Classics Club Spin

Published on by Margaret17 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin.

Before next Sunday, 21 April 2024 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. On that day the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 3rd March, 2024.

Here’s my list:

  1. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  2. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  3. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
  4. The Stars Look Down by A J Cronin
  5. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
  6. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  7. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
  8. The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
  9. The Birds and other short stories by Daphne du Maurier
  10. I’ll Never be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier
  11. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
  12. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
  13. The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
  14. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
  15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  16. Daisy Miller by Henry James
  17. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
  18. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
  19. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning
  20. Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault

Which one/s would you recommend?

Maiden Voyages by Siân Evans

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Two Roads| 2021| 354 pages| paperback| Library book|5*

I first read about Maiden Voyages: Women and the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel by Siân Evans on Cath’s blog Read-Warbler. I thought it sounded excellent, so I reserved a copy from the library. It covers a wide range of topics that fascinate me – not just travel, but also social history, both World Wars, the sinking of the Titanic, emigration, the impact that the ocean liners had on the economy. and on women’s working lives and independence, adventure and so much more besides.

It is a ‘collection of selected biographical tales, both cautionary and life-affirming, about dynamic women on the move, set primarily between the two World Wars, during the golden age of transatlantic travel.‘ (page 25)

It is well written, and thoroughly researched. Like all good non-fiction it has a bibliography and an index. For more detail about the contents of this book I think this description on Amazon UK summarises it very well and I need say no more:

Summary:

Migrants and millionairesses, refugees and aristocrats all looking for a way to improve their lives. After WW1 a world of opportunity was opening up for women … Before convenient air travel, transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners and never more so than in the glory days of the interwar years. It was an extraordinary undertaking made by many women. Some traveled for leisure, some for work; others to find a new life, marriage, to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. Their stories have remained largely untold – until now.

Maiden Voyages is a fascinating portrait of these women, and their lives on board magnificent ocean liners as they sailed between the old and the new worlds. The ocean liner was a microcosm of contemporary society, divided by class: from the luxury of the upper deck, playground for the rich and famous, to the cramped conditions of steerage or third class travel. These iconic liners were filled with women of all ages, classes and backgrounds: celebrities and refugees, migrants and millionairesses, aristocrats and crew members.

Full of incredible gossip, stories and intrigue, Maiden Voyages has a diverse cast of inspiring women – from A-listers like Josephine Baker, a dancer from St Louis who found fame in Paris, Marlene Dietrich and Wallis Simpson, Violet ‘the unsinkable’ Jessop, a crew member who survived the sinking of the Titanic, and entrepreneur Sibyl Colefax, a pioneering interior designer.

Whichever direction they were travelling, whatever hopes they entertained, they were all under the spell of life at sea, a spell which would only break when they went ashore. Maiden Voyages is a compelling and highly entertaining account of life on board: part dream factory, part place of work, independence and escape – always moving.

Siân Evans is a Welsh author, journalist, commentator, speaker, publicist and film consultant specialising in social history. She is the author of a plethora of popular social histories, including Mrs Ronnie: the Society Hostess Who Collected Kings; The Manor Reborn (tied in to a major four-part BBC1 TV series); Life Below Stairs in the Victorian and Edwardian Country House; Ghosts: Mysterious Tales from the National Trust; seven National Trust Guidebooks between 2008 and 2014 and Queen Bees, a book examining the role of six influential interwar society hostesses.

The 1937 Club

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The 1937 Club, hosted by Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, starts tomorrow and I thought I’d list the books I’ve read that were published that year and also see if I’ve got any more left in my TBRs to read.

These are the books I’ve read:

The links will take you to my reviews :

Bats in the Belfry by E C R Lorac – full of descriptive writing painting vivid pictures of the streets of London in the 1930s and in particular the spooky, Gothic tower in which a corpse is discovered, ‘headless and handless‘. For a while the identity of the murdered man is in doubt – is it that of Bruce Attleton who had unaccountably disappeared or that of the mysterious stranger, Debrette who it seems had been blackmailing Bruce? Chief Inspector Macdonald of New Scotland Yard is called in to investigate.

