ALL VIRAGO / ALL AUGUST

Who's in; who's out; what are we reading?
Should be another good month of reading our favorite style & color of book.
Jump in and enjoy along with other great readers like yourself. This is such a special group and this gives us another chance to celebrate it.
hugs all round,
belva

I will go ahead and go first.
I am obviously in and unless my plan changes these are the reads I want to do this year:
Frost in May by Antonia White (a re-read)
The Lost Traveler by Antonia White
The Sugar House by Antonia White
Beyond the Glass by Antonia White
The Beth Book by Sarah Grand
Gone to Earth by Mary Webb
The Semi-Attached Couple and The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

I seriously doubt I will be able to read them all as my reading has plummeted to 4/5 books per month since my husband developed heart disease and had to undergo a 5-way bi-pass. But I will do what I can and enjoy the ones I do get to read.
I hope a lot of you do the same.
Happy green reading.
belva

I loved this last year, Belva! So glad it's back!

Because of other commitments, I won't be reading all virago, but I do plan to get several in:

The Ballad and the Source by Rosamond Lehmann
On the Side of the Angels by Betty Miller
Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton
Mr. Skeffington by Elizabeth von Arnim

Glad to see you here, Belva! I won't read all Virago either, but I'll commit to at least these two:
Four Frightened People by E. Arnot Robertson
At Mrs Lippincotes by Elizabeth Taylor
and I hope at least one more unchosen at this point!

Hi Belva & welcome back - and thanks for hostessing All Virago/All August read once again.

I'm planning on reading Storm Jameson's The Mirror in Darkness Trilogy beginning with Company Parade.

I probably won't be reading all Viragos for the month of August, but I'd love to read at least a few. Here are the ones on my bookshelf to be read:

The Orchid House, by Phyllis Shand Allfrey
Year Before Last, by Kaye Boyle
South Riding, by Winifred Holtby
The Tortoise and the Hare, by Elizabeth Jenkins (this one arrived today)
Told by an Idiot, by Rose Macaulay
Diana of the Crossways, by George Meredtih
The Land of Spices, by Kate O'Brien
The Edwardians, by Vita Sackville-West
The Three Sisters, by May Sinclair
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
The Gentlewomen, by Laura Talbot
The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth Von Arnim

I foresee a lot of great reading in my near future!

I'll be reading a few, choosing among:

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
A Deputy Was King by G. B. Stern
Chatterton Square by E. H. Young
The Little Company by Eleanor Dark
something by Rosamond Lehmann

So many great Viragos listed here as "might/will be" reads. I am getting very excited to begin.

I'm going to enjoy following all of your August reads. I'm only planning to read one VMC: Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country. August is also Wharton month in the Monthly Author Reads group, so it fits there as well. Having participated in Orange July, I need less focused reading for August.

Ooh! As my tbr is down to a-shelf-and-a-pile which is the time I allow myself to do naughty things like buying MORE books or having a bit of a re-read, I will see if I can re-read some favourite Viragoes during the month...

I'll commit to reading at least one Virago in August. Like Laura, I focused on the Orange Prize in July, and don't want to limit myself to a single category for another month. But I haven't cracked one of those green spines in a while, and it's TIME. Perhaps Company Parade, or Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

Mmmmmmmmm, Elizabeth and Her German Garden, one of my absolute favorites.

I don't think I can manage all Viragos all month either, but I'll commit to two for August. I'm thinking of Moonraker and either Open the Door or Gone to Earth, but I reserve the right to change my mind. :)

Open the door!, Open the door!--I loved that one!

Well, with that kind of enthusiastic support Open the Door! moves into the lead. ;)

Oh! I'm definitely in Belva, let me skip off to my bookshelf. I'll be back to report my selections.

I loved it last year too. Got through about half a dozen, some dreadful and a couple of perfect ones. I am off reading at the moment but will definitely give it a good go. I won't say what because it is so subjective. I might just continue with skinny books as a way of reducing my tbr pile. So funny that some of you can see the end of your tbr pile. Oh and Peg, I think it a real swizz that you plan to read two books you have already half finished. Come on woman, how about finally breaking that Christina Stead phobia of yours!

LOL!~! Too funny #17!

