdry, but alive.

I am reading my first Pat Barker, Liza's England and enjoying it. I am finding her characters quite real and very interesting. AND I like her writing style. All pluses in my book.

My Virago marathon isn't going well as all, I was bored to tears with Semi-Attached Couple and I can't find myself wanting to pick up the Little Ottleys again when I set it back down. With All passion Spent, I kept wanting to read it every chance I got. I don't know if I should push through or move on to Miss Mole. :'(

The Little Ottleys is one of my least favourite VMCs and Miss Mole, one of my favourites, so I'd say abandon the Ottleys!

I really thought I'd like Little Ottleys, as the Edwardian era is my favourite. The cover is so 101 Dalmatians-esque. Oh well. I feel like a terrible reader. 2 abandoned books in one month!

Don't feel terrible, Hannah! There are too many books out there waiting to be loved to waste on one that isn't working for you - unless of course, you're studying it for your thesis or something (:

I thought I would enjoy The Little Ottleys more than I did, as it ticked a lot of boxes and is a well written book, but that special alchemy between book and reader just wasn't there.

Miss Mole, on the other hand....

Right, this isn't a book I'm currently reading, but I think I've got confused and I know one of you will know ...

A while ago I read a Virago which was supposedly about the Labour Movement in the 1920s, and I thought I was going to love it, and I hated it. I've got it mixed up with Red Pottage I think, which isn't about that at all, is it. Help! What was it??? The first scene was in a dreary kitchen. I've gone and claimed to Fleur on her blog that I hated RP and now I don't think it was that one at all!

Someone will know, right????

Clash by Ellen Wilkinson? (which I really liked) - but if you read that you haven't listed it

>135 LyzzyBee: I know you hated Cotter's England but I'm not sure if that fits your description of the plot.

COTTER'S ENGLAND - you rule Sakerfalcon! Cotter, Pottage, easy mistake to make. DOH!

>138 LyzzyBee: Glad to have helped! Every time I see my copy on the shelf your comments on it spring to mind and I move it further down the TBR pile!

I am quite looking forward to Red pottage though.

133 - Hannah, you're allowed to hate or like whatever you want. We disagree all the time on what we prefer to read.

I finished my Agatha Christie in French and am now reading a Ken Follett in French. Whiteout. It is very generic and very easy to read, even for me with my APPALLING French :) I bought a stash of French language novels at the last library book sale.

I just completed Molly Keane's The Knight of Cheerful Countenance and what a delightful read this one was. It quite took me back my youthful days and that is always so much fun. I hated it to conclude.
I can't believe I've not read more of Keane's work.

I also finished Liza's England by Pat Barker which is totally different from the Keane work. And yet I loved it as well. It should have been a downer book buit it was not.
It's the story of a social worker who works with young downtrodden adults who do not want the help. They simply want to be left alone to go about their nasty little trouble making ways.
The physical locale is what we would have once called the projects area of town. All of the houses are being torn down to make way for 'improvements'. One elderly bed-ridden lady, our Liza, will not be moved. She is the only hold out on her street. The other homes are all boarded up or trashed and many of them have squatters. Our young social worker is given the job of encouraging Liza to go to one of the 'homes' that is for the purpose of giving the displaced persons a place to live.
He and Liza, throughout their visits, become close friends and he quickly sees beyond the poverty and filth of her home to what Liza really is & comes to respect & even love her. Much of this book is the story of Liza's life...a very difficult life. She also has a parrot which is great fun!

I read Cotter's England so long ago I can't remember it (20-25 years ago I think), and this actually makes me want to reread it, perversely. The only Christina Stead I've read relatively recently (and that was probably more than 10 years ago now, eek!) was The Man Who Loved Children, which I thought was brilliant once I got into it - I read the first few chapters over months rather than days. Though it should carry a warning that Sam (described somewhat ironically in the title) is the most loathsome character in literature.

I have finally embarked on Christa Wolf's The Quest for Christa T in honor of German Literature Month, and am actually four chapters in and enjoying it! Yay!

Well, I was going to read Golden Miles for the WWI theme read and then remembered it was second in a series and I know it probably doesn't matter but that put me off reading it. Instead I will soon start A Pin to See the Peepshow. Peeked inside and noticed a card from Karen (@kaggsy) who kindly sent me this copy. I love that!!

>144 lauralkeet: I always like to send a note! I hope you enjoy Pin - I absolutely loved it! :)

>144 lauralkeet: Pin is wonderful, I bet you love it too.

I just reviewed Company Parade here: http://heavenali.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/company-parade-storm-jameson-1934/

I just finished The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. Within pages I realized that I had read it previously. I hadn't rated nor reviewed so will get that done in the next day or so. But what a wonderful read. I was thankful that the story began 'after the fact' so there was not so much mental anguish while reading the book. I loved this one and even on a reread I didn't put it down from beginning to end except for 1 potty & water break. If you have not yet read it please do. It is a beautiful story.

I have gotten The Sin Eater from the library and read a bit about Alice Thomas Ellis so I have begun reading her illustrated memoir A Welsh Childhood before I begin the novel.

