Fans of Norah Lofts discussion
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Books For Potential Group Discussion Archived 2019
Barbara, my condolences on the passing of Michael's dad! And I'm glad to hear you're feeling better now; take care of yourself!
Hi all NL Fanatics! Back on post 97 I had promised to go through the entire NL title list and see which titles we have discussed. Turns out that we haven't "formally" discussed at least 14 of them, though we have touched on many in various discussions.I thought it might help us to see which titles do not have their own threads. Some titles are listed, but the discussion didn't go far.
We do not have threads for (fiction):
Brittle Glass, The
Crown of Aloes
Fall of Midas, The
Hauntings (short stories)
Heaven In Your Hand (short stories)
Her Own Special Island (aka Uneasy Paradise)
Here Was a Man
Hester Roon (thread but little discussion)
King's Pleasure, The
Letty (aka A Calf For Venus)
Little Wax Doll, The (aka The Devil's Own, The Witches)
Lost Queen, The (aka The Lost Ones)
Lute Player, The
Requiem For Idols
Walk Into My Parlor
You're Best Alone
It is a confusing list because we have discussed many of these in related threads. Please tell me if I have included any titles here for which there is already a lengthy discussion.
Gosh, thanks, Sylvia - what a chore for you!Shall we start at the top and do The Brittle Glass next?
Yes, thank you, Sylvia! I rather agree with Jenny about starting with The Brittle Glass, but not for the same reason. I like the idea of going through them in chronological order, and I think TBG is the earliest of those we on your list. What do others think?
Since I have reading plans/commitments that will take me pretty much up to December already, I'll sit this one out. But I'll be an interested reader of the discussion!
I don't have a preference for what we discuss next, but if you would like to go in chron. order, the next few would be: Here Was a Man (1936 - about Sir Walter Rawley)
Requiem For Idols (1938)
The Brittle Glass (1942)
You're Best Alone (1943)
Hello Everyone,Gosh I've just spent ages looking round threads - got caught up in a load of stuff about 'Out of this Nettle' which I've just read - but I didn't know where best to post.
For those of you who don't know, my husband is Norah's publisher now. We're just a two-person team so it's slow work but I've just set up a Facebook Fan page for her on https://www.facebook.com/pages/Norah-...
It would be great if you could come along and like it if you are on Facebook. It will have all the latest republishing news on it.
At the moment my husband is just finishing the e-Book of 'The Lute Player' which should be up by the weekend.
Next up is the e-Books of the House Trilogy. Those were sub-licensed to a bigger publisher than us (History Press) but their books were so carelessly edited - scanned without checking - and with such small type that Clive, Norah's son, has returned them to us.
Thanks for reading, Maggy
Maggy, wonderful job on the facebook page, I've already "Liked" it and would encourage all members of our group to show their support. Also exciting to learn that more e-books will be available. Thanks for sharing this with us.
I would recommend everyone follow Maggy's link if they want to like this page as someone else has set up an author page for Norah Lofts. Maggy, I love the photo you used of Norah in her sitting room and all the art work from the recent books is great!
I "liked" the page, too, Maggy, and had the wonderful, unexpected experience of seeing the full length movie Jassy on there today! It was wonderful - thanks for making that possible. (I am on Facebook incognito.)
So pleased Sylvia! I hoped you would be able to join. Isn't it just a gift that Jassy is on YouTube? (and with a happy ending too!)Please do feel free to post on the page about your Layer wood map and anything else any of you think or know about Norah - i think it's a perfect place to share our knowledge of Norah and her work.
Maggy, I hate to admit this, but since I am only on Facebook to play Scrabble, I hardly know how to post anything on there. After I watched the movie, I wrote a comment in the box, but it never showed up. But I'll try again.If any of you do watch the movie "Jassy," it is a great experience for NL fans, but here's just a reminder that NL's ending was NOT the happy one shown in the movie! I loved the country roads that looked just as I pictured Layer Wood would look. The name of the house, Mortiboys, was changed for the movie, and I cannot imagine how that helped the story line. ?? Unnecessary changes by movie directors seem very disrespectful of the writer IMO.
Back to the subject of our next group discussion, we
already have 2 votes for The Brittle Glass, which takes place mainly in Bywater in County Essex, a break from the Layer Wood locale. I would be happy to read it again as well. What say you all?
Thanks for pointing out about the Jassy film! Apart from the awful costumes and the cop-out ending, I thought it was quite well done - Nick looked just as I imagined him.But I don't believe Jassy would have snitched on Dilys to Nick, and I don't believe she refused to sleep with him (nor that he would have respected her refusal!).
What about doing a group read on Jassy? We seem to discuss it a lot whenever anything connected to the book is brought up. Some of the recent comments made in other threads make me think it's time for me to re-visit this one anyway. I like the books that have different narrators. Maybe each of us can lead a different narrator in the book?
I would be very happy to do a group read of Jassy, and would be willing to lead a discussion for one narration, but not the first one!