I've been reading one Virago a month for the last few months, maybe I'll try to make it two or three this month. Don't know which ones though, as I'm a bit spoiled for choice - as I read many of those I've read about half a lifetime ago, a reread would seem totally justified, and there are so many I haven't read.

Hullo fellow Summer Readers! What a good idea - saturate August with Viragos and salve the conscience for a while. My choices? The latest finds:

Susan Spray by Sheila Kaye-Smith
On the Side of Angels by Betty Miller
Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie
Hunt the Slipper by Violet Trefusis
The Real Night by Rebecca West

and to get a head start and to be patriotic, the "forgotten Canadian classic"

Aleta Dey by Francis Marion Beynon

which I embarked on last night and am almost half way through.

Roughing it in the Bush sounds to be really fascinating. Actually they all do.
Happy reading all.

Question: How does one get to have the book titles in blue. I have a new keyboard and for the life of me can't access the extra characters which appear in blue on the keys. Fn key doesn't work.

Place a single bracket around book titles and double brackets around authors.

I started early by reading Palladian on my vacation now I am trying to decide if I stick with a bit more Taylor or dip into something else.

>17 romain: Oh, Barbara, I wish! My trouble is that I've only half-started the two. As for Christina Stead, I did buy another one, and it looks quite handsome on the shelf.

I'm rereading All Passion Spent but I will probably finish it before Aug 1. I'm thinking that my first August read will be Taylor's A View of the Harbour. I've been saving this Taylor because it is the last of her novels I have yet to read.

Then a bunch of shortish ones.
One Fine Day by Panter-Downes
The Playroomby Manning
Mrs Miniverby Struther
Oliviaby Strachey

I loved All Passion Spent; in fact I have loved every single book I have read by Vita Sackville-West and this one is probably one of my very favorite Viragos. She was absolutely awesome!~!
I too began early with my first Virago, Frost in May. It is the only re-read I have planned for August but one never knows. I finished it earlier today and am now well into The Lost Traveler which, as of this point, I am not loving quite as much as Frost in May.
I wish I had Mr. Skeffington to add to my August reading but alas, it is not to be this year. Perhaps I will have found a copy by next year.
If I get through my planned reading perhaps I will grab a Taylor or two as quite a few of you seem to be choosing her this year.

I have added Cullum and Four Frightened People by E Arnot Robertson and Afternoon of a Good Woman by Nina Bawden to my TBR for Virago August.

Dear Bleuroses, This is re: the bracket thing. I used to do it on my old key board no problem but the new one with the supposed bracket key gives me ^^ this or this ¨¨ with the right shift so no brackets so far! I guess as with everything it is easy if you know how.

I have more than enough unread Viragos to keep me going throughout August but I'm not going to commit myself to specific titles yet - I don't know what sort of mood I'll be in then. At the moment I think I will start with The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim or William or Celia by E. H. Young. I have The Wild Geese by Bridget Boland and The Bolter on the go already.

I'm thinking Diary of a Provincial Lady and Elizabeth and her German Garden - two I read early on and love to re-read. I have a week off the day job at the end of August so hopefully I won't get toooooo much proof-reading work and can have a Virago wallow!

I'm hoping to tackle at least one of:

Madame De Treymes by Edith Wharton
The Reef by Edith Wharton
The Misses Mallett by E. H. Young
The Caravaners by Elizabeth Von Arnim
Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth Von Arnim
The Third Miss Symons by F.M. Mayor
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I'm so glad this is happening again as I've been saving up some VMCs for an August splurge. I've so many TBR that I can't say exactly what I'll be reading but hopefully it'll include

Excellent Women
Jane and Prudence
In a Summer Season
At Mrs Lippincote's
and
The Reef

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, can't wait to get all these hospital and doctor bills paid off so I can get back on e-bay, etc and start buying Viragos again. I figure in about 3 years or so. LOL!~!
So thankful, grateful, happy that I have him though. Worth every penny!~!

>30 CDVicarage:: CD, that's it exactly. I have no idea what kind of mood I'll be in on any given day. I hope to pick up one or two.

