I am working on The Ophelia Cut, the latest from John Lescroart. I really enjoy his books. He tells a good crime story without lots of gory details.

Donna

Nothing I had borrowed from the library held my interest so I went back to a favorite author and re-read The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. It was fun to spend time with a book I hadn't read for a few years.

I'm now reading Bryant & May and the Burning Man, new by Christopher Fowler. I particularly enjoy this series because of the esoteric London history it includes between the lines of the plot.

I've been hooked on reading series mysteries.......Deborah Crombie's Kincaid and James,; Jacquelin Winspear's Maisie Dobbs novels, and now Peter Robinson's Alan Banks series. I buy them on line from AbE Books, which is very reasonable when one wants a certain author. Of course, I never pass up a library sale or a book sale put on by our Humane Society!

Lemonhead, another wish for a speedy recovery and I'm glad to see you back!

I just finished a charming memoir by Janice MacLeod (built from her blog posts, but completely new to me), Paris Letters. She was a burned-out, but very successful, advertising copywriter and wanted to change her life but wasn't sure how to do it. A chance comment about how much money it would take to quit her job and live in Europe for a year set her on a quest to do just that. After selling off her possessions and saving a year's salary, off she went to Paris. A very pleasant read with her lovely watercolors throughout.

I completed my first reading of J. G. Farrell's Troubles (mentioned upthread), but I'm not finished with it! I see that I will be reading it again. I picked up Farrell's rather dark humor in this one that I didn't notice (or don't remember) in The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip. Also, I'm still reading biographical material on Farrell which probably helped me recognize his style of humor.

'My Year of Reading the Morlands' is coming along very well, indeed. I finished The Black Pearl -- and I'm as glad to be rid of Oliver and Richard Cromwell as the Royalists were. I have ordered the next five in the series which will carry the Morlands through to the French Revolution, according to the summaries. The time settings are getting closer and closer together. I noticed that there are fourteen books that cover the 19th century and ten books that cover 1900 through 1931! I'm looking forward to The Hidden Shore (the 19th book in the series) because it covers the beginnings of the 'Ragged Schools', a subject that has interested me for a long time. I learned that CH-E has a special interest in the subject, too, because she attended a girls' charity school, Burlington School.

Kath or anyone, what is the relationship between Cynthia Harrod-Eagles and the Australian yachtsman George Harrod-Eagles? It is such a double-punch name, so to speak, that I can't imagine them NOT being related but so far I haven't tracked down the connection. I haven't looked very diligently, however.

Frieda, I was interested in what you wrote about Cynthia Harrod-Eagles ( a writer I had never heard of until Kath mentioned her some years ago) so 'looked her up' plus the 'Burlington School' you mentioned.

Not easy to find as it has slightly changed its name and is now amalgamated with the well-know St Clement Danes boys school.

If you go to google and type in "Burlington Danes Academy is proud to be one of the oldest . .. " you will bring up a PDF of the school's history.

I don't imagine by the time C H-E was a pupil the school was not quite as the original founders had expected as it would have had, by the 1950's, a high academic standard and no or little need of the 'charity' aspect.

Vee, that reminds me of a grant I received at High School in the early 1950s of ten pounds a year from some patron. I was given five pounds each six months and it paid for my two summer dresses, tennis shorts and then a new winter skirt or blazer. How far would that money go now?

Ann, it might pay for a tennis ball but not much more.

I remember that our school blazers were made of some quite expensive- feeling striped material. My Mother nearly had a fit when she found they were 5 guineas each (this was in the mid '50's). She bought a extra large size that I used from age 11 - 18 . . . although by the time I left it was showing 'signs of wear'!

I got a "scholarship" from the national office my fraternity when I was in college; I believe it was $100. :) That may have paid for one of my textbooks! LOL

I'm still working on The Ophelia Cut. I'm about halfway through; the murder trial has just started. If you like police/lawyer stories I highly recommend John Lescroart. He tells a good story and doesn't insert lots of gore like many writers in the genre do.

Donna

Vee, yes, those school blazers were expensive. Ours had piping on the edges and a coat of arms on the pocket. My poor sister got the school uniform hand -me- downs as I grew. Although she remembers that I did keep them in good condition and took my school clothes off as soon as I was home.

