A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Pages: 388 Original date of publication: 1914 My edition: 1982 (Dial Press) Why I decided to read: it’s on the list of Virago Modern Classics How I acquired my copy: Ebay seller, July 2010 After a reading slump during Virago Reading Week, I was actually thrilled to come across a book that redeemed things for me! The Three Sisters is a novel that is loosely based upon the lives of the Bronte sisters, though the similarities are superficial. Alice, Gwenda, and Mary are the daughters of the Vicar of Garthdale, spinsters living lonely, bored lives on the moors. All of that changes, however, when a young, attractive doctor arrives in the village… Originally published in 1914, this book is a strange hybrid of Edwardian values and Victorian conventionality. The time period in which this book is set is indeterminate (definitely not as early as the Brontes, though, since a brief mention is made of a car later in the story). The novel is loosely based on the lives of the Bro...

Persephone Reading Weekend is winding down (sadly)! I had a great time this weekend, reading A Very Great Profession and now Few Eggs and No Oranges, which is a fascinating look at one average, middle-aged woman’s experience living in London during WWII. It’s a chunkster, but I’ve been in the mood for those recently. I’ve also been really into nonfiction, so this fits the bill quite nicely. After Few Eggs and No Oranges, I’ll have read 29 Persephones, with three more I own that I haven’t yet read: There Were No Windows, The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow (several people have read and reviewed this this weekend, which makes me eager to get to it myself), and Alas Poor Lady. I’ve also enjoyed reading the blogs of other Persephone-philes, adding exponentially to my Google Reader! I’ve found other bloggers’ comments on the books they’ve been reading to be very insightful. Also this weekend I’ve been reading back issues of the Persephone Fortnightly letter, which can be found on the ...

I’m very excited to be participating in Persephone Reading Weekend! Yesterday I posted a review of Every Eye, which I actually read about a week ago but was waiting to post my review. I enjoyed it, but honestly, not as much as some of the other Persephones I’ve read. By the way, here’s a list of Persephones I’ve read and reviewed in the past . I’m currently reading Nicola Beauman’s A Very Great Profession, which in obvious ways complements the novels that Persephone and Virago have reprinted. I’m really enjoyed her insightful comments on women writers and their novels in the interwar years, especially since I’ve read many of the books that Beauman mentions. Unfortunately, however, the “to be read” list is growing exponentially! This is definitely a good book for Persephone and Virago aficionados to read. As far as the giveaway for The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow goes, I’ll pick a winner tomorrow in my roundup of the weekend. If you’re participating, what are you reading? ...

Pages: 119 Original date of publication: 1956 My edition: 2007 (Persephone) Why I decided to read: browsing the Persephone catalogue How I acquired my copy: Persephone subscription, June 2010 As I was browsing my TBR shelves for something to take with me on a business trip (traveling theme and all of that), my eye (no pun intended) was drawn to Every Eye , a slim novella about a woman who marries a much younger man and takes a holiday to Ibiza. The novel isn’t so much about the holiday as it is about the journey, and it’s a novel that is “based on the premise that life is lived forwards but understood backwards” (from the preface written by Isobel English’s husband, Neville Braybrooke). There are many flashbacks to Hatty’s affair with a much older man, and her relationship with her step-aunt that illuminate certain things about Hatty. There’s not much action per se in this book, but there are some absolutely gorgeous descriptions of the scenery as Hatty and Stephen tr...

Pages: 327 Original date of publication: My edition: 2011 (St. Martin’s) Why I decided to read: Heard about this through Amazon.com How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, December 2010 Originally published as The Secret Lion , The Tudor Secret is the first in what will be a series featuring Brendan Prescott, an orphan foundling who was raised in the household of the Dudley family. In 1553, King Edward is on his deathbed, and William Cecil gives a secret mission Brendan. Soon he finds himself working as a double agent, as he attempts to discover the secret of his own birth. There ‘s a lot to like in this novel, mainly in the historical details that the author weaves into the story. He knows Tudor history like the back of his hand, and it definitely shows in this book. Because it was his first novel, however, there are some rough patches. There were a couple of plot holes that I had trouble navigating around—primarily, why would a secretive man such as Cecil entrust a ...

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: --Grab your current read --Open to a random page --share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page Be sure NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) --Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! “After three summers they had dug up all the skeletons, at least all the ones they could find, anyway they were getting rather bored with ours, as another Anglo Saxon burial ground had turned up about ten miles away, I suppose if you come to think about it, England must be stiff with old disused burial grounds, only perhaps ours was in rather a good state of preservation, if ever I get a field of my own I’m going to dig very deep and see what I can find. “ --(one sentence) from Sisters By a River , by Barbara...

Pages: 274 Original date of publication: 1979 My edition: 1979 (Ace Books) Why I decided to read: Recommendation from Amazon How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, February 2010 The Lion of Mortimer is the third in a loosely connected series about the Plantagenet family, in which their story is told from the point of view of those closest to them. This Plantagenet is Edward II, and the story is told from the point of view of the Montacute family. The story takes Edward from his time as Prince of Wales up through his death, and the early part of the reign of Edward III. At only 274 pages, the novel covers a lot of ground, and as such, it’s pretty sketchy on the details of Edward’s life. Therefore, I felt that the characters were not well developed—especially Isabella, who I feel was a much deeper person than she’s portrayed in the book. The author gets Edward’s character down pat, though Piers Gaveston is not as well developed as the other characters and Hugh Despenser...