Reading the 20th Century discussion

Nigeyb wrote: "Wonderful choice Tania - I hope you love it as much as I did


My library is opening on 12 August and, as you can imagine, the skies are black with hats in the air"

Ha ha. It's been a long and frustrating wait, I nearly bought a bottle of champagne so I could sit with my book and my bubbly.

Yes Judy, I'm pretty sure that phrase, or one similar was from the wonderful PGW


I nearly said chapeaus

Another Amazon buy $30 of Kindle books, get an $8 credit. So ...

Chatterton Square by E.H. Young
A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence (you may not know of her, very good Canadian)
The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich (noir author I haven't read, but I suspect I'll like him)
Collected Stories by William Faulkner (splurged, I have been coveting this!)

and for my "free" book (yeah, I know, not free)

School for Love by Olivia Manning (I have not read her before, so we'll see)

Olivia Manning is a favourite of mine, Elizabeth. I hope you enjoy her.

Sounds a great offer - envious!

Susan wrote: "Olivia Manning is a favourite of mine, Elizabeth. I hope you enjoy her."

Thanks, Susan. I was hoping one (or more) or you have read and enjoyed her.

I've read and enjoyed The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy - I keep meaning to read more by Olivia Manning.

I enjoyed The Bride Wore Black. That was my first reading of Cornell Woolrich (and his other names).

I have just acquire, recommended from the office book club, murder mystery detective novel Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce. Anyone read this series?

No, but I have heard it is good, Michael. Interested to hear your thoughts.

Another book through the post, The Killing Season by Mason Cross. Not certain when this novel is set.

Some pre-orders landed on my kindle this morning, which I am looking forward to reading over the next few weeks:

Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy by the magnificent Ben Macintyre

Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them

and, a little different, but still highly anticipated:
Home Before Dark

Susan, thanks so much for mentioning Maiden Voyages - it sounds great, but I was slightly confused because UK Amazon lists that title as due to publish in August next year.

I just noticed they also list it under a slightly different title as currently available, Maiden Voyages: Women and the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel - it doesn't seem to be on GR under that title, but this is the Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maiden-Voyag...

I'm guessing this is the UK title and the other one US.

I'm really excited to read this one because I have been looking for a history of cruise ships after going on a cruise last year!

Glad I added to your TBR list, Judy ;)

My husband found Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties in a charity shop this week. It's got mixed reviews on GR but I'm looking forward to reading it.

I've never heard of most of the women: they include a rally car driver, archaeologist, architect and several film and theatre people. The only name I recognised was Rose Heilbron, QC. I read her biography, written by her daughter, last year and very much enjoyed it.
Rose Heilbron: The Story of England’s First Woman Queen's Counsel and Judge
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have been bad this month. Of course, I did have a birthday. Lucky that only comes once a year.

The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women, Gilded: How Newport Became America's Richest Resort - I blame this one on our discussion about Biltmore and other estates; Suffragists in Washington, DC: The 1913 Parade and the Fight for the Vote - this was for the anniversary of women getting the vote; PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives - I think this was the first in the series; The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler; and English Summer: A Gothic Romance; The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius and Wallace Reid: The Life and Death of a Hollywood Idol.

Earlier this week I received My Dearest Julia: The Wartime Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Wife A Library of America Special Publication and President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning. Gallows Court, The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler's Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Life On Route 66: Personal Accounts Along the Mother Road to California.

Then today came the mother lode - two shipments on one day!

The Ballad of Tom Dooley - there was a recent article in the local paper about the true event and the paper's praise is included on the back cover. Oh, goodness - the first chapter is Zebulon Vance, governor at the time. But also a former slave holder and Confederate officer - they have just removed his statue (it will probably go to his estate, there is a marker on the highway). This book is by novelist Sharyn McCrumb. The Black Nile: One Man's Amazing Journey Through Peace and War on the World's Longest River, The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote and The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities.

And, of course, I had to pick up Rage by Bob Woodward, especially after hearing those tapes; The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era - as if I don't already have enough books about the Titanic! and "it's the Pictures That Got Small": Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age - love Sunset Boulevard. I probably watch it at least once a month, maybe more.

Jan C wrote: "I have been bad this month. Of course, I did have a birthday. Lucky that only comes once a year.

[book:The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World f..."

What an interesting selection Jan, and wide-ranging too. I'll look forward to your reviews. A belated happy birthday as well. :-)

Great selection, Jan - lots of interesting historical topics.

I've got that Titanic book but under another title, The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World: The Sinking of the “Titanic” and the End of the Edwardian Era - hoping to read it soon! I also definitely want to read the one about Dorothy Sayers.

Jan C wrote: "I have been bad this month. Of course, I did have a birthday. Lucky that only comes once a year.

[book:The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World f..."

What a great haul! Thank you, now I have things to add to my to-read list!!! And happy birthday! :-)

Yes, happy birthday, Jan! Some great titles - I have added to my TBR list too :)

Thank you for the birthday wishes - not sure that I feel like 70 but maybe this is what 70 feels like.

It's a milestone, Jan and I am certain you look wonderful on it! :)

Happy birthday Jan!

Happy birthday, Jan, and what a lovely pile of books you've got there!

Happy Birthday Jan.

The Dorothy L Sayers book and the Titanic one look really interesting. Off to check if my library has them. I have a reservation on Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars but I'm in a queue.

I've just bought a copy of...