Ha, Annpan, relatives used to give my two younger brothers (18 months apart in age) shirts just alike, which meant the youngest had to wear what appeared to be the same shirt for years.

I have been reading Untimely Death by Elizabeth J. Duncan. This is different from her series set in Wales and featuring Penny Brannigan who has an on-again, off-again romance with her local policeman. This one is set in the Catskill Mountains of New York and features an English costume mistress of a Royal Shakespeare Company--who is having a romance with her local policeman. If anyone likes strictly cozy mysteries, she is for you. They are pretty well written.

Our junior high school band uniforms consisted of a gold blazer, white shirt and black skirt for the girls. This was in the early 70s (remember mini skirts?), and every girl in the band had just a sliver of skirt showing under their blazers except me. My dad insisted my skirt had to come nearly to my knees. Gah.

My DH has two older sisters, and his mom would make matching clothes for all three kids. So, the girls would get skirts and Mark would get shorts (and a bow tie if it was for church). This was fine if it was plaid or striped skirts/shorts, but there were a few time the poor guy was dressed in flowers to match his sisters! Mom claimed it made it easier to keep track of them if they were wearing matching clothes.

Donna

Frieda, I have found a new WWI series called War at Home by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. The first one is Goodbye Picadilly written in 2014, which I have just started. Next is Keep the Home Fires Burning, 2015; and The Land of My Dreams is due out in August of this year.

Thanks, Vee, for pointing the way to Burlington Danes Academy. I might not have made its connection with the Burlington School. I am primarily interested in the latter, but I found the history of both the boys' and girls' schools enlightening -- 1699 is an earlier beginning for the girls than I expected. Most of my reading has been about those from the late 1700s and early 1800s, such as Cowan Bridge School (Clergy Daughters' School) that the Bronte sisters attended in the 1820s.

Robert Roberts partially covered the subject without sentimentality in The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter Century [20th century] and in A Ragged Schooling: Growing Up in the Classic Slum.

I know there are fictional accounts about the 'Ragged Schools', Board Schools, and village schools. Do you know of any particular ones that you could recommend?

Flora Thompson mentioned the village school that her main character, Laura, in Lark Rise to Candleford attended with her brother circa 1870s or 1880s. If I remember correctly, Laura's experiences were basically those of Flora.

I looked at the Miss Read books about the village schools that you mentioned upthread, but I found them too pretty and soppy for my purposes.

Anyway, through the Burlington Danes site, I was led to the history of the Ark Charities, which I knew nothing about, and the work of Dr. Barnardo which of course will always be mentioned in the context of children's charities in London in the late 19th century.

I may skip ahead in the Morland Dynasty series and read The Hidden Shore. Now that I understand Cynthia H-E's method of storytelling, I think I will be able to pick up what's going on easily enough.

Carolyn, I'll look for Goodbye to Picadilly and the others in this new series. Thanks for letting me know and be sure to tell us what you think. I may even look into the Bill Slider series. I am liking CH-E's writing more than I initially thought I would.

I have been able to get some early Barbara Pym library books but as they are from other systems they have a hefty fine attached if they are not returned. I should read them quickly and as it was 33C in my home this morning when I woke up, I decided to put on the air conditioner, stay indoors and get stuck into them!

Frieda, I can't, off hand, think of any book that deals with early education of 'the poor' in England, but you might consider hunting around for something on Robert Raikes the founder of the Sunday School movement. He came from 'up the road' . . . in Gloucester . . . a newspaper proprietor, and an early advocate for teaching slum children to read, initially to enable them to study the Bible. The schools he set up were copied throughout the growing industrial towns and cities and were well ahead of anything provided by the State.

The article below is from the 'Sacred Mysteries' column by Christopher Howse who writes something interesting in the Daily Telegraph each Saturday.

Robert Raikes

Vee, I read the short article about Robert Raikes. I will have to read more. Thank you! I remember the establishment of Sunday schools, as attached to St Michael and All Angels, was a project in which Patrick Bronte involved himself. Perhaps he was influenced by Raikes.

Tell me a bit more about the "Sacred Mysteries" column, please. For instance, what sort of 'mysteries' does Howse usually cover? I presume they are religious types, not secular, by the title.