I have read a number of the novels that are in the last posts and wish that I had joined the discussions at the time.

To go back to F Tennyson Jesse, I haven't read Moonraker but most recently I read A Lacquer Lady and was fascinated. I also read her biography and her life was as interesting as her books. Each Virago novel that I read is such a unique experience. They are really treasures.

I'm really enjoying A Pin to See the Peepshow.

>149 lauralkeet::
Laura, I loved A Pin to See the Peepshow. So glad you are enjoying it.

I finished A little tea, a little chat and while I appreciated what Stead was doing and how well she did it, I can't say I really enjoyed the read. The central character is Robert Grant, a businessman who delights in extracting every last penny from a deal by whatever means necessary. He also takes this approach with his "friends" - the (mostly) equally shady men and women who cluster around him, despite having being burned and exploited by him in the past. He makes promises to people that he has no intention of keeping to get what he can out of them before betraying them in some way. You can't always feel sorry for his victims as in their own ways many of them are as shallow and grasping as Grant. But the Flacks, a father and daughter who have been associated with him for years, seem like genuinely good people who have somehow been sucked into his orbit and either can't or won't get away. What made this book a chore to read was that Stead reports great long paragraphs of people's speeches, usually Grant's, which are frequently rambling and repetitive. I understood very quickly that he spins the same lines to everyone he meets, and yaks on about his latest obsession - be it a woman, the book he plans to have someone write for him, or the missing keys to his hatbox - to anyone he can pin down. Why anyone would voluntarily spend time with this man - let alone see him as a desirable romantic catch - is beyond me. Apparently he represents the rapaciousness of American greed and materialism, and I do see that it makes a bit more sense in that light, but I feel that this book would have been a lot more effective if it were shorter.

I'm reading something very slightly wonderful. Just issued by Virago Aunt Sass Christmas Stories by P L Travers who of course wrote Mary Poppins. These are the three stories she wrote to give away privately at Christmas. I was lucky enough to win a paperback proof copy via Twitter, although the finished physical book sounds beautiful, a hardback printed on board. It's a slight volume and I just wish it was much longer.

>152 Heaven-Ali: Ali - 'slightly wonderful' - that's a high rating indeed - I ordered my copy a few days ago but it will take a while to get here. I am now looking very forward to its arrival for my Christmas reading!

Contemporary, not VMC, but I just started The Little Stranger (UK-published by Virago, though I'm reading the Riverhead Books hardcover).

Oh my! Just finished Jenny Wren by E.H. Young. It was unexpectedly lovely. I'm so glad that I also picked up the second book, The Curate's Wife, in the same bookstore expedition. :-)

>155 amysisson: I loved those two books too!

>155 amysisson:: & >156 lauralkeet::
I've not yet read the those two yet so with your recks I will really be looking forward to reading them early on next year.

>154 CurrerBell::
Mike, while it is not a VMC, if you follow the Orange/Bailey's prize books it was Orange Prize long listed in 2010. And while I love my VMC books I find that I am disappointed in fewer Persephone & Orange/Bailey listed books.
Anyway I hope you love The Little Stranger as much as I did. I've yet to read a Waters that I have not loved. And I will be awaiting your words on this one. Curious to see what you think of it & if our take on who "the little stranger" is will be the same. For many, it has been different.
Enjoy.....

155: I loved Jenny Wren and liked The Curate's Wife a lot. The characters stayed with me as if they were old friends for a long time after reading.

154, 157: I went to see Sarah Waters recently at a local literature festival. She talked about how she liked to make the voice in her books authentic to the time period and how she was influenced by authors such as Mollie Panter-Downes and Elizabeth Taylor, and she mentioned that she was a fan of Virago Modern Classics.

When she signed my newly purchased copy of The Paying Guests, I talked to her about The Little Stranger which I loved and told her I thought the ending was perfect. She said that was good to hear, as of of all her novels, that had generated the most difference of opinion, particularly regarding the end. I think her writing has become more sophisticated and her more recent books could disappoint those looking for a straight forward page turner. The Paying Guests turned out to be a more uncomfortable read than I expected, with my feelings towards the two women protags oscillating wildly towards the end. Waters doesn't quite give us an unreliable narrator but the narrator turns out not to be as reliably sympathetic as would feel safe and cosy.

>158 Soupdragon: Dee, have you read A Pin to See the Peepshow? I just finished it over the weekend, and was prompted to read it because of this Guardian piece where Waters credited it as inspiration for The Paying Guests. It was a good book and, having read the Waters, it was fun to compare and contrast.

Spoiler alert: the article contains massive spoilers for Pin.

159: Laura, I haven't read A Pin but hope to get to it before too long. I have read that article and it made me expect a different outcome from The Paying Guests than the one we get. The friend who I went to see Waters with, decided not to buy or read The Paying Guests because she predicted that same outcome.

*whispers* does anyone have any DE Stevenson Kindle books they can email the file to me? I just got my Kindle and I'm trying to build my library, but they want 10 dollar each Buncle book. :( There's so many books I want on my Kindle that I just don't have moneyz for!

