Hi everyone, and welcome to the Victorians! group. I hope we can start some great dicussions about our favourite reads and encourage each other in the more "meatier" reads.

I thought we could also answer a few fun questions about ourselves to get to know one another and what we like to read etc. So here are the questions and I look forward to getting to know you all.

Name:
Where I live:
Favourite victorian book:
Favourite victorian author:
Favourtie non-victorian book:
Favourite genre (apart from victorian):
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here:

Name: Boof (not my real name, obviously!)
Where I live: Yorkshire, England (Bronte country)
Favourite victorian book: Jane Eyre
Favourite victorian author: Charlotte Bronte
Favourtie non-victorian book: Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong and The Magus by John Fowles
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Travel (particulalry books about China)
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: So many but I really want to read Middlemarch and Woman in White

Boof, what a great idea! I would love to read more of the Victorians. Thank you for coordinating this.

Name: Wanda
Where I live: York, PA
Favourite victorian book: A Tale of Two Cities
Favourite victorian author: Charles Dickens
Favourite non-victorian book: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penamn
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Historical Fiction
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: I am with Boof on her choices - The Woman in White and Middlemarch

Name: Well, Misfit's the cat's name
Where I live: Kent, Washington State US
Favourite victorian book: Jane Eyre or Middlemarch depending on my mood
Favourite victorian author: same as previous, Bronte or Elio
Favorite non-victorian book: Ack, I can't pick one, Gone With The Wind, Here Be Dragons or The Far Pavilions
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): historical ficiton
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: Whatever you guys decide, I have quite a back-log

Name: Christy
Where I live: Texas
Favourite victorian book: Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Favourite victorian author: Charlotte Brontë
Favourtie non-victorian book: Right now I love The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Historical fiction and non-fiction
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: I'm up for anything.

Name: Susan Higginbotham
Where I live: North Carolina
Favourite Victorian book: Bleak House or Our Mutual Friend (it's a tie)
Favourite Victorian author: Charles Dickens
Favourite non-Victorian book: not a single book; Anne Tyler is my favorite non-Victorian author
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Historical Fiction
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: anything by Dickens!

Susan wrote: "Name: Susan Higginbotham
Where I live: North Carolina
Favourite Victorian book: Bleak House or Our Mutual Friend (it's a tie)
Favourite Victorian author: Charles Dickens
Favourite non-Victorian boo..."

Let's swing a magic pendant and chant "Little Dorrit" or "A Tale of Two Cities" or "Olde Curiosity Shop."

Name: Susanna
Where I live: South Carolina
Favorite Victorian book: Bleak House
Favorite Victorian author: Charles Dickens
Favorite non-Victorian book: You want me to pick just one?!?! Uh, I'm not sure I can.
Favorite genre (excluding Victorian): historical fiction
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: A lot of them, actually. More Dickens, certainly, but also more Trollope.

Name: Andrea
Where I live: Michigan
Favorite vic book:Our Mutual Friend or Moonstone
Favorite Vic author:Charles Dickens
Favorite non-vic book:any Nadine Gordimer
Favorite genre non-vic: African memoir
Book I'm most looking forward to:Little Dorrit, or maybe anything else.

Name: Darcy
Where I live: Northern California
Favourite victorian book: The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
Favourite victorian author: hmm, I really love Elizabeth Gaskell's novels. And Dickens.
Favourtie non-victorian book: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (maybe for obvious reasons? ;)
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): detective fiction
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: Trilby, by George du Maurier

Name: Cathy
Where I live: Sydney Australia.
Favourite Vic book: Wuthering Heights
Favourite Author: Emily Bronte
Favourite Non-Victorian book: Time Traveller's Wife
Favourite Genre: mystery for fun/ any good writing
Book I'm most looking forward to: at the moment - finishing Lady Audley!

Love the Victorians!

Name: sherien
Where I live: Jakarta, Indonesia
Favourite victorian book: Jane Eyre/The mill on the floss
Favourite victorian author: C. Bronte, George Eliot
Favourtie non-victorian book: the namesake(Jhumpa Lahiri), Persuasion(Jane Austen isn't Victorian, is she? I'm sort of confused...)
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): multicultural
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: Middlemarch would be nice...

