Pamelad's Clayton's Categories

Discussie2021 Category Challenge

Sluit je aan bij LibraryThing om te posten.

Pamelad's Clayton's Categories

1pamelad
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2020, 1:03 am

Hi, I'm Pam from Melbourne, a city of 5 million people in Victoria, Australia. I first joined the Category Challenge in 2009 when it was the 999 Challenge, with the aim of branching out from crime fiction. It worked so well that I don't need categories any more to broaden my reading, so this year I'm taking another tack and creating the categories after I've read the books. The plan is for quarterly categories.

Clayton's was a soft drink, famously advertised as "the drink you have when you're not having a drink", so now "Clayton's" is Australian for ersatz, hence the Clayton's Categories.

2pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 31, 2021, 4:45 am

January

1. Byzantium: The Early Centuries by John Julius Norwich
2. Living by Henry Green
3. The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer
4. Follow the Blue Car by R.A.J. Walling
5. The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer
6. The Demon in the House by Angela Thirkell
7. The Third Eye by Ethel Lina White
8. A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee/Violet Paget
9. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
10. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
11. A Few Days in the Country by Elizabeth Harrower
12. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
13. Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer
14. Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer
15. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer
16. First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn
17. Mike and Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
18. Elyza by Clare Darcy
19. Victoire by Clare Darcy
20. Murderer's Mistake by E.C.R. Lorac
21. False Colours by Georgette Heyer
22. A Toast to Tomorrow by Manning Cole
23. Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse
24. How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
25. Friends and Rivals by Brenda Niall
26. The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Ayme

February

27. Fire in the Thatch by E. C. R. Lorac
28. The Gilt-Edged Mystery by E. M. Channon
29. Voss by Patrick White
30. Doting by Henry Green
31. Psmith, Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse
32. The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning
33. Finding Eliza: power and colonial storytelling by Larissa Behrendt
34. Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
35. The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell
36. My Lady Notorious by Jo Beverley
37. Something Wicked by Jo Beverley
38. Devilish by Jo Beverley
39. The Little Nugget by P. G. Wodehouse
40. Escapade by Joan Smith
41. Delsie by Joan Smith
42. Spillover by David Quammen

March

43. Uneasy Money by P. G. Wodehouse
44. The Wife and the Widow by Christian White
45. The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer
46. The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
47. The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
48. The Man with Two Left Feet by P. G. Wodehouse
49. The Clandestine Betrothal by Alice Chetwynd Ley
50. Queen without a Crown by Fiona Buckley
51. The Toast of the Town by Alice Chetwynd Ley
52. A season at Brighton by Alice Chetwynd Ley
53. Marry in Haste by Jane Aiken Hodge
54. An Advantageous Marriage by Alice Chetwynd Ley
55. Escapade by Jane Aiken Hodge
56. A Highly Respectable Marriage by Sheila Walsh
57. The Pink Parasol by Sheila Walsh
58. Four in Hand by Stephanie Laurens
59. The Saint-Fiacre Affair by Georges Simenon
60. Fell Murder by E.C.R. Lorac
61. Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
62. Twice Dead by E. M. Channon
63. Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens
64. At Dark of the Moon by Alice Chetwynd Ley

3pamelad
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2020, 12:32 am

Apr-Jun

4pamelad
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2020, 12:32 am

July - Sep

5pamelad
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2020, 12:32 am

Oct - Dec

6pamelad
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2020, 12:33 am

History CAT

7pamelad
Bewerkt: apr 19, 2021, 6:20 am

Bingo Dog 1


1. One-word title Voss by Patrick White Completed
2. Marginalised group How To Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa Completed
3. Dark or light At Dark of the Moon by Alice Chetwynd Ley Completed
4. Character as friend Psmith, Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse Completed
5. Arts and recreation Mike and Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse Completed
6. Title describes me Living Henry Green Completed
7. Hearty recommendation Doting by Henry Green Completed
8. Nature or environment Spillover by David Quammen Completed
9. Classical element 27. Fire in the Thatch by E. C. R. Lorac Completed
10. Two or more authors A Toast to Tomorrow by Manning Clark Completed
11. Impulse read Friends and Rivals by Brenda Niall Completed
12. Love story The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer Completed
13. Read a CAT Byzantium: The Early Centuries by John Julius Norwich Completed
14. Southern hemisphere Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt Completed
15. Made me laugh Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse Completed
16. Suggested by another generation Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall Completed
17. New author Elyza by Clare Darcy Completed
18. Somewhere I'd like to visit Imprudent Lady by Joan Smith Completed
19. History The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer Completed
20. 20 or fewer members Follow the Blue Car by R.A.J. Walling Completed
21. 200 or fewer pages A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee Completed
22. Senior citizen The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman Completed
23. Building The Demon in the House Angela Thirkell Completed
24. Time A Few Days in the Country Elizabeth Harrower Completed
25. Magic The Man Who Walked Through Walls Marcel Ayme Completed

8pamelad
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2020, 1:27 am

Some of the books I keep meaning to read, but don't. This could be the year!

Conversations in the Cathedral
Voss
Stalingrad
Chronicle in Stone
This Blinding Absence of Light

I've read all but three of Henry Green's novels, so I'm going for completion. Two of them I already own, Living and Concluding. The third is Doting.

9MissWatson
nov 12, 2020, 5:25 am

>8 pamelad: Good luck with those books! Somehow my plans never seem to come to fruition.

10DeltaQueen50
nov 12, 2020, 12:44 pm

This looks like a fun challenge, Pam. It's be interesting to see what categories turn up.

11pamelad
nov 12, 2020, 3:04 pm

>9 MissWatson:, >10 DeltaQueen50: Thank you for dropping in.

12LittleTaiko
nov 12, 2020, 5:28 pm

Think that was the year I joined the group and with similar results. I still read a ton of mysteries but have definitely become more well rounded in my reading.

Good luck with your 2021 reading!

13rabbitprincess
nov 12, 2020, 6:52 pm

Looking forward to seeing how those categories turn out! I hope you have an excellent reading year and that you cross all those books in >8 pamelad: off the list. Good luck :)

14Tess_W
nov 12, 2020, 7:54 pm

I was wondering what Clayton was! Thanks for the mini culture lesson. Good luck with your reading in 2021.

15VivienneR
nov 12, 2020, 9:06 pm

Lovely, I've learned a new Australian word!

Fun challenge, I'll be following along to see how it works out.

16NinieB
nov 12, 2020, 10:05 pm

I have fond memories of visiting Melbourne in 2008! And I'm looking forward to seeing our reading continue to overlap.

17pamelad
nov 12, 2020, 10:41 pm

18majkia
nov 13, 2020, 1:52 pm

Hope your range-free categories work great for you this year! Clayton's and all!

19hailelib
nov 13, 2020, 7:47 pm

A different approach to the challenge! Good luck with your reading in 2021.

20pamelad
nov 14, 2020, 2:04 pm

>18 majkia:, >19 hailelib: Thank you for dropping in. Happy reading!

21JayneCM
nov 16, 2020, 6:35 am

Love it! I use Claytons all the time as an expression! Remember Jack Thompson in the ads? Great theme!

I will have to read Voss for Bingo as well. Every time I have a one word title challenge, I mean to read it and I still haven't. 2021 will have to be the year!

22pamelad
nov 16, 2020, 3:34 pm

>21 JayneCM: Hi Jayne. Good luck with Voss. I definitely remember Jack Thompson in the ads. Such a long time ago - he's 80 now!

23mstrust
nov 17, 2020, 1:25 pm

Wishing you good luck with your eclectic challenge this year!

24pamelad
nov 17, 2020, 2:41 pm

>23 mstrust: Thank you!

25Jackie_K
nov 21, 2020, 4:50 pm

Good luck with your reading! Clayton's is a new word/expression for me too.

26thornton37814
dec 4, 2020, 1:19 pm

Hope you have a great year of reading.

27pamelad
dec 8, 2020, 6:29 pm

>25 Jackie_K:, >26 thornton37814: Thank you Jackie and Lori.

28Helenliz
dec 15, 2020, 3:04 am

popping in to follow along. Looking forward to seeing how your reading works out in 2021.

29pamelad
dec 15, 2020, 4:34 am

>28 Helenliz: Welcome, Helen.

30pamelad
Bewerkt: dec 15, 2020, 4:50 pm

I've bought a book for the March HistoryCAT: The Habsburgs by Martyn Rady. It's reviewed in The Guardian here and looks really interesting.

I'll probably end up reading some of these HistoryCAT books outside their designated months.

It has been tagged medieval in LT, which is a very good thing because I can read it in January.

31Tess_W
dec 20, 2020, 7:30 am

>30 pamelad: Looking forward to your review on that one. I need to read up on my old friends, the Habsburgs.

32pamelad
Bewerkt: dec 20, 2020, 8:55 pm

>31 Tess_W: Here is The Guardian's review, which I read concurrently with a Regency romance featuring a projected marriage between first cousins. I kept hoping the heroine would find someone else. The Habsburgs are no recommendation!

33MissBrangwen
dec 21, 2020, 4:17 am

Branching out from crime fiction is exactly my main goal in joining this challenge! It's great to read that it has worked so well for you.

34mstrust
dec 29, 2020, 1:34 pm

35pamelad
dec 31, 2020, 1:34 pm

>34 mstrust: Happy New Year to you too!

36pamelad
dec 31, 2020, 11:59 pm

I started this one last week and finished it today.

Byzantium: The Early Centuries by John Julius Norwich

It starts in 306 with Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor of the Romans, and ends with Charlemagne and the division of the empire in 802. In-between are more than sixty emperors, wars, religious disagreements so deep that they divided society and led to emperors being overthrown, barbarian invasions, wars and brutality. So much brutality: tens of thousands of people put to death, often in a single day, because they'd supported the wrong man; blindings; tongues removed; noses removed; patricides, fratricides, matricides, filicides and infanticides, mariticides and uxoricides.

Norwich has an engaging writing style, and covers the ground smoothly. There are a lot of people to keep track of, and at times I felt I was drowning in blood, but that's Byzantium.

This is the first of three volumes. The next is Byzantium: The Apogee

37VivienneR
jan 1, 2021, 1:22 am

>36 pamelad: Nice review! I have to admit I know little about the Byzantium era. I like bloody fiction, not too sure about the real thing!

Happy New Year! I look forward to following your reading in 2021.

38lkernagh
jan 1, 2021, 1:09 pm

Happy New Year, Pam! Great idea to create your categories after you read the books. Wishing you a year fill ed with wonderful reading in 2021.

39Tess_W
jan 1, 2021, 1:37 pm

>36 pamelad: Great review and sounds like a great book. I'm a modern historian (post Renaissance) and therefore know little about Byzantium. I have put this book on my wish list for further study.

40pamelad
jan 2, 2021, 1:44 pm

>37 VivienneR:, >38 lkernagh: Welcome Vivienne and Lori. Happy New Year!

>36 pamelad: The HistoryCAT is going to be really interesting. I foresee adding many books to the wishlist, should I ever get out of the Middle Ages. There are two more books in the Byzantium series, another series on the Crusades by Stephen Runciman, and so many books about Mediaeval England!

41Crazymamie
jan 2, 2021, 4:19 pm

Dropping a star and hoping to see what you're reading when you are not branching out from crime fiction. *grin*

42pamelad
jan 2, 2021, 6:20 pm

Living by Henry Green

Right at he start you're thrown into a conversation on the factory floor between people you've never met, whose names you're coming across for the first time. After a chapter or so, people start to emerge from the crowd: Lily Gates, who keeps house for her father Joe, her father's friend Mr Craigan who is in charge, and the boarder, Jim Dale, who wants to marry Lily; Bert Jones, a foundry worker who Lily hopes will take her away from Birmingham and her dreary future. The factory workers and their political machinations emerge: Mr Bridges, who runs the foundry and listens to no one; Tarver, who wants Bridges' job; Tupe, the snivelling boss's man who runs to Bridges with tales about his fellow-workers. Then there's young Dupret, son of the factory owner, who's ordered around by his father, ignored by Bridges, and patronised by his father's assistant. If his father, who is old and ill, is to die, Dupret will be in charge and able to exert his authority over all the old men who he believes are holding him back.

It took a while to get into the book because I was very confused, but after a while everything started to make sense. It's about the working and home lives of the foundry workers, their bleak, poverty stricken futures, their lack of choice and control, their dependence on the good will of their managers and the foundry owner.

I've started Living a few times, and am pleased to have read it. It was well worth the effort.

43pamelad
jan 2, 2021, 6:24 pm

>41 Crazymamie: Welcome! I'll certainly be reading plenty of crime fiction.

44JayneCM
jan 3, 2021, 6:18 am

>42 pamelad: I have had Living on my TBR for a while - good to see I should definitely get to it soon!

