What Books by Women Are You Reading: JUNE 2009

I'm reading Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.

And I'm reading another Elizabeth Gaskell novel, Wives and Daughters.

That is so weird, I'd been thinking about Gaskell recently--I read North and South last year, and am contemplating picking up Mary Barton.

I am reading Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, a memoir by Rhoda Janzen that is coming out this October. I'm loving it so far--Janzen's voice is sharp, observant, and funny, and her mother sounds hilarious and awesome.

SaraHope, the Monthly Author Reads group is reading Gaskell this month. That's what inspired teelgee and me. There are others reading Mary Barton, I believe. Come join us!

Aha! That explains it. I'd wondered if it was one of those 'women who spend too much time together start having synchronized reading cycles' things . . .

LOL!!!!

#5 SaraHope - Too Funny!!!!

On the reading front, I am starting Reading by Lightning by Joan Thomas.

I just finished Rachel Shabi's We look like the enemy : the hidden story of Israel's Jews from Arab lands and have just started An Arabian mosaic : short stories by Arab women writers

(Edited to fix touchstones.)

#5> Too brilliant, almost made me laugh tea out of my nose!

I've just finished Rebecca (and found the essay at the end of the book quite interesting, I knew nothing about Du Maurier and it was fascinating the parallels between her and the two Mrs de Winters). It was a re-read, and a great book to revisit.

And I'm still reading Silas Marner (I seem unable to read George Eliot quickly!) and Cold Comfort Farm whose gothic parody is quite hysterical after the real gothicky goodness of Rebecca! (Surely Seth will run out of buttons to undo sometime soon?)

>5 SaraHope:: if I'd been drinking tea, I would have snorted as well! Good one, SaraHope.

Antonia White's The Lost Traveler.

As for Gaskell, I've already read Cranford, North and South, Mary Barton, The Life of Charlotte Bronte, and a number of her shorter works. I started on Wives and Daughters but got distracted by something else, so I've have to get back to it sometime, and I do want to read Jenny Uglow's biography.

>11 CurrerBell:: I really enjoyed The Lost Traveller, even more than Frost in May.

12> I love Frost in May dearly, probably more than The Lost Traveller (though I'm only about two-thirds through it so far), but I think The Lost Traveller may be a better written book, with a better designed episodic structure.

Doh, I forgot it was June... I'll repost from the end of the May thread. Thanks for waking me up Laura.

I'm reading Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie and enjoying it. I mooched it because I'd seen it mentioned on here, but now I can't remember where! Someone else mentioned in a review that the cover's like a Mills & Boon one and it put me off the book for a few weeks.

#13 CurrerBell I loved both of those books and have the next 2 waiting to read.

This month I'm reading Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Sugar Queen .

I finished Rhoda Janzen's memoir, which I liked very well. I've now moved onto Tied to the Tracks by Rosina Lippi, as I've been in the mood for something lighter and fun.

Tomorrow I'm taking a trip to the bookstore tomorrow to go to a signing by YA author Libba Bray, for The Sweet Far Thing. While I'm there I'll probably pick up a couple other books, like Sugar Queen and maybe The Glass Blower of Murano. I'll try not to go overboard, but bookstores are filled with such temptations!

I just finished Cranford and now moving forward a couple of centuries, picking up The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey, short listed for this year's Orange prize.

Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones; an undercover expose of the fashion industry written as pseudo-fiction, Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block; the latest in the Weetzie Bat series and Necking by Chris Salvatore; vampire fiction that caught my eye at the library.

I finished Thirst, a collection of poetry by Mary Oliver this evening.

Also, like some others here, I'm reading an Elizabeth Gaskell--Wives and Daughters.

I've just started The Bell by Iris Murdoch for book group. I'm not enjoying it.

>20 charbutton:: Murdoch can be difficult, char. Have you read any of her other work? I haven't read The Bell but have enjoyed some others; namely A Severed Head and An Accidental Man.

I've read a few - The Sea, the sea, The Green Knight, The Philospher's Pupil and A Word Child. I think the philosophical points go right over my head, and I sometimes feel like I'm just reading a more intellectual version of the Archers. Lots of middle-class angst that I'm not that interested in. I will try and curtail my inverse snobbery and give it a chance.