I finished enormous changes at the last minute by grace paley today. Had very high hopes after the first story, but didn't like the others nearly as well. :(

I'm halfway through One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes, and am enjoying it (but I don't know what all the English flowers in their overgrown garden are!!)

Heather - I had the same problem with Paley and I have tried all published by Virago. Very patchy for me and I don't feel sympathy with her characters.

However, I have just finished Familiar Passions by Nina Bawden which is a skinny read and very quick. I have read a lot of Bawden who is an inferior Drabble/Forster et al. This was an entertaining and at times amusing book, very well written, but as with most Bawdens it was light weight. This book was written in 79 and she mentions Rebecca West several times and refers to a character for whom 'all passion is spent'.

For my next All Virago/All August I might also do One Fine Day. Another skinny book :)

I'm reading One Fine Day, too! 1946 must have been a hot summer in England.

Liz - all the summers during the war were exceptional because Britain was on double daylight savings. They might've still been on it in 46 for all I know.

For sure I'll read Elizabeth and her German Garden and I Capture the Castle. I've been wanting to read these 2 for a while and I have a whole stack to keep me busy in August.

Was seduced by Peyton Place and set aside Company Parade for the moment.

LOL!~! Cate, I am shocked and appalled at your taste. hee hee.
hugs,
me

I gave up on Music Upstairs by Sheena Mackay. I think I'm too middle-aged now to have much sympathy for the self-obsessed angst of the young. I wanted to give the 'heroine' a good talking-to - tell her to pull her socks up and get on with something useful.

The Wild Geese has got me hooked. Epistolatory novels can be very awkward and contrived but once I settled in to this one I found it just suited. There is enough, but not too much, detail in the letters to move the plot fairly briskly along and convey the characters.

Oh dear bleu - you set aside Company Parade?

Dear fellow Viragoites - it is good to be back amongst you once again :)

Yes Julie - where the hell have you been? We missed you!

I recently finished Vita Sackville-West's All Passion Spent
(38> Bawden's source perhaps?) about the 88-year old Lady Slane who, after the death of her husband, decides to live the remainder of her life in the way she chooses, unbothered by children, grandchildren or great-children or any social obligations. She befriends (or is befriended by) 3 eccentric gentlemen and carries on quietly with only her longtime French maid as companion. A gentle, rather wise book despite the class-unconsciousness of the Lady Slane who hardly sees her ancient maid as an individual.

#45 - only temporarily, my dear!

Shamefully, I'm also reading The Little Ottleys which is something I rarely do - that is, read more than one book at a time!!!!

#47 Have you seen the BBC production with Dame Wendy Hiller as Lady Slane? It was a delight.

49> -- No -- I'll have to keep an eye out for that one. Wonder if Netflix has it?

>50 janeajones:: yes they do ... it's in my queue!

Finished One Fine Day and it was a lovely book, considering it was all about a formerly highly privileged woman lamenting the passing of servants and good gardeners. Not a quick read by any means. Panter-Downes writes beautifully and every page is packed, with long long very detailed paragraphs. But as an avid gardener I found the flower stuff fascinating and I finished the book liking the heroine and wishing her well.

So much for skinny books - this one took me almost a week and was only 170 pages.

Last year I read a bunch of heavy Viragos out of my comfort zone but this year I just want fluff. I am tentatively considering A Death in the Life by Dorothy Salisbury Davis. A murder mystery that is also a Virago.

I am now half way through the 3rd of Antonia White's foursome; having completed Frost in May and The Lost Traveler. This one is The Sugar House and I am enjoying it tremendously, as well.
I also read Home by Marilyne Robinson in the midst of The Lost Traveler as I wanted to get at least one book in for Orange July. Now there is a book for you. It was over-the-top wonderful!~! I suggest that all of you read that one when/if you have time. It is a beautiful book.
Well, just having gotten home from my therapy, which is an all day event (a 1 1/2) drive one way) and I try to do all of my errands so I only have to go once a week..........I am beat. I hope all of you are enjoying your Viragos and others you may be committed to for this month.
hugs all round,
belva

#38 romain,
Yes, my sentiments exactly, though I don't know if I'll be muddling through her other virago works. Kind of depressing. I really wanted to like Paley. I loved the library story, but maybe that's just the librarian in me.

