What Are You Currently Reading?

[Abigail]

The Readers Review: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/....

[Abigail]

Currently reading The Brandons by Angela Thirkell, which is a group read in the Retro Reads group here on Goodreads.

Just finished The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart, and about to start a group read of The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis.

[Janice]

I have just started A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery.

[Kit]

Currently reading English Literature in Context for my degree!

[Abigail]

A classic, Kit!

[Kit]

Abigail wrote: "A classic, Kit!"

I'm actually really enjoying it, nerd that I am. 🤓

[Jan]

Abigail wrote: "I know, I belong to about twenty reading groups and always feel behind!"

Holy cow! Are you retired? I cannot keep up with mine and it is considerably fewer. I am still working full time.

[Abigail]

I am retired, yes, and reading is one of my chief occupations. I am not active (or only occasionally active) in a few of the groups, but for most of them I try to read the assigned book in a real-world group every month and in a Goodreads group at least half of the months. I generally read about 10 books a month. It is my greatest pleasure, and my best way of avoiding the next novel I’m supposed to be writing. 😄

[Abigail]

Currently reading Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn, quite a come-down from Mansfield Park! The writing style is geared toward those who dropped out of school at age 10, seemingly. It’s a 1999 thriller about Islamic terrorists taking over the White House, and it’s simultaneously prescient and clueless. Every character is introduced with a physical description, including height and weight. Very sixth grade.

[Abigail]

Starting A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair.

[Abigail]

Enjoyed A Winter Away, followed by Precious Bane and Touch Not the Cat. Read a book I basically loathed (so disappointed because I had high hopes), Her Lost Words: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Currently reading a book for the Jane Austen July challenge, Praying with Jane: 31 Days through the Prayers of Jane Austen, which I chose because Jane Austen’s prayers were the only scrap of her writing I had not previously read. Also for another group read, Olive by Dinah Maria Craik, pure Victoriana.

[Abigail]

Just finished a rather surprising book by P. G. Wodehouse, Jill the Reckless. It has some of his usual comedic material but is a bit more substantive, including some sadder bits. Also it’s mostly set in New York City, in a Broadway theater, a world Wodehouse knew well, so not a British drawing-room comedy. I think members of this group would enjoy it.

Also working my way through two group reads, Olive: A Novel and Carmilla by LeFanu, J. Sheridan (2012) Paperback by Sheridan LeFanu, a deliciously prurient Victorian lesbian vampire story. Anne Rice, eat your heart out! Then, for my sins, it’s on to The Scarlet Letter.

[Elizabeth]

Abigail wrote: "and Carmilla by LeFanu, J. Sheridan (2012) Paperback by Sheridan LeFanu, a deliciously prurient Victorian lesbian vampire story"

I love Carmilla! It conjures such a wonderful gothic atmosphere.
Anne Rice couldn't write like that in a million years.

[Mary]

Just finished a Virago classic; The Gentlewoman by Laura Talbot . It was engrossing after a slow start. Quite moving in it's depiction of society changes during WW2. Now I need some humour so back to EF Benson and his Paying Guests

[Abigail]

Elizabeth wrote: "Abigail wrote: "and Carmilla by LeFanu, J. Sheridan (2012) Paperback by Sheridan LeFanu, a deliciously prurient Victorian lesbian vampire story"

I love Carmilla! It conjures such a wonderful gothi..."

Very true! I’m enjoying it a lot too—the best so far of the series of gothic group reads in the Readers Review group here on Goodreads. I believe the next up is going to be Dracula.

[Abigail]

MaryE wrote: "Just finished a Virago classic; The Gentlewoman by Laura Talbot . It was engrossing after a slow start. Quite moving in it's depiction of society changes during WW2. Now I need some humour so back ..."

That does sound very interesting, MaryE. Sigh, the TBR never gets shorter, no matter how assiduously I read!

[Mary]

I loved Jill the Reckless . She was indeed not the average wodehouse heroine. I think I mentioned that that was my nom de plume( as it were) in the wodehouse group I frequented for years. All the members took wodehousian pseudonyms ; was great fun. Oh Dracula , I'm tempted. ( to read again )
Yes , the TBR gets longer every time I enter goodreads...lol

[Abigail]

Finished reading Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese, which I enjoyed a lot. Set in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1829-30; Nathaniel Hawthorne is a character. This is NOT a retelling of The Scarlet Letter from Hester’s point of view, it’s much more creative than that. Then I read a disappounting Golden Age mystery, Death of a Bookseller by Bernard Farmer (1956), and am now starting Charlotte Fairlie by D. E. Stevenson.

[Abigail]

Loved Charlotte Fairlie and am now reading Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose.

[Jan]

I am trying to get out of a reading slump. I am listening to The Story Girl by Lucy Maud Montgomery and it is not what I expected. Or maybe it is but not what I had hoped.

[Abigail]

That’s so frustrating, Jan! What I do in those moments is reread a beloved book and then seek out something that hits similar notes.

Not a propos of that tactic, I’m clearing my palate after a long and intense reading of Angle of Repose by rereading Witch of Blackbird Pond. It’s a book I adored as a child but haven’t loved as an adult, but it’s an easy notch in another group’s reading challenge.

[Abigail]

Starting a book about early twentieth-century Oregon: Honey in the Horn by H. L. Davis. A Pulitzer winner in its day, we’ll see. . . .