Also, I've just spent the past month only reading books about Africa or by African writers and I think I'm suffering from culture shock after my arrival in the English countryside!

(ETA: for non-Brits and non-Anglophiles, the Archers is a long-running radio soap set in a fictional English village. It is described as 'an everyday tale of country folk'. The Archers are the middle-class, farming-based, land-owning family around whom much of the action is based)

Soon to finish Margaret Fuller: An American Romantic Life, The Private Years and will probably soon begin part two, The Public Years, which has just been published.

After a busy week I finally started to read Reading by Lightning by Joan Thomas yesterday. It didn't grab me at first, in fact after the first two chapters I was toying with the idea of abandoning the book. I stuck with it and I am now 150 pages in and finding the story is flowing better so I will stick with it for now.

Just recently finished The Lost Traveller (see #11) and I'm finishing up (on my Kindle) Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population.

By a woman (but about a man): I've just started Nature's Engraver, Jenny Uglow's biography of Thomas Bewick. (Uglow, incidentally, also wrote biographies of both Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot.) My interest in Bewick is that it was his History of British Birds (vol ii, "Water Birds") that the ten-year-old Jane Eyre was reading while hiding behind the curtain on that window seat at her Aunt Reed's house.

I'm nearing the end of The Wilderness and will be leaving the world of women writers for a little while as I'm reading Wilkie Collins The Woman in White next for a group read. But I'll be back! Orange July awaits!

OK, I lied in #26. I picked up The Monsters of Templeton from the library today and made the mistake of opening it. So I'll be reading that one for a few days.

After being sucked back into the vortex of male writers, I've made my way out again and am reading Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson.

Wow, that's quite a re-entry! Hope you don't get the bends!

28> Winterson, incidentally, also wrote the screenplay for the 1990 miniseries, which has particularly outstanding performances from Geraldine McEwan and the late Charlotte Coleman. It's pretty readily available on DVD with a total running time of a little under three hours (three nights @ 55 min/night), so it can be watched in one sitting.

I'll look out for it--thanks, CurrerBell.

Just finished rereading The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (spectacular!), am still dipping into the Ali Smith short fiction.

I picked up yet another small anthology of short stories and will start on it presently -- Stories by Iranian Women Since the Revolution.

My Early Reviewer selection is by a woman and quite well done; it's Betsy Brevitz's Complete Healthy Dog Handbook. Now to get that review written.

And I'm slogging through my Amazon Vine review book - Kate Christensen's Trouble. (Doesn't seem to be loaded in yet.)

>34 dianaleez: I just got that from the library because we're getting a puppy in a few weeks. It scared me! all the things that can go wrong!!!

Finished Reading by Lightning by Joan Thomas. The book did improve as I worked my way through it. I then dove back into comfort reading, which in this case Grave Goods, Ariana Franklin's third book in her Mistress of the Art of Death series... I loved all three books and hope Franklin is already planning a fourth!

Next up is The Disappeared by Kim Echlin.

I'm reading The Robber Bride for the group read that's about to start over at the Atwoodian group. Come join us!

I just finished The Sugar Queen, which I adored--I'd forgotten how much Sarah Addison Allen can make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, as it's been a long time since I read Garden Spells.

I finished Wives and Daughters today ... at long last. And I really, really enjoyed it. I have some male-authored books on tap next but will be back!

SaraHope - The Sugar Queen is my favorite of Sarah's two books. You're right - they make me feel really good, too. She has a new one coming out - can't remember when.

I'm about halfway through Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and it is terrific!

I started Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon, a mystery/ghost story that seems like it will be dark and twisty.

#40 Allen's next book, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, is coming out in hardcover next March. Unfortunately I just don't have the budget to purchase hardcovers, so I'll have to wait another agonizing year after the release :-(

Just finished Freydis and Gudrid by Elizabeth Boyer. It's a historical novel of the Viking settlement in Newfoundland in 1,004. A well-written book that really holds your interest.

42>

Promise Not to Tell definitely is "dark and twist." Hope you enjoy it.