Look At Me (1983)

...in readiness for our November 2020 buddy read

Looking forward to it

It's 192 pages and £2.99 for a Kindle edition

By day Frances Hinton works in a medical library, by night she haunts the room of a West London mansion flat. Everything changes, however, when she is adopted by charming Nick and his dazzling wife Alix. They draw her into their tight circle of friends. Suddenly, Frances' life is full and ripe with new engagements. But too late, Frances realises that she may be only a play thing, to be picked up and discarded once used. And that just one act in defiance of Alix's wishes could see her lose everything....

I downloaded it too, Nigeyb, ready for next month. Love the cover!

Watching the Christie documentary yesterday, I was inspired to start reading Agatha Christie: First Lady of Crime which is a book of essays, published shortly after her death. They are written by people who were more involved with her, and many who knew her, so it has a very different feel from current biographies.

I went to my local Waterstones today which, unlike the Piccadilly store, allows customers to browse as normal. I came away with The Collected Short Stories of Jean Rhys, and Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen.

Any other Rhys fans here?

I've only read Voyage in the Dark RC - and I like it. So, not a fan, but a potential fan

I have several Rhys books on my wish list, but have not yet read her.

I've only read her Wide Sargasso Sea which I'm currently re-reading - and it makes we want to rush out and buy every word she's ever written!

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I have several Rhys books on my wish list, but have not yet read her."

She has something of Bowen's precision and lyricism in her prose, I think, and is particularly good at writing vulnerability in her female characters.

One of the books I have on my list is Good Morning, Midnight. If it is one you're hankering after, I'd be up for a buddy read January or later.

EDIT: And I just ordered a paperback copy, so I'd be ready. ;-)

Ooh yes! We have The Gulag Archipelago and Margaret Millar as buddy reads in January already so how about February?

Anyone else? Nigeyb?

February would be fine.

Excellent - I've added it to the group bookshelf with a February 15 start date - something to look forward to!

Possibly (he said, hedging his bets)

I updated the list, RC.

I came across this title the other week - Tales from the Colony Room: Soho's Lost Bohemia

I know Nigeyb is particularly fond of Soho and thought it might appeal.

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the closure of London’s most infamous arts establishment, the Colony Room Club in Soho, former member Darren Coffield has written the authorised history of this notorious drinking den. It’s a hair-raising romp through the underbelly of the post-war scene: during its sixty-year history, more romances, more deaths, more horrors and more sex scandals took place in the Colony than anywhere else.

In the regimented and repressed atmosphere of post-war London, the Colony was heroically bohemian, largely thanks to the dominant personality of its owner, Muriel Belcher. Muriel was a combination of muse, mentor, critic and guru to those who gathered around her, just as the Colony provided a home for the confluence of talents that will be forever associated with the artistic circle of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.

Tales from the Colony is an oral biography, consisting of previously unpublished and long-lost interviews with the characters who were central to the scene, giving the reader a flavour of what it was like to frequent the Club. With a glass in hand you’ll move through the decades listening to personal reminiscences, opinions and vitriol, from the authentic voices of those who were actually there.

On your voyage through Soho’s lost bohemia, you’ll be served a drink by James Bond, sip champagne with Francis Bacon, queue for the loo with Christine Keeler, go racing with Jeffrey Bernard, get laid with Lucian Freud, kill time with Doctor Who, pick a fight with Frank Norman and pass out with Peter Langan. All with a stellar supporting cast including Peter O’Toole, George Melly, Suggs, Lisa Stansfield, Dylan Thomas, Jay Landesman, Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst and many, many more.

Thanks Susan - sounds wonderful. Another one for the list.

It does sound good: I need to read more about post-war London as I'd never heard of the Colony Room.

ps. Thanks for updating the list, Susan - have you read Rhys? I *think* you'd enjoy her as you like those other women writing in the 1930s.

I have only read one Rhys and wasn't keen, I must admit. I read Voyage in the Dark and found it terribly depressing, as I recall.

Yes, I can see why you'd feel that - what I've read is full of melancholy lost women.

Perhaps I wasn't in the mood, but it left me a bit deflated and I didn't pick up another by her, so maybe just wasn't for me.

I think I've only read Wide Sargasso Sea, which I vaguely remember liking - as a lifelong Jane Eyre obsessive, it was great to read such a fine novel which is inspired by it but takes off in another direction.

Yes, I think Wide Sargasso Sea is more confrontational with respect to Jane Eyre than a straightforward prequel, with post-colonial and feminist approaches. I've just finished re-reading it (5 stars!) and have downloaded Rhys' unfinished autobiography, Smile Please, which deals with her own early life on Dominica and her relationship with her mother, both of which are reworked into Sargasso Sea.

Wide Sargosso Sea ranks as GR readers' favorite parallel novel; The Eyre Affair ranks as #20;
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

Brian wrote: "Wide Sargosso Sea ranks as GR readers' favorite parallel novel; The Eyre Affair ranks as #20;
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4..."

Do most of those people also like Jane Eyre? I can barely remember it, but I think I chalk it up as the reason I'm not interested in the Brontes.

What an interesting list, Brian! Sargasso may rank top but I was surprised at how many of the reviews are so-so giving it an average ratings here of just 3.59.

It's modernist in style and I think not everyone likes that kind of fragmented, open narrative.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Do most of those people also like Jane Eyre? I can barely remember it, but I think I chalk it up as the reason I'm not interested in the Brontes."

Loving Jane Eyre might not necessarily be the right criteria for loving Sargasso Sea - it's deconstructive of the dynamics that underpin Eyre. I've just read that Rhys was inspired to start writing her book because she was incensed by Eyre's treatment of the 'madwoman in the attic'.

I like Jane Eyre but far prefer Villette and the first half of Wuthering Heights. It's a bit unfair that the three Brontes should be bundled up together as they're quite different as novelists, I'd say.