45ELiz_M
jan 3, 2021, 8:37 am

>42 pamelad: It doesn't help that his syntax is a little off - the not using articles thing takes some getting used to. But, I agree, the characters and stories are worth it!

46pamelad
jan 3, 2021, 3:42 pm

>44 JayneCM: It's nice and short!

>45 ELiz_M: It was the lack of 'the' that put me off the first few times because to me it read as dialect, mimicking the speech of northerners, so I thought it was patronising. Superficial judgement on my part.

47pamelad
jan 4, 2021, 2:54 am

The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer

Elinor Rochdale, a young woman of good breeding, is in circumstances so reduced that she must support herself by working as a governess. She has travelled by the stage to an inn where she expects to be collected by a servant of her new employer, Mrs Macclesfield. When a gentleman asks her if she is the lady who has replied to the advertisement she says she is and, gratefully gets into the carriage. After a much longer drive than she expects, Elinor arrives at a decrepit mansion and learns that another woman had agreed to marry Eustace, the drunken cousin of Lord Carlyon, the man who had collected Elinor at the inn. When Elinor marries the dying Eustace, she becomes drawn into a plot involving secret passages, Bonaparte spies, murder and violence, all dealt with as an amusing adventure!

Although the plot is very silly, I enjoyed The Reluctant Widow. Elinor is a capable and entertaining heroine.

48spiralsheep
jan 4, 2021, 6:05 am

>47 pamelad: I remember The Reluctant Widow not being amongst my favourite Heyer romances, but it's still a Heyer Regency so there's a guaranteed minimum quality of both writing and entertainment value. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

49JayneCM
jan 4, 2021, 6:24 am

>47 pamelad: I so wish my mum had kept her Georgette Heyer books. She had the ones with the white top half and the drawing in a circle. I think she was a little ashamed of them as not 'proper' books - my grandpa, her father-in-law, was Deputy Manager of Oxford University Press in Australia - so I think she felt she should be reading real books! She had what seemed to be hundreds of these books but I just googled and she published 32 novels. Mum also had Jean Plaidy and she published 91, so maybe they have all ended up together in my mind!

I see you read Too Much Lip - what did you think? Another one that has been on my list for a while.

50spiralsheep
jan 4, 2021, 6:41 am

>49 JayneCM: I don't know if this helps console you, but I have several of those Pan edition paperbacks and the physical books don't age well.

51Helenliz
jan 4, 2021, 7:01 am

>49 JayneCM: My Mum had Heyer and Plaidy's books and I shunned them as they were soppy romances. When we cleared the house, I got all the Heyer books. Most of them are the Pan editions you've described and, like >50 spiralsheep:, I can confirm that they've not worn well. Not yet found any missing pages, but several are looking somewhat the worse for wear.

52pamelad
jan 4, 2021, 2:21 pm

>48 spiralsheep: I concur. There are no bad Heyers.

>49 JayneCM: Where would we be without escapist literature? Sometimes it's all you want to read. I had a look at Jean Plaidy, but her books are based on real historical people, which is a bit iffy. But if I come across one in the library I'll give it a go. Do you think you'll read any Heyers this year? Too Much Lip has been on the Kindle for a while, so I've stuck it on the Bingo card as a possibility for the marginalised group square.

>51 Helenliz: Sometimes a soppy romance hits the spot!

53pamelad
jan 5, 2021, 12:25 am

Follow the Blue car by R.A.J. Walling

A thirties mystery by a member of the Detection club. I'd enjoyed They Liked Entwhistle, so decided to give this one a go for the fewer than 20 on LT Bingo square. Not much of a crime, and a lot of talking. Its obscurity is deserved.

The book I'd meant to read for the fewer than 20 square is Of Mortal Love by William Gerhardie. I ordered a copy on Abe Books, and it's in very good condition for a fifty-year-old paperback, but the combination of browning pages and tiny print makes it hard to read, so I've put it aside for now.

54spiralsheep
jan 5, 2021, 5:46 am

>53 pamelad: "Its obscurity is deserved."

Lol! Yes, so many times I've found even my mild hopes for a rediscovered novel were too high.

"The book I'd meant to read for the fewer than 20 square is Of Mortal Love by William Gerhardie."

Interesting rec from CP Snow, I see.

55Tess_W
jan 5, 2021, 7:55 am

>53 pamelad: I've been wanting to purchase this book, also. I have found plenty of 1982 editions, but I've read where there was a 2009-2011 reprint, but I can't find any. I don't usually read tree books, as the print is too small, but I really would like to read it!

56pamelad
jan 5, 2021, 4:02 pm

>54 spiralsheep: The Polyglots and Futility are readily available, if you'd like to give William Gerhardie a try. I recommend them highly. (Why no touchstone for Futility? So random.)

>55 Tess_W: I've just had a look at my hard back copy of Futility, The revised definitive edition of the works of William Gerhardie, published by St Martins Press in 1971, and compared it to the paperback of Of Mortal Love. The print in the hardback is much more readable, larger and darker. So I've ordered Of Mortal Love in this edition, and because it was there, Pending Heaven in the same edition.

57Zozette
Bewerkt: jan 7, 2021, 3:48 am

My mum had many Georgette Heyer and Jean Plaidy books. I know I read all of the Jean Plaidy, but only a couple of the Georgette Heyer. I was only a teenager when I read the Georgette Heyer, I wonder if I would enjoy them now?

58Tess_W
jan 6, 2021, 9:18 am

>56 pamelad: I found a copy of Of Mortal Love 1971 on Amazon. I emailed the owner and asked if the pages were yellow. She said no. I ordered it. I emailed her again after I ordered and advised if the pages were yellow I was returning it. We shall see!

59pamelad
jan 7, 2021, 3:00 am

>58 Tess_W: I hope it turns out OK. Mine too, because I don't need two unreadable copies!

>57 Zozette: Why not put your brain in undemanding romance gear and have a go?

60pamelad
jan 7, 2021, 3:22 am

The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer

Captain Staples is on his way to visit his friend Babbacombe, when he gets lost in the dark. He is relieved to come across a building, which turns out to be a toll-gate, manned by a frightened boy whose father has disappeared. Staples, who is a man-mountain stays the night in the toll house and the next day falls instantly in love with the large grand-daughter, Nell, of the local nobleman, Sir Peter Stornaway, who is on his death bed. So Staples stays on, pretending to be a toll-keeper, so he can be near Nell.

There is quite an adventure, but it does not involve Nell, who does not play a large enough role for my liking. Sir Peter's shifty heir has invited Coate, one of society's fringe-dwellers, to stay in his grandfather's house and they are clearly involved in something criminal. There is a bow street runner in the mix, a highway man, and a large limestone cave.

This was just OK, because the boys were having an exciting time while the girls stayed home.

61pamelad
Bewerkt: jan 7, 2021, 5:57 pm

Our book club is re-starting and the first book is Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey. From the blurb: The souls or ten animals caught up in human conflicts over the last century tell their astonishing stories of life and death.

I cannot express how much I loathe this book. It is a collection of short stories and I have managed to read two, but the third features a chimp who is writing letters, and I just cannot continue. Anthropomorphism is not for me!

One exception: Animal Farm.

62Tess_W
jan 8, 2021, 2:25 pm

>61 pamelad: I agree, Pam. I love Animal Farm and use it regularly in my teaching.

63pamelad
Bewerkt: jan 10, 2021, 12:27 am

The Demon in the House by Angela Thirkell

This is the third book in the Barsetshire series, and is unlike any of the others I've read in that there is almost no romance, and the main character is an 11-year-old boy. Tony is the youngest son of Laura Morland, who supports her three boys and pays their school fees by writing books. The older boys no longer live at home, and Tony lives there only during the holidays because middle-class people like Laura send their little boys to boarding school. The three sections of the book cover Tony's exploits during the Easter holidays, the half-term holiday and the summer holidays. For most of the time he is accompanied by his friend Donk, a silent child who plays the mouth organ. Tony is an enormously verbose and egotistical child; he knows everything and loves to boast.

I was amused by Donk and Tony, and thought this a pleasant, undemanding read. It is available for free on Gutenberg Canada.

The Third Eye by Ethel Lina White

This thirties crime novel is available on Gutenberg Australia. Caroline, who has been sharing a small flat with her sister and brother-in-law and feels she's in the way, finds a job as a games mistress at a girls' school. Because she is the unacademic one of a clever family, the Beloved Fool, who can't qualify as a teacher because she can't pass exams, she's lucky to find a job at all. When Caroline arrives at the school she finds that the intimidating matron is implicated in the death of the previous games mistress and has too much control over the school principal. By uncovering the matron's incompetence, Carolina puts herself at risk.

Ethel Lina White wrote The Wheel Spins on which Hitchcock's film The Lady Vanishes ( on Tubi, if you're interested) was based. It's is the best of the books of hers that I've read.

I liked The Third Eye for: the eerie atmosphere; the Silverline bus, which dominated the second half of the book; Carolina finding a job instead of moaning about being poor; the fabulous names of two other important characters, Blanche Bat a.k.a Miss Bat of Bat House, and the matron, Miss Yaxley-Moore.

64NinieB
jan 10, 2021, 11:24 am

>63 pamelad: I'm glad you liked The Demon in the House more than I did.

65Zozette
Bewerkt: jan 10, 2021, 3:05 pm

I listening to ‘The Lady Vanishes’ as an audiobook several years ago. I did not realise that it had originally been published under a different title. I always meant to read more books by Ethel Lina White. I just added The Spiral Staircase (aka Some Must Watch) to my Wishlist as it seems to be the only other of her books that is available as an audiobook.

66pamelad
jan 10, 2021, 11:09 pm

>65 Zozette: I liked that one, so hope you do.

A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee/Violet Paget

I came across this book in an article about Reclaim Her Name. 25 books, originally published under male pseudonyms, were re-released under the writers' female names to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction. Unfortunately, the research was poor, mistakes were made, and the celebration is no more. Vernon Lee, for example, dressed in men's clothing and called herself Vernon, not Violet.

This is a Victorian ghost story, an atmospheric novella about the exquisite Alice Okes, her unfortunate husband, and a story from the past that infiltrates the present. An excellent choice for the fewer than 200 pages Bingo square, and it's free!

67lkernagh
jan 12, 2021, 1:35 pm

>66 pamelad: - Glad to see you enjoyed A Phantom Lover as much as I did! Such a great story!

68pamelad
jan 12, 2021, 2:39 pm

>66 pamelad: Good writing as well. So glad you popped in. I just couldn't remember who'd recommended this on LT!

69pamelad
jan 12, 2021, 7:13 pm

The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer

When Lord Darracort's oldest son dies in a boating accident, an unacknowledged grandson becomes the heir. Hugh Darracort's father was disowned for a mesalliance, and apart from his grandfather, noone in the family knows of Hugh's existence. His other grandfather was a weaver, and since the deaths of Hugh's parents, has brought him up in Yorkshire, where Hugh has apparently acquired a broad local accent, an enormous liability for a member of the quality.

Lord Darracort is a tyrannical old despot, who dislikes almost everyone in the family apart from his indulged grandson Richmond, brother of the heroine, Anthea. The old man tries to compel Hugh and Anthea to marry, which antagonises them both, but they become friends all the same. Hugh, an army Major, eventually overcomes the antipathy of his relatives and shows himself to be indispensable.

Anthea had too little to do here. The main protagonists were Richmond, Hugh, and their cousins Vincent and Claud, who were caught up with smugglers, secret passages and policemen. The book was entertaining, but I prefer those where the heroine plays an important part.

70pamelad
jan 13, 2021, 10:30 pm

The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer

The sixth Earl of St Erth had two sons, his much-loved second son Martin, by his second wife, and his loathed elder son and heir, Gervase, whose mother had disgraced herself by deserting her husband. A year after the old earl's death, Gervase returns to the family seat to find that his step-mother and half-brother had hoped for his death, as a soldier in the Napoleonic wars, and were angry and disappointed at his survival. The only person who appears to be pleased to see him is his cousin Theo, the agent.

There's a little bit of romance, and quite a bit of mystery. There are two young women: the beautiful, sunny-natured heiress, Marianne Boldrewood and the sensible, practical, dumpy Drusilla Morville. The four men, who seem to be in competition for Marianne, are St Erth, Martin, Theo and St Erth's friend, Ulverston. But more important than romance are the attempts on St Erth's life. Is hte culprit Martin, racked with jealousy and resentment? The evidence certainly points that way.

The women were stuck at home again in this book. I was pleased to see that Drusilla was so capable, but I would have liked her to get out more.

71NinieB
jan 13, 2021, 10:55 pm

You are really on a roll with the Heyers! How many have you read in the last few weeks--surely more than 10?

72pamelad
jan 14, 2021, 12:51 am

>71 NinieB: 24 in a bit under 8 weeks. They're cheerful and undemanding, and have little to do with reality. When you read them on an e-reader, you can use the dictionary to find things out e.g. What's sarsenet, or fustian? I like a bit of historical detail. Should we drive out in the phaeton or the curricle?

