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Jun 19, 2011

Mariel rated it:

This is another vaguely rip-offish version of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Confession? I'm not original about selecting books to read. I was looking at different book sites on the web and putting in favorite books to see what came up when I came across The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets. I'd read all of the books that were like all of my other favorites, except for Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle (I'm still planning on reading the others, as well. Bring on the Elvis impersonators!). I ne More...

5 comments like (18 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2009

Carrie rated it:

I suggested this as January’s book club book because I was looking for something that was not too taxing, but still respectable, and this turned out to be the perfect choice. It is the story of Penelope Wallace (actually Lady Penelope, though not too much is made of that), an impoverished noblewoman (or rather an impoverished eighteen year old girl), whose family owns a stately home of England, but one that is falling apart since her father died in the war hot on the heals of her grandparents More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2009

CLM rated it:

Penelope is waiting for a bus in London when swept away by Charlotte, an impetuous young woman wearing homemade clothes, who needs someone to share a taxi. Charlotte brings Penelope home to meet her aunt Clare and cousin Harry, and Penelope is pulled into a more entertaining world than offered by the Wiltshire countryside where she lives with her mother and slightly younger brother. It is the 1950s, and on the one hand Penelope is still affected by the loss of her father in WWII but she and he More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2011

Karschtl rated it:

A friend, who often has the same reading-taste, put this one on a list of books I have to read very soon. Well, and now I did.

It reminded me of "I capute the castle", since it's also about a (once famous and rich) family living in a big house but having almost no money and told from the point of view of the teenaged daughter who experiences her first love.

Well, same is true for this book. Here our heroine is Penelope, a girl of 17/18 living outside of London an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2010

Amanda rated it:

What wonderful read in which nothing quite so amazing occurs until you're absolutely, positively addicted to the world of the novel and just don't know how it happened.

Penelope writes her story of the awkward turning point from girl to woman. The minimal tidbits which revealed her older and wiser voice do not overpower the present tense of main story, but rather added small insights about the future.

As characters moved in and out of her life I would mourn their departur More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2011

Melee rated it:

Before I read this book, I had a feeling that I was going to like it a lot. Whether it was the vintage dresses displayed on the cover or the numerous comparisons to "I Capture the Castle", I am not sure. But needless to say, I was not disappointed.

This book is neither suspenseful nor innovative but I couldn't put it down until I had finished it.
I love the characters Eva Rice has created. They are undeniably quirky, but not so much as to make them unbelievable. More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2009

Trena rated it:

Well-written Anglophile chick lit with some 50s fashion thrown in? Yes, please! This soapy little post-war romance among impoverished toffs coming of age in the time period that kind of invented coming of age is a fun read. Please note this gets four stars within its genre, not four stars in the grand scheme of Literature.

The only thing that bugged me is the author is described as the daughter of lyricist Tim Rice, which, first of all, I'm glad I didn't read before I finished the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 29, 2007

Kimz rated it:

I can't say exactly what it is about this book that is so captivating... but it truly is. It's beautifully written, almost poetic, here is one of my favorite lines during a lull in an intense "duck supper" conversation; "Like the curious pause that takes place before blood seeps out from a cut finger, we all sat quite still...".
Flipping through the pages was more like hearing the narrative of an actress like Emma Thompson with a wonderful British accent rather than re More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2008

Lara rated it:

I think this book is going to find a spot on my list of favorite books of all time. I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved everything about it. It reminded me a little of Pride & Prejudice, just set in a different era and with a different plot.

This snippet of conversation between two of the main characters pretty much sums up my love of this book:

Charlotte: "[My mother] hates having me at home - plowing through the books in her library and kicking my More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Gwenyth rated it:

I've read a few books recently based on goodread's newish recommendations feature. They'be been hit or miss, this one is similar. It was recommended to me because I liked "I Capture the Castle". Superficially they are similar books (girls growing up in England the 50s), but in no way did it make me sit up and take notice like Dodie Smith did.

Nevertheless it was light, mostly fun to read, and I would pass it on to certain friends for something like a long plane flight or a b More...