[Abigail]

I did not get far with Honey in the Horn—too much animal cruelty for my stomach. Soothed myself with Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols, and now it’s on to a favorite essayist, Rebecca Solnit: A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

[Jassmine]

Abigail wrote: "...and now it’s on to a favorite essayist, Rebecca Solnit: A Field Guide to Getting Lost."

Oooh, this one is on my tbr as well! I'm looking forward to your thoughts on that one 😊

[Abigail]

Jassmine wrote: "Abigail wrote: "...and now it’s on to a favorite essayist, Rebecca Solnit: A Field Guide to Getting Lost."

Oooh, this one is on my tbr as well! I'm looking forward to your thoughts on that one 😊"

Loving it so far. I always enjoy the way her mind roves around without losing track of the point.

[Jassmine]

Abigail wrote: "Loving it so far. I always enjoy the way her mind roves around without losing track of the point."

I only read her Men Explain Things to Me (collection not just that one essay) which I thought was good if a little dated and I wanted to read more from her since. This one is definitely high on the possibilities...

[Abigail]

Jassmine wrote: "Abigail wrote: "Loving it so far. I always enjoy the way her mind roves around without losing track of the point."

I only read her Men Explain Things to Me (collection not just tha..."

This one is less political and more philosophical. I’ve read only the first two so far; the first was about losing and finding, the second about longing.

[Mary]

I’m re reading The Child from the Sea by Elizabeth Goudge . I adored her books when I was about 15 so it’s interesting to re visit this . Not sure that I’ll persevere but I think the early third is my favourite section of the book .

[Abigail]

That’s one Goudge I haven’t read. I love some of her novels but she’s a bit uneven.

[Mary]

Abigail, yes I agree with some of her others .
This one is interesting to re read from an adult viewpoint . I’m sure I loved the bravery and wildness of the heroine , Lucy , and actually still do..
It’s magical in many ways …

[Abigail]

Goudge might be a good author to nominate in this group; dunno why I never thought of doing so!

[Abigail]

Finished A Field Guide to Getting Lost (thought-provoking and moving in the end) and A Walk in Wolf Wood (not one of Mary Stewart’s better children’s books IMHO) and am going to start Frequent Hearses by Edmund Crispin.

[Mary]

Abigail I think todays readers wouldn’t be happy with the very accurate way children were treated in the time of this book . They were treated like adults . Children weren’t children , basically ; quite sad . ! Lots of punishments ; whipping etc . I hadn’t remembered those details so quite frankly I don’t think I’d recommend it .

[Abigail]

Thanks for the warning, MaryE!

[Abigail]

Read a book I gave five stars to (though I didn’t think I would at the start): We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza. Really well done. Moving on to a new (to me) annotated edition of Jane Austen’s ≤i>Emma, the one by David Shapard.

[Pheo dio]

I'm currently reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for the first time and i'm enjoying it a lot!!

[Abigail]

I wonder if Little Women was ever read in this group.

[Mary]

I'm continuing with E M Delafield.
I enjoyed The Way Things Are and am now into Thank Heaven Fasting . I found Consequences on Abe Books so will enjoy that when it finally arrives.

[Georgia]

I just finished readingJane Eyre. Couldn't believe how it blew me away. Here is my review to share
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Abigail]

Glad you could enjoy Jane Eyre as an adult, Georgia! When I read it a few years ago, the bloom was off the rose for me. A Goodreads group called The Readers Review is just starting a group read of it, if you wanted to join in.

I’ve missed recording several reads here over the past few weeks—Goodreads keeps dumping me off threads—but one I just finished is The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore. Blakemore is a poet and this is her first novel, about the seventeenth-century Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins and one of his would-be victims. Very intense.

[Karen]

Just finished Ithaca and The House of Odysseus by Claire North. Excellent writing told from the POV of Penelope and the women left behind. A new twist on the ancient Homeric tales. Highly recommend!

[Jan]

Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope

for a library challenge to read a modern version of a classic.

[Jan]

Abigail wrote: "I wonder if Little Women was ever read in this group."

I am game for (re)reading it.

[Jassmine]

Abigail wrote: "I wonder if Little Women was ever read in this group."

I actually didn't read Little Women yet... I'm planning to for several years, but it's still not happening 🙈😂😂😂

[Abigail]

I know Little Women is a big favorite but I didn’t love it as a child and have never reread it.

Currently I’m going back and forth between two books: The Heroine, Or, Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader by Eaton Stannard Barrett, an outrageous spoof of gothic novels published in 1813 (with the Readers Review group); and The Wicked Day, the last volume in Mary Stewart’s Merlin/Arthur series, which is part of the ongoing read of all her books in publication order in the Madam, Want to Talk about Mary Stewart? group.

[Abigail]

Finished a reread of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and read The Daughters of George III: Sisters and Princesses by Catherine Curzon, the latter quite disappointing—mostly about romance and sex. Next going to start A Night of Errors by Michael Innes.

[Jan]

Georgia wrote: "I just finished readingJane Eyre. Couldn't believe how it blew me away. Here is my review to share
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"

I read it when I was about 12 (decades ago) and not since.

[Janice]

I am still reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

[Abigail]

I thoroughly enjoyed A Night Of Errors and am now reading a little-publicized book from England, Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi, which I bought for the cover without knowing a thing about it.

[Abigail]

Several books have gone by since my last note—The Heroine, Or, Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader, The Daughters of George III: Sisters and Princesses, Miss Hargreaves, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Thornyhold, I may be missing one or two—and now starting the original edition of Frankenstein: The 1818 Text.