A quick read Lily by Rose Tremain is written in the manner of a Gothick Victorian novel. Our heroine has been abandoned at birth and placed in the care of the Coram Orphanage (a 'real' place in London), where she is raised in the Christian virtues but with little love and some cruelty. We see her progress through the system and finding work in a wig-making establishment, but always hoping to find her 'real' Mother or at the very least her farmer's wife wet-nurse, one of the many women who babies were sent out to until they were 6 years old.

Quite Dickensian in writing style and content . . . does Lily find peace of mind and true happiness? We can but hope.

I'm reading The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. I have liked other books I have read by her, but this one not so much yet, but I'm not too far into it.

Finished Martha's Vineyard Beach And Book Club and really enjoyed it. The author's notes at the end were particularly interesting as she went into the historical references in the story and the involvement of MV in many aspects of WWII.

My next book is The View From Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani.

I am re-reading some of my favorite Agatha Christies, tho I know them backwards and forwards. But such a pleasure to revisit old friends. Just about to finish The Body in the Library.

I'm reading The Deadliest Sin, the last of the Crispin Guest series by Jan Westerson. Set in the time period of John of Gaunt and King Richard II.

A View From Lake Como is delightful from the very beginning.

{Finished The Deadliest Sin (delightful wind up) and started Syndicate by Felix Francis.

I read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, and enjoyed it very much. It's the story of twins born to an Indian nun (part of the mystery) in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and their lives.

I am currently listening to Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor, set in Restoration England. It reminds me a bit of Gone With the Wind, as Amber, like Scarlett, is a woman who doesn't care much about what people think of her, and is petulant and headstrong.

Kath, I read Forever Amber when I was a teen. I think I read it because it was considered a bit scandalous at the time. 😁

I recently read Italian for Beginners by Kristin Harmel. I enjoyed it. It was a similar theme to her later book The Life Intended, where a woman is stuck in a rut and family and friends help her see it and find her way.

I also read Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman ( working my way through his books) and just finished Murder at an Irish Wedding by Carlene O’Connor. I enjoyed the first book in the series (Murder in an Irish Village), but didn’t really care for this one much.

Donna

I had to smile when an old friend of my Grandmother was describing Forever Amber but I was puzzled at having Amber come down on a lift to catch a departing lover! I could work out that the taxi she caught at one point was some kind of carriage but how did she get downstairs so fast?

I am enjoying Simon Brett's new character in Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse with some sly digs at English Village life.

Kath - Cutting for Stone is one of my all-time favorite books. I liked it so much that I willingly subjected myself to Verghese's later The Covenant of Water, which I didn't like at all.

I was pleased to see the latest Stop You're Killing Me post that reports a new Thursday Murder Club book will be out soon. Also the latest in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. This is in addition to a new Jimmy Perez book by Ann Cleeves that Annpan recently mentioned. I am on the list for all three at the library but they all have wait lists, as you might expect. Good news nonetheless.

I read a new book that is currently making the rounds, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Through a series of letters and a few email messages (epistolary as they say), we learn about the current and past life of Sybil Van Antwerp, a retired lady in her 70's who lives in a cottage near the ocean just outside of Annapolis, Maryland. I found most of the book delightful and often amusing, but it really petered out toward the end. I didn't like the ending at all, darn it. Interestingly, the author appeared to be making excuses for the unsatisfying ending to come when the protagonist wrote a letter to a famous fiction writer, telling him it was okay that he wrote a disappointing ending to his most famous novel. Strange...

,Reading Devil's Fjord by David Hewson. So far it isn't very good but, you know, you gotta find out what happens to the poor people.

In a magazine at my Village hairdressers was a recommendation for a novel set in an Australian hairdressing salon! "Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon" by Sophie Green which was in our local library. It is a similar style to Maeve Binchy, following the lives of several people.

I am in the mood for something other than murder. I have finished the Simon Brett mystery but will wait until Carolyn has read it before making a comment.

Into A View From Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani, and it's okay but not as great as I had hoped it might be. Too much information about cutting marble.......perhaps it gets better.

Ann, if you are referring to Brett's book Major Bricket, my library doesn't have it yet. Please comment as you like; I would forget it even if I did read it (that's happening to me quite often lately) so discuss away.

Carolyn, I didn't think much of the book. I hope the series gets better. The dialogue seems wrong and for a sharp former operative, he makes an awful mistake in revealing his hidden shooting range! About time he retired if he is that forgetful!

There is a tendency for a group of old people to form detective clubs in recent books.

It reminds me of the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney films where they would decide to "put on a show"! No previous experience necessary...

Has anyone ever read anything by Barbara Pym? What book would you recommend starting with? I was just reading about her and thought I'd like to read one or more of her books. She had an interesting life story.

I have read and own some of Pym's novels. I would not know which book to start with though!

Some books have references to characters in other books. They are outdated so perhaps best to start with an early one and then the later books.

She had two writing periods as she went out of style and had a book rejected which put her off, I believe! They are mainly "characters in a situation" based stories and they tend to express their emotions by thinking of quotes from various writers! The books are restful reading.