Frieda, attached below is a link to some of Howse' work. The titles in no way mean 'mysteries' in the blood and guts/body in the library sense, it is the more obscure or enigmatic meanings he writes about. The religious theme is a very general one and covers anything from old churches, to customs, varied beliefs etc. I have just found out that he is a Catholic, but could easily pass as a High Anglican . .. think John Betjeman . . . and by RC standards wears his religion lightly.

I notice that a book came out some years ago; a collection of his articles. It is available via amazon (UK version) for one penny plus p&p!

Christopher Howse

Frieda, I'm so glad you are enjoying the Morland books.

I have to admit that I have never heard of George Harrod-Eagles, although it seems probable that they are related. Our (my husband's family) surname of Pigou is uncommon enough that we are probably related to anyone with it. When we were in Paris in 1986 we checked the phone book and there weren't any. There are, however, lots in NZ as my husband's grandfather's brother went there and had a lot of children :)

Welcome, Kateryna. Years ago, I read Kerouac's "On the Road" for a class and found it amazing, also.

Vee, I waited until I got a chance to read some of Christopher Howse's other columns before responding. I appreciate you providing the link! I will eventually finish all the columns provided because they are brief but packed with very interesting information. The first one I read "The ear-worm that set Sir Tobie wondering" has these nuggets:

• He [Augustine] had just been reading a volume of St Paul’s letters and puzzling over them, as a seeker for religious truth who had been through an unsatisfactory spell with that strange bunch the Manichaeans.
• It is a common experience, not just one of psychopathology, to hear things, especially songs, that mean something to us alone. Half of Desert Island Discs is predicated on this.

Why did those two jump out at me? It's one of those strange things about which Howse was making his point -- to St. Augustine, to Sir Tobie, to me, and to everyone -- we react to things for reasons that are entirely our own, although our reactions are probably not unique, with the same things occurring to others. In the first quote, I noticed the word 'bunch' because you had mentioned it recently. :-)

I liked the one about the rather absurd figures carved into the ceiling of the "accidental" cathedral at Peterborough and the one about the Queen's Christmas speech, er message.

I also had to read “On the Road” as part of a class, but didn’t really appreciate it then. However, I read it (by choice) a while back and enjoyed the heck out of it. Perhaps it was age-related.... perhaps it was influenced by a good friend telling me to read the prose like jazz music: no limits, lots of improvisation, go with the flow sort of thing. What do you think of it now you are the reader?

Whoops. Forgot to say my reading update:

So in my last post, I mentioned that the surgery had affected my concentration and memory a bit (and thus I was unable to read anything really complicated). Just over one month in, and it’s getting better and better. (Thank goodness.)

All that to say that I’m back reading. I guess we’ll see if I can remember any of it by the time I finish it. /jk/

I have finished the Laurie Lee essay collection. I found it to be bit patchy in quality, but for the most part, it was lovely writing to read. (Lee is pretty lyrical in how he writes, as evidenced in “Cider with Rosie” et al. if you’ve read that.)

Then I’m also deep in the Tim Egan’s book of the Dust Storm history called “The Worst Hard Time”. I do really admire how he’s patched the book together so seamlessly. Since attending a lit nonfiction conference over the summer, I’ve been paying more attention to the structure and form of whatever I’m reading -- once you’ve learned about it, it’s addictive - and now I also have much admiration for the skills of some non-fiction writers. It’s not as easy as it looks.

And then I was rummaging around and found an elderly Virago publication by one of my favorite authors, Paule Marshall. “Praisesong for the Widow” is really good, although the first third perplexed me as I had no idea what was going on. Then I got to the second part and the clouds parted and I understood what was happening. It’s a good read.

Being a Margery Allingham's Albert Campion fan I am pleased to see that Mike Ripley is now carrying the torch and has her style perfectly. I am reading Mr. Campion's Fox in that hasten slowly way when one wants to finish the book but not!

I started All the Light We Cannot See last night and am just loving it. I'm late to the party on this one, but I had it on reserve at the library with quite a long list in front of me when I went on vacation last fall. Evidently they bought more copies because my name came up while I was away, and since I didn't pick it up within the allotted week, they not only passed me up but took me off the list. I started over when I got home and have just risen to the top once again. It's certainly well worth the wait.