Finished Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. An absolutely delightful appreciation of life written from the perspective of a "professional class" London wife and mother in 1939. This isn't a novel, in any sense, but a collection of essays on daily life, both in London and in the country, full of keen observations and quotable lines, and colored with an unsentimental optimism remarkable for the time and place. Don't be misled by the movie of the same name. The book is far superior stuff.

~ 45 Thank you for asking dear Barbara. I have been absent without leave facing a few challenges which have taken me away from my virtual friendships. I have missed our camaraderie. At present I am physically in la Belle France which is wonderful and enabling me to recharge my batteries:)

Bleu - are you back on course with Company Parade I wonder!!!!

Back on subject before the thread police expel me ..... no Virago to report at present but I am reading or should I say dipping into .... a fabulous book from my coffe table. Women Who Read Are Dangerous ... it is a treasure trove of visual riches.

Edited to add - something very strange, and somewhat amusing has just happened. The book if which I have just wrote has come back as spam.

Edited again to add correct link http://www.librarything.com/work/1119292

Phew - I bet you are all wishing I would go away again!!!

>56 juliette07:: Phew - I bet you are all wishing I would go away again!!!
NEVER, Julie!!

#56> Julie.....are you kidding????????

Up late last night reading I Capture The Castle. I think i will slow down so that it will last longer!

that's my favorite noodlejet! I read through it very quickly the first time and then reread it again right away. Enjoy!

La Belle Juliette of La Belle France, glad to know that you are in a place where your lovely french soul can sing and replenish.

I've been having a nice time with Edith and Bruce Ottley in Ada Leverson's Love's Shadow. It fit my mood perfectly with it's lighthearted banter and comedy. Company Parade, I assure you, will follow closely!!

For some reason, Woman Who Read are Dangerous has never been properly recognized in LT. The link always brings up Stefan Bollmann's other book, Reading Women - and even this link doesn't always work!!

I'm just off on a week's holiday - attending a weekend literary conference and then a few days in Salisbury, where we lived for two years when my husband did his ministerial training - so I'm busy choosing suitable reading material. The conference is 'The Twentieth Century Schoolgirl and Her Books' so most of my books are going to be slanted to that subject - not much Virago there! However I never go away without a copy of The Diary of a Provincial Lady and I've also included Mary Lavelle which is on my TBR pile so I shall be able to maintain ALL VIRAGO/ALL AUGUST.

>61 bleuroses:
For some reason, Woman Who Read are Dangerous has never been properly recognized in LT. The link always brings up Stefan Bollmann's other book, Reading Women

That's because they've been combined. Are they different books or just the same book published under different titles?

#61, 63 According to a reviewer on Amazon, they are the same book. Only the title is different.

>61 bleuroses: Women Who Read Are Dangerous. That's a book I've been trying to track down (my Amazon order still hasn't been fulfilled), I saw it once in a shop and didn't get it now I regret it! Just flipping through it looked wonderful.

Another one that is similar is called Forbidden Fruit: The History of Women and Books in Art

>64 laytonwoman3rd:
Thank you for researching that issue, Linda. :)

59: I just read that one and LOVED it! Can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to it. Enjoy.

Just finished Elizabeth Hardwicks's Sleepless Nights. Unbelievably beautiful. No plot at all, just the most marvelous prose portraits.

Elaine;
Sometimes those without a plot but with "the most marvelous prose portraits", as you so beautifully put it, are the very best for fulfilling our literary needs.

Sounds like everyone is reading simply splendid books this year. Women Who Read Are Dangerous and Forbidden Fruit: The History of Women and Books in Art both sound fascinating to me. I will be checking round and about for both of them. They sound like books I would love to keep by my bedside for just "those" nights.

Welcome back to our lovely juliette07. You have truly been missed. I am happy that you are finding a place and a way to rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit. We all need that at times in our lives. It is so good to "see" you again.

hugs all round,
belva

#64 Blast and double blast but my dear Ltw3rd, you ARE correct!! It wasn't until I read your post that I physically compared my two volumes and - well, what a dupe that was! Hook, line and sinker I am! Harummph.

#70 Book people aren't supposed to pull little tricks like that on us, are they Cate?