Kindle doesn't allow sharing; it has systems in place to prevent it. You can get loans from libraries of e-books, though. www.manybooks.net is a good source for free e-books including in Kindle format.

>161 toast_and_tea: Be sure to sign up for the daily deals. I got my first two Buncle books as daily or monthly deals - probably $3 or less. I'm still waiting for the 3rd to hit the deals, but if your library has a good selection, it is a great way to get free books. You can also get many of "the works of" for free or very cheap.

Quite a lot of the older VMC authors are coming out of copyright and there will be free/cheap editions of their work available, as it's 70 years or more since their death, eg E M Delafield, quite recently.

Finally got my review of The Quest for Christa T up:

http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/german-literature-month-...

I'm really pleased to have finally read a Christa Wolf - and loved it! :)

>165 kaggsy::
Karen, I am so happy that you loved it. I have it waiting in the wings.

I am just getting into The Grain of Truth by Nina Bawden and am enjoying it. I have quite a few by her but have not read many so thought that might be a good choice for me at this troubling time. I think I chose well.

Last night I started The Well of Loneliness which I have never read. Enjoying it very much so far.

Oooh, how odd Ali - I've been thinking about reading that (as has Youngest Child!)

>167 Heaven-Ali:, >168 kaggsy: oh, that's a very good book. Not a light read, but very well written.

>167 Heaven-Ali:: >168 kaggsy:: >169 lauralkeet::
I loved The Well of Loneliness when I read it. It is a book that I very much appreciate having been written and am with Laura in that it is so well written. I found it very interesting as well and once having begun it, did not want to put it down. I may be due for a reread in the next year or two.

I just finished Well of Loneliness a few weeks ago. Very thought-provoking. I couldn't help thinking that Stephen was more a transsexual than a lesbian.

>171 Liz1564::
I remember thinking that very thing when I read it Elaine. I also found Stephen to be a much more sympathetic character than I had expected. I loved Hall's writing.

>171 Liz1564: Agree on Stephen's transsexuality, at least as far as I remember (and I read The Well of Loneliness a great many years ago). But I've heard others state just as emphatically that TWoL seems to be more a "lesbian" than a "transgender" novel. ETA: But bear in mind that TWoL was written in 1928 (or thereabouts) and such concepts probably weren't very distinct from one another but rather blended in the "invert" category.

Anyway, I think I'm going to get started on My Career Goes Bung, but I'll be reading it in the Kindle edition. I'm tending to read at least a couple books at a time, one in treeware (and I'm just starting Carolyn Chute's new-but-not-Virago Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves) and another on Kindle, so I'll be flipping back and forth between those two. I just recently finished My Brilliant Career on Kindle and I really liked Miles Franklin's use of narrative voice.

I am continuing my project of reading books about young children. I have just finished The Fountain Overflows by
Rebecca West. It was a reread and more delightful than the first time. It was a wonderfully whimsical book. There was a nice mix of humor and sadness. It was a view of a family from the perspective of one of the daughters.

When I finished it last night I immediately picked up the second book in the trilogy This Real Night. I couldn't believe the difference between the two works. I abandoned the second book after reading a few pages. I even scanned the rest of the book to see if there were any changes but no luck.

I intend to read Cousin Rosamund the final volume of the trilogy. In the meantime I've chosen The Beth Book by
Sarah Grand and hope that I'll enjoy it.

I have just completed The Grain of Truth by Nina Bawden which I thought fair and moved on to Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles which I loved. I enjoyed all of the quirky escapades of the characters and was seriously surprised when no Cheshire Cat popped out at me. I found it to be a very fun read.
I followed those two Virago by two Persephone: The Victorian Chaise-Longue which is a bit creepy.......well, let's face it.......a lot creepy but strangely I loved it and I am now reading Flush by Virginia Woolf and quite enjoying it.

Amazing! I'm reading a very short VMC in order to make 75 by the end of the year. I chose Penelope Mortimer's My Friend Says It's Bullet Proof. What a marvelous little book! The subject matter is not fun and games, but the writing is absolutely glorious. WHY had I never read it or heard of this woman???

Peg, I read that book serialized in a magazine when it first came out. I then went on to read several more by her. She was married for years to John Mortimer who wrote the Rumpole books.

>177 romain: The inspiration for "She who must be obeyed" maybe??

>176 LizzieD: I read The Pumpkin Eater (not a VMC), and similarly the subject matter is not fun and games. But it was good.

I have finished reading The Beth Book by Sarah Grand and found it a mixed bag. The first half was good because it depicted the trials and tribulations of an independent young woman in the nineteenth century. However, the second half was short on plot and long on polemics (is that the right word?). Grand purports to be supporting women's rights yet turns her heroine into a doormat in her marital relationship.

I've begun reading The Danger Tree by Olivia Manning. I think that it's part of one of her trilogies but can't figure out which. The background is WWII and I rarely read books whose background is war.

The Danger Tree is the first book in the second Fortunes of War trilogy, The Levant Trilogy, or the 4th book in that series.

Re: the wonderful Pin to see the Peepshow; I also read Jill Dawson's Fred and Edie, which also covered the Thompson & Bywaters case.

