Themed Read September 2022: Family

Welcome to our SEPTEMBER 2022 Themed Read.

Our theme this month is FAMILY.

How you want to interpret the word ‘family’ is really up to you.
You might want to focus on sisters, or couples. There are books about motherhood and about parents and children. You could read a family saga or a book about any other kind of family relationship.

There are many books on the list that have family relationships as a major or minor theme, so this month please don’t assume my list is comprehensive, because it is very hard to tell what books I haven’t read might fit the bill.

That means that the list that follows comprise books I have read and enjoyed books that I haven’t read but am pretty certain would work for this month’s scheme.

If there is a great book about family that I have missed, please mention it.

The Semi-attached Couple and the Semi-detached House by Emily Eden (#16)
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (#32)
The Judge by Rebecca West (#33)
The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns (#43)
The Ladies of Lyndon by Margaret Kennedy (#63)
Together and Apart by Margaret Kennedy (#64)
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker (#67)
Life Before Man by Margaret Atwood (#68)
The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Alfrey (#73)
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair (#74)
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (#76)
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty (#79)
Ordinary Families by E. Arnot Robertson (#85)
The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins (#100)
Told by an Idiot by Rose Macaulay (#105)
Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau (#107)
Deborah by Esther Kreitman (#108)
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns (#109)
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West (#111)
In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (#112)
The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby (#114)
The Roaring Nineties by Katharine Susannah Prichard (#120)
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy (#121)
The Rising Tide by Molly Keane (#137)
Miss Mole by E.H. Young (#140)
The Misses Mallett by E.H. Young (#141)
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West (#143)
Golden Miles by Katharine Susannah Prichard (#150)
Winged Seeds by Katharine Susannah Prichard (#151)
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield (#162)
Sisters by a River by Barbara Comyns (#164)
Never No More by Maura Laverty (#169)
The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield (#174)
Jenny Wren by E.H. Young (#177)
The Curate’s Wife by E.H. Young (#178)
The Children by Edith Wharton (#180)
The Clever Woman of the Family by Charlotte Yonge (#188)
Poor Caroline by Winifred Holtby (#192)
Two Days in Aragon by Molly Keane (#193)
Mad Puppetstown by Molly Keane (#194)
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes (#195)
On the Side of the Angels by Betty Miller (#197)
Crossriggs by Jane and Mary Findlater (#203)
The Mother’s Recompense by Edith Wharton (#217)
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield (#220)
Painted Clay by Capel Boake (#231)
Full House by Molly Keane (#232)
Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien (#233)
Family History by Vita Sackville-West (#234)
The Three Miss Kings by Ada Cambridge (#244)
The Squire by Enid Bagnold (#246)
The Matriarch by G.B. Stern (#249)
The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield (#254)
Taking Chances by Molly Keane (#255)
Rumour of Heaven by Beatrix Lehmann (#256)
The Pastor’s Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim (#258)
The New House by Lettice Cooper (#263)
This Real Night by Rebecca West (#270)
Tea at Four O’Clock by Janet McNeill (#275)
The Brontës Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson (#279)
The Daisy Chain by Charlotte Yonge (#282)
Loving Without Tears by Molly Keane (#286)
The Way Things Are by E.M. Delafield (#290)
Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield (#291)
William by E.H. Young (#292)
A Deputy Was King by G.B. Stern (#301)
Cousin Rosamund by Rebecca West (#303)
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim (#314)
Tortoise by Candlelight by Nina Bawden (#316)
Young Entry by Molly Keane (#324)
The Ante-Room by Kate O'Brien (#325)
Celia by E.H. Young (#332)
Good Daughters by Mary Hocking (#340)
Indifferent Heroes by Mary Hocking (#341)
Welcome Strangers by Mary Hocking (#342)
Treasure Hunt by Molly Keane (#356)
Conversation Piece by Molly Keane (#368)
The Birds on the Trees by Nina Bawden (#369)
The Knight of Cheerful Countenance by Molly Keane (#388)
Lolly Willowes or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner (#390)
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (#399)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (#410)
Joanna by Lisa St Aubin de Teran (#429)
The Bull Calves by Naomi Mitchison (#438)
A Woman of Independent Means by E.F. Hailey (#460)
The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann (#468)
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane (#474)
Time After Time by Molly Keane (#475)
Loving and Giving by Molly Keane (#476)
The du Mauriers by Daphne du Maurier (#503)
The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier (#507)
Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier (#535)
Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons (#539)
The River by Rumer Godden (#565)
Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden (#567)
Breakfast with the Nikolides by Rumer Godden (#573)
"The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden (#574)"
A Fugue in Time by Rumer Godden (#575)
China Court by Rumer Godden (#578)

I plan to read Good Daughters by Mary Hocking.

And I'm just finishing up Father, by Virago author Elizabeth von Arnim, although this title was not published by Virago. Very much about family relationships.

I'm going to read Delta Wedding and will start it next week. A while back a few members of the 75 Books Challenge group decided we wanted to read this book in September. Then I realized it also fits with the Virago theme. If anyone here would like to read Delta Wedding with us, please let me know here or via PM.

Thank you Jane! A really interesting month - I'm sure I have at least a couple of these on the TBR!!

Hm, I'll have to have a look to see if I have anything for this.

So many good books on this list!

I will be joining the Delta wedding group read when I've found my copy. I'd also like to read A deputy was king.

Speaking of the Delta Wedding group read, here's the thread for it. All are welcome!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/343994#unread

I recently read China Court and reread Nightingale Wood and really liked both of them.

I've finished Delta wedding, and am now reading A deputy was king. Many people in the Delta wedding group read found the many family relationships difficult to map; the Rakonitz family in Deputy makes it look straightforward!

Although this book is not a Virago, it is a moving depiction of a family after suffering a tragic loss. The title is Crow Lake and the author is Mary Lawson. It's now on my list of favorites and I'll be reading more by this author.

The Misses Mallett turned out to be an excellent choice for this theme, since the relationship between Rose Mallett and her niece Henrietta is so important to the novel.

I re-read Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien, and loved it as much as I did the first time. It is a wonderful family sage; a perceptive account of the differences between generations, particularly their attitudes towards the family business; and it is beautifully and engagingly written.

I loved that book, Jane. I believe it was my introduction to O'Brien as well.

Thread is up for October themed read:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/344719#

I finished A deputy was king which was an excellent read.

I have not done so well this month, failing to read a Virago - the timing just wasn't right - but I will try harder next month!

I hope to read Without My Cloak as I've previously read only one of Kate O'Brien's works.

>16 kaggsy: I've failed, too!

>18 LyzzyBee: Glad I'm not alone... ;)

I finished The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (1972), which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1973.

This was a tough book to like. Optimist Judge McKelva dies and his widowed daughter Laurel comes home to Mississippi to deal with the funeral and her father's 2nd wife, Fay, who is much younger and very different from Laurel. Friends and relatives arrive at the home, and we see a slice of Southern life in the 1960s. This is a slow-moving book, with reflections on class, how to deal with the past and the meaning of memory. There are birds mentioned throughout the novel which seemed to allude to freedom.

I could almost have enjoyed this book except for the 2nd wife Fay, who was so cruel, petty and selfish that she was unbelievably evil. This portrayal ruined the book for me, because there wasn't an ounce of kindness, goodness or decency in this character (or any real way to understand her), and I don't know why Welty made her that way. Beyond Fay, I did enjoy the banter in the home among the neighbors, friends and relatives; and Laurel's own musings on the past and going through her childhood home, room by room, one last time.