The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien – an adventure story of a quest set in a fantasy world, so beautifully written that it seems completely believable. Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, is recruited through Gandalf, the wizard, to accompany a party of thirteen dwarves, led by Thorin, on their quest to recover the dwarves’ treasure stolen by Smaug the dragon and regain possession of the Lonely Mountain. Along the way Bilbo grows in confidence and becomes a hero, meeting elves, outwitting trolls, fighting goblins, and above all gaining possession of the ring from Gollum.

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – this shows Agatha Christie’s interest in Egypt and archaeology and also reflects much of the flavour and social nuances of the pre-war period. In it she sets a puzzle to solve –  who shot Linnet Doyle, the wealthy American heiress? It is essentially a ‘locked room mystery’, as the characters are passengers on the river-steamer SS Karnak, cruising on the Nile. Amongst them is the famous Hercule Poirot, a short man dressed in a white silk suit, a panama hat and carrying a highly ornamental fly whisk with a sham amber handle ‘a funny little man.’

Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie – The ‘dumb witness’of the title is Bob, Miss Emily Arundell’s wire-haired terrier in what is described as ‘the incident of the dog’s ball.’ Everyone blamed Emily’s accident on a rubber ball left on the stairs by her frisky terrier. But the more she thought about her fall, the more convinced she became that one of her relatives was trying to kill her. On April 17th she wrote her suspicions in a letter to Hercule Poirot. Mysteriously he didn’t receive the letter until June 28th … by which time Emily was already dead!

The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude – this is another complicated murder mystery. The tranquillity of Cheltenham Square is shattered when the occupant of no. 6 was murdered by an arrow to the head, shot through an open window. The puzzle is first of all to work out how the murder was carried out and secondly who out of the several suspects, including six keen members of an Archery Club, was the murderer. I enjoyed trying to work it out, but although I had an idea about the guilty person I couldn’t see how the murders had been achieved until the method was revealed.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – I really liked this short book about commitment, loneliness, hope and loss, the story of two drifters, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie looking for work and dreaming of having some land of their own. Their hopes are doomed as Lennie – struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of jealousy – becomes a victim of his own strength.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James –  This story is dark and melodramatic, about good and evil and with hints of sexual relations, reflecting the Victorian society of the time. But is it a ghost story or a psychological study? Either way there are creepy, disturbing things going on. It’s a story within a story, told as a ghost story to a group of people as they sit gathered round a fire in an old house. It tells of two children and their governess. She has been employed by their uncle who wants nothing to do with them. Their previous governess had died under mysterious circumstances (was it in childbirth?).  The older child, Miles, was away at school and soon after the new governess arrives Miles returns home, expelled from school for some terrible unexplained offence. It’s all terribly ambiguous.

I have just two more books published in 1937 in my TBRs, so I’m hoping I’ll read at least one of them for the 1937 Club, probably Hamlet, Revenge: a Story in Four Parts by Michael Innes, which is described on the back cover:

The murder was planned, deliberately and at obvious risk, to take place in the middle of a private performance of Hamlet.

Behind the scenes there were thirty-one suspects. In the select and distinguished audience twenty-seven. ‘Suspicions,’ said Appleby, ‘crowd thick and fast upon us.’ (From the back cover)

or I might read The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell:

… a searing account of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time

Orwell’s graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity. It crystallized the ideas that would be found in his later works and novels, and remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice and class divisions in Britain. Includes illustrations, explanatory footnotes, and an introduction by Richard Hoggart (Amazon UK)

Spell the Month in Books – April 2024

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

This month’s theme is Poisson d’Avril – The French version of April Fool’s Day involves fish, so let’s look for books related to fish, bodies of water, or comedy. But, I looked and didn’t come up with any ideas to fit the theme.

So, this month the books I’ve chosen are all books I’ve read.

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton 4*


Sue Grafton is the author of the alphabet- titled series of books featuring Kinsey Millhone, a private investigator. The books are set in and around the fictional town of Santa Teresa, California, based on Santa Barbara.

 Kinsey is a likeable, strong character. In this first book she comes across as a loner. She’s 32, twice divorced with no children or pets, or indeed any ties, although she does have plenty of friends and contacts who help out with her investigations and she goes jogging – a lot. There are  some cameos of characters, who I suspect feature in the later books. There is her landlord Henry Pitts, a former baker aged 81 who makes a living devising crossword puzzles. Kinsey is ‘halfway in love’ with Henry.