Thanks for that, Annpan. Yes, her career path sounded interesting and I like restful reading!

Jane and Prudence is a favourite of mine. I love Jessie Morrow! This book was greeted with excitement in 1953 by the subscribers to the private library where I worked, fresh from school.

Barbara Pym was very popular then.

Some of the actions of her love-lorn characters would be called stalking now!

Ginny, I recently read Barbara Pym's Some Tame Gazelle which forms part of a compendium with some other tales. She used to be noted for her High Church/Anglo Catholic/ 'smells and bells' characters, many of them vicars, curates, priests, the ladies that 'did' the flowers etc.

The just-Post War stories have an obvious feeling for that time. Coming to the end of rationing with young women forced to work (but in respectable employment) out of necessity. Rather boring young men, seedy bed-sits with just enough to eat. All a very 'English middle-class' take on the early '50's.

Annpan, I think Jane and Prudence forms part of my book. I must dust it off!

I have not posted in a while, mostly because nothing I have read recently got me very excited. However, I just finished Leif Enger's most recent novel, I Cheerfully Refuse. I loved it. I don't find his novels exactly easy to read. It is not that they are difficult to follow. However his books lack a sense of narrative urgency that pulls the reader along. The reader must wander through the landscape with the characters. And there is usually a landscape, as his books often involve a journey of some sort, this time in a small sailing boat on Lake Superior. It is set in a near future where things have not gone well, but I found it hopeful nonetheless.

I do believe that he is one of my favorite writers.

My copy of Jane and Prudence is an ex-libris Large Print with an introduction by Jilly Cooper which I bought from a charity shop. My other books were also from these places. A good source of cheap reading from almost forgotten old authors!

We have recently had a TV program "Miss Austen" (Cassandra) and I have requested the library for the book it was based on. A mixture of fact, fiction and conjecture but well done.

Annpan. Miss Austen was on TV here a few months ago. I found it enjoyable but had my usual difficulty with the female characters and the time-line changes; most of the women looked so similar.

Did I mention somewhere here that when I was doing some family-tree research for a friend I found that going back 6/7 generations she is descended from Jane Austen's Aunt's family? When I told my friend she just sighed heavily and said "Oh! It was all SO long ago." I could have hit her!

Thank you for the Barbara Pym recommendations. I did go ahead and request Excellent Women from the library as a start. I'm looking forward to it. Then I hope to give others a go.

Vee, I feel your pain about your friend's reaction to your genealogical research. How thrilling it would be to make a discovery like that in my family.

Vee, I cracked up to your story and response!

As you may gather from my prompt posts, I am having a wakeful night. What with nearby thunderstorms and heavy rain also a plane droning around and shedding fuel before making an emergency landing, it has been quite noisy!

I looked at the necklaces to identify some of the Miss Austen characters, unless they were shawled or wrapped in capes, as they wore the same ones usually.

Ginny, I have Excellent Women. I hope you enjoy it.

Annpan, when your thunder storms have blown away could you send some rain over here please? We have had a very dry Summer with virtually no rain for three months. All the greenery is drooping, the trees are already turning colour and the blackberries, which I love to pick at this time of year are like hard dry little marbles.

Have just noticed Excellent Women is the next book in my 'collection' so perhaps I should read it before Jane and Prudence.

Just to add . . . the Miss Austen book is by Gill Hornby who's Godmersham Park (a real place in Kent) I enjoyed a while ago. It is set in the grand house inherited by Jane's brother Edward and details the life of a poor governess Ann Sharp (also 'real') teaching the family's daughter. GH has obviously done her homework and really evokes the life in a Big House of the time, plus we have the advantage of her bringing both Jane and Cassandra into the story . . perhaps a bit slow moving if you prefer murder and lots of action, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Vee, I shall look out for that book. I am off murder for a while and have been reading light novels from the Relationship shelves!

You are welcome to my rain as I am fed up with it and as for the cold weather, we have had the coldest day here in over 50 years! I was dreading the latest electricity bill because I have been running the heat cycle of my air conditioner 24/7 for weeks. Luckily Government grants have reduced it to a reasonable amount.

The garden is lush though and we have a new company looking after the common areas and they are great! I have had so many tangles over the years with workmen who are not trained and do stupid things. I eventually signed up for self maintenance and my son takes care of the small patches around my place. I just request weeding. There will be a crop after all this, no doubt.

Rosefolly - I'm glad to hear of someone reading and liking Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse. I loved his book Virgil Wander and not long ago placed this new novel on my "For Later" shelf on my library's Bibliocommons site. I am really hoping to like it, but sometimes I am disappointed by the "next book" by a beloved author. (For example, I loved Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese but did not care at all for The Covenant of Water.) So learning that you liked it is encouraging.

Also, I enjoyed your description of Enger's writing and agree with you totally.

Kathy, I will look forward to hearing your reaction!

A very mundane who-dunnit Murder on Lake Garda by Tom Hindle (described as the next Agatha Christie . . .) Too many unbelievable characters and going's on and sloppy editing. Surely someone would run away from his creditors rather than his debtors? Does a lover look at his betrothed with doughy eyes or doe/doe-like eyes?

