What Are You Currently Reading?

[Abigail]

The Soul of Kindness. In another group (the most delightful Retro Reads) we have a book pool going in which everyone suggested five books they wanted to read, and then we all read as many of the books as we wish. One person listed The Soul of Kindness and since I keep hearing wonderful things about Elizabeth Taylor I thought I’d start there. Do you have favorites?

[Laura]

Hi - I've only read - Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and At Mrs Lippincote's - I started yesterday with a Barbara Pym and had to stop because it was same year 1945 as Lippincote's plus an immediate reference to Jane Eyre!!! Too much! I'm waiting to see what this group decides for the March read and I'm going to check now on the February book.

[[deleted user]]

Abigail wrote: "Oh, I’ve been very curious about that book, Florence! Hope to hear your final thoughts after you finish."

The Mercies was such a powerful, yet saddening novel with strong female characters and covered interesting themes, such as witchcraft. It was so captivating, although it seldom made me laugh.

[Abigail]

Thanks, Florence! I love me a good book about witchcraft (notice how I nominated Lolly Willowes for the March read!).

[Abigail]

Just finished Miss Austen by Gill Hornby—about Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra—which I enjoyed but did not love. Moving on now to The Sorrows of Satan; or, The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire by Marie Corelli.

[Abigail]

I’m enjoying The Sorrows of Satan (sort of Dante meets Danielle Steel) and starting a buddy read in another group of Holy Disorders by one of my favorite retro mystery writers, Edmund Crispin.

[Abigail]

Just finished Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz and about to start Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym.

[Abigail]

Read The Longbourn Letters: The Correspondence between Mr Collins & Mr Bennet and Village School since I last checked in and now working on How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.

[Abigail]

Now reading The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John LeCarré.

[Charlene]

Migraine tonight means I won't get to read more of A House and Its Head. It is definitely a complete opposite to our monthly book Jane and Prudence.

[Abigail]

I started The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story about a week ago and quickly discovered that it was not the sort of book I could just read straight through—simultaneously intense, dense, and repetitive—so I’ve taken up some other books to read in tandem. Raced through Dear Hugo by Molly Clavering, which I loved, and am now trading off with Bramton Wick by Elizabeth Fair. I love the twentieth-century comedies of polite provincials, as a better mind than mine dubbed them, so this offers me relief from the challenge of The 1619 Project.

[Charlene]

Abigail wrote: "I started The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story about a week ago and quickly discovered that it was not the sort of book I could just read straight through—simultaneously intense, de..."

I had not heard of Elizabeth Fair either. I went and looked up Dean Street Press. It seems most of their publications are classics from female authors. https://www.deanstreetpress.co.uk/

[Abigail]

Yes, the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint of Dean Street Press is a goldmine of my favorite type of recreational reading! Sadly, their production values are pretty awful—bad page margins, no proofreading, inaccurate scanning in some cases. But when it comes to cozy books about country life (especially between the wars), I’ll take what I can get! Angela Thirkell has long been known, but Stella Gibbons (aside from Cold Comfort Farm), Margery Sharpe, Molly Clavering, D. E. Stevenson (sometimes on the saccharine side), Elizabeth Fair, and others really keep my spirit fed when the real world wears me down.

[Abigail]

Currently reading (for the second time, for a book club) The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner. It’s an enjoyable and sometimes poignant historical fiction set mainly in the 1940s. And I emphasize fiction because it is not an account of the real circumstances surrounding the foundation of The Jane Austen Society. But it is a good story.

[Abigail]

Strolled through Five Windows by D. E. Stevenson, just so-so, and now trying The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs, which I picked out of my Little Free Library because it had the word “bookshop” in the title.

[Charlene]

Abigail wrote: "Currently reading (for the second time, for a book club) The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner. It’s an enjoyable and sometimes poignant historical fiction set mainly in the 194..."

A friend just lent this book to me.

[Abigail]

Hope you enjoy it! I like the way the author writes about loss and grief.

[Marilyn]

Just finished Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. Trying to decide what to read next. Maybe Wise Children by Angela Carter.

[Janice]

Abigail wrote: "Strolled through Five Windows by D. E. Stevenson, just so-so, and now trying The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs, which I picked out of my Little Free Library..."

That sounds exactly like something I would do. See a book with the word bookshop, therefore, I must read it. :)

[Janice]

Abigail wrote: "Currently reading (for the second time, for a book club) The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner. It’s an enjoyable and sometimes poignant historical fiction set mainly in the 194..."

I hope to read this someday, maybe for Jane Austen July? I have heard it's a good story. :)

[Janice]

I am almost finished reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and loving it!!

[Jan]

I just finished Passing 5 minutes ago. I think I will read a mystery called Dark Coulee by Mary Logue. Not a cozy. She is a police officer. My other library book on hand is called Yellow Bird- a native American nonfiction and will not be a happy read.

[Abigail]

Finished two books that were just “meh” for me, The Lost and Found Bookshop and The Nature of Witches, and am about to start Black Narcissus. Hoping to break my losing streak!

[Charlene]

I went ahead and placed a hold on Suite Française. It is the latest pick on the Reading Room. https://www.instagram.com/p/CcqXK9Psdpk/

Now I have three books that I need to get reading.