73Helenliz
jan 14, 2021, 4:02 am

>72 pamelad: depends how fast and how comfortable you want the drive to be. It's the SUV or the open topped sports car debate. >:-)

74MissBrangwen
jan 14, 2021, 5:34 am

I haven‘t read any Georgette Heyer but want to do so one day, because I think I would like it as comfort reading. Where would you recommend I should start? There are so many!

75NinieB
jan 14, 2021, 6:51 pm

>72 pamelad: OK, I was going to say 15 but thought I was overestimating!!

I love to look stuff like that up when I'm reading, even if I'm reading in print, but I'm more likely to if I'm reading digitally.

76Tess_W
jan 14, 2021, 8:01 pm

Oh, I can't wait to get started on a Heyer!

77pamelad
jan 14, 2021, 11:48 pm

>74 MissBrangwen: I like a spirited and capable heroine who marries outside the family, so would recommend Frederica, Venetia and Arabella. I'm less enthusiastic about the books where the women are in the background, and am not very happy when they marry cousins, but haven't come across a boring Heyer.

>75 NinieB: I kept thinking I'd read enough of them, but a hold would become available, I'd start, then I'd keep going. I've put a couple aside because I remembered too much about them, but fortunately my memory is terrible!

>76 Tess_W: I hope I haven't over-hyped her! They're light, frivolous and often humorous. Enjoy your first.

78pamelad
jan 16, 2021, 10:01 pm

A Few Days in the Country by Elizabeth Harrower

In the fifties Harrower's writing was praised by Christina Stead and Patrick White, deservedly, because she is that good. She writes with lightness, irony and humour about kind, diffident people, dominated and destroyed by malicious domestic tyrants who create misery because they can. You feel for these victims. Their suffering haunts you. But they accept the devastation, learn, and carry the damage with them. Harrower's people do not wallow: they accept.

I also recommend The Long Prospect and The Watch Tower.

79NinieB
jan 16, 2021, 11:02 pm

Lightness, irony, and humor are all things I like--yet another author to watch for.

80JayneCM
jan 17, 2021, 12:52 am

>78 pamelad: I haven't seen this book of stories - on the list it goes!

81pamelad
jan 17, 2021, 2:34 pm

>79 NinieB: It's the writing style that's light. The stories themselves are small tragedies. Harrower reminds me in a way of Shirley Jackson: that lightness of touch, the apt and unusual imagery, the humour, the domestic tyrants and the trapped victims. But there's nothing supernatural in Harrower's writing, and her characters aren't so strange. She's definitely worth looking out for. Text has republished all of her books.

>80 JayneCM: Another one for your Text collection!

82pamelad
jan 17, 2021, 2:56 pm

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

A light and entertaining mystery. The Thursday Murder Club consists of four people in their late seventies, who live in a retirement complex. (Osman calls them pensioners, but you would not get away with this in Australia because the self-funded retirees would be very annoyed.) Joyce was a nurse, Elizabeth a spy, perhaps, Ibrahim a psychologist, and Ron a militant trade union leader. The founding member, Penny, was a police officer who provided the files of the unsolved cases that the group investigates, but she can no longer participate. When one of the complex's business partners is murdered, the club members are delighted to have a real-life murder to investigate.

The book was a tiny bit twee, but entertaining and good-hearted, so I enjoyed it. The retirees were satisfyingly capable people, with individual personalities.

83NinieB
jan 17, 2021, 3:09 pm

>81 pamelad: I want to say that tragedy written lightly and ironically is just fine for me. But thinking about it I'm not sure. It's obvious I need to read some of this to see what I think.

84NinieB
jan 17, 2021, 5:27 pm

So . . . I found a copy of the short stories on Internet Archive and read about half of them. They're not what I would call light, in that they are mostly tragic, but I also see how you are using the term. There's a grace and litheness to her writing. Certainly shades of irony as well. While I won't finish them today, I will soon, and I'm planning to read the novels you mention as well--The Long Prospect looks particularly interesting.

85MissBrangwen
jan 17, 2021, 11:55 pm

>77 pamelad: Thank you, now I‘ve got a place to start!

86pamelad
jan 18, 2021, 9:27 pm

Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer

Serena Carlow's father, an earl, has just died, leaving his title and entailed estate to a dull cousin, and a fortune to his daughter. Serena's money is not hers to manage, however, because her father left it to be managed by Lord Rotherham, a marquis, to whom Serena was once engaged. Serena and Rotherham are volatile, domineering characters, who clash whenever they meet.

Serena moves with her father's young widow, the kind and brainless Fanny, to the Dower House, where they find life tedious, then to Bath. In Bath Serena runs across an old flame, Hector. There's a third young woman in the mix, Emily, a young neighbour of Serena's, with a crass, designing mother who would marry her to any toothless old man as long as he was rich and of high rank. She is the daughter of the formidable Mrs Floore, Emily's doting grandmother.

There is a tangle of engagements between ill-assorted couples, complicated by the rules of gentlemanly behaviour that won't allow a man to cry off even when he realises that he is betrothed to the wrong woman.

Entertaining, although I wasn't all that keen on Serena and Rotherham who were tiresomely argumentative.

87pamelad
jan 19, 2021, 5:23 pm

Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

Sir Gareth Ludlow still mourns for his fiancee Clarissa, who died seven years ago, but must marry to provide an heir, so he decides to make an offer for Lady Hester Theale, who has been left on the shelf. Hester must decide whether to agree to this loveless marriage. On the way to the Hester's family's house, Sir Gareth comes across a very young woman, Amanda, who has run away from home, and takes her with him because she has no idea what risks she is taking. Hester's family believes Amanda is Sir Gareth's mistress, and a disreputable uncle spirits her away. Sir Gareth goes in pursuit, and ends up in a great deal of trouble, caused by the heedless Amanda and a young man they meet along the way.

Enjoyable.

88Tess_W
Bewerkt: jan 19, 2021, 8:33 pm

Hi Pam! Just wanted to let you know I started my first Heyer today, The Convenient Marriage, and I'm loving it. I will probably finish tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!

89pamelad
jan 19, 2021, 11:11 pm

Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer

Deborah Grantham is a croupier in a gambling establishment run by her aunt, Lady Bellingham. The young Lord Mablethorpe fancies himself in love with Deborah and has proposed, angering his mother and his older cousin, Max Ravenscar. Believing Deborah to be a jade who is out to profit from an inexperienced boy's infatuation, Ravenscar tries to pay Deborah off. She determines to pay him back for insulting her.

Another enjoyable story, and relatively short. Lots of humour.


90pamelad
jan 19, 2021, 11:12 pm

>88 Tess_W: Very pleased to hear it! I envy you having so many to read for the first time.

91christina_reads
jan 20, 2021, 11:50 am

>88 Tess_W: The Convenient Marriage was my first Heyer as well! I immediately proceeded to read every other Heyer I could get my hands on...I hope it convinces you to do the same! :)

92pamelad
jan 20, 2021, 2:55 pm

First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn

Very few Heyers left to read, so I gave this Regency romance a try in the hope of stretching them out. It's a prequel to The Bridgertons series. No period details, very little plot. I was thinking that all that sex got in the way of the plot, but it is the plot. Not my cup of tea.

93pamelad
jan 20, 2021, 3:20 pm

Mike and Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse

Mike's father has removed him from his school, Wykym, after yet another bad report and sent him to Sedleigh, a small school with the reputation of making its students work hard. On his first day Mike meets the emaciated, monocle-wearing Psmith, whose father has removed him from Eton for the same reason. There's a lot of cricket in this book, and a lot of ragging (boys creating havoc for amusement). I smiled a lot and laughed a couple of times, so will claim it for the Made you Laugh Bingo square and read more in the Psmith series.

I've started a few improving books - The Habsburgs, The Invention of Nature and Fascism: A Warning - but they're not what I want to read at the moment, so I'm continuing with frivolity and escapism and starting Margery Sharp's The Stone of Chastity.

94Tess_W
jan 20, 2021, 6:39 pm

Pam, do you only read the Heyer romances? I noticed that there are books in a detective series. Are they any good?

95NinieB
jan 20, 2021, 10:45 pm

>94 Tess_W: I love the Heyer detective novels, which are very Golden Age.

96Helenliz
jan 21, 2021, 3:35 am

>94 Tess_W: I've also read a few. All very detailed and hang together convincingly.

97pamelad
jan 21, 2021, 4:43 am

>94 Tess_W: I've read them all and enjoyed them. The three I've given the highest ratings to are The Unfinished Clue, They Found Him Dead and Envious Casca. Bright young things, country houses, butlers, wills, quite light-hearted, witty conversations. But while Heyer is peerless as a writer of Regency romances (except for Jane Austen) there are better mystery writers. She wrote entertaining pretty-good mysteries, not at all bleak. Worth seeking out.

98pamelad
Bewerkt: jan 21, 2021, 5:12 am

Just read Elyza by Clare Darcy and liked it, though some sections might have been lifted from Georgette Heyer's books e.g. a curricle race I'm sure I just read about in Faro's Daughter, and talk of the sword of Damocles that reminded me very much of similar talk about Nemesis in Cotillion.

Elyza Leigh has run away dressed as a boy to escape a proposal. Her purse has been stolen so she is unable to pay her bill at the posting inn, but she is helped by a rich and mysterious stranger, Cleve Redmayne. Redmayne is a Gatsbyish character, a man of mysterious antecedents and fabulous wealth, who dreams of the beautiful Corinna Mayfield, and will go to any lengths to meet her. Elyza is the daughter of sir Robert Leigh, a diplomat who spends little time with her. He married beneath him, an inn-keeper's daughter who died when Elyza was two.

If you're running out of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, Elyza is definitely worth a try.

99christina_reads
jan 21, 2021, 10:44 am

>94 Tess_W: Count me in as someone else who enjoys Heyer's detective stories, though I agree with >97 pamelad: that there are better Golden Age mystery writers. One of the mysteries, Penhallow, is very bleak, in my opinion. But I especially loved Death in the Stocks, A Blunt Instrument, and Envious Casca!

>98 pamelad: I've read a couple of Clare Darcy's books in the past. They are clearly Heyer ripoffs, but as you say, if you've run out of Heyer and need more, Darcy's novels will work! :)

100pamelad
jan 21, 2021, 8:40 pm

>99 christina_reads: There's a special offer on 3 months of Kindle Unlimited, which has quite a few Clare Darcys, so I'll try another. As a service, you'll understand.

I've just given up on The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell. The reviews said it was funny, but I'm a third of the way through and he hasn't stopped moaning. He keeps slagging off his customers, which I don't find at all amusing. On the contrary, he comes across as an arrogant and unpleasant man.

101pamelad
jan 22, 2021, 2:56 am

Victoire by Clare Darcy

Enough Clare Darcy. This was quite readable, but seemed like a cut and paste of a few Georgette Heyer novels. I recognise many aspects of the heroine from These Old Shades, voyons?

102pamelad
jan 22, 2021, 10:17 pm

Planning some BingoDog reads. If I put Voss in the the One Word Title square, I can use Living for the square that describes me.

Can put Clare Darcy in new to me author. Excellent.

103pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 21, 2021, 7:11 pm

Murderer's Mistake by E.C.R. Lorac was first published in 1946. Like Crossed Skis, which I read last year, there are many loving descriptions of food. It's set in the countryside in Lancashire, so there is plenty of fresh milk, cream and butter, meat and fruit. Perhaps in the cities people still depended on powdered eggs and milk, and were missing fresh food. There is also much lighting of fires. In one of Angela Thirkell's books written around the same time, the characters also appreciate a good fire, and Thirkell explains that for the duration of the war there was not enough fuel, so people could never get warm.

I was not engaged by the plot, and was more interested in reading about living conditions after the war. One of the characters is a petty criminal who is part of a ring that trades in clothing coupons. Because he is a coward, he has moved from London to the north of England. Another character gives away secrets of his background during the long nights of duty as an air raid warden, when there is often not much to do but talk to ones colleagues.

Giles Hogget, a farmer, owns a cottage which the family uses for holidays in the summer time. When he visits it to check that it is in condition to survive the coming winter, he finds evidence that a stranger has been there. On checking inside he finds a number of things missing, and becomes concerned that a crime has been committed, so he writes to Inspector MacDonald in London. MacDonald finds an excuse to come to Lancashire, and ends up investigating the crime.

I would recommend this book for the descriptions of the Lancashire countryside and the details of life after the war, but not for the plot or the characters.

104thornton37814
jan 23, 2021, 4:04 pm

>103 pamelad: If it does a good job describing Lancashire, it sounds like something that might appeal to me. I'm sure I'll get around to it at some point. Crossed Skis has been on my wish list for some time too.

105NinieB
jan 23, 2021, 8:18 pm

>103 pamelad: Crook o' Lune is another of Lorac's Lancashire-set mysteries. I don't remember much about the plot, but the setting was great.