I finished A Death in the Life this afternoon while browning my legs on the deck. (It is finally cool enough here to sit out and sun bathe :)) I'd had almost no expectations and was pleasantly surprised. A murder mystery set in the theater district in New York, it was surprisingly realistic. 'The life' of the title is the world of prostitution and Miss Davis pulls no punches on that score. No whores with hearts of gold etc. 'An unflinching eye', the cover says of her writing style. I would agree, and I recommend the book with the qualifier that it is not a 'real' Virago. Or am I the only one of us who thinks many of the later catalog are not 'real' Viragos?

*frustrated* - I'm right in the middle of Masters Dissertation Season, and while I was busy over the August bank holiday last year, this year I'm getting strings of recommendations and I'm flat out already. Great for the business and the bank balance, not so great for the reading.

I have the last week in August off the day job, M is going to see his god-daughter for a few days in that week, so I'm hoping I'll carve out at least enough time for Elizabeth and her German Garden, if not the Diary of a Provincial Lady.

Things should calm down mid-September, but it's not Virago August then, is it!!

Oh well, I'll keep peeking at your enjoyment of the books on this thread, and will join you soon!

I finished reading I'm Not Complaining by Ruth Adam, a fascinating novel about a teacher in a Nottinghamshire town in the 1930s, at the time of the Depression. I loved the characterisation and the social history.

I've started reading All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West, which I've wanted to read properly since I caught most of the BBC radio 4 serialisation of it last year.

I'm now reading The Ante-Room. Drags a bit, since, as the book is mostly about waiting; but enjoyable nonetheless.

Finished A Game of Hide and Seek and The Enchanted April - both of which I loved - and now picking up Testament of Youth. August seems to be rushing by so quickly!

Last night I finished Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather. A book about adultery from the view of the star crossed lovers. I was not sympathetic.

Just this morning I started Diana of the Crossways.

Recently finished Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker -- a very-California, mid-century novel of manners, if there is such a thing. I enjoyed it.

Jane, surely there would be such a thing. I can well imagine it, at any rate.

Having completed The Sugar House, I have just begun Beyond the Glass and am not too taken with the beginning but I know it will get better.
Then I am looking forward to A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains; a traveler. This is a duplicate sent me by our dear Paola. I am really excited about diving into it. Oh, how I love my Travelers, though I've not many of them...I hoard them and absolutely do NOT loan them out. (selfish bitch!~!) LOL!~!
hugs
belva

Belva, there are a few Travellers in AMP, and some of them not very expensive. Have you checked there lately?

Well I finished All the Dogs of my Life thinking it would be a delightful and easy read and not considering the one huge thing about dogs - they die! So the whole thing was a bit gut wrenching but also extremely interesting. It was also Elizabeth Von Arnim's way of writing a sanitized biography and I was captivated enough by the glimpses I got into her personal life to google her. That made the dying dogs even sadder because her life was pretty awful.

She has to leave Germany after being widowed (she says)- in fact she left Germany (and her beloved dogs who could not come to Britain because of the rabies laws) because her husband - The Man of Wrath - was in prison for fraud. He did die but not till later.

There is also a chapter about her disastrous second marriage - which coincided with the opening days of the First World War and which inadvertently trapped her in England, leaving a dog in Switzerland and (unmentioned in the book) a daughter in Germany who died during the war. Her hatred of the second husband spilled over into many books - I must read Vera, which is her version of events, but I'm wondering if the daughter was with family in Germany because Elizabeth was in bed with Lord Russell rather than doing the usual family holiday in Switzerland.

What came out of this book for me (supplemented by Wikipedia) was that being a Countess twice over in your life, not to mention being a successful author, and even extremely pretty well into old age, may not be all it's cracked up to be.

RIGHT. It STARTS. I am giving myself an evening off proofreading tonight and I'm going to take Elizabeth and her German Garden downstairs and put it on my bedside table in place of the Three Investigators, and start it tonight. I will, I will!

Enjoy LyzzyBee. It is wonderful and then beyond!~!