Hi all,

Struggling right now. I am reading Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey: the downfall of an aristocratic dynasty yada, yada, yada. The family owned the largest home in Europe if the cover is to be believed. Located in Britain, it is called Wentworth Hall and supposedly has 365 rooms. Anyway, I am trying to get into it. The topic is fascinating - the family found coal on their property and amassed an enormous fortune only to lose it all as a perfect storm of tragedies hit the family. It is non-fiction.

I am also simultaneously reading The Real History Behind the Templars by Sharan Newman. The title is self-explanatory. I have no opinion yet as I just picked it up last night in a frustrated snit because I was too tired to walk ALL THE WAY downstairs to get the Black Diamonds book from the kitchen. Funny.. I don't have nearly 365 rooms and I was too lazy/tired/cranky to walk downstairs. Good thing I do not have a massive family seat or I might be forever cranky.

Liz, please add my well wishes to your ever growing list. Hope you have a very speedy recovery and I am so sorry to hear about your surgery.

PAM

PAM, your Wentworth Hall is in Yorkshire England. Had you lived there, in all those rooms, you would have no-doubt, had an enormous staff of servants to boss around. One to bring your book upstairs, another to turn the pages and a third to read it to you.And perhaps a handsome footman to lull you to sleep and cure your crankiness . . .

Wentworth Hall truth can be stranger than fiction

Just finished a mystery, Still Life by Louise Penny. This is the first book in a series set in Canada that feature Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. I've been told it's worth reading these in order for the character development. I enjoyed this one and will read more of the series.

Just finished Desperate Measures by Jo Bannister. I have liked all her mystery series books that I've read, but she stops one and starts another before I'm ready to leave the characters. This one is the third involving a man whose wife and two sons have been kidnapped by Somali pirates. Or were they?

I just finished Modern Romance by Aziz Asari- quite different from the books being discussed here but entertaining and very insightful. And, since I wanted to say that I started Minding the Manor and am thoroughly enjoying it. Thank you so much for mentioning this one. Finally the other Mapp and Lucia books don't seem to be readily available on this side of the ocean but I will keep an eye out for them because those were stellar!!!

With that name, I thought you were an Aussie! I gather you are living in the US? You might find the other Mapp and Lucia books on second hand websites.

I lost this link so was able to check before I could return and find that Amazon has some, also Betterworld Books.

I bought some of the Benson ones in Rye, while visiting the UK and a charming postcard "What News?" which I use as a bookmark for them. It depicts the Tilling characters having a gossip.

Apart from the history books I am reading for my present class, I am engrossed in "That Woman" by Anne Sebba. (2003). This is a well-written, well-researched biography of the Duchess of Windsor.

I finished Alas Babylon. I found I noticed more on re-reading, again, probably because I have now live not too far from where it was set. My husband read it too for the first time. As he was born in the mid 1940s, the events portrayed (nuclear war in the late 1950s) hit close to home for him. He vividly remembers the time and was old enough as a young teen to understand the seriousness of it. I also just finished Out of the Blackout by Robert Barnard originally published in 1985. It is a mystery set in England of a young boy evacuated from London during the war who was never reclaimed afterwards, and his adult search to find out why and what happened. It had quite an interesting twist at the end. I just started The Summer We Read Gatsby by Danielle Ganek on the recommendation of a friend. I am not getting into it, but I'll give it a little more time.

Since November, I've been reading a collection of short stories by Amy Bloom, Come to Me, published in 1993. I have read it while waiting for the drawbriges to be lowered, after finishing a long book and still undecided what to read next. I finished it today, and I'm glad I read it this way.

It is well written. Most of the stories are a bit strange, like a young man sleeping with his stepmother shortly after his father dies, a woman in a open marriage--the story told by one of her daughters. Most of the mothers featured are indifferent to their adolescent children. I don't think I could have read the stories back to back.

Lemonhead/Liz,

Glad to hear you are reading again. Best wishes for a full recovery.

Thank you carolyn_ky and sheri_z6 and anyone else who recommended The Storied Life of A. J. Fikrey by Gabrielle Zevin. I love, love, love this book. I actually got a little teary-eyed wishing my mother were still alive so I could recommend it to her. As a former teacher, she would have loved the cleverly incorporated and playful literary and writing references. Having just finished reading a library copy, I will now go out to a brick and mortar bookstore and purchase a few copies to support this wonderful author and treat a couple of friends (and myself) to a copy.

Kathy t, I'm glad you liked A.J. Have you read All the Light We Cannot See? It is the best book I've read in awhile. The blurb on the cover said it took the author ten years to write it.