It’s a fast-paced book, easy to read and with no gory details, which I have to skim read in other books (the equivalent of watching the TV  behind my fingers). I liked it but haven’t read any of the other books in the series.

P is for The Private Patient by P D James 4*

When the notorious investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn books into Mr Chandler-Powell’s private clinic in Dorset for the removal of a disfiguring and long-standing scar, she has every prospect of a successful operation by a distinguished surgeon, a week’s peaceful convalescence in one of Dorset’s most beautiful manor houses, and the beginning of a new life. She was never to leave Cheverell Manor alive. Commander Adam Dalgleish and his team are called to the Manor to investigate her death. 

R is for Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville 4*

This is the fictionalised life story of Kate Grenville’s maternal grandmother, Sarah Catherine Maunder, known as Dolly. She was the sixth child of Thomas and Sarah Maunder, born in Currabubula, New South Wales, Australia in 1881. She was not only restless but also clever and determined – she knew what she wanted and she did her best to achieve it.

Restless Dolly Maunder casts light not just on Dolly’s life but also on life in Australia for most of the 20th century. The book has a relentless pace as it tells her life story as she propels herself from place to place and from business to business, enjoying success whilst it lasted and enduring all else, not stopping to pause breath in her restless pursuit of what came next.

I is for Imperium by Robert Harris, historical fiction set in Ancient Rome. 4*

Beginning in 79 BC, this book set in the Republican era is a fictional biography of Marcus Tullius Cicero by Tiro, his slave secretary. Tiro was a real person who did write a biography of Cicero, which has since been lost in the collapse of the Roman Empire. Tiro is credited with the invention of shorthand. Harris has based Imperium on, among other sources, Cicero’s letters, which Tiro had recorded, successfully interweaving Cicero’s own words with his own imagination.  It is basically a political history, a story filled with intrigue, scheming and treachery in the search for political power as Cicero, a senator, works his way to power as one of Rome’s two consuls.

L is for The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 4*

This is a long and detailed book, written with such intricate plotting and numerous characters that it bewildered me at times. It’s historical fiction set in New Zealand in the 1860s, during its gold rush and it has everything – gold fever, murder, mystery and a ghost story too.

I loved the pictures it builds up of the setting in New Zealand, the frontier town and its residents from the prospectors to the prostitutes, and the obsessive nature of gold mining. And I did become fully absorbed in the story during the week it took me to read.

The next link up will be on May 4, 2024 when the optional theme will be Nature.

WWW Wednesday: 10 April 2024

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently I’m reading The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin, written while Crispin was an undergraduate at Oxford.I wrote about its beginning and an extract from page 56 in my Book Beginnings post here. It’s the first Gervase Fen Mystery, a locked room mystery, first published in 1944.

Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of (Robert) Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978). His first crime novel and musical composition were both accepted for publication while he was still an undergraduate at Oxford. After a brief spell of teaching, he became a full-time writer and composer (particularly of film music. He wrote the music for six of the Carry On films. But he was also well known for his concert and church music). He also edited science fiction anthologies, and became a regular crime fiction reviewer for The Sunday Times. (from Goodreads)

The last book I read was Nero by Conn Iggulden, an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley; the expected publication date is 23 May 2024. It’s the first in a new trilogy, historical fiction set in Ancient Rome, telling of Nero’s birth and early years, so it’s more about his mother Agrippina than about Nero. It doesn’t shy away from the brutality of the age, particularly those of Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius, who was easily as ruthless as his predecessors. I read and watched the TV series I Claudius and Claudius the God years ago and this book is making me want to re-read those books. I find the period absolutely fascinating. I’ll be writing more about nearer to its publication.

I’m never sure what I’ll be reading next but it could be: Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black because I want to understand more about the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

Synopsis from Amazon UK

A century after Britain’s Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine, veteran Guardian journalist Ian Black has produced a major new history of one of the most polarising conflicts of the modern age.

Drawing on a wide range of sources – from declassified documents to oral testimonies and his own decades of reporting – Enemies and Neighbours brings much-needed perspective and balance to the long and unresolved struggle between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land.