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Aug 22, 2011

Annemieke rated it:

Eva Rice - The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
Summer is the time to relax and read books that help you doing just that, sometimes sprinkled with books that make you think about things a little bit deeper. Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is a book that helps you relax, but it's still a great book to read. It tells the story of Penelope Wallace, daughter of a widow who walks sadly around the grand mansion Milton Manga Hall. The house is falling apart and only a good marriage or a sudden fo More...

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Aug 09, 2011

Martine rated it:

This looked like a Chick Lit novel, which in itself would ordinarily have deterred me from reading it. However, on the back cover it was likened to I Capture the Castle, so I gave it a shot. Well written, with charming characters. A good portrayal of what it was like to be a teenager in the 50s when the very concept of "teenager" was being born, but were the protagonists really as conscious of the social phenomenon they were a part of as Penelope (the book's main character)? Maybe Eva More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Anne rated it:

"Funny, I thought, putting the letter away and pulling out my handkerchief, how the best months of my life had also been the saddest."

This quote sums up what was a delightful read for me. This isn't a remarkable book, but it was a pleasant and enjoyable read. Set in 1950s England, when the country was coming to grips with post-wartime suffering, but also burgeoning freedom, the book follows 18-year old Penelope as she comes to grips with growing up and finding her place i More...

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Jan 11, 2011

Debbie rated it:

From Publishers’ Weekly:
An impulsive taxi ride with a stranger in 1950s London indelibly changes Penelope Wallace’s life in Rice’s sparkling debut. At 18, Penelope lives with her younger brother, Inigo, and her terribly glamorous, young widowed mother in a drafty, rundown, English estate house in the countryside. With the loss of the man of the house, financial pressures mount, threatening sheltered Penelope’s family manse—and what’s left of her family’s place in society. She finds More...

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Sep 25, 2010

Sarah rated it:

I loved this, it was original and quirky and funny and delightful. A lot of similarities to I Capture the Castle, but that can only be a good thing. I particularly enjoyed Julian the Loaf (I laughed and laughed over that conversation when Harry was calling someone weird and Penelope was like 'look who's talking, you kept a loaf of bread as a pet' and Harry was like 'leave Julian out of this'.) I loved Harry in general, he was my favourite character, along with Charlotte, who I pictured as loo More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 03, 2011

Brandy rated it:

Review originally posted here.

Author, Eva Rice, has a power with words. From the first page of the novel I felt the time and setting perfectly. The images she evoked made it as if I had been plunged into an Audrey Hepburn movie. It is even more impressive as Rice manages this using mostly dialogue in this opening scene. The novel is solid historical fiction. I didn't notice any anachronisms, but I am not an expert on this time period either. It is interesting because, while th More...

4 comments like

Sep 18, 2009

Josie rated it:

I knew I'd love this book when I opened it up and saw that the author had written (among others) a non-fiction book titled Who's Who in Enid Blyton. Classic.
It's 1954, and six-foot-nothing Penelope Wallace lives with her younger brother Inigo, and her beautiful mother Talitha in their enormous family 'home', Milton Magna. It is falling apart, yet they cannot afford to repair it, and their financial struggles are becoming concerning. (Sound familiar, Dodie Smith fans?) Penelope studies Eng More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2010

Sarah rated it:

4.5 stars. I really, really liked this--like, a lot--and wonder why I didn't become more popular. Well, I'm basing my perception of its lack of buzz on the fact that I'd never heard of it, which maybe isn't exactly the final word in things, but even though this is just the kind of thing I'm always on the lookout for, I only stumbled across it randomly on the shelf at the library, and selected it mostly because the cover is fantastic, and I'm in love with the dresses pictured. Then I heard it More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 08, 2010

Chana rated it:

Penelope and Inigo Wallace live with their young, beautiful and widowed mother in a glorious, crumbling medieval English mansion. It is one of the last of the great houses and it is falling down around them as they have no money to keep it up. The year is 1954, Penelope is 18 and Inigo 16. Jonnie Ray is all the rage as a pop star, rationing has ended, the youth of England are bursting with life and change. Elvis Presley is about to be discovered in the U.S.
Into this setting enter Cha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 20, 2010