Christmas is a difficult time to settle on books. There are all the books one has bought over the year and not got round to reading, all the books one has bought oneself in the heat of Christmas shopping when one has inevitably been in bookshops shopping for others, and then there are the books that one is given for Christmas. This year I have been given two VMCs, both by Angela Thirkell, and both anchored around Christmas, so tomorrow I shall start reading High Rising with a view to following up with Christmas At High Rising. As I have a number of days off it should be simple to achieve this, but there are many other things to be done as well (not least posting those outstanding reviews).

183:
That is what I have been attempting this A.M. O. Catching up on my reviews. It is so easy to get behind and then one dreads the playing catch up. I also have several E/R or ARC books to read AND review. But that will have to wait until February. Orange January comes first. **SQUEEEE**

I read Hunt the slipper just before Christmas; a very quick read with a satirical edge, yet not as substantial a book as, say, E. F. Benson's work.

I spent yesterday recovering from another round of family visiting (fun but tiring) curled up on the sofa with Rumer Godden's Thursday's Children which was lovely.

>186 souloftherose::
Rumer Godden is an author with whom I continue to fall deeper & deeper in love. Nice to know that when I get to Thursday's Children nothing will change that. She writes the most charming of books.

I'm reading Strangers by Antonia White which I realised was the only book from my lovely 2013 VSS parcel from Jane that I hadn't read yet Proof if any were needed that my tbr is out of control.

>188 Heaven-Ali: With you on that one :) I have just filled three *large* boxes to go to the charity shop and I think I will have some books to offer here. At least that way the floorboards should stay intact..... :))))

Just started Frost in May from my VSS. White really has a way with a small girl's perspective. I'm really enjoying it.

>190 SassyLassy::
Sassy; I enjoyed the entire Frost in May quartet. And I quite agree with you in that White indeed does have a way with a young girl's outlook.

>189 kaggsy::
Good luck with that Karen. It would be terrible if your books moved you down a floor. **giggling at the thought**

>191 rainpebble: You jest, Belva, but they're all upstairs in the spare room. I have visions of them all landing on OH in the lounge downstairs while he watches movies late one evening... :s

OMG Karen - that's funny. It would be in The Sun - Hobby kills Hubby.

:)))) (I don't think I better mention the possibility to him......)

Ha ha ha; this just continues to become more & more funny. "Hobby kills Hubby" LOL!~!

I am now doing a reread of White's Frost in May series. I began with The Lost Traveller and like it even more than my first read of it.I couldn't begin with Frost in May because I found it so sad when I first read it.

Nanda/Clara's parents are both so self-centered especially the father. I think that White's own father was the model for the character.

Is Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Godden a Virago? I'm reading it on my Nook and enjoying it. The descriptions of convent life are beautiful, if idealized.

>197 Liz1564: Yes, it is now. And two new ones and a paperback of The River are coming next month.

I've just finished Antonia White's Frost in May and thought it was superb. The ending really knocked me sideways emotionally (even though I knew what was coming). Can't believe it's taken me so long to read this one.

>196 kayclifton: I'm hoping to read The Lost Traveller soon as I enjoyed Frost in May so much but FiM is very sad.

I'm also reading Elizabeth Taylor's Complete Short Stories (thanks to my VSS Ali!). I fell in love with ET when we did the anniversary read a few years ago. Since then I've been a bit nervous about returning to her books, worrying that I'd remembered her writing as being better than it was and might be disappointed. I needn't have worried, I'm loving each of these stories (and I wouldn't really describe myself as a short story reader).

Ooh the Taylor short stories are wonderful, aren't they!

>199 souloftherose:: & >200 LyzzyBee::
Heather & Liz; No matter how many times I reread Taylor, her books always feel new & fresh to me. And even though they are of a different time period they somehow seem timeless. I can't wait for my reread of Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont for new our theme read.

Well, so far so good with my New Year's Resolution to review VMCs. I just posted reviews of Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Godden and Afternoon of a Good Woman by Bawden both of which I enjoyed immensely.

I am now half way through Ruffian on the Stair by Bawden.

I'm about halfway through Thank Heaven Fasting, which the lovely Dee (@soupdragon) gave me for Secret Santa. It's quite enjoyable, written by the author of the Provincial Lady books but a little more serious while still poking fun at the "system" of young women coming out in society to find husbands.

>202 Liz1564: Well, I would encourage you to continue with your reviewing resolution because I thought those were excellent reviews and now want to read both books (happily thanks to my VSS I already have Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy).

>203 lauralkeet: Laura, I've wanted to try more of E. M. Delafield's fiction but Consequences was so bleak that I think it put me off a little bit (a good book but I don't think one single good thing happens to the main character).

>204 souloftherose::
Heather, I loved Consequences but I think my persona & makeup draws me to a darker side for I often enjoy books that most of our friends here do not. The two good things that I can recall offhand happening to the protagonist are the meeting of her future husband and the birth of their lovely child. I will agree that the book held a lot of sadness.
What is it they say? Different strokes..............?