106hailelib
jan 24, 2021, 10:31 am

>97 pamelad:
Have you noticed that many of Heyer’s romances are also mysteries or at least contain an element of mystery?

107pamelad
jan 24, 2021, 2:24 pm

>106 hailelib: You're right. At the moment I'm reading False Colours and wondering, "Where is Evelyn?" The mystery of the red-haired page in These Old Shades also pops into my mind.

108pamelad
jan 24, 2021, 8:11 pm

False Colours by Georgette Heyer

Kit Fancot arrives in London to find that his twin brother Evelyn is missing. Kit's mother persuades him to impersonate his brother at a dinner to celebrate Evelyn's engagement to Cressida Stavely. Evelyn and Cressida are planning a marriage of convenience so that Cressida can escape her father's household after his marriage to a woman barely older than herself, and so Evelyn can gain control over his capital and pay his mother's debts. As a plot device the debts are a bit thin, I think, but no matter. Kit and Cressy are appealing characters, the dowager Lady Stavely is amusing, and everything works out for the best.

109pamelad
jan 25, 2021, 2:56 pm

It's Australia Day, the commemoration of the arrival of the first fleet in 1788. 11 British ships carrying convicts arrived in New South Wales. Many people want the date of Australia Day changed because to them it celebrates the aboriginal people's dispossession. I concur. It has become a day of division rather than unity.

110Tess_W
jan 25, 2021, 3:23 pm

>109 pamelad: same as our Columbus Day.

111pamelad
jan 25, 2021, 3:57 pm

For Australia Day I've just bought two books by Stan Grant, Talking to My Country and Australia Day. Grant is a journalist, an Aboriginal Australian.

113pamelad
jan 27, 2021, 1:47 am

A Toast to Tomorrow by Manning Coles

A man is discovered in the ocean, in Germany, still alive but with a damaged face and a serious head wound. He eventually recovers physically, but after many months has no idea who he is. He adopts the name of a doctor who treats him, adopts a kind elderly woman as an aunt, and finds work. he believes he is German.

This spy story is set mainly in Germany in 1938. Hitler is in power. I can't say more because it would be too easy to give away the plot, which is breathtakingly ludicrous. It romps along and, if you can suspend disbelief, is an entertaining read.

Manning and Coles are two people, so this book can fill the two or more authors Bingo square.

114Tess_W
jan 27, 2021, 1:50 am

>113 pamelad: Ooooooooooo, sounds good. On my WL it goes!

115pamelad
jan 27, 2021, 1:51 am

Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse

Psmith and Mike end up working in a bank run by Mr Bickersdike. Mike's mind is on cricket and Psmith's is, as usual, on managing people's lives. He's a very funny man. I enjoyed this and am now reading Psmith, Journalist.

116pamelad
jan 27, 2021, 1:53 am

>114 Tess_W: You made me laugh. So breathtakingly ludicrous is just your cup of tea?

117Tess_W
jan 27, 2021, 2:02 am

>116 pamelad: Well, since Germany was really the focus of my historical studies, I read almost anything that comes from Germany, or is WWII related......and that phrase, "breathtakingly ludicrous" made me laugh! I may change my mind by the time of my thingaversary..........

118scaifea
jan 28, 2021, 8:27 am

>113 pamelad: You had me at "breathtakingly ludicrous." Adding it to my list!

119pammab
jan 29, 2021, 12:15 am

Lots of books caught my eye! A Toast to Tomorrow piqued my interest, as did both the Stan Grant books -- though I think I'll take a note only on Australia Day, because I'm not sure I'm cognizant enough of Australian politics to be able to start with a memoir and appreciate it.

120pamelad
jan 29, 2021, 3:55 pm

I'll be interested to see what everyone thinks of A Toast to Tomorrow. It was published in 1940, and even though the plot is unlikely, the book covers the fall of the Weimar Republic, the collapse of the currency, and the conditions that led to the rise of Hitler.

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa is a short story collection about Lao refugees in Canada. Most of the characters seem adrift. The adults have escaped a war, spent many years in refugee camps and are now working in physically demanding, badly paid jobs with no hope of advancement. A couple of the stories show the invisibility of the Lao workers who are passed over for promotion in favour of young inexperienced white people. Others show the fractured relationships between parents and children, husbands and wives. A light-hearted story about trick or treating was a welcome relief.

Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers by Brenda Niall

The writers are Ethel Turner, Barbara Baynton, Henry Handel Richardson and Nettie Palmer, only one of whom, Henry Handel Richardson, could be described as great.

Turner wrote the much-loved children's classic, Seven Little Australians, and churned out a book a year for decades to support her family. She had ambitions of writing literary masterpieces for adults, but was driven by the need to earn money. She ended up in the middle-class, but certainly didn't start there.

Barbara Baynton was new to me. She also had a difficult start in life, one of many children in a large, poverty-stricken family, deserted by her husband and left destitute with three children. Baynton ended up a rich woman with a title. She wrote bleak short stories about women's lives in the bush.

Henry Handel Richardson wrote The Getting of Wisdom, which we read at school and called The Wetting of Gisdom, and The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney, the last volume of which, Ultima Thule, was widely acclaimed as masterpiece and is almost unbearably tragic to read.

Nettie Palmer was also new to me. She wrote some poetry and a lot of journalism and was a great supporter of Australian writers. Like Ethel Turner she was driven by the need to earn money. She worked to allow her husband, Vance Palmer to fulfil what she saw as his enormous potential.

Friends and Rivals was a bit superficial, as you'd expect with four writers covered in a short book. The author seems to approve of everyone except Henry Handel Richardson, who comes across as a leech.

121pamelad
Bewerkt: jan 31, 2021, 1:07 am



The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Aymé

There is a statue in Paris of Marcel Aymé, the writer of this wonderful collection of short stories which was first published in 1943 when Paris was under German occupation and the war seemed as though it would go on forever. In the title story, a lowly clerk discovers that he can walk through walls, so he suspends himself on the wall of boss's office like a hunting trophy, and tells the boss what he thinks of him. It's sympathetic, ironic and sad, and very funny.

In Tickets on Time it is decreed that people will be allocated life according to their usefulness. As a writer, the narrator is allocated two weeks of life a month. On the fifteenth of the month life stops, and it resumes on the fist of the next month. In the meantime, workers continue their lives, but they are often poor and unable to pay for fuel and food, so they sell some of their days. It all seems quite reasonable according to Aymé's logic, and is a brilliant example of the arbitrariness of rulers and the impotence of the citizens.

Aymé's sympathies are with the poor and the powerless. With wit and charm he pushes the possible beyond the ridiculous and creates little philosophical masterpieces.

Here is a a review from The Guardian.

122Crazymamie
jan 31, 2021, 6:31 am

>121 pamelad: You got me with this one - adding it to The List. Love the statue!

123rabbitprincess
jan 31, 2021, 9:13 am

>121 pamelad: Like Mamie, I'm adding this to my list!

124Tess_W
jan 31, 2021, 11:36 pm

>121 pamelad: to my ever expanding WL it goes!

125pamelad
feb 1, 2021, 3:16 am

>122 Crazymamie:, >123 rabbitprincess:, >124 Tess_W: Very happy to share this book with you. There are so many classics we might never find, particularly those in other languages.

126pamelad
feb 1, 2021, 4:39 am

Fire in the Thatch by E. C. R. Lorac

This was an unsatisfactory mystery. The murder victim was good man who had been introduced at length, so the reader was invested in him. The murderer was a madman, and in the end he shot himself. The locals spoke dialect. There were a lot of irrelevant characters who had very little to do. You could tell one woman was a tart because she wore make-up, but didn't wear tweeds.

Fortunately, the title contains an element. Bingo!

127MissBrangwen
Bewerkt: feb 1, 2021, 4:52 am

>121 pamelad: This sounds great, indeed! I'm especially intrigued by the second story you mentioned, where time is accorded to perceived usefulness.

128pamelad
feb 1, 2021, 4:47 am

>127 MissBrangwen: there's another story about time, sparked by the introduction of summer time. If you can move time forward an hour, why not years? To a time when the war will be over. Aymé chooses 17 years.

129MissBrangwen
feb 1, 2021, 4:52 am

>128 pamelad: It's definitely on my wishlist now! Fascinating premise. And as you said in >125 pamelad:, probably I would never have heard about it without LT!

130pamelad
feb 3, 2021, 3:23 am

I've come across a few mentions of Amish mysteries lately so, never having heard of them before, I have been Googling and have found that Amish fiction is a subset of Christian fiction, most of it written by Evangelical Christians. I was intrigued by the idea of Amish writers because they seemed so unlikely, and they are. Live and learn!

I am reading E. M. Channon's The Gilt-edged Mystery (thank-you DeltaQueen), which is free of baking, jam-making and quilting, though there is a housekeeper who likes to serve up a nice bit of liver. Nor are there any crime-solving pets, which is a plus.

131pamelad
feb 3, 2021, 4:59 am

The Gilt-Edged Mystery by E. M. Channon

Alured Dalmaine is on holiday in Switzerland when he runs across his tiresome and demanding cousin who drags him off to a school concert to see her daughter in a tableau. Part of that same tableau is the lovely Helga, a young teacher at the school. She asks Dal to seek out her sister Ida, who is living near Dal with her much older husband. Ida has replied to none of Helga's letters, and Helga is worried.

On the train returning to England, Dal meets a pleasant little man, Hooper, who has received a huge legacy from a cousin he has never met. He is off to stay at a swish hotel near Dal's home, where he has invited his other cousins, all seven of them, for a free holiday. Coincidentally, two of Dal's cousins, including the one he me in Switzerland, turn out to be related to Hooper.

Two people are murdered but I won't say who in case, as I do, people like to guess who the victim will be. The plot hinges too much on coincidence, but I liked Dal and the journalist friend covering Hooper's murder. This was a pleasant, undemanding read.

132spiralsheep
feb 3, 2021, 5:05 am

>130 pamelad: >130 pamelad: "I was intrigued by the idea of Amish writers because they seemed so unlikely, and they are."

Ha! A few years back there seemed to be a fashion for religious "modest dress" blogs, which on my part of the internet seemed mostly Quaker-adjacent although it was a much wider trend, and I recall wondering if blogging to the whole world about one's modesty is truly in keeping with the concept.

133Tess_W
feb 3, 2021, 9:44 am

Pam, next up on my wish list purchases is Timeless Land by Eleanor Dark. From an Australian point of view, yea or nay?

134pamelad
feb 3, 2021, 3:26 pm

>133 Tess_W: Tess, it has been on my list of "books I should read" forever, and I've started it a few times but haven't got far. Many people have recommended it and it has excellent reviews. It's really long.

135pamelad
feb 3, 2021, 3:42 pm

>132 spiralsheep: I suppose modest dress and a modest personality are two different things, and the people who write the blogs you mention are modestly dressed, but outgoing. And maybe there are all sorts of modestly dressed communities with all sorts of rules. Something I've never considered before!

136Helenliz
feb 3, 2021, 3:53 pm

Taming a book bullet for >121 pamelad: and going into >126 pamelad: with lower expectations. I have liked the way she generates the atmosphere of a aplce.

137DeltaQueen50
feb 3, 2021, 4:41 pm

>131 pamelad: I'm glad you enjoyed The Gilt-Edged Mystery, it certainly did rely on too many coincidents but at least, I never felt that it took itself too seriously.

138thornton37814
feb 4, 2021, 5:44 pm

>130 pamelad: My favorite Amish mystery series is published by Ohio University Press. It's definitely not Christian fiction. The series authored by Linda Castillo is also mainstream instead of Christian fiction. While there are not many Amish authors, there are members of other Anabaptist branches such as the Mennonites and Brethren who write some of the Amish fiction. The appeal for me comes from my ancestry and from the fact that I don't like novels filled with cursing and explicit sex. Some of the more mainstream novels include an occasional graphic scene, but it's usually not beyond my toleration limit (even if it probably should be).

139pamelad
feb 4, 2021, 6:06 pm

>138 thornton37814: So the Amish community is just the setting, and the authors don't pretend to write from an Amish perspective?

140thornton37814
feb 4, 2021, 7:36 pm

>139 pamelad: In the case of both mainstream the ones I cited, the narrator is not a member of the community. In the first case, the lead character is a professor at a nearby college who developed rapport with the Amish. He's also a reserve deputy. In the second series, the lead character is law enforcement. She grew up Amish but left during her rumspringa so she understands them, but is no longer an official part of the community.

141pamelad
Bewerkt: feb 8, 2021, 1:54 am

Finished Voss.

At times I thought, "Laura Trevelyan and the explorer, Voss, demonstrate aspects of Patrick White." They didn't strike me as independent characters, but as vehicles for White's ideas. Le Mesurier's journal performed a similar function.