Beginning in the final years of Ottoman rule and the British Mandate period, when Zionist immigration transformed Palestine in the face of mounting Arab opposition, the book re-examines the origins of what was a doomed relationship from the start. It sheds fresh light on critical events such as the Arab rebellion of the 1930s; Israel’s independence and the Palestinian catastrophe (Nakba in Arabic) of 1948; the watershed of the 1967 war; two Intifadas; the Oslo Accords and Israel’s shift to the right. It traces how – after five decades of occupation, ever-expanding Jewish settlements and the construction of the West Bank ‘separation wall’ – hopes for a two-state solution have all but disappeared, and explores what the future might hold.

Yet Black also goes beyond the most newsworthy events – wars, violence and peace initiatives – to capture thereality of everyday life on the ground in Jerusalem and Hebron, Tel Aviv,Ramallah, Haifa and Gaza, for both sides of an unequal struggle. Lucid, timelyand gripping, Enemies and Neighbours illuminates a bitter conflict that shows no sign of ending – which is why it is so essential that we understand it.

Although this is a weekly meme I’m only taking part occasionally.

Top Ten Tuesday Freebie:Books with Fire in the Titles

Published on by Margaret29 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

This week is a Freebie week and I’m featuring books with Fire in the titles. eight of these are books I’ve read and two are TBRs.

Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves, the 8th and last book in Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series. It’s set in Deltaness, an invented village in Northmavine where the Fleming family, Helen, a knitwear designer, her architect husband, Daniel, and their children, autistic Christopher, and Ellie,  have recently relocated from London. They are finding it hard to settle and matters are only made worse when the previous owner of their house is found hanging in their barn.

Fire in the Thatch by L C R Lorac. Colonel St Cyres, his daughter Anne and daughter-in-law June are living at Manor Thatch, and Norman Vaughan at Little Thatch. When Vaughan’s body is found in the burnt-out debris of Little Thatch Chief Inspector Macdonald of New Scotland Yard is asked to investigate the case.  

The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor. After the Great Fire of London, the Fire Court was set up in 1667 to settle disputes between landowners and tenants as the work of rebuilding and developing London gets underway. This book brings to life the complexities of Restoration England, drawing in all levels of society from Charles II, the aristocracy, politicians, the ordinary people and those living in poverty.

The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve. I don’t think this is one of her best books. It’s set in Hunts Beach (a fictional town) on the coast of Maine. The rain is followed by the long hot summer of 1947, then a drought sets in, followed by devastating fires. The Stars are Fire paints a convincing picture of life just after the Second World War. Grace’s daily life is difficult, constrained by the social conventions and attitudes of the late 1940s.

Playing with Fire by Peter Robinson, the 14th book in the DCI Banks series. In the early hours of a cold January morning, two narrow boats catch fire on the dead-end stretch of the Eastvale canal. When signs of accelerant are found at the scene, DCI Banks and DI Annie Cabbot are summoned. But by the time they arrive, only the smouldering wreckage is left, and human remains have been found on both boats.

Daughters of Fire by Barbara Erskine, historical time-slip fiction switching between the present day and the first century CE Britannia. It’s a mix of historical fiction, fantasy and romance. It mixes two stories, one set in the present day with historian Viv and the other with Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes tribe in the first century.

Fire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky, is set in a small village based on Issy-l’Eveque between the two world wars. The narrator is Silvio looking back on his life and gradually secrets that have long been hidden rise to the surface, disrupting the lives of the small community. There is a brooding, silent and haunting atmosphere, almost menacing as the truth emerges. The writing is full of rich descriptive passages of the land and the people. It is indeed a gem of a book.

Dark Fire by C J Sansom. Set in 1540, this is the second in the Matthew Shardlake series, set in the 16th century during the reign of  King Henry VIII.  Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer, is assigned to find the formula for Greek Fire, whilst defending a young girl accused of brutal murder. I read this before I began blogging, so the link is to Amazon UK.

Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault, one of my TBRS so the link is also to Amazon UK. Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece to India. Fire From Heaven tells the story of the years that shaped him. 

Fire by L J Tyler, the 4th John Grey historical mystery, also one of my TBRs, this is another book about the Great Fire of London in 1666. A Frenchman admits to having started the fire together with an accomplice, whom he says he has subsequently killed.