false 14 1268 937 true 5625198 read 3 true 336717 currently-reading 328 true 336716 to-read 281 false 1555413 fantasy-and-science-fiction 201 false 1555408 children-s-and-young-adult-fiction 160 false 1565736 historical-fiction 141 false 1555371 british-literature 68 false 2575375 from-library 64 false 1586925 romance 64 false 1777100 mystery 60 false 1555401 general-fiction 54 false 1910291 biography 48 false 4231360 poc-50-book-challenge 44 false 1794784 victorian-fiction 43 false 4651804 favorites 42 false 1606225 history 33 false 1802415 virago 33 false 1586926 regency 33 false 1606228 short-stories 32 false 1606521 american-literature 25 false 1910292 literary-biography 24 false 1606518 humor 21 false 1794809 mythology-and-fairy-tales 20 false 1818608 british-history 18 false 2568944 autobiography 17 false 2019890 bloomsbury 17 false 1785860 nautical-fiction 16 false 1803123 space-opera 16 false 2173554 persephone 16 false 1794783 gothic 12 false 1606517 memoirs 12 false 1606229 ghost-stories 12 false 2940251 american-history 12 false 1606226 wwii 11 false 3194186 french-history 11 false 1794804 alternate-universe 10 false 1555432 baseball 10 false 2201937 time-travel 10 false 5368256 arc 9 false 1807211 literary-criticism 9 false 2281687 travel 9 false 3098572 books-and-reading 8 false 8131948 italian-renaissance 8 false 3686422 stuarts 8 false 1794777 magical-realism 7 false 1799500 renaissance-history 7 false 9106734 elizabethans 7 false 1782276 arthuriana 7 false 2119991 essays 7 false 2173531 american-civil-war 7 false 8329272 plantagenets 7 false 1799501 italian-history 6 false 1794785 suspense 6 false 5404493 epistolary-novels 6 false 1794812 secret-history 6 false 2657198 tudors 6 false 2461587 french-literature 6 false 2138764 backstage 6 false 2725119 london 5 false 2278364 food-writing 5 false 3493513 alternate-history 5 false 9123699 musical-fiction 5 false 1799496 anthologies 5 false 5563696 louis-xiv 4 false 3475916 sensation-novels 4 false 4697322 literary-history 4 false 9117197 english-civil-war 4 false 2012243 impostors 4 false 1586610 disney 4 false 4913912 wales 4 false 2520047 art-history 4 false 1794780 fiction-in-translation 4 false 1803115 feminism 4 false 3780297 french-revolution 4 false 1794770 vampires 4 false 3212106 historical-fantasy 4 false 8332682 african-american-studies 3 false 7977465 new-york 3 false 4062031 american-revolution 3 false 3912547 paris 3 false 3653674 european-history 3 false 1818607 letters 3 false 3902796 england 2 false 1794752 psychology 2 false 4890513 paranormal-romance 2 false 4685747 crafts 2 false 9258607 music 2 false 1777106 medieval-history 2 false 6977038 culled 2 false 9117215 restoration 2 false 9117187 richard-iii 2 false 1606509 knitting 2 false 1606227 diaries 2 false 3388031 drama 2 false 3673580 gardening 2 false 9258611 g-s 2 false 5304534 sociology 2 false 4183513 theatre-and-film 2 false 3912548 france 2 false 3915751 europe http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58578121 The Razor's Edge (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by W. Somerset Maugham
bookshelves: british-literature, currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81577216 to: Late and Soon (Hardcover) by E.M. Delafield
bookshelves: british-literature
The life of Valentine Arbell, a longtime widow, is turned upside down when she encounters again a man with whom she had a passionate love affair as a young woman. This was an unusual Delafield, I thought. She does show, as usual, the constrictedness of the lives of her female characters (though there are hints of something better in the war work longed for by Valentine's younger daughter), but in spite of the bittersweet tone, the ending is oddly, unexpectedly (at least to me) hopeful. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79683967 to: The War Workers (1918) by E. M. Delafield
bookshelves: british-literature
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78232830 to: The Bondwoman's Narrative (Paperback) by Hannah Crafts
bookshelves: african-american-studies, american-literature, poc-50-book-challenge
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81346508 to: The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan (Hardcover) by Ian Bradley
bookshelves: g-s, music
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81346299 to: Oh Joy! Oh Rapture!: The Enduring Phenomenon of Gilbert and Sullivan (Hardcover) by Ian Bradley
bookshelves: g-s, music, musical-history
Ian Bradley is the editor of the excellent The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan, which I've reread and enjoyed for years. Here, he examines specifically the last forty years in Gilbert and Sullivan performances and organizations, or since about 1961, when their works came into the public domain and could be performed by groups other than the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. After devoting a couple of chapters to the currently defunct D'Oyly Carte, Bradley goes on to explore other groups and performances, professional and amateur, all over the world; I was pleased to see references to my local G&S society, the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Bradley also includes chapters on G&S parodies (very funny) and on G&S fans; here I do wonder if he's overgeneralizing, as I think he may be overestimating the tendency of G&S fans to be male, but perhaps I'm simply also overgeneralizing, based on personal experience. Overall, as one would expect from a Gilbert and Sullivan expert like Bradley, Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! is a fascinating read and well worth adding to the collection of any G&S fan. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81346147 to: Someone in the House (Paperback) by Barbara Michaels
bookshelves: ghost-stories, mystery, suspense
Barbara Michaels (who also writes as Elizabeth Peters) is a writer of consistently entertaining romantic thrillers, usually with supernatural overtones. After reading Someone in the House several times over the years since it was published, I've come to think that it's one of her best.

Anne and Kevin are English professors, planning to write a textbook together; when Kevin's parents win the lottery and buy a country manor (transported intact from England at the beginning of World War II), he and Anne decide to spend the summer there, writing. Soon after they arrive, strange things start to happen, and Anne begins to feel that there is an inexplicable presence in the house. The story is full of Michaels' signature suspense, romance, and humor, but the utterly unexpected ending is what, for me, lifts this book above many of her others (though I note upon reading reviews at Amazon that my opinion isn't shared by most Michaels fans, so your mileage may vary). ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81237560 Margaret's review of Literary Women
by Ellen Moers

So many long passages full of nothing in between the few good bits! I was so disappointed I've never read any other Radcliffe. (Thank goodness for The Castle of Otranto and The Monk, or I would lose my faith in Gothic novels.) ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81237156 Margaret's review of The Sibyl in Her Grave
by Sarah Caudwell

I adore them -- so witty! And they hold up well to rereading, which not all mysteries do. I rather want to reread them, but I'm going through a spasm of feeling pressured by the vast unread piles right now. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/81237828 Margaret's review of Time at the Top
by Edward Ormondroyd

And Purple House Press reprinted the first book a few years back, but oddly, not the second, which is annoying, because they really can't be read separately. ]]>