Although I've heard so much about Jassy that it's a book I'd like to read sometime, I think I'll sit out this time. I'm currently in the middle of a book; I have two more (Lovecraftian anthologies published by my Danish Goodreads friend Henrik's press, which he kindly offered to give me) coming in the mail, and was hoping to use the summer months to read a gift book from another friend, the omnibus volume of the first three novels in the Iron Druid series. So my plate is apt to be kind of full for awhile! (And I still want to squeeze in the last two books of the Hunger Games trilogy somewhere in there, etc., etc.....)
Peggy wrote, "I like the books that have different narrators." Yes! Quite some years ago, I wrote a novel that used that format, with four narrators--curiously, all men. I'm, sure NL was a major influence in my doing it that way. If I ever get it published, I'll let everyone know more about it, but in the meantime, at least one editor or agent has advised me to change the narration to third person! (Since then, in my query letters, I've pointed out that the narrative technique is used by NL and by Faulkner.)
Yay, Syb!Werner, too many books, too little time! Just received a Nook and as soon as I get a cover for it, it's going to travel with me. May need to get a bumpersticker that says, honk when the light turns green. Of course, I won't read and drive.
Mary, I'd love to read your book someday.
Thanks, Peggy! Maybe that knowledge will move me to get back to work at submitting it to more places! :)
I would love to see your book in print, too, Mary. I wonder if "Tree of Life" which is reprinting NL's books, would consider it for publication?
Thank you, too, Sylvia! I don't know whether Tree of Life is interested in unknown writers or in fantasy (kind of), though.
I opened a new thread under the folder "Jassy" for our 2013 discussions.
We've just completed a discussion of Jassy, so what will we discuss next? In another thread, Tanya suggested a discussion of attitudes about love in NL heroines. I think we could possibly do this discussion, as well as a book discussion since the first one might rely a great deal on our memories. Tanya brought up a line from AOAA about one woman's worshipful gaze toward the lord of the manor. Maybe men's attitudes should be included as well.
If there is an interest in this topic, I will be glad to start the thread.
Anybody have a preference for the next book? There is a list in message 104 of all the books not yet discussed here.
I realise through looking at this thread, that I must have started off the idea for a group read of To See a Fine Lady before my life took a sudden swerve and I appear to have then forgotten all about it . So sorry everyone !I wonder, are people still interested? I'm still willing to lead the discussion if so .
Dear Barbara, you did in fact start a discussion of TSAFL, and just now I read through the 22 posts, and there were some great insights. You left it for a gap of about a month, but I think we covered some of the beginning, middle, and end. Do you want to continue on with the discussion? We had to miss some worthy points!It seems like long ago now, but Peggy brought up the Knight's Acre Trilogy, and we haven't a single thread on it yet. Could we finish up the discussion of TSAFL and then start the trilogy? That would probably take us to Christmas!
As usual, I'll need to beg off. :-( Between now and the end of this year, I have common reads coming up in two groups where I'm a moderator, a planned buddy read with one of my Goodreads friends, and a review copy coming of another friend's latest novel (besides really wanting to finish the Hunger Games trilogy). But I'll be following the discussions!
Some day, Werner, when you're caught up (yeh, right!) if you haven't read the Knight's Acre Trilogy, I think you would love it. If my eyes hold out, your review has made me want to read The Hunger Games.
Sylvia, I definitely do want to read the Knight's Acre trilogy (and a lot more of NL's books as well!) eventually; they're not on my official to-read shelf yet, because it's so crowded already, but they're on my radar.If you do read the Hunger Games trilogy sometime, I hope you like it. (Some readers feel that Collins dropped the ball badly in the third book, Mockingjay, but since I haven't read it yet I don't know if I agree.) I'll be continuing to pray for your eyesight!
Thanks for update re TSAFL Sylvia. I think we can certainly consider it finished. As is my memory it seems .....
Hi everyone. I've not been active for a long while (a new baby and a dissertation that demands to be finished have taken most of my time), but I've kept up with the threads. I've recently adjusted my schedule, so hope to have more time here.While I'd be happy discussing any of NL's novels, I wonder how much interest there is in doing one of the short story collections?
Hi Ayah! So good to have you back. Congrats on the new baby and the dissertation. What is your field of study?So far, we've had two suggestions for the next group discussion, The Brittle Glass, and the Knight's Acre Trilogy. But not many have responded yet. As for a short story collection, two titles have not obtained their own threads yet, Heaven in Your Hand and Hauntings. Hauntings might be fun to save for October. Do you have access to those short story titles, Ayah?
I hope I am not irritating everyone, always stressing that "not done yet" list!
Sylvia, I think most of us would agree that it's best to do a common read of each one of NL's works once before we start repeating titles; so, I don't think anyone's irritated by your keeping track of the ones we haven't read as a group yet! Personally, I appreciate it.Hauntings: Is There Anybody There? is on my to-read shelf, and the local public library has a copy. Of course, October is the month that my Supernatural Fiction Readers group does its annual common read. Since we've done a Lofts novel as a common read twice in that group (last year as a joint read with this group), I'd be more inclined to pick something by a different author this time, for the sake of more variety. But if whatever title we pick in that group is a quick read, and I finish it in time, I might be able to read the Hauntings collection in the latter part of October, and still take part in this group's discussion. I'd certainly be game to do that!