The severe and intelligent Laura Trevelyan has recently arrived from England to live with her aunt and uncle, the Bonners, and their daughter Belle. Mr Bonner is a rich draper from a humble background, a kind and vulgar man who counts the cost of everything, despite his generosity. Mrs Bonner and her daughter Belle are affectionate, empty-headed women who cannot understand Laura, but recognise her superior qualities.

Bonner is financing an expedition led by the German explorer, Voss, who meets Laura when he arrives one Sunday while his backer is in church. Voss and Laura meet again at a celebratory dinner and have an intensely spiritual conversation in the garden. Voss has no time for humility; he believes in his own strength. To Laura, it seems that Voss is setting himself above God, which will lead to his destruction. She promises to pray for him, to save him. She and Voss have a mystical, spiritual connection. They appear to one another in dreams, and at times of crisis.

Voss heads off into the unknown with eight men: Palfreyman, the diffident ornithologist, who is trying to expiate his sins by devoting himself to caring for his companions; Judd, the ex-convict, a strong and capable man, humbled by illiteracy; Frank Le Mesurier, an intellectual who keeps a journal; Harry Robarts, an unintelligent, obliging, well-meaning giant of a man who needs a leader; Turner, an evil-minded drunk; Angus, a rich squatter; Dugald, an old aboriginal man; Jackie, a young aboriginal man. They are an ill-assorted group, its members imposed on Voss by well-meaning, ignorant businessmen in Sydney. The men take with them, as well as food and instruments, a herd of cattle, cattle dogs, a flock of sheep and a herd of goats. The animals are to provide food for a journey that may take years, but they make progress slow and complicated.

The book cycles between the expedition and the people back in Sydney. The harsh conditions of the expedition, the lack of water, the desperation of the men, contrast with the frivolity of social life in Sydney. It is a contrast between the wide-open mystery of the country and the pettiness of the city; the materialism of the city dwellers with the vision of Voss.

I'm glad I read Voss. I enjoyed it for its language, the idiosyncratic phrases that are perfect; the descriptions of the characters, particularly the recognisable people in Sydney, with their pettiness and hypocrisy, generosity and kindness, their well-meaning stupidity, their pomposity and obtuseness. I was less engaged by the religious symbolism, the sacrilegious arrogance of Voss, his spiritual communion with Laura. I question the validity of Jackie's action in the final chapters.

142pamelad
feb 8, 2021, 12:51 am

Doting by Henry Green

Such a relief after Voss! Both White and Green are modernists, but they're almost opposites. In Voss the characters were roiling with spiritual anguish, but in Doting, we see exteriors. Green never delves into his characters' interiors; they reveal themselves through conversation.

Arthur Middleton and his wife Diana have invited Annabel Paynton, a young woman of nineteen, for a night out to celebrate the first night of their seventeen-year-old son Peter's term holiday from boarding school. Arthur is very much attracted to Annabel and takes her out for lunch. When Diana accompanies Peter to Scotland to fish for salmon, Arthur invites Annabel to his flat for dinner, an ill-judged action that offends Diana, who decides to pay Arthur back by spending time with an old friend, Charles Addinsell. Claire, a friend of Annabel's, also becomes enmeshed.

it's all very brittle and funny. The conversations seem so true to life, and show so much about the characters, who can't see just how much they are revealing.

I'm using this for the Highly Recommended square in the Bingo card, because if you've never read anything by Henry Green, you're missing out!

143pamelad
Bewerkt: feb 8, 2021, 4:37 pm

Psmith, Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse

I've become attached to the elegant, courteous, prolixity of Psmith, who has accompanied Mike to the US, and is at a loose end in New York as Mike travels the country playing cricket. A meeting with the young journalist, Billy Wilson, who is acting editor of the twee newspaper, Cosy Moments, provides Psmith with the opportunity of a journalistic crusade, as he persuades Billy to sack the existing staff to pursue sensational stories. Billy and Psmith become boxing promoters; they entangled with a cat-loving gangster; they are pursued by a gang hired by a corrupt politician. In fact, corruption is the theme of the story and Wodehouse seems quite taken aback by how prevalent it is in the New York of the twenties, though he treats it with his usual light hand.

This, the third in the Psmith series, was not quite as entertaining as the previous two volumes because corruption is hard to laugh at. But if anyone can, it's Wodehouse. The descriptions of Cosy Moments and its contributors were highly amusing.

Not the twenties. It was first published in 1915.

144spiralsheep
feb 8, 2021, 5:04 pm

>143 pamelad: "a cat-loving gangster"

I now have an unlikely Psmith meets Bond villain image in my head.

145pamelad
feb 11, 2021, 3:00 pm

Or an Austin Powers villain? Not quite a gangster, but definitely a cat lover.

146spiralsheep
feb 11, 2021, 3:45 pm

>145 pamelad: Ah, yes! I can definitely imagine Psmith taking on an Austin Powers villain. A much better suggestion! :D

147pamelad
feb 12, 2021, 6:05 pm

In Voss, Patrick White presumes to understand the perspective of the aboriginal characters. Larissa Behrendt, an aboriginal lawyer and activist, has written the book Finding Eliza : power and colonial storytelling, which I am planning to read soon in order to get a genuinely indigenous perspective. The book is directly related to the main character in A Fringe of Leaves.

148MissBrangwen
feb 13, 2021, 4:29 am

>147 pamelad: Finding Eliza is another BB for me!
There is a German biography of Eliza Fraser, Eliza Fraser by Susanne Knecht, which deals with the way she capitalized on her experiences and marketed them. It's on my wishlist, too.

149spiralsheep
feb 13, 2021, 5:44 am

>147 pamelad: Finding Eliza : power and colonial storytelling sounds interesting. Thank you for mentioning it.

150pamelad
feb 15, 2021, 5:03 am

The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning

Manning was an expatriate Australian who enlisted as a private in the British Army and fought in France in 1916. He was an educated man, a literary aesthete, but not a product of the British class system. The Middle Parts of Fortune is the title of the unexpurgated version of this fictionalised memoir of Manning's war experience. The Bowdlerised version was published as Her Privates We.

The main character, Bourne, is based on Manning. His loyalties lie with his fellow soldiers in the ranks; they are not friends, but comrades, who share what they have, look after one another, and depend on one another. The book begins with a battle, and ends with another, but in between the men are marching, scrounging food and drink, hanging around in estaminets, parading for little purpose, and drinking. They are the walking dead, knowing that they have little chance of survival. Theirs is the bravery of despair.

The book is not against war. Bourne accepts war as inevitable, an acceleration of reality. It is a philosophical book, with Bourne searching for the essence of himself and looking for it in his comrades.

Most of the novels and memoirs of WWI were written by officers, so Manning's book provides a different perspective. The officers do not know the men; they deploy them as resources. Manning writes about the individuals in the ranks.

I would recommend this book because Manning was there.

151ELiz_M
feb 15, 2021, 7:47 am

>150 pamelad: Is there an introduction or afterword that explains which parts were cut in Her Privates We? I read the latter not too long ago and thoroughly enjoyed the writing and the character of Bourne. I'm wondering if there are substantial differences that would make reading this worthwhile.

152pamelad
feb 15, 2021, 2:38 pm

>151 ELiz_M: The reviews I've read say that the soldiers' swearing was cut out of Her Privates We.

I think there might be confusion between the titles now, with the swearing restored to some editions with the title Her Privates We as well.

153ELiz_M
Bewerkt: feb 15, 2021, 3:31 pm

>152 pamelad: Ah, so it wasn't that entire scenes were cut or anything that would be drastically different. Thanks!

I enjoyed HPW, I thought it was well-written and enjoyed Bourne's insider-outsider take on the role and experiences of ordinary Privates as well as the non-War focus.

154pamelad
feb 16, 2021, 5:27 am

Finding Eliza: power and colonial storytelling by Larissa Behrendt

Larissa Behrendt is an Aboriginal lawyer, writer and activist. She investigates the story of Eliza Frazer, who was shipwrecked on Frazer Island, the home of the Butchulla people, where she stayed until she was "rescued" by two convicts who had spent many years living in Aboriginal communities. Eliza's story is that she was brutalised by savages. It suited the colonists to describe Australia's indigenous people as barbarians and cannibals to justify dispossessing them of their lands, hunting them down and slaughtering them. The convicts who saved Eliza magnified the danger because they wanted to be pardoned. Eliza herself wanted the public's sympathy and financial support.

The oral history passed down by the Butchulla people is quite different. They protected Eliza and found her uncooperative and ungrateful. They date the beginning of their dispossession from Eliza Fraser's arrival.

The author branches out from the Eliza Fraser story to consider other colonial narratives, not just in Australia. She talks about cannibalism: many indigenous peoples, all over the world, have been accused of cannibalism, but the evidence is slight. It is anecdotal, multiplying on itself, feeding the colonists' need to believe.

Some of the books Behrendt mentions are: A Fringe of Leaves; Coonardoo; Kings in Grass Castles; Heart of darkness; Robinson Crusoe and, bizarrely, Mutant Message Down Under, which was a best seller in the US and is a complete fake.

Well worth reading. Lots to think about.

155spiralsheep
feb 16, 2021, 6:46 am

>154 pamelad: Sounds like an interesting book.

"many indigenous peoples, all over the world, have been accused of cannibalism, but the evidence is slight."

Same for European prehistory. Marks on bones that used to be interpreted as probable cannibalism have regularly been reinterpreted as less dramatic funeral practices such as more rapid and hygienic disposal of bodies etc.

156pamelad
feb 17, 2021, 1:29 am

Giving up on Jane Harper's The Survivors about a quarter of the way through. At 384 pages it's too long, and I don't much care what happens to these people. There's a big secret from the past that's being revealed in dribs and drabs, just like The Dry. This book is set in Tasmania, in a small coastal town. Boats, divers, swimming. Much wetter than The Dry.

157pamelad
Bewerkt: feb 17, 2021, 7:43 pm

Victoria has just finished a five day lockdown, described as a "circuit breaker". Overseas arrivals are quarantined for 14 days in hotels (or hospitals, if necessary), and there have been minor outbreaks in most Australian states (and New Zealand) when quarantine staff have become infected and passed the virus on to family and friends. So we've had 20 community cases (outside quarantine) over the last fortnight and to control the outbreak over 3000 contacts have been traced, more than 1000 people have been directed to isolate for 14 days, and 6.5 million people have been locked down.

It worked! We're back to zero new community cases!

158mathgirl40
feb 17, 2021, 9:26 pm

>157 pamelad: Congratulations! I wish we were as vigilant here in Canada as you are in Australia. My part of the province has just emerged from a lockdown since Dec. 26, but numbers are still high enough to cause concern.

I'll have to give the E.C.R. Lorac books a try, and I'll keep your warning about the plots in mind. I tend to enjoy cozy mysteries more for their settings and characters anyhow, so I think I will enjoy these.

159Tess_W
feb 17, 2021, 11:09 pm

>157 pamelad: Congrats! I wish the US could/would follow suit--but many scream "violation of rights" and there is no law that requires people to isolate; although it is "suggested."

160spiralsheep
feb 18, 2021, 5:45 am

>157 pamelad: Congratulations victorious Victoria!

I wish our politicians cared about ordinary people's lives and deaths, but we get what people choose to vote for....

161MissBrangwen
feb 18, 2021, 6:27 am

>154 pamelad: Thank you for the review! It's definitely a must read for me!
I read "Mutant Message Down Under" as a teenager, it was a bestseller in Germany, too. In 11th grade we had to write a list of our favorite books and why we liked them and I included it because I found it so impressive. I had no idea about Australia or Aboriginal people at the time. My teacher gave it back to me with a note that it was complete fiction and I was so angry at the author. Since then I've learned much more about colonialism etc., but this book still makes my blood boil.

162Jackie_K
feb 18, 2021, 7:05 am

>161 MissBrangwen: I was given Mutant Message Down Under as a present by my sister who lives in Germany, and I thought it was awful even then (I read it in my late 20s, I think, so over 20 years ago). I always wondered why she'd bought it, and I've never seen it over here in the UK, but I guess if it was a bestseller in Germany that's why it would have been on her radar.

163MissBrangwen
feb 18, 2021, 7:13 am

>162 Jackie_K: It was! My mom worked in a big chain bookshop at the time, so I definitely know. How interesting that it wasn't widely known in the UK. All the better, though!

164pamelad
feb 18, 2021, 9:18 pm

>155 spiralsheep: Apparently cannibalism is more acceptable at sea, amongst Europeans. There's evidence!

>158 mathgirl40: It would be harder to control in winter. It's summer here, so people can meet up outdoors. I hope that most of us will be vaccinated by the time our winter comes, and your summer.

E. C. R. Lorac was prolific, so some of her books are better than others. I recommend one she wrote as Carol Carnac, Crossed Skis.

