Reading the 20th Century discussion

Nigeyb wrote: "OK, thanks Anubha - I'll seek out your review when I reread it."

Hey Nigeyb, I've given this a second thought and moved around my reading schedule a bit. I have decided to pick up Middlemarch for June. This way we can take up Vanity Fair in September. Let me know if that works for you?

Thanks Anubha


Either August or September work for me

Please let me know and I’ll set up the discussion

Nigeyb wrote: "Thanks Anubha
Either August or September work for me
Please let me know and I’ll set up the discussion"

August sounds perfect. My bad actually, I wasn't sure whether August qualified as Autumn or not. In India, August means monsoon. :D

I will follow the discussion with interest. I read Vanity Fair when I was still at school. I am in the middle of reading for Harrogate at the moment and have Proust forthcoming, but I would like to read it if I have time. I can hardly say re-read as it was so many years ago...

All I can remember is Becky S and that I really enjoyed it

I also remember liking it. I went through a phrase of devouring Classics at secondary school. Physically I was in a Seventies Comprehensive school, but mentally I was in the 1800s :)

Love it Susan

Here is the Vanity Fair buddy reads discussion scheduled for August 2024....


https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


PS: August in the UK is not Autumn (see earlier comments) but, having consulted my schedule, the timing is doable - just in case there was any confusion on the Summer/Autumn point. I'd say Autumn tends to start in late Sept/early October. By the time the clocks have gone back in late October it's usually getting chilly and Autumnal, bordering on Wintery

Nigeyb wrote: "August in the UK is not Autumn (see earlier comments) ... I'd say Autumn tends to start in late Sept/early October."

I always wondered if the UK even had an Autumn so that's nice to know.

The delineations between the seasons are less distinct it seems to me now the climate is so messed up. This year we seemed to go from Winter to Summer overnight without really a Spring to speak of. When I was younger the transitions were more distinctive, with each season having clear differences.

Nigeyb wrote: "Here is the Vanity Fair buddy reads discussion scheduled for August 2024....

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

Thank you Nigeyb for setting it up. Really looking forward to it.

PS: August in the UK is not Autumn (see earlier comments) but, having consulted my schedule, the timing is doable - just in case there was any confusion on the Summer/Autumn point. I'd say Autumn tends to start in late Sept/early October. By the time the clocks have gone back in late October it's usually getting chilly and Autumnal, bordering on Wintery

Thank you for clarifying. My only reference to the English weather is the Harry Potter series that I read as a teenager. They often mentioned September as rainy, when the school started.

Someday, I'd love to visit the Cotswolds in Autumn. It looks wonderful in pictures.

It's usually really hot when the kids go back to school after a miserable wet and rainy August!

I have been to Harrogate twice in July for the crime festival and all the promo shots show people sitting out eating ice cream and chatting in summer clothes. The last two years I've been, it's rained almost every day and been distinctly chilly. The photographer must have run out on the only sunny day they had to take the pictures...

Susan wrote: "It's usually really hot when the kids go back to school after a miserable wet and rainy August!

I have been to Harrogate twice in July for the crime festival and all the promo shots show people si..."

ohh... Thanks for the giving the real take Susan. Maybe Spring would be a better season to visit The Cotswolds then. Not sure when that will happen, but I hope soon.

A few more buddy reads added to our schedule:

The Two Faces of January - for those of us like me, Brian and Nigey who can't get enough Patricia HIghsmith, this will be in December 2024.

Magpie Murders - December 2024
Moonflower Murders - January 2025

We're reading these two ahead of Anthony Horowitz's new book in the series which is coming in March 2025, Marble Hall Murders.

Everyone is welcome, as always!

Roman Clodia wrote: "The Two Faces of January - for those of us like me, Brian and Nigey who can't get enough Patricia HIghsmith, this will be in December ..."

December works well. It was the only 2024 month that I didn't have a RTTC group or buddy read scheduled or read. Now my reading calendar feels more complete.

Thanks, RC

A couple of new buddy reads we've just agreed: Nigeyb, when you have time could you add them to our list please. I've set up threads and added them to our bookshelf.

November: A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary

December: A Murder in Announced by Agatha Christie (sorry, GR won't link to this) - part of our 'Educating Ben' series as he'd unaccountably never read Christie before!

I will probably skip the Christie, as the first six Marple's are on our Detectives challenge next year, RC, but can probably remember enough to dip in and out of the conversation.

Thanks!

Netgalley have got a new edition of And Then There Were None billed as the bestselling crime novel of all time - with the solution sealed in an envelope at the back!

I know it's a favourite of yours, Susan, we'll have to do it next year when Ben's in a Christie mood 🧐

Absolutely brilliant. I saw that it is being released.

I have a pen pot at work which I had made with 4 Christie covers, including the original cover for And Then There Were None

A couple of new releases that sound good: anyone fancy a buddy read? I'm on the library list:

Munichs by the brilliant David Peace

The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre

Two big events I don't really know about: the Munich air crash and the Iranian embassy siege.

I plan to read both but I am so busy at the moment with work, etc. I have had no reading time at all. I will pop back and see the discussions with interest when I finally get to them though.

Probably not for me, RC, although Ben MacIntrye is so good!