>205 rainpebble: Sorry Belva, I touchstone the wrong book. I really liked Penelope Lively's Consequences which, as you say, is sad but not necessarily bleak. I meant to touchstone E. M. Delafield's Consequences which is a Persephone and really good but I found it to be very bleak (no marriage, no child - the main character fails to get married and becomes a nun but it doesn't work out). A good depiction of how restricted and difficult a woman's life could be at that time (early 20th cent) and very good at evoking that feeling of not fitting in. Strangely I did enjoy it but it's made me hesitate a little in trying Delafield's other fiction as I tend to need fairly long gaps between books like that.

Well, now I must go and check that one out Heather. lol!~!
And I can understand needing gaps between particular books. I love war books, both fiction & nonfiction. But often my brain becomes overloaded and I must take a break as in our Theme Read of the Great War last year. I managed up until about October and then needed a break but I am going back to it this year perhaps just one every couple of months. I still have many that I wish to read. Also books with any kind of animal cruelty really nail me.
I do hear wonderful things about Delafield but I don't think I have read her yet though I have several by her.

I'm now closing in on the end of Delafield's Thank Heaven Fasting. While she does poke fun -- or maybe satirize is a better word -- it's gone in a direction that is more poignant than I expected. In the first part of the book our heroine's society debut is being actively managed by her mother who is very particular about nearly everything, and I found it somewhat amusing. But what unfolds from there is not. It's a very good book but don't expect the Provincial Lady.

I have just begun Never No More for the Group Theme Read: Childhood.
It looks to be rather marvelous!

I have just finished Thirkell's Wild Strawberries and thought it was hilarious. Lady Emily Leslie and her foibles is an exaggerated version of the way that so many clueless people behave including myself. I am beginning a reread of The Sugar House and hope I like it as much as the first reading.

> 209 rainpebble I am putting Never No More on my to be read list. Coming of age books are some of my favorites.

I just discovered that the Sony film company has acquired the rights to Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth so it will soon be showing in North America.

I'm sure that they chose it because it has a war theme. Hollywood loves war movies.

In spite of that I hope that it gets good reviews as it might promote some interest in VMC's.

I've seen the trailer Kay and hope to catch up with it when it's released.

I finished Never no more this weekend; what a lovely book. Rural Ireland in the 1920s is vividly evoked and suffused with the love of the author for her childhood home. According to the introduction, the book tells of the childhood she wished she'd had rather than the one she actually did, yet I'm sure a lot of the details must have been taken from life. I'm not surprised to learn that she was most famous for her cookbooks, as her descriptions of food and its preparation are enough to make one's mouth water. I thought the book succeeded very well in achieving a balance between nostalgia and the darker side of life in an economically deprived area, never becoming too sentimental or too grim. Wonderful.

>213 Sakerfalcon::
Claire, I am so glad you enjoyed it so much. I did as well.

I am reading a challenging book by a South American author, and getting the feeling my reading momentum is getting bogged down, so I turned to Linda Grant's The Clothes on Their Backs, a complete change of pace. It is certainly doing the trick.

A Virago author - Gertrude Bell though not a Virago edition - my review of the new collection Tales from the Queen of the Desert here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/shifting-sands-and-shif...

>216 kaggsy: thanks for sharing your review. I have wondered, myself, why we haven't seen more of Bell's writing in this time of so much conflict in the areas that she knew so intimately and about which she held such clear political opinions.

>217 outrageoussocks: Her thoughts do seem to be very relevant, and reading her bio online it seems she had quite a lot of political influence and input too. Sadly, the book comes out because there is going to be a film of her life starring Nicole Kidman - I suspect the focus will be on a mushy love story rather than her life's achievements.... :(

>218 kaggsy: I hear ya, sister!

Just started reading: The Edwardians by Vita Sackville West which I believe a certain Lyzzybee is reading at the moment too.

This week I have been down with a cold & a sore throat. So I got caught up on some of my Virago non-fiction. I read: Gather Together in My Name, All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes, A Song Flung Up to Heaven, Singin' & Swingin' & Gettin' Merry Like Like Christmas, Letter to My Daughter, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings & The Heart of a Woman. I do enjoy Angelou's writing & find it beautiful.
Now I am passing them on to my 48 year old nephew as he finds her a real inspiration whereas I read her mainly for the beauty of her prose.

I just finished a non fiction book published by Virago last year, Hand to Mouth by Linda Tirado, an account of what getting by on low paid and insecure jobs and the ways of living hand to mouth actually mean, part memoir, part essay, part rant.

I need to see if my library has this one. It sounds quite good. There are a couple of good reviews up on the book page.

I'm reading The sugar house, and enjoying the theatrical scenes, while wanting to shake Clara out of her infatuation with awful smug Stephen!

I recently finished Black Narcissus and enjoyed it although I was initially distracted by how different it felt to Godden's later books. I have some more of her early India novels to read.

>224 Sakerfalcon: Good ole Stephen, who thinks Brandon stole Wuthering Heights from Emily! Incidentally, though I haven't read Cold Comfort Farm, I think that's where White got the bit about Brandon stealing Wuthering Heights from Emily (unless Gibbons got it from someone else herself).