Paola; I've not checked there, but will when we get back from hubby's check up tonight.
We are on our way and expect a good report.

hugs to all,
belva

Not getting through as many Viragos as I'd hoped. I've just been away on a week's holiday and I always take The Diary of a Provincial Lady with me so that's one more, and I've still got another week and a half off work so I've got time for more.

I am (re) reading Elizabeth - I have had this copy so long, it dates from my sticky-backed plastic covering era, which puts it at 1988 ish vintage! It's as lovely as I remembered it, plus I know more about gardening than when I read it last!

I just finished reading Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather, not in a green virago edition, but still, it counts. Much more depressing reading than I bargained for.

>#86:
LyzzyBee;
Which/what Elizabeth are you reading? Or is it Elizabeth and Her German Garden?

I am still not quite finished with the fourth of the Antonia White series and have enjoyed it immensely, although I don't think that Clara seems a realistic grown up Nanda at all.

Then on to a Traveler. Exciting ways to end the dog days of summer.

# 88 sorry - was writing in a hurry and had already mentioned it was Elizabeth and her German Garden so shortened the title. I'm half way through now and enjoying it, though I'd forgotten that she doesn't actually do the gardening herself! And the text is a really small part of each page, with large type, so it's going too quickly! But at least I'm taking part in our community of reading!!

Oh LyzzyBee; it doesn't sound like you are truly loving this read, but enjoying taking part. I loved Elizabeth and her German Garden so much, (and it was my first of hers), that it has me searching for every single book by her. I am very taken with her works.
I hope the next book you read, no matter what it is, completely takes your breath away.
hugs,
belva

Oh no - I did really enjoy it, it was just different from how I remembered it. And I didn't like the text being so short because I really enjoyed it and wanted it to go on longer - it was over too quickly!

I will review it soon but deep in the depths of a proofreading project that is more involved than I'd initially suspected...

Oh, I am so happy that you did enjoy it. It is a favorite of mine even Viragos aside.

Quiet Sunday here in the North East where it is hot and raining, so I settled down with She Done Him Wrong by Mae West. I read about 80 pages and then skipped to the end. I was pleasantly surprised at how well written it was but just didn't find the subject matter appealing enough to spend my valuable time on. A very nasty woman bests some very nasty men, and this is supposed to be feminism? There's a few of these oddities in the VMC catalog. This one they could've done without.

Not only have I read Elizabeth and her German Garden but I've actually got round to reviewing it too! My very own Man Of Wrath is home and sitting on the study sofa with the cat and his laptop, and I'm carving out some precious me-time from the proof-reading jobs that surround me! Sitting and reviewing books. Oh well!

Only got South Riding by Winifred Holtby read but boy, was it worth it! This is a five star read.

I loved South Riding and really want to reread it.

I'm reading Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day, my 3rd Virago started this month though may not finish it until September, though I've not been exclusively reading Viragos.

I read The Life and Death of Harriet Frean this afternoon while lying in a hammock. More of a novella than a full length book. It was excellent but not anything I would re-read. An intellectual pleasure but not an emotional one.

I finished my last All Virago All August book by the pool today. I managed to get five in this month:

Sunlight on a Broken Column by Attia Hosain
On the Side of the Angels by Betty Miller
Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton
I'm Not Complaining by Ruth Adam
Hunt the Slipper by Violet Trefusis

Of these, I'm Not Complaining was my favorite--a 4.5 star read!

Thanks to Belva for instigating this. :)

I did 7 - all commented on above. But of course I stuck to skinny books as a way of reducing the TBR pile and I did not finish the Mae West. I did not 'love' any of them. Last year I read out of my comfort zone and discovered two exceptional books including Cindie and Story of an African Farm which was a perfect 10, and a couple of other excellent ones. I may even have read that other perfect 10 Death Comes for the Archbishop during August as well. So lesson learned.

Isn't it strange how everyone loves I'm Not Complaining. I loved it too but had no interest in reading it before I opened it.

