January is over, and it has been a bit of a shocker, it seems as if many of us are groping our way out of this first month of 2017 blinking painfully. However, this blog is books, just books, so I won’t comment further about everything that has been happening out there in the wider world, I don’t think I can.
Nine and a bit books read in January, (the bit being my current read) which feels not too bad when I consider the distractions I have had.
So here is what I read during January with links for anyone who missed the original post.
In Confidence by Irène Némirovsky (2015)– is a new collection of short stories published by Raglan books, it exposes the secrets and desires of a variety of characters, mainly women. For me there wasn’t a bad story in the collection.
Miss Christie Regrets by Guy Fraser Sampson (2017) is the second book in the Hampshire Murders series by Guy Fraser Sampson. A well plotted mystery which pays affectionate homage to the Golden Age mysteries which are still so popular.
Scenes of Childhood and other stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner (1981) was definitely one of my highlights of the month. The more I read by her the more I love her. This collection is very autobiographical – so much so it is hard not to see it as a collection of memoirs. STW and her family are present as themselves, in every story. An absolute joy of a book.
Reading A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin (1947) was another absolute joy – thinking about it – there have been at least four absolute joys this month. Last year during the 1947 club reading event – I heard about this wonderful novel by Philip Larkin, his second and last novel as far as I know. It concerns a wartime winter and the memory of a summer. A young European woman displaced by the war, working at a provincial library, looks back to a time when as a young girl, she visited the family of her pen pal.
The Indian Woman by Diana Gardner (1954)– I took a chance on this pricey second hand book by the author of a volume of short stories I read last year and loved. The gamble paid off, it was a very god read, about small acts of cruelty within a marriage and the destruction of good woman.
I read The Innocents (kindle edition) by Margery Sharp (1972) for Jane’s Margery Sharp birthday celebration. It centres on the relationship between an ageing spinster and a child with learning difficulties that she cares for.
He Who Plays the King by Mary Hocking (1980) took me right away from this modern world and its complexities, into the stories of Henry Tudor and Richard III. It is a story that has been told before many times, but Hocking brings her unique ability to capture the British countryside and the hidden psychology of human frailty to this still enormously compelling story.
No Signposts in the Sea by Vita Sackville West (1961) is a slight novel of only around 150 pages, more of a novella I suppose, it was Vita’s last novel, one she wrote while gravely ill. It is a though-provoking novel about death and the way to live life.
Every Good Deed and other stories by Dorothy Whipple – my third volume of short stories of the month. Oh, I do like a good Whipple, and this collection is certainly good. The first story in the collection is more of a novella at 120 pages, but I probably preferred some of the other stories, although each story is very good and I flew through them all – anyway full review in a couple of days.
So, I am currently reading In My Own Time; almost an autobiography by Nina Bawden – so far it is absolutely great. Which will be added properly to next month’s tally.
No particular or definite plans for February, because I am enjoying being spontaneous this year. However I think I will possibly read The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West for the librarything Virago author of the month. Speaking of Virago – the people at Virago Press (well whoever runs their social media) have launched a #VMCBookclub. In January they were reading Good Behaviour by Molly Keane – which I read last year. I believe that today they will announcing a book for February. If it should be a book I haven’t read I might join in. Earlier this month I wrote about my favourite Persephones (a post which garnered this blog the most hits ever!) so I have definitely put myself in the mood for reading more Persephones.
Tell me, what have you been reading? Any exciting reading plans for February?
I started the year on a real high reading wise, beginning my year and my #Woolfalong project reading To the Lighthouse (1927). It was a wonderful reading experience, so different from my first experience of it twenty five years ago. Maurice (1971) by E M Forster – another member of the Bloomsbury set I suppose, was the only novel by E M Forster I had never read (not yet read his short stories either). Beautifully written, it paints an extremely honest picture of what life might be for a young man attracted to his own sex in the early twentieth century – no wonder really that Forster didn’t live to see it published. The Land of Green Ginger (1927) by Winifred Holtby I had been saving for a few years – it turned out to be good – although certainly not her best. I was a tad disappointed – only because I had saved it so long, however a lesser Holtby is still pretty good – and definitely still worth reading. I was particularly cheered to learn that The Land of Green Ginger is an actual street – how I would love little address card with that address on! Next I read a Netgalley review copy on my trusty kindle – Exposure (2016) by Helen Dunmore. I always like Helen Dunmore’s writing, and this one was among the best of those that I have read. Her sense of place is always so good, and the atmosphere and tension in this latest novel is pretty much perfect. Actually reading Exposure made me want to read those Dunmore I’ve yet to get around to. Next I found myself returning to Virginia Woolf, re-reading Mrs Dalloway (1925) – which I had originally not intended to do until February. Mrs Dalloway is a fascinating, complex novel – I enjoyed it far more this time too. I think (I hope) I may have finally found my Virginia Woolf mojo. I will probably wait until March to read more Woolf, although I have (or will have) my first round up post for the end of the first phase to post at the end of this month.