>225 souloftherose: And I owe the movie a rewatch -- one of Deborah Kerr's many Oscar-worthy performances.

>225 souloftherose:; & >227 CurrerBell::
I just got it from the library & plan to watch it this weekend. With Ms Kerr, it has to be good.

>228 rainpebble: Oh I didn't think to see if the library had a copy of the film - must check!

>226 CurrerBell: Sadly, I think it was a serious theory among some critics, not something Gibbons had to invent :-( A quick google brings up an article that says the claim was first made 20 years after the novel was published.

>230 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for the tip. A bit of Bronteana I wasn't aware of.

>226 CurrerBell: Don't you mean the other way round? And the Bronte brother was Branwell, not Brandon.

After finishing the lovely but depressing The sugar house, I'm trying the lighter fare of Angela Thirkell's High Rising. It'll be the first of her Barsetshire novels that I've read.

I just reviewed The Edwardians which I really enjoyed.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/the-edwardians-vita-sackville-west-19...

>232 elkiedee: Ugh. Thanks! The end of February was not a good couple weeks for me. (I was "homeless," staying with some friends for a week or more, until I could get a contractor in to install a new furnace after my half-century-old furnace gave up its last hurrah on maybe the coldest day of this Philadelphia winter.)

eeek, I hope you're back home and warm now.

>236 elkiedee: I'm home and toasty but staying in the house to avoid catching a cold that could get into my lungs. I've been hospitalized three times since October with COPD, my cardiologist is now concerned about atrial fibrillation (I had a near-fatal heart attack in 2011), and I'm on two new expensive medications (Symbicort for lungs and Eliquis as a blood thinner to prevent stroke) with inadequate pharmacy insurance.

Not that I'm complaining, because I've got platinum-plus medical and hospitalization fully paid as a retirement benefit, and my doctors have been generous so far with free samples of those two drugs. It's just that I'm planning to hibernate for a while, at least until I get the new furnace paid off and see how my pharmacy costs go. I've still got a year-and-a-half to got before I hit Medicare and get Part D drug coverage.

So, for my obsessive-compulsive relief, I'm cataloging and boxing rather than buying. At least I'll have a complete list of Viragos for August.

Seriously, though, there's nothing that much to complain about. I had a place to stay with some friends and folks at my church would also have been quite helpful if I'd needed anything. And if my cardiologist can get the a-fib under control then he can get me off the Eliquis (which you take to avoid clotting of blood that can pool in the heart during a-fib and lead to a stroke).

>237 CurrerBell::
Mike, I am so sorry to hear that you have have had these problems. What a horrific time for you furnace to go out. So glad that you are warm & toasty again and how wonderful that you have such a nice group of friends and an awesome church family. You are truly blessed amidst your trials.
I will be thinking good thoughts & praying for you.
love,
belva

Me too Mike. I've had to replace my furnace in the middle of winter as well. Not recommended! Getting older is fun at times and tough at times. I also have a year and a half to go before all that Medicare stuff kicks in.

I just finished reading Mr Fortune' s Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner which I started off just liking but ended up rather loving so it gets four stars.

>240 Heaven-Ali: I loved it too, which I didn't expect to!

Me too. Lovely book!

I have now reviewed Mr Fortune' s Maggot

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/mr-fortunes-maggot-sylvia-townsend-wa...

I'm slowwwwly reading Grace Paley's The Little Disturbances of Man. A couple of weeks ago, I read this review in the New York Times, of Elisa Albert's After Birth. I was intrigued, and the review mentioned Grace Paley, which this made me want to read Paley first:

Albert has inherited the house Grace Paley built, with its narrow doorways just wide enough for wit and tragedy and blistering, exasperated love. And no one is better suited to manage that ­estate, to keep it unapologetically going, to keep its rooms of inquiry open. Paley found the seam where the important and the madcap are stitched together on the ­underside of life, and here is Albert working that same territory. Her Ari is bold enough to put motherhood up on a pedestal because its sanctity is as undeniable as it is dangerous. But she also wants to be sure you know the pedestal is made of ­excrement and tears and vomit and breast milk and the very selves of a billion unknown women.

I am reading Good Behavior (although not all of it is) by Molly Keane. I chose this one from englishrose60's library.

>245 rainpebble: I loved that book!

I've just started reading Breakfast with the Nikolides by Rumer Godden.

>246 lauralkeet::
I loved it too. I thought that it ended with such grace and style.

>247 elkiedee::
I have read several Rumer Goddens this year and I so love her writing. I've not yet read this one. Hope you love it.

Mike, I'm glad to read that you're taking care of yourself but sorry to hear about the a-fib complication.

This morning I picked up Angela Thirkell's August Folly, which I may end up spending a large part of today with. Just what I am in the mood for.

I read two Viragos last month - the first in a long time! - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. I enjoyed them both very much. I'm going to make more of a dent in them this year.

One Virago and one non-Virago (so I'm posting this in both threads) with The Edwardians and To Let just reviewed (and two more off my Reading A Century Project!) https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/book-reviews-the-edwardians-and-t...