So the list of books

Familiar Passions - Bawden
One Fine Day - Panter-Downes
A Death in the Life - Salisbury Davis
Alexander's Bridge - Cather
All the Dogs of my Life - Von Arnim
She Done Him Wrong - West
The Life and Death of Harriet Frean - Sinclair

You are so more than welcome Christina. It has come to be my favorite reading month. I think I will be managing 4 or 5 as well. I have read all four of the Frost in May series and am getting ready to begin A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, a Virago Traveler (though mine is not a Virago Press Publication). This was duplicate copy gifted to me from Paola. (thank you) I am very excited to get started on it.
Sounds like everyone is enjoying their reads. I am so happy about that. I love my Viragos and I don't want to just look at them. I want to read them and this August thing really helps me there.
Good night ladies and gents.
Catcha on the morrow.
hugs,

I'm weighing in with a modest two: one a love, and one a hate. I adored At Mrs Lippincote's and will try to hack out a review of it since the two reviews here aren't particularly helpful - or wouldn't have been to me. The hate was, of course, the infamous Four Frightened People. I'm looking forward to South Riding!

Well, we are getting down to the end of it. I am on my 5th, I believe. Hope I can finish it before Wednesday morning. The boys go back to school tomorrow so I will have more reading time if I can keep my silly butt off the farm. I'm not really far enough into it to know if I will like it or not.
I hope everyone is enjoying the month. I am already planning what I want to read next year. LOL!~!
Good night all. See you in the movies.
hugs,
belva

Despite my enthusiastic plans I've only managed two:

The Wild Geese by Bridget Boland
The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield

but I do have a shelf of new Viragos to be read so I won't stop now.

I've read Mrs. Miniver and Lolly Willowes, which wasn't a Virago edition, but I think it counts, anyway. I'm hoping to finish Elizabeth and Her German Garden before month's end. And to top off the month's celebration, I just scored a first edition hardcover copy of At Mrs. Lippincote's on e-Bay. Again, not a Virago edition, but to this book collector, dare I say, even better.

You rock Linda!~! Me too; I say even better!~!

I've enjoyed my first all Virago August, but admit I need a break so I'm going to try White Garden: A Novel of Virginia Woolf. Has anyone read it?

These are the ones I read, all fairly short and good summer reading.

All Passion Spent, a good reread, especially since now I am much closer to the heroine's age than I was when I read it in my 30's.

One Fine Dayand Mrs Miniver, complimentary novels about coping with WW2. I enjoyed both.

Sleepless Nights by Hardwick. I loved this, but admit it is not for everyone. No plot just beautiful images.

Ice House Bawden is not my favorite author, but I liked this examination of adultery in a circle of lifelong friends.

Hours Before Dawn, memorable not because it is a 'thriller' but because of the devastating portrayal of a young mother falling apart because she has absolutely no support system.

The Playroom by Manning. This was the one real miss in my opinion. I thought Manning had no idea how to write about fifteen year olds.

I gave up on Rising of the Moon by Mitchell. Just couldn't get into the mystery, although it is a good book.

I can't count Four Frightened People because I read it at the end of July.

Next year I think I'll try the series novels....

My, but you did very well Elaine. Thank you for giving us not just the books you read for ALL VIRAGO/ALL AUGUST, but a mini-review as well. Very well done my dear!~!
I have had White Garden by my bedside for many a month and just not had the nerve to begin it. It looks to be a fascinating read, but I guess I was afraid about obsessing about something I might find in it what with Woolf and Sackville-West being both fascinating women and wondrous writers but also having a mysterious persona about themselves. You will have to let us know how you find it to be.
I also liked that your reading list for the month was so varied. Good job, I say.
hugs,

Elaine - if you have never read any other Manning please don't judge her by her Viragos. They are all very weak. Her Balkan Trilogy is one of the best books ever written.

I also loved Hours Before Dawn for exactly the reasons you state. The Gladys Mitchell is very strange and did not move me much either. However it hits every best of list for mysteries, so it seems we are out of step with the critics of murder mysteries. It was certainly atmospheric and well written but not much of a denouement as I remember. (It's been years).

I have managed to read eight VMCs this month:

Excellent Women and Jane and Prudence - two re-reads of Barbara Pym which I really enjoyed

At Mrs Lippincote's and In a Summer Season - I love Elizabeth Taylor and neither of these disappointed

The Reef - my first Edith Wharton for years and I found it much more involving than I expected

Poor Cow - an engaging story told in a voice I was surprised to find quite convincing - an interesting contrast with In a Summer Season - written not that many years apart, yet portraying such different lives and expectations.