>159 Tess_W: In Victoria, the police doorknock people in isolation, ostensibly to "check on their welfare". There are big fines for people who don't cooperate. The government pays casual workers without sick leave to stay home, because in the early days some infected people were going to work because they couldn't afford not to. Also, some people didn't cooperate because rules are for other people.

>160 spiralsheep: Everyone was frightened by the news coming out of Italy. It's hard to understand how the leaders of some countries could ignore what was happening and fail to mount a response. We thought our conservative PM was going in the direction of Trump and Johnson, but he turned out to be better than that and made it clear that the goal of the Covid response was to save lives.

>161 MissBrangwen: I'd never heard of Mutant Message Down Under, and am astounded that it was a best seller. Though in the seventies some of my friends were big fans of Erich von Daniken, which is just as weird. It's good that your teacher put you right. I'm glad to be able to make Finding Eliza more widely known - hope you find it interesting.

>162 Jackie_K: Maybe people in the UK knew enough about Australia to be critical?

165spiralsheep
Bewerkt: feb 20, 2021, 4:23 am

>164 pamelad: "Apparently cannibalism is more acceptable at sea, amongst Europeans. There's evidence!"

Yes, and evidence of European settler-colonials committing cannibalism too. Someone recently posted a review of a children's book about the infamous Donner party in the US. I suspect the accusations of cannibalism aimed at indigenous people who knew how to feed themselves from their land were projection by European immigrants who couldn't feed themselves without theft and worse. The fact that similar accusations of cannibalism were also projected by Europeans onto their prehistoric ancestors is telling.

"We thought our conservative PM was going in the direction of Trump and Johnson, but he turned out to be better than that and made it clear that the goal of the Covid response was to save lives."

There's a lack of public outrage about the unnecessary deaths etc here - an apathy not found in Australian people in this instance (especially, perhaps, after the PM's initially underwhelming response to the fires). I often joke that historically all the English people with any get up and go... got up and went....

Odd how both halves of this comment fit together.

Back to the books though! :-)

166pamelad
feb 19, 2021, 11:25 pm

>165 spiralsheep: There's not much of a connection to Britain any more, because people have migrated here from all over the world. We didn't actually vote to keep the Queen: the majority was for a republic, but there were two republic options that split the vote. Referendum framed by monarchists!

167pamelad
feb 19, 2021, 11:51 pm

The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell

This British Library Crime Classic was first published in 1938. The best things about it are the descriptions of the docks, the Thames, the fog, the crumbling houses in the poor back streets, and how welfare and the health system work. The worst things are the plot and most of the characters. The plot involves smuggling and is quite silly. I saw no need for the complication of the pink night dresses, except that the lingerie shop gave some of he characters a place to work.

Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse

This is the fourth and last of the Psmith series. I will miss Psmith. His family has lost its money and he has been employed by his uncle, the fish magnate. Fed up with fish, Psmith resigns his position and puts a notice in the paper advertising his services. The notice is read by the feeble minded Freddie Threepwood, who has promised his uncle by marriage that he will steal his aunt's diamond necklace, but fears he is not up to the task. Psmith puts himself on the spot by impersonating a Canadian poet, author of the well-received Songs of Squalor.

This was very funny. It's one of the early Blandings castle books with Lord Emsworth, father of Freddie and just as feeble minded, pottering around ineffectually and obsessively in his garden. The great love of Emsworth's life, the gigantic, prize-winning pig The Empress of Blandings, has yet to appear.

168rabbitprincess
feb 20, 2021, 8:43 am

>167 pamelad: Hmm, maybe I'll have to see if the library would get The Port of London Murders. I do want to read it for the best things you've mentioned, but that is disappointing that the plot doesn't hold up.

169MissBrangwen
feb 20, 2021, 8:57 am

>168 rabbitprincess: I feel the same! The setting sounds wonderful and so atmospheric!

170NinieB
Bewerkt: feb 20, 2021, 7:13 pm

>167 pamelad: >168 rabbitprincess: >169 MissBrangwen: I have read other Josephine Bell books, and they do read well, I think, in the sense that she could write. It sounds like the plot was one of those 1920-30s British "thrillers" that always seem like crime fantasies of someone with no actual knowledge of crime.

171pamelad
feb 20, 2021, 7:50 pm

>168 rabbitprincess: >169 MissBrangwen: An interesting thing is that Josephine Bell was a doctor, so she had first-hand knowledge of the the medical system and its clients. Unfortunately, from my point of view, she hasn't much sympathy for the clients. One of the main characters is a doctor.

>170 NinieB: Yes. Sometimes it's a Mr Big, or a cabal, threatening world domination. This time it's Drugs.

172pamelad
Bewerkt: feb 24, 2021, 3:40 pm

My Lady Notorious by Jo Beverley

This is a Georgian romance, pre-Regency. A desperate young woman, dressed as a man and calling herself Charles, holds up the coach carrying Cynric Malloren, a soldier recuperating from illness, bored by his convalescence and looking for adventure. With patience Cynric gains Charles's trust and joins in. Charles is the younger sister of Verity, whose elderly husband has just died in the arms of his mistress, leaving her with a baby son who is in danger from late husband's greedy brother. Verity has escaped the brother, and run to her sister. Both girls are in fear of their father, who has been acting like a violent lunatic, but only in private; the world believes he is a paragon of rectitude. He is a rich man and spares no money to hunt the girls down. There are spies everywhere.

This was an entertaining read. It's a long way from the chasteness of Georgette Heyer, and there's even an orgy, which seems like overkill.

I doubt that I'll read another of Jo Beverley's books. On reflection, the father's violence against "Charles" is too sick. Ditto the orgy. And the ending is much too tidy. So many loose threads, all tied up.

Touchstones disappeared.

173spiralsheep
Bewerkt: feb 24, 2021, 7:57 am

>172 pamelad: Have you ever read Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall? The book, based on the supposed exploits of Katherine Ferrers, 1634-60, was the basis for the film The Wicked Lady (ETA: obviously I mean the 1945 original with Margaret Lockwood and James Mason and not any later pale imitations).

174pamelad
feb 24, 2021, 3:19 pm

>173 spiralsheep: It looks very promising. The ebook is expensive, but the book is available on Open Library to borrow an hour at a time. The film is on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1m9OOPFxfI. I'll give both of these a go. Thank you!

175spiralsheep
feb 24, 2021, 3:37 pm

>174 pamelad: The 1945 film is probably better than the 1944 book tbh. Enjoy!

176pamelad
feb 26, 2021, 9:26 pm

Something Wicked by Jo Beverley
Devilish by Jo Beverley
Escapade by Joan Smith

Jo Beverley's My Lady Notorious was a bit too sordid for my liking, but perhaps her others wouldn't be? I followed it up with the third and the last in the series to find out what happened to two of the characters introduced in the first book. Something Wicked was Elf's story, and Devilish the story of the Marquess. These two were not as sordid, but still on the seedy side, a bit too violent. When I read a Regency (or in this case, Georgian) romance, I want froth. No beatings, no bondage, no copulating in coffins.

Beverley's books are entertaining. There's a lot of historical detail, and it's about about the state of the world, not just costumes and curricles. But they take an anachronistic, feminist heroine and plonk her down in a time where she doesn't belong.

Escapade was more what I was looking for. Totally trivial. Ella Fairmont is in her fourth season. She hasn't made much of an impression on the ton because she is bookish, shy and no great beauty. But as the anonymous Miss Prattle, social columnist, she's formidable. Her Aunt Sara wangles an invitation to a house party given by the arrogant and very eligible Duke of Clare, long the topic of Ella's most critical columns. Also gathered at the house party are three eligible young ladies, all of them dangling for a proposal.

This was light and frothy, as required.

177NinieB
feb 26, 2021, 10:26 pm

>176 pamelad: . . . coffins?

178pamelad
feb 27, 2021, 4:10 am

>177 NinieB: Just one coffin, to be accurate. The hero and the heroine have been kidnapped and have found themselves inside a coffin, in a burnt out cellar which also houses the Stone of Scone, which has been stolen from Westminster Abbey and is about to be smuggled to France. The heroine is wearing a mask, so the hero does not realise that she is his sister-in-law.

179pamelad
feb 27, 2021, 4:32 am

The Little Nugget by P. G. Wodehouse

This is an early Wodehouse, 1913. At the request of his fiancee Cynthia, Peter Burns has agreed to try to kidnap Ogden, the obnoxious cigar-smoking son of an American millionaire, and return him to his mother. Peter takes a job as an assistant master at the boarding school the boy attends, but the kidnapping is complicated by the involvement of a gang of gun-wielding gangsters, and the famous, educated criminal Smooth Sam Fisher. Another complication is the presence of Audrey, Peter's ex-fiancee and the woman he truly loves.

The book is amusing, but there are differences from Wodehouse's later books. A long section is told in the first person by Peter, who is often earnest, and the romance between him and Audrey is quite sincere.

180Caroline_McElwee
Bewerkt: feb 27, 2021, 3:17 pm

Hi Pam, I've been meaning to come and wave over here since your PM.

I see you have been enjoying Heyer and Wodehouse gluts. I have read half a dozen Heyer novels, and enjoyed them, and maybe have another dozen on shelf and Kindle. I did buy a batch of Wodehouse, but haven't started them yet. I'm not big on comedic books, but so many people love them.

I hope you have been keeping well in this pandemic year. I work from home totally now. I dropped a day, so work 30 hours over four days. I'd like to retire, but that is not likely to happen for a while.

181pamelad
feb 27, 2021, 4:13 pm

Hi Caroline, Good to hear from you. Will you be able to work from home when the pandemic is over? Part time is better than full time, but I hope your retirement is not too far away. I can recommend it. Does working from home reduce your exposure to work politics? Politics are the hardest thing about work, in my opinion.

One of the good things about the pandemic has been that staying home and reading has been the right thing to do. Things haven't been too bad here, and I hope that with the vaccination program life is on the improve in the UK. Stay well!

Wodehouse created his own fictional world, where nothing terrible ever happens. Georgette Heyer did the same. It's a good time for escapist books.

182Caroline_McElwee
Bewerkt: feb 27, 2021, 6:30 pm

Yes Pam, I worked from home two days a week pre-pandemic (my commute was 3 hours a day, 90 mins in each direction, I don't miss that). I was lucky there wasn't much politicing at work, and my bosses are reasonable and appreciative. I'm hoping to be in the office no more than two days a week (unlikely to happen before autumn), and mostly days when I'm also socialising in the evening in town too.

I had my first jab a couple of weeks ago, 10 weeks to the next one. I doubt it is the silver bullet people think, but it is progress.

183christina_reads
feb 28, 2021, 6:18 pm

Well, I've gotten two new BBs from catching up with your thread! Escapade and The Little Nugget are both going on the TBR list.

184pammab
feb 28, 2021, 11:57 pm

Just a note to say I read the discussion of cannibalism from a few weeks ago with keen interest. I'm in the midst of Bryson's In a Sunburned Country and he's relying a bit too much on stereotypes for humor to my taste (but it is is nice to get some non-fiction about Australia rather than fiction set in an Australia that may or may not be real).

185pamelad
mrt 1, 2021, 4:44 am

>183 christina_reads: Happy to contribute!

>184 pammab: Non-fiction can be even more subjective than fiction. Who can you trust?

186pamelad
mrt 1, 2021, 5:12 am

Delsie by Joan Smith

Delsie is an orphaned, poverty-stricken school teacher of good family who is persuaded by Baron DeVigne to marry his dying widowed brother-in-law so that she can become step-mother to the widower's daughter. The daughter is the deciding factor for Delsie, who needs an excuse to take up an offer that will make her life so much easier.

This book is a bit thin. There's an interesting aunt, an unmarried Baron, bags of gold guineas, smugglers, and some ingenious contraptions, but it could do with a few more interesting characters and a more engaging plot. I noticed the American English more this time - perhaps the author took less care with this book than with Escapade. The characters speak a weird mixture of period British English and contemporary American.

187pamelad
mrt 4, 2021, 12:52 am

Spillover by David Quammen is about zoonotic infections, infections that start in animals and spill over into humans. Quammen starts with the Hendra virus, which infected and killed horses and two people in Queensland. He looks at influenza, ebola, Marburg, SARS and AIDS. I was fascinated by the scientific information, the isolation of viruses, the tracing of animal reservoirs, the dead ends, the successes. The book was written before the Covid pandemic, so it is chilling to read about the role of wet markets and bush meat in spillovers, and that bats are the reservoir for so many viruses. Scientists have been warning about the next big one for decades, and Covid might not even be it. Something worse could be on the horizon. These warnings make it all the more shocking that the world was so poorly prepared for the Covid pandemic.

Unfortunately, there's too much Quammen in the narrative, and he is extremely verbose. There is even a hypothetical section where Quammen fantasises about the first man to take AIDS from the bush to a big city. I found the book very interesting, but it could have been a lot shorter, and better for it.