I'm ready to start the second book is the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. It's interesting that she wrote the first one in 2014 and the second in 2015, a century after WWI began. I'm assuming she will write one for each year of that war.

Carolyn, yes, I read All the Light We Cannot See last summer and I agree, it is the best book I've read in ... well, years, I think I would say. There is a wonderful Boise Public Television interview with the author, Anthony Doerr that enhanced my reading experience: http://video.idahoptv.org/video/2365283202/ .

Couldn't put down The Rosie Project. Delightful. Also enjoyed Miss Read.
Thank you for the names. Here's one I've not seen mentioned. New to me.
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Fiction. I'm halfway through.
The 2 primary characters are separated by an ocean during their college years? He is still in Nigeria and she has stayed in the US. That is about to change.

Utube has full episodes of Mapp and Lucia.

My book club is reading Americanah for March. I have never heard of it before this and now I see it mentioned above. Curious to hear how you like it Adored Miss Read which I read years ago. I very much liked All the Light but I wasn't as blown away as most other people.

I just finished Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix. It's a delightful YA regency romp with magic, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm going to look into his other books, as this is the first I've read by him.

I've also started The Queen's Houses by Alan Titchmarsh and it's fascinating. I wish there were more (and larger) photos included, but it's wonderful anyway.

Thanks to my book clubs - yes, plural - I read two excellent books I would never have chosen on my own. For my regular book club we read The Good Lord Bird, a novel about John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry told through the eyes of a young slave boy disguised as a girl. It dragged from time to time, mostly when John Brown was at his oddest, but there were paragraphs and pages of sheer illumination as Onion made discoveries about the nature of the world he inhabited.

I also belong to a garden book club. We just read The Garden of Evening Mists. Martin would know this book because it was short listed for the Man Booker prize. This haunting and surprising novel was centered on a number of people each damaged by World War II, their point of intersection being a Japanese garden in the mountains of Malaya (now Malaysia). It's not a book I would have expected to enjoy, despite the garden theme, but it knocked my socks off. I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

I recommend both books heartily.

I've been having trouble finding a book I really enjoy this month. Right now I'm in the process of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Not bad so far and the fact he co-wrote a book with Terry Pratchett helps me keep interested. Love, love, love Terry Pratchett. I have Jaybar Crow on standby, knowing I will really like anything by Wendell Berry.

Thought I would like Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins since I really like all her books, but this just isn't hitting the spot. I really wanted to like Rock with Wings by Anne Hillerman -- it's ok, but she's not the writer her father was. The descriptions were good enough to make me want to be there, but the story lacked something for me.

I hoping for February to be a better reading month.

I'm working on Riders Down by John McEvey. It's alright; the story line is a guy is fixing horse races because he needs to accumulate $1 million by a certain date in order to inherit more millions from his grandmother. And a writer for Racing Daily has been trying to figure out what's happening. But, we know who the guy is right from the start, and what he's doing to fix the races, so there isn't any mystery to it, even though it's classified as a mystery.

Donna

I finished The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler (not to be confused with The Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill, which is still sitting in my TBR pile), an interesting tale of a librarian brother and his tarot-reading sister and the possible curse that follows their family. There were definitely overtones of Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen even wrote the "dazzling debut" blurb for the book) and some echos of The Night Circus, as well. It was a good, solid story, told in chapters that alternated between the present and the past, so the reader can put the historical pieces together just as the protagonist does. Overall, I liked it a lot.

Next up (finally) is Dead Wake.

Sheila in Australia, I am liking Americanah. It's long and the characters are in a hard patch
now so am reading some lighter fare at the same time.

This is funny= over on the home decorating conversations was a thread about user names. It was one of those auto generated add ons to my name(Sheila and middle initial A). It added US for United States and numbers after it. I really had nothing to do with it other than picking SheilaA for my user name. So many people think I am in Australia. ( I would love to be- but I am not).

Glad to hear Americanah. I just looked and saw how big it is so I am concerned because I dont typically do well with much over 400 pages or so. I will give it a try- going to reserve it from the library now.

Loved Minding the Manor and am now almost half through the Martian. Liking it a lot, but could totally toss the detailed science and math.

I guess it 's time for a February thread.

OK SheilaA in the US.