Louise rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2009

Alana rated it:

My roommate does not really own or even buy books. When she moved in and I offered her a bookcase, she said she just needed two shelves. We both read a great deal; she just tends to read magazines, journals, or newspapers. The point of all this is that on a recent trip to London, she bought me a book, which was a big deal for her. It is one of her favorites and I found it to be quite charming.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice (daughter of lyricist Tim Rice) is told from More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 20, 2011

Shareen rated it:

This book is more of a mood book, for lovers of all things English, old country houses, 50's nostalgia, and I think, anyone who loves I Capture the Castle. Here's a few things I like about this book:
characters names: Charlotte, Penelope, Harry
they are frequently having afternoon tea and riding on trains
the main characters uses the words "gosh" and "goodness" ("goodness, I don't know.")
they like listening radio programs, playing 78s on their gra More...

2 comments like

Nov 13, 2010

Beth rated it:

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets takes place in 1950s England, after the war is finally over and people are learning to live again.

That's what this book is about. This book is color and vitality and giddiness and euphoria. Life is an endless stream of thrilling, heady adjectives, a whirling mass of energy and joy and excitement; every occurrence is larger than life in a way that it would be had it been forbidden or impossible just years back.

For careful Penelope, the protagon More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2009

Debbie rated it:

What a delight! I've always felt that the 1950s is a neglected decade as far as fiction goes and in Eva Rice's hands the decade (or at least the years 1954/55) are tellingly drawn. I love the descriptions and the feel of the house Magna, the parties at Dorset House and the Ritz and the afternoons at Aunt Clare's.
This is an intelligent and atmospheric book which is very well written. It is a pity because of these things that there were a few discrepancies. For one I couldn't get Penelope's More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

Karen rated it:

This was a finalist for the British book award "Best read of the Year". I read it on the plane from L.A. to Boston; what a fun airplane read! Post World War II London; young British upper class. Again, a vacation read, but a REALLY good one. Couldn't put it down.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

Kathy rated it:

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice is a book I found in the bargain bin at Book Warehouse. The story is set in London, post-WWII and tells the story of eighteen year old Penelope, her brother, Indigo, and her mother whom live in a huge house which they can not afford to maintain. Their father / husband died during the war and left them virtually destitute. While looking for a job, Penelope accepts an offer of a cab ride with the vivacious Charlotte Ferris, and they become great More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 23, 2011

Nicole rated it:

This book was recommended by a friend and although I didn´t get my hopes up from the descripion at the back or the cover of the book I must admit that from the very first page I was completely into the story. I could easily relate to Penelope´s walk of life and her worries and problems. And you all have a friend like Charlotte who´s outgoing and have a positive oulook on life in general.
There is a kind of mysterious atmosphere in this novel that is expanded by a figure such as Harry who yo More...

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Aug 18, 2010

Kat rated it:

I picked this book up because it was constantly showing up in my personalized recommendations list on Amazon (based on my enjoyment of I Capture the Castle). I adore novels of historical fiction, particularly those set around the time of the second World War. Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets takes place between 1954 and 1955 in England, at a time when the country is just getting used to not being in the midst of wartime. Rations are over, there are no more threats of air raids, and the More...

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Aug 10, 2009

Bayneeta rated it:

I loved this book. It charmed and touched me; made me laugh; made me cry. 1950s London. Eighteen-year-old Penelope, her younger brother and her war-widowed mother live in a famous but deteriorating mansion outside of London. Penelope is befriended by Charlotte and Charlotte's Aunt Clara and cousin Harry. Penelope and Charlotte share a love of Johnnie Ray. Harry is madly in love with an American heiress. Probably not really a perfect book, but I just finished it (I'm sorry it's over) and am More...

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Jul 17, 2011

Hilary rated it:

Fluff, and badly-edited fluff at that, full of anachronistic cultural references. It makes no sense from the word go (a strange young woman asks the protagonist to come to tea with her, to run interference between her and her aunt and cousin in spite of the fact that she apparently interacts with them on a daily basis); even the title, which is also used as the closing line, seems to have little to do with the story, leaving one with the impression that the author thought of the phrase, then More...

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