My Friend says Its Bullet Proof - another 1960s novel looking at themes of feminism, sexuality and cancer.

The Doves of Venus - I enjoyed it but thought it seemed essentially a well written romance.

I have just started Their Eyes Were Watching God but won't finish it this month.

I've enjoyed my "all green" month - there's so much to read all round that it's excellent to have this focus.

You may not finish it this month, Sue, but this is a remarkable book. Quite stunning! I read this one for banned books week a couple of years ago and it is still with me. Her Jonah's Gourd Vine is wonderful also. You chose some pretty great sounding books.
I love this. I have gotten so many recx off this thread this year. It will make it truly easy to choose next year.
Thank you vestafan for your list and your mini-reviews as well. I hope you appreciate Their Eyes Were Watching God as much as I did.
later,

I read 13 books this month, of which 9 were Viragos:

1) The Enchanted April
2) I Capture the Castle
3. The Lacquer Lady
4. South Riding
5. The Ante-Room
6. Diana of the Crossways
7. The Edwardians
8. The Orchid House
9. Jane and Prudence

Lots of good books read this month! I'd have to say that I Capture the Castle was among the best I've read this year so far.

Wow!~!
You take the cake, Kasthu! 9 Viragos for ALL VIRAGO/ALL AUGUST!~! I am sure we are all impressed. Well done!~!
And it sounds like you enjoyed them. I've not yet read I Capture the Castle, but am sure most of the ladies here have.
____________________________________

Let's end with just a simple final count from everyone. You needn't list the titles as you most likely have done that above. Anyway, so if each of you would be so kind as to do that for me; I have a little "sumpin', sumpin'" for the one who read the most Viragos for August. Not much; but a lil sumpin', sumpin', all the same.
I will go ahead and begin.

rainpebble: 5

Three

Only 2.

Only .005.

booo.

Nil points !

Only 2 for me *sigh*

Three for me.

I think juliette07 had a busy or a fun August and not a thing wrong with that. And sometimes, also, I find that I am not in the mood for a Virago; that I want something more action filled or more contemporary. So no heavy sighs or bemoaning ladies and gents. Life is good, with whatever we fill it. :-)

**edited so as not to end a sentence with a preposition** English teacher said no, no.

Amazingly, eight!

just 2

two and a half, I'm still reading In a Summer Season.

>120 rainpebble: Uh, Belva, I find I must quote Churchill to you.... Somebody twitted him for ending a sentence with a preposition, and he replied something like this: "That is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put." Go and do thou likewise.

1!

Sigh! (oops, sorry Belva!). I started and stopped 3 Viragos. I guess I just wasn't in the right frame of mind this month so, rather than force it, I put them aside until I am ready to appreciate them.

One - One Fine Day. And I've just finished Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather, but it's September now!

@ # 124:
LyzzyD: That is hysterically funny. I always worry about that so if Churchill didn't put up with that silly rule, why should I? Hmmmmmmm, I like it!~!
_____________________________________

Looking good ladies!

Oh LizzyD - that bought such a happy memory back to me as my dear Mummy often quoted that!

@126 - Same here with stops and starts. Finally settled on Ada Leversons Love's Shadow and was delightfully entertained. I'll continue with Tenterhooks and Love at Second Sight all of which make up The Little Ottleys.

I have I'm Not Complaining on my bedside stand since it comes so highly recommended here! Virago August is colouring September slightly green!

ETA....Thanks so much Belva! You are the hostess with the mostest!

I do think that anything began in August can be counted. I don't think anyone would disagree with that.

Virago August is colouring September slightly green! I like that. I think I'll probably read a Virago or two in September myself.

Ahhhhhhhh, I love it Linda!~!

Yup Belva and Linda - and I have had a September tint as well with One Fine Day by Amanda Panter-Downes which is so beautifully written and extremely though provoking.

Julie;
I have heard so much about One Fine Day that I am just going to have to break down and add it to my list. Everyone loves it. I may remain with the green until it is back in vogue the with red at Christmas time. LOL!~!
hugs all round..........just because,
belva