My review of August Folly is on my blog.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/03/19/august-folly-angela-thirkell-1936/

I've taken another VMC off the shelf now too and plan on starting it later, Four Frightened People by E Arnot Robertson

Chortle....

I must add my own evil laughter!

{*mwah-ha-ha!*}

I'm interested to hear what Ali thinks, bearing in mind the views expressed on this site about *that* book! :)

I hadnt realised there were such views on it - now I am intrigued - read 50 pages last night and liked what I read.

I deliberately didn't comment so as not to unsettle dear Ali... :))))

It is an interesting book guaranteed to elicit a strong reaction and some lively debate!

(How's that?)

>255 Liz1564: >256 lyzard: >259 romain:
Just passed p200 mark and I don't hate it yet. I sometimes rather like unlikable characters.

>261 Heaven-Ali:

Well, you've come to the right place for that! :D

Some of you may recall that a while back I announced a "Virago chronological reading project", wherein Heather and I are working through the Viragos in order of original publication date. We made a belated start with Love-Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister late last year, and next month we will be tackling Sarah Scott's A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent - anyone who would like to join us would be more than welcome!

Just finished Sights Unseen (VMC 439). Wonderful book, will be looking out for more by this author, who is new to me.

Ok you're all going to think me mad but I enjoyed Four Frightened People. It has uncomfortable moments and unlikeable characters but overall it really engaged me. A four star book a anyway.

Hi I'm Lee and am new here!
I am currently trying to fit in a VMC a month along with penguin classics and penguin modern classics.
My favourite VMC authors so far are Barbara Comyns
And Antonia Frost.
I've just started The True Heart and even though I'm only 10 pages in I know I'm going to love it

Re earlier postings on over the frontier

I absolutely loved the prequel - novel on yellow paper - but like you couldn't finish Over the Frontier - one of the worse books I've tried to read in a while.
The author said she was attempting an experiment which didn't quite come off!

Hello there, and welcome to the group!

So glad you're enjoying your VMCs and one a month is a good way to read them. There are so many wonderful authors to discover! :)

I've got The Enchanted April and Lady Oracle queued up for April.

I have begun the thread for the group read of Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall - it is here. Anyone who cares to join in will be more than welcome! (Hey, it's a short book - you can squeeze it in this month, right?)

I'm just reading Hunt the Slipper - very cool and elegant.
I wish I were reading Millenium Hall, but I want it in a Virago edition, so I'm not going to get anything else. So there.

I liked Hunt the Slipper -- glad you are enjoying it.

I am going through a period of alternating VMC rereads with books that are new to me, some VMC's, some not. I recently read Sin by Josephine Hart and it was one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. Damage is another of her works and it was made into a film and judging from the little that I read in the film review it will also be disturbing. I need to take time to decide whether I'll risk it. Has anyone else read either of these works?

I didn't like Sin much and have Damage because I buy all secondhand VMCs given the opportunity, but haven't read it.

Sin was a 2 star read for me while Damage was a 3 1/2 star read. I reviewed them but didn't go back to see why I liked the one more than the other. I have passed both of them on to other readers so obviously neither made a great mark on my mind.

edited to say: I just went back and read my reviews on them and suddenly it all becomes clear.............

I read Damage, when it was first published in the early 90s and a lot of fuss was being made of it. I found it quite interesting and readable but couldn't understand why all the hype. ( I must have been too young and naive to really understand about marketing!)

I read Sin a few years ago, when I was given a free copy through the short lived Virago book club, and pretty much hated everything about it.

I read Damage years ago and hated it. One does not DO that to one's children unless one is a despicable human being!!! :)

But you must admit that despicable human beings sometimes make for great novel characters. While I am not defending those kretins, without a bit of despicable, you pretty much have milktoast Barbara.

You're absolutely right, Belva :) We all love to hate bad characters. But this was more - 'The heart wants what it wants', which reminds me that the book came out at much the same time Woody Allen was running off with his stepdaughter. So that may be the reason I hated it. I remember also that I read it the year after I had my son. This was a time when my reaction to everything was filtered through raging hormones and mother love, because I can still recall being horrified by what he did to his son.

Just rooted through my desk for my reading journal from that year to see what I wrote. I say 'Absolute rubbish. Crap!' but my main feeling was that a 'ghastly 50 year old man destroyed his whole family for a woman who was essentially worthless'.

>279 romain::
I find in my reading life there are times when I can handle a particular book which I find unendurable at other times. So I totally get what you are saying and where you are coming from Barbara. I can also understand the intensive maternal instincts you would have had at that time.
And don't you love to go back and see how you received or reacted to a book you read so long ago? Sometimes I surprise myself when, upon a reread, I love or hate a book that I felt the complete opposite of when I originally read it.
Diversity.................ya gotta love it.

I just read The Comforters by Muriel Spark which was very enjoyable and unexpectedly science-fictionish, but was disappointed by the obvious lack of proof-reading before publication as the text is scattered with hard hyphens that are very distracting and eventually downright annoying (typeset by M Rules).