I didn't as much like McMahon's next novel, Island of Lost Girls. She seems to be getting herself into the rut of a "formula" (regarding which I don't want to say more to avoid SPOILERS).

Starting Girl in a blue dress by Gaynor Arnold. An early start to Orange July ;-)

I am very naughty and got a lovely parcel in the mail yesterday with books I had ordered last week... I was going to be good and finish the book I am reading atm.. Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway, but started to 'have a look' at one of my new books The Mother of Mohammad (cant get touch stones to work or upload the book as its not coming up on any list - even when I use the ISBN).

Its about a Aussie lady who becomes a Muslim and eventually joins the jihad and is married for a time to one of Bin Ladens top men. Its written by Sally Neighbour an investigative journalist in Australia. Just got through a couple of chapters but is proving to be very interesting. I am looking forward to seeing how her journey to this life plays out.

On a role here with the women writers . . . just finished The Robber Bride (highly recommended if you haven't seen my ravings elsewhere on LT), and now I'm starting To the Lighthouse and rereading The London Scene: Six Essays on London Life, both by Virginia Woolf.

Reading Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris. Good, easy reading so far!

I'm reading Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. I didn't know there was a series. Thanks, lkernagh.

I'm halfway through American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and can't put it down. I didn't realise it was on the long list for the Orange Prize, so I'm a month early for Orange July.

I'm reading Lynne Reid Banks' The L-Shaped Room, which I found out about in a Girlybooks thread. It's about a pregnant, unmarried young woman who has to find a new place to live after her father throws her out of his house.

It's was first published in 1961 and although some of it is very dated (Banks' portrayal of a black character is cringe-worthy), a lot of the issues regarding single motherhood still apply.

The paperback version that I have was printed in 1972. Interestingly, there is a full-color ad for Kent cigarettes inside the book. There is also an ad for a sex manual that will help me save my marriage.

Wow, superfancy! I don't recall seeing ads in PB books - except for other books. Ewww. (so after you learn to save your marriage, will you pass that along??)

I'm midway through The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill. It's shivery.

#49 Cecilturtle - I hope you enjoy The Mistress of the Art of Death as much as I did!

Looks like it has been a while since I posted here. I finished The disappeared by Kim Echlin which I found to be a stunning read. I cannot remember off the top of my head what I read next but I have recently finished The Secret Lives of Litterbugs by M.A.C. Farrant which was a humorous read along the lines of an Erma Bombeck book and I am currently reading The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman, a historical fiction set in England in 1830's during the cholera outbreaks.

I just started Edith Wharton's House of Mirth last night. I love her writing.

I've just finished Franklin's Grave Goods -- the latest in the Mistress of Death series. I'll post a review of it tomorrow, I hope.

Just finished Sorry what a fabulous novel. Highly recommended. There are already a couple of good reviews, lindsacl's and avaland's come to mind. A good one for an Orange July list. It was longlisted, I think it should have been placed higher.

Agree, KimB, I loved that book.
(thanks for the compliment on my review, btw)

Kim, I read Sorry last year and also loved it.

I finished All Over Creation last night, great read. Now am well into an Elizabeth Berg novel, The Year of Pleasures. I really like her writing.

I just finished The Old Man and Me by Elaine Dundy. I had very high hopes for this because I was one of the people who loved The Dud Avocado. While it had some very funny moments, and while Dundy was as lively a writer as ever, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to, probably because the character of Honey Flood didn't hold me the way that of Sally Jay Gorce did. But there were wonderful insights into the British and their real and perceived differences from Americans.

I've started My Driver by Maggie Gee.

Just re-read Catherine Alliot's The Wedding Day and have moved on to East of the Sun by Julia Gregson. But so far it's far from riveting.

I've started The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer . Gotta love chick lits for summer reading !

I've just finished Christa Wolf's In the Flesh ( Leibhaftig ) (English touchstone not working) -- definitely not chick lit, but a fascinating allegory of the decline of communist East Germany as one woman's battle with disease.

>Just finished rereading The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (spectacular!),

Oh, I loved this too, Av. And it's the group read this month? I am going to have to join the discussion! Reading Olive Kitteridge myself.