Doughy eyes? Where's a laughing-face emoticon when you need one?

😂 Here you go, Kathy!

I’m reading The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White. It’s about a trio of female authors who go to Scotland ostensibly for a writers’ retreat, but really to get revenge on the male author hosting it. When I started it I thought it was going to be just so-so, but I’m finding the story has depth and I am really enjoying it. Halfway through and I haven’t figured out who the murderer is.

Donna

I have started reading Miss Austen and already am annoyed by a couple of mistakes about the duties performed. A housemaid does not cook dinner or a young single gentlewoman have assisted at several child births surely? It has been mentioned that the author has researched the period so perhaps I am wrong?

I have finally finished Devil's Fjord, and it never did get better. Then to top it off, when I went to post it on Goodreads I found that I had read it in 2020 and gave it 2 stars then. I may have a terrible memory, but at least I'm consistent.

Annpan, re 'Miss Austen' I suppose if you only had one servant she would have had to cook, clean, answer the front door etc. but she wouldn't have been called a 'housemaid', which I suppose was a step up/down from a palour maid, scullery maid, ladies maid, char, skivvy etc. I understand in the US all these functions are covered under the title 'housekeeper' but that brings to mind Mrs Danvers!

No idea about young gentlewomen assisting at a birth. It does seem unlikely even in pre-prudish Victorian days.

I called Dinah a housemaid because that was what I thought she was in the parsonage, as she did some imperfect dusting!

I think that there would have been a cook in that kind of household.

I read on Goodreads the one and two star reviews of "Miss Austen" but although it was deemed very dull, no one referred to any incorrect facts.

I see there is a planned film of "Excellent Women" but not greenlit yet. I think it would be better as a TV project as the actions take place at various times so would suit episodes rather than a continuous story.

I haven't read Miss Austen but I agree, Annpan. A 'housemaid' would not be cooking. They would have had a cook, even if she didn't 'live in'.

Good news. Excellent Women has arrived at the library and I'm picking it up today. As I am also getting some fresh lobster meat for a lobster roll, that is my Labor Day weekend sorted (to use a British expression).

Lobster! Lovely, lobster is a Christmas treat from my Eldest GD which her husband would have caught. My families come to visit me since Covid changed the pattern of our habits and bring good things in hampers on special occasions.

Has Covid changed RP'ers ways? I tend to Do It Now where I used to put things off as the sudden lockdowns we had could change plans in a moment. I still feel that effect.

Donna - Thanks for the emoticon! That was exactly what I needed. Did you copy it from another site and paste it here? Here on Houzz, I've often wished we could express our reactions to one another's posts in other ways than just the thumbs-up "Like."

Regarding the book you're reading, The Author's Guide to Murder, it sounds like fun, but I am always skeptical of books by multiple authors. Never has one of those made it onto my list of favorites.

Annpan, has Covid changed our ways? Probably not and luckily here during the worst of 'Lockdown' we had beautiful weather and our kind neighbours collected our shopping. They had a daughter doing 'holiday work' at a local supermarket so were able to get a % off everything they bought. We were very grateful!

Back in the world of NOW many people work 'from home' and just go into their offices maybe once a week and a surprising number of people find the thought of work is too much for them and choose to stay at home and live on Govt. handouts.

Children, unable to go to school for several months, found the restrictions hard and many fell behind with their education. They are now going back 'through the system' and only time will tell how they have been affected in the long-term.

Of course we were lucky in that no-one close to us got Covid badly and it only caused the death one old friend, but she had many medical complications.

I had meant to add during the comments about housemaids, cooks etc that I was reminded of Monica Dickens One Pair of Feet in which she describes getting a 'proper job' as a maid-of-all-work in 1930's London. Plenty of people looking for servants but none keen to employ a young woman from a wealthy middle class family with little ability to do anything of a domestic nature!

Very much worth reading.

I read all of Monica Dickens books. Some were quite sad.

I have finished "Miss Austen" and notice she thanks people for correcting mistakes about the times. There were more?!!

Kathy, I use an iPad and it has a whole slew of emojis. 😁 I enjoyed The Author’s Guide to Murder, though the ending was somewhat silly. These three ladies have co-authored several books and this one was meant to be a satire of co-authored work.

Now I’m reading Strangers in Time by David Baldacci. I believe Carolyn read it recently.

Donna

Just started Under The Stars by Beatriz Williams and am a little disappointed in the story line . Also, she seems to need to use the F-bomb constantly which is not usual in her writing. I am hoping as the story develops the characters will "ease up" verbally.

( I am not a prude by any stretch, but I find the overuse of the F word in novels shifts my attitude from enjoyment to annoyance.)

The F-word in books and on TV, even where it had not previously appeared, is spreading like a virus. I wonder if editors or publishers are insisting it be added to make the books "contemporary". I dislike it intensely.

Worse for me is the use of the name of Jesus Christ as an expletive. PBS used to bleep it out. No more. I stopped giving to them for that reason.

Good for you, Ginny.