Name: AYu
Where I live: Jakarta, Indonesia
Favourite victorian book: Great Expectations and Jane Eyre
Favourite victorian author: this might sound typical, but yes Dickens is my favourite.
Favourtie non-victorian book: Giovanni's Room (Baldwin), Mathilda (Dahl)
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): gay novels
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: Our Mutual Friend by Dickens

Name: MBP
Where I live: upstate New York
Favourite victorian books: Jane Eyre, Middlemarch
Favourite victorian author: Charlotte Bronte
Favourtie non-victorian book: When Christ and His Saints Slept (Sharon Kay Penman); The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): historical fiction/historical mysteries
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: The Woman in White or The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins), Bleak House (Dickens)

Name: Sera
Where I live: Eastern PA
Favourite victorian book: A Tale of Two Cities
Favourite victorian author: Charles Dickens
Favourtie non-victorian book: East of Eden
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Literary Fiction
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: Great Expectations; Bleak House; The Woman in White

Sera wrote: "Name: Sera
Where I live: Eastern PA
Favourite victorian book: A Tale of Two Cities
Favourite victorian author: Charles Dickens
Favourtie non-victorian book: East of Eden
Favourite genre (apart..."

Hi, Sera. I live in southcentral PA and love Dickens, too. Wonder if we are neighbors?

Hi, Wanda! I live in New Hope, and I work in Princeton, NJ. Where do you live?

Sera wrote: "Hi, Wanda! I live in New Hope, and I work in Princeton, NJ. Where do you live?"

Hi, Sera. I live in York and work in Lancaster - how's that for a Tudor connection? However, soon my son and I will be moving to Ft. Benning, GA.

LOL, Wanda - nice Tudor connection.

I lived in Lawrenceville, Dunwoody and Alpharetta, GA in the early to mid-1990s. GA is too crowded for me, but I did love the balmy year-round weather. I can recall playing tennis in late-February and wearing shorts :)

Name: Cynthia
Where I live: Los Angeles, CA
Favourite victorian book: So hard! Anything by George Eliot or Edith Wharton, Another favorite is Odd Women by George Gissing
Favourite victorian author: Eliot, Wharton
Favourtie non-victorian book: Patricia Highsmith's work
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, Michael Connelly's Mysteries, Current Literary
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: Anything OTHER than Austen and Bronte and Dickens (We've all read them, let's use move on to other things and use Austen, Dickens and Bronte as reference points

Sera wrote: "LOL, Wanda - nice Tudor connection.

I lived in Lawrenceville, Dunwoody and Alpharetta, GA in the early to mid-1990s. GA is too crowded for me, but I did love the balmy year-round weather. I ..."

Sera, I am looking forward to GA. We will be living onpost at Ft. Benning so I am not sure if it will be crowded or not - I would imagine so. I will feel overwhelmed coming from small-town York. I am looking forward to warmer weather all year round. Sandals in February? I am there!

Sera and Wanda, speaking on tudor references and York and Lancaster; I live in Yorkshire and I actually live in The Grand Old Duke of York's house (built in 1645). It still has all the original beams and a huge inglenook fireplace which you can see where the swords etc have been sharpened. You can also see where the animals would have been tethered up too.

Misfit, I have been meaning to tell you this too for ages cos I know you are interested in this era.

Boof wrote: "Sera and Wanda, speaking on tudor references and York and Lancaster; I live in Yorkshire and I actually live in The Grand Old Duke of York's house (built in 1645). It still has all the original bea..."

I am green with envy!

Hee hee, it is a really beautiful house. But we are about to move :o( We have had to put the house on the market recently which is really sad.

Boof wrote: "Hee hee, it is a really beautiful house. But we are about to move :o( We have had to put the house on the market recently which is really sad. "

Before you move, could you post a picture? I am sorry you have to move and I am sure the house will miss you as much as you will miss it.

How exciting to have lived in such an historic place!!! I'd like to see a pic as well. One of the things I love about England is being steeped in such rich history.

Yes, of course. I'm about to go out now for easter lunch but when I get in this evening I will post the link of our estate agents as they have a video tour of the house.

Boof wrote: "Sera and Wanda, speaking on tudor references and York and Lancaster; I live in Yorkshire and I actually live in The Grand Old Duke of York's house (built in 1645). It still has all the original bea..."

That is so cool, Boof!

And, I can't wait to see the photos.

My house

The history is a bit scetchy but we do know that it was built in 1645 so the likely contender for which Duke of York is was is James, Duke of York and not Richard Plantagenot. However, Richard was killed only half a mile from my house in the battle of Wakefield. I live only that far from Sandal Castle which is now ruins but you can still see where the fireplace was and the chambers etc. I go up there all the time for a walk round.

Boof- How 'bout I just rent out your bathtub? We'll drag your nice book case into the bathroom, and you can charge me by the hour, ok? LOL! Beautiful, historic home.

