How on earth did August happen already – phew! I’m sitting here just hours after returning from a short trip to Paris. My first coach trip – which might seem an insane way to travel to Paris – but I really liked it, and will do it again I’m sure. There is after all, a good bit of reading time to be had on a coach trip. 
I read nine (and almost a half) books during July, a lovely mixed bag of things, including two novels by the Librarything Virago group author of the month Rumer Godden.
I hadn’t realised just what a feminist novel A Lady and her Husband by Amber Reeves would be before I read it. Another fabulous offering from Persephone books got July off to a superb start.
Save me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald was picked by my very small book group, and gave us lots to talk about – I was left feeling sad for the woman behind the novel, and a little underwhelmed by the novel itself.
Patricia Highsmith has been one of several writers whose work I have only started reading this year, Strangers on a Train is the third of them. Hugely compelling, full of tension and atmosphere it was her first novel – and what a debut it was.
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden has been on my shelves for a long time, I think I bought it as soon as the new Virago editions came out. The LT virago group’s author of the month for July, Rumer Godden was a prolific writer – a good storyteller – this, one of her earliest novels, telling the story of a group of nuns in the Himalayas was made into a film in 1947.
Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne, published by British Library Crime Classics, is a Scottish locked room mystery from the 1930s. It introduced me to another prolific mystery writer of the Golden Age.
The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller – my first non-fiction read for a little while. A book about books, it is also a memoir, exploring how the author found his way back to reading seriously, and how that transformed his life.
Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik, a newly published novel – I read few of those and this one turned out to be my book of the month. A wonderful impulse buy, a debut novel inspired by a story from the author’s own family – I realised after I had finished how the story and the style suits a reader of vintage fiction so well – probably why I loved it so much.
Afternoon of a Good Woman by Nina Bawden. I still have this to review of course, it concerns Penelope (the good woman of the title) a magistrate on the day she leaves her husband. Penelope begins to examine her life, balancing it against the cases that come before her that day. It is a slight, serious work of introspection, which I think is very impressive.
The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden – read entirely on my coach trip, it was a lovely undemanding, compelling read. Rumer Godden is good at writing from the point of view of children, and in this novel, she examines the turmoil of children when their parents’ marriage ends. Their inability to see their mother as a person in her own right as they battle and scheme to get her back – going as far as travelling alone to Italy to intercept her with her fiancé.
I am now reading This Real Night by Rebecca West – the sequel to The Fountain Overflows – which I am enjoying very much, and will be my first book for AV/AA (All Virago All August) which of course started over on Librarything, but has been taken on by a few other readers and bloggers too. Essentially it is reading Virago authors – (new virago, old green editions or even Virago published authors in other editions) – we now also include Persephone books.
During August, I might be seen juggling books like mad, I always want to read as many for AV/AA as I can, but I also like #WITmonth – and have several books I could read for that too. I also need to read The Power for my very small book group – just as well I’m not at work. The librarything author of the month is Christina Stead – who I have never read, but think of as being challenging. I have A Little Tea, A Little Chat – which of course is a green virago – so I should try and get to that.
You may have seen my book acquisition post yesterday – well, I wrote it before I went away, since when I have bought two more. I think you can all probably guess from where. While I was in Paris our tour took us into the Latin Quarter for dinner on Saturday evening. I found a few minutes to walk from Boulevard St Germain to Shakespeare and Company – well I had to didn’t I. I was with another lady from the coach, and we were under time constraints so I could only spend a few minutes there. What a lovely place – and how exciting to buy two books with a Paris setting – The Prince’s Boy by Paul Bailey and The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundas – which I have read before but wanted to re-read and didn’t have a copy of. I bought a lovely tote bag and had my books stamped so they will be a lasting reminder of my first trip to Paris.
Did you read anything in July I need to know about? I always love recommendations – dangerous though they are. If you are joining in any of the reading challenges during August what are you planning to read?