Hi Sylvia,Apologies for the late reply.
I work in Media Studies, subfield Whiteness Studies. I look at how media help Americans decide who's white. Specifically, I look at Eastern European Muslim immigrants and the news language used to talk about those communities, versus other Eastern European non-Muslim immigrants. I've also done a bit of publishing in white working-class masculinities.
I do have access to the short story collections. Are "Saving Face and Other Stories" and "I Met a Gypsy" in the queue as well, or have they been done?
Agreed, "Hauntings" would be great for October.
Ayah, what a fascinating and important field to b working in! Yes, I've noticed that the definition of "whiteness" seems to be narrowing. And where are you from--Bosnia? Albania?
Hi Ayah. And my apologies to you for taking so long! My vision is extremely blurred and cross-eyed right now. I agree with Mary; what a fascinating subject, and a very complicated one in a complicated world.Looking again at our discussion lists, we have done a group discussion on "I Met a Gypsy" in 2011. However, regarding "Saving Face", a thread was started for it in 2009 (found under Topics", not "General") and a few questions were answered, but there was no real discussion, so we could continue to add to that thread if the group wants to do a group discussion of it. Of course, a reader can also add to that thread anytime they are reading that book (as far as I know).
I have been on a Norah Lofts re-read binge. Pargeters, The Golden Fleece, The Town House, and now into The House at Old Vine. All within the past 3 weeks. I read these books many years ago. The characters and story lines are amazing. But I am feeling a bit depressed too by the overall sadness of the stories. Life goes all wrong so often. Does anyone else feel this way?
I have heard lots of readers say the same thing, Robert. In fact, I have coerced friends into reading NL and so many say "too depressing." But for myself,I have always felt like NL was basically realistic about life. I think her books gave me my outlook on life, that it is about 10% great happiness, 10% hard trials and unhappiness, and 80% just common daily struggles.
Deptessing? Yes, often. After all, NL seems to have been strongly influenced by Hardy! Warning: There may be some spoilers from here on.
The second book of hers that I read (after Eleanor the Queen) was Silver Nutmeg, and the ending really shook me. Bless This House was more optimistic. Then a few years later I found The Scent of Cloves serialized in Ladies' Home Journal and read it very warily, afraid that its similarity to Silver Nutmeg would have it end the same way--and was relieved by the foreshadowing that Julia would be an old woman in England one day. Then came The Town House, with one misfortune after another! On first reading, I supposed that Maud was Dennis's daughter and considered Nicholas's reflection on her resemblance to her grandfather a piece of dramatic irony. On subsequent rereadings, however, I became increasingly convinced that any resemblance between her and Dennis was a figment of Anne's guilty conscience! Anyway, as you can see from the words "subsequent rereadings," by then I was hooked, and even books like Jassy and White Hell of Pity couldn't sway me!
I was 'hooked' on Norah Lofts books when I first read The Town House when I was in High School. Unusual reading material for a 17 year old boy I suppose. But the way she told her stories through the voices of subsequent generations really appealed to me. I also became an instant Anglophile. So although their is an overall sadness to many of her books, NL has remained my favorite all these years.
Many of us may at times wish we could step into a time machine and see what life was like in other centuries. Reading NL is almost as good as a time machine.
Hi Everyone There seem to be a bit of interest in reading Bless This House as a group read. So far Janice, Sylvia and I are keen. Anyone else? It a book which would lend itself very well to a group read, with pretty discrete chapters and sections.
Although most of my books are in storage (after a house fire a year and a half ago), I've read Bless This House several times and think I could keep up with a group read! It's one of my favorites.
If we do it in January, I'd be game to take part. In October, I have a common read coming up in another group (that's an annual thing); a friend and I are planning a buddy read in November, and after that I was really hoping to read the last volume of the Hunger Games trilogy, which I started on earlier this year.
I'd mentioned this on another thread, but I'll do so here, too: if the group wants to do the read in December, I can do that too. (In that event, I'll just defer reading my Hunger Games book until January; that'll be, as they say in Appalachian dialect, "as broad as long." :-) Translation: either way ultimately works out as well as the other.)
I'm in for BTH. I don't comment much myself, but certainly enjoy reading others' comments.
Werner said "Barbara, I actually could do it in December (and read Mockingjay in January) --if you think people in the group wouldn't be too distracted by Christmas and other holidays in December to do a read? (Personally, I read all the time, in holiday seasons as well as non-holiday times!)
What do we think ? BTW, Goodo Karyl!
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Fans of Norah Lofts
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A Rose for Virtue (other topics)
Crown of Aloes (other topics)
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I'd be happy reading almost anything really ( except The Claw or Checkmate which I have to pretend that NL didn't actually write)
PS Joanne, it may be a typo when you said you had read both the ones in the House ( At Old Vine) series, but just in case it isn't , there are three in all, The Town House, The House at Old Vine and The House at Sunset. I 'd hate you to miss one accidentally , such a great set of stories