[Charlene]

I am not sure if I can get to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with the group next month. I still have 2 library books to read. I will start Where the Crawdads Sing tonight. I still have Suite Française to finish. Plus whatever book my in person book club picks.

[Abigail]

I’m afraid I will be skipping a reread of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as well, though I may chime in with comments because I read it last year. I have a lot of reading on my docket in June, including one group read that I have to lead.

[Jan]

I have read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in the past and will probably not reread either. I will probably refresh my memory by Sparknotes and participating in the discussions.

[Jan]

Charlene wrote: "I am not sure if I can get to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with the group next month. I still have 2 library books to read. I will start Where the Crawdads Sing tonight. I still ..."

I read Crawdads for a book club. I did not care for it. It requires a lot of suspension of belief from beginning to end. I went with the flow for most of the book until it came to, a No More moment. I do like my realistic fiction to be realistic, though. It is the accountant in me. I can read a ghost story and be okay with that. Most of the book club liked it though. Let me know what you think.

[Charlene]

Jan wrote: "Charlene wrote: "I am not sure if I can get to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with the group next month. I still have 2 library books to read. I will start Where the Crawdads Sing ..."

I wanted to read it as Where the Crawdads Sing is included in the reading list for Reese Witherspoon's book club and Duchess of Cornwall's reading room. Those are two totally different type of people so I was wondering what was it about this book that both of them would pick it.

[Jan]

They certainly seem to be very different people.

[Charlene]

Jan wrote: "Charlene wrote: "I am not sure if I can get to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with the group next month. I still have 2 library books to read. I will start Where the Crawdads Sing ..."

I finished this closer to the end of May but was helping my mom after surgery so this is the first time I could come back. I definitely feel like Where the Crawdads Sing is a book that you are just to escape and not think about. I really don't think it would make a great book club book. I think that the movie will keep the book around. It got the standard 4 stars as it was well written, and I did enjoy it, but it wasn't one that kept me up reading at night.

I also read a book from Read with Jenna book club. I read The School for Good Mothers. That is definitely one that would provoke good book club discussions. I think I enjoyed it more than the Where the Crawdads Sing.

Up next is Suite Francaise and The Christie Affair. I have just needed a change up on what I have been reading.

[Abigail]

Just finished rereading a favorite novel of mine, Fresh Water for Flowers. Next I’m going to get a head start on next month’s group read, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

[Abigail]

I loved Their Eyes Were Watching God and look forward to the discussion next month! Now on to reading two books in alternation: Belinda by Maria Edgeworth and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Expect to be at them both for a while, since Belinda is nearly 500 pages of small type and A Suitable Boy nearly 1,500!

[Natalie]

I am about a third of the way through Ali Benjamin's novel, "The Smash-Up". The Smash-Up

I don't think it's cricket to reveal any of the plot details but I will say that if you know "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton, this book will have some similarities in terms of theme. It's very much a novel of its time (post-Trump election, post #MeToo).

[Abigail]

I finished A Suitable Boy and a take-a-break read of Sylvester by Georgette Heyer and am about to dive into The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

[Lori]

I am getting ready to start Circling the Sun by Paula McLain.

[Jan]

Pride and Prejudice! again

[Abigail]

Largely disliked The Midnight Library and am rewarding myself with Angela Thirkell, Pomfret Towers, to be followed by Michael Innes’s The Secret Vanguard.

[CindySR]

A re-read from my younger days Arundel

As good as I remember, savoring it.

[Lauren]

Abigail wrote: "I finished A Suitable Boy and a take-a-break read of Sylvester by Georgette Heyer and am about to dive into The Midnight Library by Matt Haig."

I LOVE "Sylvester"! Along with "Frederica," it's one of my favorite Heyer books. I was thinking of re-reading again because I've been reading sadder books lately and could use something light.

[Abigail]

Heyer is great in those moments! The Georgette Heyer group on Goodreads is reading my personal favorite, The Unknown Ajax, in August, in case you want to join in. Frederica is one of my favorites too—the Baluchistan Hound!

[Abigail]

I enjoyed The Secret Vanguard after necessary suspension of disbelief and plowed on through The Emma Project by Sonali Dev, the last in the Raje series to my sorrow. Now I’m going to get a jump on my August reading with an assigned book for my local real-world reading group: This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.

[Natalie]

I have just started a slender book, My Phantoms
and one simile struck me:
"My mother loved rules. She loved rules and codes and fixed expectations---as a dog loved an air-borne stick." Gwendoline Riley is the author.

[Jan]

Pioneer Girl: an Annotated Autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder

[Abigail]

Just finished The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich and moving on to The Woman of Colour.

[Janice]

I am rereading Middlemarch by George Eliot and A Complicated Goodbye by Laurie Carmichael

[Abigail]

I love Middlemarch but it’s a real commitment!

Currently reading our October group read, Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, and falling in love with it all over again! Beautiful descriptions, sly humor, and the plot takes a turn that nobody will see coming. Seriously, I defy anyone to guess what happens with Lolly.

[Lori]

I’ve just started Weeds by Edith Summers Kelley for another group read. It would work for this group as well.

[Abigail]

I looked up Weeds—it looks very interesting!

[Mary]

I've been re reading and enjoying Barbara Pym's amazing and engrossing works . Currently I am reading Jane Gardam's Old Filth ...it is BRILLIANT . https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...