Yes, I am keen to read Ben MacIntyre but am currently reading the new Craig Brown and need to finish that before I even think about it.

I think David Peace is a fascinating writer, I really liked the Red Riding series, if like is the right word for such harrowing material. But I loathe football so not the right fit for his latest.

Alwynne wrote: "I think David Peace is a fascinating writer, I really liked the Red Riding series, if like is the right word for such harrowing material. But I loathe football so not the right fit for his latest."

I know pretty much nothing about football but Red Riding was such an experience I'm ready to try this.

No problem everyone - I was so proud that I'd been organised enough to get onto the library waitlists that I'm kind of showing off!!

Susan, I know what you mean about being too busy to read - somehow non-fiction seems to work better for me in times like this than fiction, maybe because my tired brain doesn't have to engage imaginatively, just follow along?

Definitely up for both but will wait till the price drops on them

I do have the Ben Macintyre - also the new Richard Osman and a host of others that I really want to read. I am enjoying the Craig Brown book about the Queen - odd to think how much I already knew about. Like she kind of infiltrated my brain without my realising it!

I’d like to try these RC, but our library doesn’t have them.

On our To the Lighthouse thread, we've been talking about mothers and fathers which has led to some of us agreeing to buddy read Mothers of the Mind: The Remarkable Women Who Shaped Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath. Just posting here in case anyone else is interested - we won't be doing it before the new year.

Just looking at our relatively empty list of buddy reads for 2025, I'm feeling that it's time for another Elizabeth Taylor.

Who's interested and what shall we choose?

In terms of her 'big' novels, I haven't read In a Summer Season, Palladian or A Game of Hide and Seek. Any other suggestions? Any preferences?

Ooh. Elizabeth Taylor has fast become a favorite author for me. I have A Game of Hide and Seek on my radar for next year, so that would be my vote!

Roman Clodia wrote: "Just looking at our relatively empty list of buddy reads for 2025, I'm feeling that it's time for another Elizabeth Taylor.

Who's interested and what shall we choose?

In terms of..."

She's one of many 20C writers I've never read who'd on my TBR list, so I'll likely join in, but I don't know enough to suggest a choice.

I've never read Thomas Mann's big novels, only Der Tod in Venedig and a smattering of short stories. Would anyone be interested in a buddy read of either The Magic Mountain or Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family? I'm thinking of early spring (2025), but am flexible on timing.

I think I am in for either or both Thomas Mann and Elizabeth Taylor. Keep me posted. As to the title, Magic Mountain is on my TBR but I do not have a copy of any books mentioned so allow time for me to get my copy/copies.

Kathleen wrote: "Ooh. Elizabeth Taylor has fast become a favorite author for me. I have A Game of Hide and Seek on my radar for next year, so that would be my vote!"

I'm easy with any of them so happy to go with this. Good to hear Phroderick and G may be joining - does anyone have a preference for dates? I'm thinking one of the months in 2025 that is currently empty.

G wrote: "I've never read Thomas Mann's big novels, only Der Tod in Venedig and a smattering of short stories. Would anyone be interested in a buddy read of either [book:The Magic Mountain|880..."

We did a buddy of The Magic Mountain in 2018 (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...) but that's long enough ago to come back to it. It still seems vivid in my head so I probably won't join, but the new discussion, if anyone would like to join G, can be added to the existing thread to avoid confusion.

I might be in for Buddenbrooks though - let me get a taster first.

I may well be tempted by a new Taylor but not 100% so don’t include me in any decisions about timing and title. I’ll be spontaneous when the time comes

Nigeyb wrote: "I may well be tempted by a new Taylor but not 100% so don’t include me in any decisions about timing and title. I’ll be spontaneous when the time comes"

That sounds more like my style.
Make your plans and I remain an absolutely, likely probable maybe, it could happen.

I love The Magic Mountain, but with Proust, I think it might be too much next year.

Next year I will reading the rest of the Wilt series, plus…


Possibly revisiting Ellroy’s The Underworld Trilogy, trying to clear more novels by Anita Brookner I own, more by Margaret Drabble, and a plethora of music books I’ve had for eons but not read. I reckon I own c400 unread books 😵‍💫

Oh, and more Wodehouse here

If any of that appeals please let me know

Gang aft agley

This was to be my year of trilogies. I had them all lined up if only in best-laid schemes.

poetry or not, life seemed to intervene

I'd be up for an Elizabeth Taylor .

Also Brookner. Have a few on my shelves

Wilt for sure. I’ve read all the earlier Brookner but decades ago and would love to revisit them. Interested in Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret Drabble too. So much to enjoy.

Great stuff - will come up with more concrete proposals

Any time is fine with me for the Taylor, and I'll be a maybe for the Drabble. Thanks!

I'm potentially interested in the Underworld trilogy (though I haven't read all the LA Quartet - not knowing it was a quartet when I jumped in!)

And possibly some Brookner, for a change of pace.

G, yes, I'd read Buddenbrooks with you.

2025 is going to be the year I finally finish all of Woolf's books - Jacob's Room, Between the Acts, The Waves - which I've been saying for a while.

And you don't have to ask about Wodehouse! For anyone not following the Blandings thread, we're thinking of continuing with the Drones Club, Monty Bodkin and whatever else catches our fancy.

Let's put A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor into March.

And Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann into April?