188pamelad
mrt 4, 2021, 1:19 am

Uneasy Money by P. G. Wodehouse

Bill Chalmers, the impoverished Lord Dawlish, is engaged to the beautiful and mercenary Claire Fenwick. He works as a secretary for a gentleman's club and makes enough for his needs, but Claire wants him to use his connections for profit and is not too bothered about Bill's integrity.

Bill is a big, kind, generous man, good at sport, slow of thought, and a liability on the dance floor. An American millionaire, whose golfing slice Bill once cured, disinherits his relatives and leaves a fortune to Bill, who sets off for New York in order to share the money with the former heirs.

Thee is a cast of entertaining characters: the barefoot dancer, Lady Wetherby, who lives with a snake and a monkey for publicity purposes; Claud Nutcombe Boyd, party boy, who expected to inherit; Claude's sister Elizabeth, who keeps bees; another millionaire, who is ensnared by Claire; a press agent; an ebullient and not very competent solicitor.

I enjoyed it.

189pamelad
mrt 5, 2021, 2:52 am

The Wife and the Widow by Christian White

The widow's story begins with the disappearance of her husband, missing after an overseas conference on palliative care. Her story and the wife's are told in alternating chapters. We know thee is a connection, but it's not until midway through the book that we start to realise what it might be. The main action takes place on an island in Bass Strait, accessible only by ferry from the Bellarine Peninsula. In summer the place is full of wealthy visitors, tourists and the owners of holiday houses, but in the off-season the island is a cold and lonely place, most of the businesses closed, the locals scratching a living.

I thought this book was set in my part of the world, not far from Melbourne, in a seaside town I should be familiar with. But the island is imaginary, so there's no sense of place. Huge disappointment! Apart from that, it's a gripping read. I thought the ending was rubbish, but that's a common problem.

190pamelad
mrt 8, 2021, 4:09 am

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer

Sir Waldo Hawkridge has just inherited his uncle's run-down property, Broom Hall, near Harrogate, and has travelled there to fix the place up and convert it to a self-supporting school for orphans. His young cousin Julian, Lord Lindeth has taken the opportunity of escaping from the London season and accompanied Waldo. Julian and Waldo get to know the neighbours, including the beautiful Tiffany Underhill, and her well-born governess Miss Trent. Tiffany's appalling behaviour causes a great deal of drama.

Another comforting read.

191spiralsheep
mrt 8, 2021, 6:19 am

>190 pamelad: Another of my favourite half-dozen Heyer Regencies.

192pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 10, 2021, 11:38 pm



Just back from a trip along the Great Ocean Road. We wanted to see it again without thousands of people, like the olden days. We did! It's a very picturesque drive. Parts of the road skirt the ocean on the edge of the cliffs; this section was built by soldier's returned from WWI, who cut the road through the cliffs with picks. Other sections pass though farmland, and through temperate rainforest, before returning to the ocean and the limestone formations of the shipwreck coast.

We haven't been for years, because of the traffic. Every kilometre or so there are signs reminding people to drive on the left in Australia! They fill me with fear!

193MissWatson
mrt 11, 2021, 3:51 am

>192 pamelad: Ah, seaside pictures! So inviting!

194spiralsheep
mrt 11, 2021, 4:16 am

>192 pamelad: Image link for anyone whose browser is thrown off by the ssl requirement:

https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/bb2e8ea35770fdbc82b68af6cdadf6ba?width=64...

Absolutely wonderful! Thank you for sharing.

I've been missing the seaside so much over the last year that I've taken to reading books about undersea archaeology, pebbles, and submerged art.

195Tess_W
mrt 11, 2021, 6:21 am

>192 pamelad: Stunning!

196NinieB
mrt 11, 2021, 8:51 am

>192 pamelad: I was there about 10 years ago--I don't remember it being crowded, but we were there in the offseason, in late May or June. Also California has so many people everywhere my bar for crowded may be very high . . .

Lovely!

197DeltaQueen50
mrt 11, 2021, 12:01 pm

Asolutely gorgeous!

198pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 11, 2021, 9:21 pm

>196 NinieB: There are a lot more big buses these days, carrying huge tour groups along a narrow winding road. Not at the moment, though. I've also been in winter, when the weather was stormy and the waves were huge. The Great Ocean Road is worth visiting any time.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Cape Schanck and walked to Bushranger's Bay. Since Photobucket died I haven't managed to post any of my own photos, so here's a better one.



On the day we went, the beach was deserted.

199rabbitprincess
mrt 12, 2021, 10:46 am

>192 pamelad: Gorgeous! Grabbing that or a similar photo for my new desktop background.

200NinieB
mrt 12, 2021, 6:47 pm

>198 pamelad: Oh, that looks amazing. Good as deserted, too.

201pamelad
mrt 12, 2021, 11:09 pm

The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

This collection of linked short stories features Bertie's cousins, the high-spirited, hell-raising Claude and Eustace, and Bingo Little, an old school friend who falls in love at the drop of a hat. When Bertie tries to help he makes small problems into large ones, but Jeeves always has a solution. Perfect pandemic escapism.

202pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 17, 2021, 5:03 am

The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai is set in a poverty-stricken Tunisian village, a few hours by bus from the capital, but without electricity or running water. Most of the villagers cannot read or write, and the one television runs, connected to a car battery, only when an important soccer match is playing. The last dictator has died, and the country is soon to have its first democratic elections. The spruikers for the two main parties arrive in the village, but only the religious party provides the food, blankets and clothing the villagers need. The men grow beards, the women cover themselves from head to toe, and everyone prays far more often.

Sidi the beekeeper is devoted to his bees, his girls, and is devastated to find a hive destroyed, surrounded by the bodies of thousands of bees that have been broken in two. like the village, the hives have been invaded by something foreign. Sidi, a literate man who has seen the world outside the village, sets out to find the destroyers and save his girls.

The author has nothing good to say about the instigators of the wave of religious fundamentalism that overcomes the country. The first chapter takes place on a yacht, where a debauched Saudi prince and an ageing Italian politician seem to be striking a bargain to exploit the newly democratic country. Another interlude, where Sidi remembers his time working for Bedouins, comes to an end when Sidi witnesses debauchery, hyprocrisy and a sad misuse of honey.

The political points were made with a heavy hand, but overall I enjoyed the book for its descriptions of the villagers and their way of life. I was also interested in the details about Sidi's bees.

203VivienneR
mrt 17, 2021, 4:50 pm

>156 pamelad: Sorry to hear The Survivors did not appeal. I have it on my wishlist but will remember your comments. I didn't care for Force of Nature.

>192 pamelad: & >198 pamelad: Fabulous photos! It must have been a beautiful drive.

204pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 18, 2021, 5:12 am

>203 VivienneR: It was a beautiful drive, and so peaceful. We're getting out and about while we can, because winter's coming. Next trip is to Adelaide, in South Australia: to the gallery to see the Clarice Beckett Exhibition; a boat trip in the Coorong to see the wildlife; a trip to the hills.

Shame about the duck hunting season in the Coorong. In Melbourne and the suburbs you see lots of ducks on creeks and rivers during the duck season. I wonder how they communicate to one another where the safe places are.

205pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 18, 2021, 5:27 am

The Man with Two Left Feet by P. G. Wodehouse

Apart from the first Jeeves story, this collection didn't seem like Wodehouse at all. All the stories were readable, but they were sentimental rather than comic, and not special. They are interesting because they're so early in Wodehouse's career, 1917.

One story is narrated by a dog. Almost unforgiveable!

206pamelad
mrt 18, 2021, 7:26 pm

The Clandestine Betrothal by Alice Chetwynd Ley is a Georgian romance. Susan Fyfield attended a young ladies' seminary with Georgiana, the sister of the dashing Hugh Eversley. Georgiana's stories of her brother, a glimpse of Hugh from a window, and the sheer uneventfulness of life in a ladies' seminary, have led to Susan having such a crush on Hugh that she sneaks away to get a glimpse of him. Meeting him in person only exacerbates her feelings.

Poor Susan lives with her aunt, the casually kind Mrs Fyfield, and Mrs Fyfield's nasty daughter Cynthia. She believes that her parents died when she was two, before she came to live with her aunt, but the truth turns out to be more complicated.

I enjoyed this undemanding romance. Not much humour, and a bit short on historical detail, but a pleasant, undemanding read. The author is British.

207pamelad
mrt 19, 2021, 9:28 pm

Queen without a Crown by Fiona Buckley

Ursula Stannard is the illegitimate half-sister of Queen Elizabeth I, and a trusted companion. She is regularly called upon to put her life at risk in the service of the queen. The northern earls are preparing to restore Elizabeth's sister Mary to the thrones of both England and Scotland. Ursula is sent to gather intelligence about the plans of the traitorous northerners, using as an excuse a genuine investigation into a poisoning that had occurred in the palace more than twenty years earlier.

This is the ninth book in a series of 18, but the earliest available on Overdrive. I quite enjoyed it, but it would have been better to have started at the beginning.

208pamelad
mrt 19, 2021, 9:48 pm

Before Queen Without a Crown I'd started a number of books for this months history CAT and hadn't finished any of them. I'd started Romola by George Eliot, The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, Behind Closed Doors: at home in Georgian England by Amanda Vickeryand The Habsburgs by Martyn Rady. None of them appealed.

Clearly I was aiming too high. I've finished two Georgian romances as well as the Elizabethan mystery.

209rabbitprincess
mrt 19, 2021, 10:48 pm

>207 pamelad: Wow, I hadn't thought about that series in years! My records tell me that I read To Ruin a Queen and The Siren Queen, but I could have sworn I also read Queen of Ambition. The library has Queen Without a Crown, so I might pick that up sometime.

210pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 20, 2021, 4:12 pm

>209 rabbitprincess: I've learned that the first eight aren't available as ebooks, so it could be a bit tricky to find them here. My nearest library has none. The relevant bits of back-story were filled in, but there were a lot!

211pamelad
mrt 20, 2021, 4:42 pm

The Toast of the Town and A Season at Brighton by Alice Chetwynd Ley are the second and third volumes of the Eversley series, which started with The Clandestine Betrothal.

The beautiful Georgiana Eversley, The Toast of the Town, has received seven proposals and refused them all. She is getting a reputation as a heartless flirt, which she cements by accepting a wager from her brother, who bets that she cannot get a young doctor to propose. The doctor is a gentleman, and heir to a Scottish title, so he would be an unlikely, but not ineligible, suitor.

A Season at Brighton begins five years later, when the witty, charming, handsome and kind Lord Pamyngton, rejected suitor of Georgiana, meets the lively, headstrong Catherine Denham, and extricates her from a nasty situation. He has introduced himself by another of his names (these aristocrats seem to have a string of them), and is amused to learn that Catherine is on her way to Brighton to avoid meeting Lord Pamyngton, whose mother has conspired with her own to marry one of the Denham girls.

Not much plot here, but predictability is part of the charm.

212pamelad
mrt 20, 2021, 5:11 pm

Marry in Haste by Jane Aiken Hodge

Camilla Forest has been sacked from her governess position, through no fault of her own, and is waiting on an almost deserted road for the mail coach to take her to London, when a carriage stops and the driver tells her that the mail coach has crashed and is too damaged to continue. The occupant of the carriage, Lord Leominster, takes her to his home, where he makes Camilla a proposition. Leominster dislikes women because of a tragedy in his past, but his grandmother has threatened to leave her enormous fortune to a cousin unless Leominster marries before he leaves for a diplomatic mission in Portugal, only a month away.

Camilla, born Camille de Foret, came to England at the age of three, with her father the Count de Foret, to escape the French Revolution. She and her father are penniless and reliant on charity, and Camilla has realised that she is unlikely to be able to support herself as a governess, so she accepts Leominster's offer. With Leomister's young sister, Chloe, the couple travel to Portugal.

Will Leomister overcome his antipathy to women and fall in love with Camilla? There are many difficulties in their way, and great danger.

An entertaining read. No humour, but lots of adventure.

213pamelad
mrt 21, 2021, 1:56 am

I'm making the most of my Kindle Unlimited membership and reading lots of vintage Regency romances. Alice Chetwynd Ley's books are comforting in that almost nothing happens, they're utterly predictable, and there's always a happy ending. An Advantageous Marriage follows the formula. The orphaned Eugenia is a cousin of the Turville family: her father, the younger brother, married a mill-owner's daughter. The snobbish and mercenary Turvilles want to keep Eugenia's money in the family by marrying her to one of her cousins, but they concerned that she might not fit into polite society. Eugenia does her best to exacerbate their fears, and in the meantime falls in love with a neighbour, Peter, who was once in love with the selfish, hard-hearted Lucilla Turville, who has recently been widowed.

This will be the last Alice Chetwynd Ley I read for a while. I want at least a little bit of plot!