Dear Boof: Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful house. Isn't it amazing to know your house has stood the test of time? I could almost hear the horses stamping in the courtyard. Thank you so much!

Name: Cherlize (Cher)
Where I live: Idaho, USA
Favourite victorian book: Hmmm...golly, that's hard. Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell...maybe. Favourite victorian author: E.M. Forster if you include him in Victorian literature, Gaskell and C.Bronte if you don't.
Favourtie non-victorian book: Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, A Room with a View and Passage to India by Forster. Enchanted April by Von Arnim, Elizabeth and her German Garden too.
Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Memoirs of growing up in China and India, Childrens' lit.
Books I'm most looking forward to reading on here: (You mean in this group?) Well, not as a group read per se but as Victorian reading I'm looking forward to some non-fiction books: George Eliot: The Last Victorian, Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England , The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess , and Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale (to name a few). Whew!

Cher wrote: "Boof- How 'bout I just rent out your bathtub? We'll drag your nice book case into the bathroom, and you can charge me by the hour, ok? LOL! Beautiful, historic home.
"

LOL Cher! I must confess I do like sitting in that with a good book. Renting by the hour is most welcome - I could do with the cash ;o)

Wanda, thanks for your comment. It is great that it's still around (it's a listed building, naturally). Obviously it's very modern now but there are still little tell-tale signs of the past in various places.

Cher - Inside the Victorian Home is excellent, I would really recommend that one.

Boof, thank you for posting the information. Your house is gorgeous! It makes me want to move to England - now :)

Alright, that's it. We're all going to meet at Boof's house two weeks from today at 2:37pm. Synchronize your watches, and don't forget your sleeping bag!

Yay!!!! I'll get the tea and crumpets ready! (LOL! Apparantly that's all we eat).

2:37 whose time? Would hate you all to fly over the pond and me not be in ;o)

Beautiful house, Boof - love the brick & stone wall with the hearth. Nice orange & white kitty in the yard, too!

Oh you saw Dexter!!!!! He's my baby boy and he's actually on a few shots if you look closely (he likes to be the centre of attention!). In fact the camera man said he had to stop fliming a few times because "the ginger cat and the black cat kept getting in shot and fighting!" LOL. That's Dexter and Boof (the original Boof, not me!)

He's a very handsome boy! Apparently the camera man just didn't understand that they wanted to add a little action and drama to the video :)

Being a cat person, I noticed the cat, too. The perfect touch, I think! Cats do have that other-wordly air about them.

Name: Alice

Where I live: in the mountains of Colorado
Favourite victorian book: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Favourite victorian author: this is one of the Bronte's but I can't think which one at the moment, believe this was her only book

Favourite non-victorian book: Afternoon of an Autocrat by Norah Lofts also Jassy by Norah Lofts, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Favourite genre (apart from victorian):
probably historical romance but I will read just about anything

Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: not sure..have read many books since I got on goodreads I might never have considered!

Boof, you got the song "The Grand Old Duke of York" stuck in my head. As I was humming it, my 8 year old came along and sang it. I mentioned your house, and she said, "You mean the Duke of York was a real person? Oh, yeah, they still have those in England don't they? They have the Queen. But I think she just does religious stuff now." At least she knows the song!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been going around humming that! So, Boof, you will be forever associated with that tune in my head!

OH, no! Now its in my head!

Andrea wrote: "Boof, you got the song "The Grand Old Duke of York" stuck in my head. As I was humming it, my 8 year old came along and sang it. I mentioned your house, and she said, "You mean the Duke of York w..."

That's been in my head for days now, too! ARGH!

LOL! Sorry. Yes, that's the very one. He marched his ten thousand men up and down my road.

I don't mind being thought of grand, but no so much of the old please ;o)

Okay, my turn!

Name: Lee

Where I live: Toronto, Canada (in 3 days!)

Favourite victorian book: The House of Mirth

Favourite victorian author: Edith Wharton (so far!)

Favourite non-victorian book: Impossible!

Favourite genre (apart from victorian): Historical Fiction, Mysteries, World literature

Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here: Anything by Elizabeth Gaskell, Margaret Oliphant or George Eliot.

Cheers everyone, this is a really nice group.

Name: Krys
Where I live: Right now in West Georgia, but I'll be moving to Maryland soon.
Favourite Victorian book: Vanity Fair
Favourite Victorian author: I like Dickens as a collective.
Favourtie non-Victorian book: Grapes of Wrath, Crime and Punishment, few contemporaries here and there.
Favourite genre (apart from Victorian): Pretty much anything else is fine, I'm open minded.
Book I'm most looking forward to reading on here:
Some books that I might have missed in this genre.