I don't often post here but I've just noticed that In Diamond Square: Virago Modern Classic (by Merce Rodoreda is a VMC thanks to the Add Books feature - actually reading it as part of the Iberian challenge over at reading globally, so nice to be doing both at once with one book! (The touchstone doesn't seem to be working, or it was translated with a different title previously?) Enjoying it very much, either way.

>282 charl08::
charl08; I think the other title is: The Time of the Doves. I am not familiar with the book nor the author however. So glad you are enjoying it and nice to see you posting though lurking is always encouraged here. :-)

Just started Elizabeth von Arnim's The Solitary Summer, a followup to Elizabeth and Her German Garden which I read two years ago. Right now I can fully empathize with her desire for peace and quiet, but the book is more than just that; so far it is a delightful look at a time gone by.

Just started A Sea-Grape Tree by Rosamond Lehmann

I'm reading Rebecca for the first time.

Oooooh lucky you!

I am sorry to be so out of the loop. I never got to read some of the interesting comments about Josephine Hart and was glad that it had started a discussion. I am still uncertain about reading Damage but have found that Josephine Hart wrote a number of other books that I have found on the shelves of my local public library and so may give her another go.

One of the interesting things about her was that she had a very tragic childhood. Her Guardian obituary said that by the age of 17 she had witnessed the death of three of her siblings. That makes it all the more interesting that in Sin the young woman is consumed by hatred toward her stepsister.

One of my projects is to read as many of the biographies of the writers as I can. Every one that I have read is fascinating and my respect for their achievement grows.

I am currently reading Edith Wharton's Old New York, which is really 3 novellas in a single volume.

>289 lauralkeet::
Laura, I loved Old New York when I read it a number of years ago. I hope to revisit it one day. I think I have loved everything I have ever read by Edith Wharton. Enjoy.

I reviewed A Sea-Grape Tree by Rosamond Lehmann.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/a-sea-grape-tree-rosamond-lehmann-197...

I didn't realize it right off but I am reading a Virago - 1992 edition of Angela Carter's shorter non-fiction writing Nothing Sacred (Selected Writings). The spine is green with the logo, but the front cover wouldn't give much clue unless you look at the upper righthand side..... I'll be right back with the cover.

>287 romain: It was great! Don't know why it took me so long to read it!

Just finished Mary Benson's At the Still Point. A courageous woman in real life and in the novel, who went back to South Africa in the 1960s to report on the political trials.

Just starting Summer will Show only read a few pages but I have a very good feeling about it.

Let me know how that goes Ali. I've had it on my list for-ever!

I'm continuing my Virago rereads alternating with books that are new to me. I am now reading Elizabeth Taylor's In a Summer Season. Previously I read The Sleeping Beauty and
A View of the Harbor. I am enjoying them more than with my first reading. There is something in her work that's hard to pinpoint in terms of its quality as her books are low key with nothing of any major dramatic nature happening.

I'm taking Miss Mole with me to read while I'm on holiday in Scotland this week.

>298 Sakerfalcon: Good choice Claire, I loved Miss Mole.

>297 kayclifton::
Kay, I feel the very same about the works of Elizabeth Taylor. And they do get even better with each read. I am happy you are enjoying your rereads.

Today I have begun the Virago Fiction Letters from Constance by Mary Hocking to complete my reading for Mary Hocking Reading Week which is being hosted by HeavenAli on her blog:

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/mary-hocking-reading-week-1st-7th-jun...

I have just reviewed Summer will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/summer-will-show-sylvia-townsend-warn...

Toward the end of last motnh I read Circles of Deceit by Nin Bawden - I really enjoyed it.

Then finished my June reading with Elizabeth and her German Garden which I really should have read before now. Our own lovely Karen sent me the copy I read, naturally I really enjoyed it, there is something about the voice of EVA that is just so special.

:) I love von Arnim - The Solitary Summer is great too, and so is Mr. Skeffington. Note to self - must read more von Armim!

I recently finished Miss Mole and loved it. I'm looking forward to more by E.H. Young.

I've read most if not all of Young's VMCs. She's a wonderful author.Miss Mole is delightful!

One Virago and one non-Virago here! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/book-reviews-no-word-from-winifre... - if anyone likes crime novels, I recommend No Word from Winifred!

I've just reread Cassandra at the wedding, which I enjoyed just as much this time around. I must have read it first after having my wisdom teeth out, as I found the piece of paper with aftercare instructions on it in the book!

>Saker Falcon

I also have just reread Cassandra at the Wedding and liked it even better the second time. It has a poignant quality to it and it is rare to read a book about the relationship between twin sisters especially ones who care about each other so much. I wonder if anyone has read anything else which features twins as characters?

>308 kayclifton: I just got finished a reread of The Spell, part of Charlotte Brontë's Angrian juvenilia, so that jumps right to my mind for "twins as characters" (though they're brothers, not sisters). None of the Brontë juvenilia is Virago, though.

ETA: Getting to be an awfully slow load, so I continued to Part XVIII.

In a Summer Season Elizabeth Taylor

Blaming Elizabeth Taylor