214rabbitprincess
mrt 21, 2021, 10:16 am

>210 pamelad: My library has 6 of the books in various formats. It seems like a series I'd keep an eye out for secondhand. Maybe I'd somehow end up being reunited with the books I had but gave away!

215spiralsheep
mrt 21, 2021, 10:17 am

>213 pamelad: I'm very much enjoying reading your romance summaries (probably more than I'd enjoy the novels).

216pamelad
mrt 22, 2021, 4:19 am

>215 spiralsheep: Thank you!

Escapade by Jane Aiken Hodge

Charlotte, heiress to a private bank, had been told lies by her wicked old grandmother who blamed Charlotte's mother for the death of Charlotte's father. Charlotte trusts no-one, eats almost nothing, and vomits a lot. In a very unlikely plot twist, she ends up in Sicily, using a false name, with her mother's former maid, Beth, who is now a famous actress. Sicily is a dangerous place, with the British plotting against the Queen, who is exiled from Naples, and the Queen planning violent retaliation. Spies are everywhere.

Beth and Charlotte are caught up in a plot, and do not know who to trust. Charlotte, who at times appears to have no functioning brain, is a liability who puts everyone in danger. Fortunately, there's a childhood friend of Charlotte's and a American hero to help them.

This book had rather too much plot, so was not the relaxing read I want from a Regency romance. The characters were so busy that we didn't get to know them. No-one had anything good to say about the Sicilians, which is uncomfortably xenophobic.

217pamelad
mrt 22, 2021, 7:53 pm

A Highly Respectable Marriage by Sheila Walsh won the RNA (Romantic Novelists Association, not ribonucleic acid) Award for 1984.

Pandora's father, Colonel Carlyon, had died in the Peninsula Wars, not long after the death of his much-loved wife. His wife and three children had "followed the drum", so Pandora is unaccustomed to the demands of polite society and remains her outspoken self. With her older brother at Oxford, Pandora and her younger brother, William, have been living with a half-sister, a bad-tempered, penny-pinching woman with an even nastier husband. Pandora wants to leave her sister's house and support herself, so after a half-understood conversation with her godmother, she presents herself at the residence of the Duke of Heron to apply for a position looking after his young wards.

Perhaps I've read too many Regency romances lately, but this one seems more than usually derivative, a cut and paste of a few Georgette Heyer books. The creepiness factor is high, with a naive young woman of nineteen and a rakish duke pushing forty. At least they're not cousins.

218spiralsheep
mrt 23, 2021, 6:43 am

>217 pamelad: "won the RNA (Romantic Novelists Association, not ribonucleic acid) Award"

Romance: it's in the genes!

"At least they're not cousins."

Ha!

219pammab
mrt 24, 2021, 12:08 am

>217 pamelad: Is there more self-consciousness these days in the genre about pairing teenage ingenues with greying men? It seems like it could be a very fun trope to play with, to try to do well, to enjoy doing poorly. Or perhaps folks have always played with this convention.

220pamelad
mrt 24, 2021, 5:34 pm

>218 spiralsheep: Even the Royal family has recognised the benefits of marrying from a bigger gene pool. In some of Georgette Heyer's books I'd think, "No, no. Not the cousin!"

>219 pammab: I think it reflected reality, where naive young girls were married off to old men as business transactions. Innocence was a selling point. It's still happening in some parts of the world. Within the conventions of the Regency romance however, the young girl falls in love with her older suitor, who has initially treated her with paternal indulgence. I think it's about the attraction of the experienced, masterful man for the young woman who wants a man to rely on. Often these young women are almost alone in the world, or have unsatisfactory parents who do not have their best interests at heart.

The Pink Parasol by Sheila Walsh

This is another young girl, older man romance. The young girl is being brought out by her godmother. She is the daughter of an earl, but her unsatisfactory father has gambled away his fortune, so she has to marry well to support he mother and three younger sisters. The older man is the nephew of the girl's godmother. The best thing about this book is that the leading man has no title. Regency romances are usually dripping with dukes.

I wasn't going to read another Regency romance because I'm worried that my brain might shrivel and die, but Stephanie Laurens is Australian, so I had to check out at least one of her books. Four in Hand subverts the Regency convention that gentleman do not seduce ladies.

Max, the Duke of Twyford, succeeded to the title unexpectedly when his uncle and cousins died in a boating accident, and has inherited the guardianship of the four beautiful and voluptuous Tinning sisters. Max is a rake, and so are his friends, but instead of protecting his wards he watches from the sidelines as his rakish friends try to seduce them, and uses his position to try to seduce the oldest sister. The girls are up to the challenge, and are determined on marriage.

This was cheerful and frothy, but I prefer Regency romances that stick to the conventions. It contained seduction scenes, but was nowhere near as graphic as, say, Julia Quinn's books.

221spiralsheep
mrt 24, 2021, 6:10 pm

>220 pamelad: "a boating accident": I'm now idly wondering what the top ten causes of conveniently deceased relatives are in Regencies apart from old age. Boating? Equestrian accidents? Shame from unpaid debts of honour? Definitely nothing as unglamorous as disease or war.

"Even the Royal family has recognised the benefits of marrying from a bigger gene pool."

I've been reading about the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. Their family tree is a mobius strip that would horrify even the Habsburgs. Heyer's Regency cousins are positively hygienic in comparison.

222pamelad
mrt 24, 2021, 6:32 pm

>221 spiralsheep: Diseases are useful for wiping out both parents and having the oldest son become responsible for his younger brothers and sisters, preventing him from marrying.

Wars are good for killing off the only son, leaving the entailed estate to go to a distant cousin, so that the wife and daughters are almost penniless.

223spiralsheep
mrt 25, 2021, 7:26 am

>222 pamelad: Yes, if they were realistic novels, but I can't think of any notable disease death Regencies and I can think of more stories in which an heir was presumed dead-of-war overseas but then reappears than a more straightforward plot. Of course, my reading is only a small sample and therefore biased but that would be true of anyone.

224pamelad
mrt 25, 2021, 3:52 pm

>223 spiralsheep: I was drawing on my vast reading of Regency romances! At least two sets of parents have died from disease in books I've read this year. Georgette Heyer wrote all the plots, so all the writers of traditional Regencies can do is to rearrange them.

Sometimes the heir reappears, sometimes his child who has to prove paternity and that his/her mother was legally married. An inherited physical quirk helps in proving paternity - in a recent read the males of the family have webbed toes.

Normally my choice of escapist reading is crime novels, not romances, but at the moment I just don't want to read about people being murdered. I'm half-way through The Saint-Fiacre Affair, a Maigret, but it's so bleak.

225pamelad
mrt 27, 2021, 5:56 pm

The Saint-Fiacre Affair by Georges Simenon

Maigret receives a warning of a crime to be committed in Saint-Fiacre, the village where he spent his childhood. His father was the manager of the Count's estates, and Maigret remembers the Count and his family with awe and respect. Now only the widow and her son, the current Count, remain, and most of the property has been sold. The widow scandalises the village with her liaisons with young male "secretaries" who are bleeding her of her remaining funds. When the widow dies in church, there are many suspects.

I was not in the mood for swimming in this cess-pit of vile individuals so struggled to finish this short book. Well-written, as is usual for Simenon, but too bleak, even for him.

Fell Murder by E.C.R. Lorac

Richard Garth, the heir to the Garth family farm, has returned secretly after 25 years away. Did he kill his father, with whom he argued so bitterly many years ago? Or was it his sister, who keeps the farm running profitably despite her father's refusal to pay her a wage or buy her a bull? Perhaps it was the middle brother who returned penniless from Malaya, or the youngest brother, a sensitive young man who hates his father. Could the murderer be the local farmer who bears an old and bitter grudge? The answer is obvious, really.

As usual for Lorac, there are loving descriptions of the landscape and cursory character development. The policeman, MacDonald, is the only person with a personality. Lorac judges her characters by how hard they work on the farm.

226rabbitprincess
mrt 28, 2021, 9:42 am

>225 pamelad: I struggled with L'affaire Saint-Fiacre myself. I found most of the (male) characters hard to tell apart, perhaps because I was reading in my second language, but the book didn't seem to have very many dialogue tags to let me know who was talking.

227pamelad
mrt 28, 2021, 11:29 pm

>226 rabbitprincess: And the male characters were all awful, which made it harder. I admire you for reading it in French.

228pamelad
mrt 28, 2021, 11:50 pm

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Jeeves and Bertie become embroiled in the love lives of Gussie Fink-Nottle and Tuppy Glossop. Gussie, a newt-fancier, is too diffident to propose to the fey and silly Madeline Basset, a woman whose every utterance sets Bertie's teeth on edge. Tuppy's tactlessness has led to the breaking of his engagement to Angela Travers, Bertie's cousin. Bertie's attempts to help make the situation much worse, so Jeeves has to step in.

Other characters are the wonderful Aunt Dahlia, and Anatole, the brilliant French chef. It's very, very funny, even after multiple readings.

229pamelad
mrt 29, 2021, 4:30 pm

Twice Dead by E. M. Channon

This British crime novel, first published in 1930, is one of three in the E. M. Channon Collection: Three Golden Age Mysteries. It is part romance and part crime, with a cluster of exotic and irrelevant subplots.

Sylvia is in love with Tom, but Sylvia is rich and Tom is poor, so he is too proud to declare himself. Doctor Mackay is also in love with Sylvia, and Philip says he is. A mysterious fortune teller predicts a death, and attempts blackmail. An evil invalid spits malice. An exotic Chinese weapon is employed for no apparent reason. This was a complete hodge podge, replete with snobbery and xenophobia. I enjoyed it.

230pamelad
Bewerkt: mrt 30, 2021, 8:58 pm

Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens

I skimmed most of the bedroom chapters, which comprised a goodly proportion of the book. There was a mystery of sorts, but the murderer was obvious from the start.

231pamelad
mrt 31, 2021, 4:44 am

At Dark of the Moon by Alice Chetwynd Ley

I read this for the BingoDog because it is short, has dark in the title, is free on Kindle Unlimited and requires minimal concentration.

Emma, a governess who is alone in the world, is turned out in the middle of the night when the son of the house molests her. Because she is desperate she takes a job as an actress, without knowing what it will entail, and finds herself pretending to be a man's wife. She suspects he is a French spy, for no very good reason, and ends up in danger. There's not a lot in the way of romance, which is a relief after Devil's Bride. The romantic ending is a bit perfunctory.

233pamelad
mrt 31, 2021, 4:26 pm

Crime

Follow the Blue Car by R.A.J. Walling
The Third Eye by Ethel Lina White
Murderer's Mistake by E.C.R. Lorac
A Toast to Tomorrow by Manning Cole
Fire in the Thatch by E. C. R. Lorac
The Gilt-Edged Mystery by E. M. Channon
The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell
The Wife and the Widow by Christian White
Queen without a Crown by Fiona Buckley
The Saint-Fiacre Affair by Georges Simenon
Fell Murder by E.C.R. Lorac
Twice Dead by E. M. Channon
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Humour

Living by Henry Green
Doting by Henry Green
The Demon in the House by Angela Thirkell
Mike and Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse
Psmith, Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse
Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
The Little Nugget by P. G. Wodehouse
Uneasy Money by P. G. Wodehouse
The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
The Man with Two Left Feet by P. G. Wodehouse
The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Ayme
Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Non-fiction

Byzantium: The Early Centuries by John Julius Norwich
Spillover by David Quammen
Friends and Rivals by Brenda Niall
Finding Eliza: power and colonial storytelling by Larissa Behrendt

In Translation

The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Ayme
The Saint-Fiacre Affair by Georges Simenon

Australian Author

Friends and Rivals by Brenda Niall
Finding Eliza: power and colonial storytelling by Larissa Behrendt
A Few Days in the Country by Elizabeth Harrower
The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning
Voss by Patrick White

No category so far

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee

234Jackie_K
mrt 31, 2021, 4:35 pm

Wow, 62 books so far is seriously impressive! I was impressed with my 26!

236pamelad
mrt 31, 2021, 4:52 pm

>234 Jackie_K: A lot of them were books you can just skate through. My plan for the next three months is fewer but better. Like bottles of wine.

237rabbitprincess
mrt 31, 2021, 10:04 pm

I knew you'd been reading a lot of Regency romances, but seeing them in a list like that makes the total even more impressive! Looking forward to seeing what categories come up for April to June.

238pamelad
apr 1, 2021, 3:06 am

>237 rabbitprincess: I'm cancelling my Kindle Unlimited subscription to remove the temptation of third-rate Regency romances. A bit like not having chocolate in the house.

My new thread is here.

239mstrust
apr 1, 2021, 10:19 am

Your numbers are very impressive- way to go!

240JayneCM
apr 7, 2021, 5:32 am

>192 pamelad: I must admit, I have been enjoying having no tourists in huge buses clogging up the Great Ocean Road. We went to Loch Ard Gorge recently and there was noone there - unheard of!