>65 megwaiteclayton: It's set for July discussion, but we always have a bit of a rolling discussion. I think Nickelini has already posted because she was going to be away.

http://www.librarything.com/groups/atwoodians

I have just finished From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell - A murder Mystery. Also finished The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards which was not as I hoped - the ending really let it down for me - which is a pity as I was really looking forwards to it

sally -- I thought The Memory Keeper's Daughter had a lot of potential that the book didn't live up to. It started well, but I quickly became un-enamored with it (disenamored??)

> 68

I agree teelgee - it was a really good idea - she just didn't seem to know what to do with her characters so just hustled them all off to the end just to make them go away :)

***edited to fix typo***

I just finished The House With Blind Glass Windows by Herbjorg Wassmo and have started Iphigenia: The Diary by Teresa de la Parra

Just finished Scapegallows by Carol Birch published by Viagro, about an interesting woman in Australian History, Margaret Catchpole. Unfortunately, the novel is the most disappointing one I've read this year. Poorly researched in places and missed the point. Really put me off.
I was hoping it would be more like Kate Grenvilles Secret River, with the material available, it really could have been.

Too bad -- The Secret River was such a superb book imo.

Hi! This is my first post here. :) This month I've read Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden, Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon and Issue 2 of The Yellow Room (http://www.theyellowroom-magazine.co.uk/).

Hi nebowers -- welcome to LT and to Girlybooks! Glad you found us.

ETA I'm reading The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys, a collection of interesting vignettes, historical fiction, about the 40 times the Thames has frozen solid.

Then I'm on to The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt, a kickoff to Orange July. I figure I won't finish it until the first, so why not, eh?

Thanks for the welcome. I forgot to say name is Natalie. :)

I read The Invention of Everything Else in May. I thoroughly enjoyed it’s unusual style, rich prose, and I found the characters and plot captivating. Scottsboro is still sitting on my shelf, but I plan on reading it soon.

Having finished The House of Mirth this morning, I'm now warming up for Orange July with The Girls. I've only read about 30 pages, but am pretty well immersed in it already.

If I remember right, the first sentence of The Girls hooked me.

Just finished Gaskell's Cousin Phillis and Other Stores and Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and I'm starting The Outcast by Sadie Jones.

Touchstones are not my firned today!

To begin Orange July I am starting The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

>79 Cariola:: Touchstones are not my firned today! Apparently, neither is spelling! ;o)

I'll have to postpone Orange July for a couple of nights, All Our Worldly Goods turned up in the letter box today, as a loan.

In June I read Girl in a Blue Dress and Sorry, so I'm ahead anyway ;-P
Would highly recommend Sorry.

I am still working on finishing The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed. It won the Pulitzer in history this past year.

It's an incredible bit of research, but not an easy read. Very little documentation exists about the people themselves so it is mostly conjectures and possiblities. Combined with Gordon-Reed's lawyer-y love of words, her tendency to repeat herself and her wanderings into topics that are only tangentally related (currently reading about Jefferson's research about his father's career as a surveyor), it becomes a hard book to finish.

It was the topic of my real life bookclub last week and I don't believe anyone had gotten through the 700 pages before the meeting. As one bookclubber summed it up, it just doesn't have enough of a unified story thread to make it compeling, no matter how interesting the intricate research.

It's an interesting look at slavery and the life of enslaved people (that's how G-R continually refers to them instead of the shorter 'slaves'). I will definitely look at slavery with new perspective, but can't help wondering how typical the Hemingses experence as slaves was, since Jefferson himself was such an atypical person.

I've started Dans les bois éternels by my favorite French mystery writer Fred Vargas, a medieval anthropologist.

I re-watched the film of Chocolat the other day, so now I'm re-reading its sequel The Lollipop Shoes. While I'm enjoying it, I think that the author didn't really need to write a sequel to Chocolat, which was such a wonderful, self-contained fable.

Anyway, I should be reading Girl in a Blue Dress for Orange July.

I'm reading The Birds Fall Down by Rebecca West, The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker, and The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami (for Orange July).