by E.F Benson
After being slightly disappointed in Miss Mapp I loved this short story – which contains some very funny lines!
“We really must make a compromise,” thought Miss Mapp, meaning that everybody must come round to her way of thinking, “or our dear little cosy bridge evenings won’t be possible.”
I loved seeing this quite unpleasant woman’s pretensions skewered – right from the first line- & look forward to carrying on with the series.
Good Reads and Reviews!
by E.H. Benson
& after six months, I am back! Hopefully I’ll get in the swing of things again really quickly!
3.5★ because I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Queen Lucia
The main problem is whilst I quite like Lucia (my laughter was kind) I can’t stand Miss Mapp. I don’t think we are meant to like her, (I don’t think Benson enjoyed spending time with her either!) & I’m sure she makes village life in Tilling absolutely miserable! My favourite moments are when the Contessa tells her a few home truths!
& while E.F. Benson did a really good job getting into Lucia’s head, Elizabeth’s Mapp’s behaviour didn’t always ring true for me. For example, I don’t believe that not one, but two women would cut up their curtains in order to sew the bunches of flowers on to their clothes! That would look so lower class, darling!
But Benson did capture the world of small town/ social club/ small sports organisation petty battles & maneuvering very well, so I’m still going to carry on with the series.
3.5★ because I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Queen Lucia
The main problem is whilst I quite like Lucia (my laughter was kind) I can’t stand Miss Mapp. I don’t think we are meant to like her, (I don’t think Benson enjoyed spending time with her either!) & I’m sure she makes village life in Tilling absolutely miserable! My favourite moments are when the Contessa tells her a few home truths!
& while E.F. Benson did a really good job getting into Lucia’s head, Elizabeth’s Mapp’s behaviour didn’t always ring true for me. For example, I don’t believe that not one, but two women would [ cut up their curtains in order to sew the bunches of flowers on to their clothes! That would look so lower class, darling!
But Benson did capture the world of small town/ social club/ small sports organisation petty battles & maneuvering very well, so I’m still going to carry on with the series.
by Ruth Park
My sister finished this book recently & just raved about it! I am a Ruth Park fan & already owned a copy, so I bumped it up in my reading queue – & I’m very glad to do so!
For a New Zealander this book is a masterpiece – it isn’t just Ruth’s memoir of her life up until she joined her long time correspondent & admirer D’arcy Niland
in Australia – it is also a slice of life of life in New Zealand in a time of great hardship. Ruth’s father was a hardworking, decent man – but he refused to allow his wife (a notable needlewoman) to set up her own sewing business- because of the shame of a man not being able to support his family. This became more than unfortunate when, through no fault of his own, (other than maybe being too kind & trusting) Mira went bankrupt. There was no Welfare in those days, so the family moved from the Te Kuiti area to Auckland, staying with various family members. Ruth was a bright child & already showing signs of being a talented author. With the help of an inspirational nun Ruth obtained a scholarship to attend secondary school. She could have still used this in Auckland, but her mother was worried about the cost of school uniforms & other incidentals & wouldn’t let her attend. When Ruth eventually got to high school, she did four years work in two years. All of this is recounted in a matter of fact tone without any bragging. Ruth had set her heart on becoming a writer & she knew that nearly impossible goal in early 20th century New Zealand would become impossible without a decent education.
Ruth ended up working at a newspaper (the now defunct Auckland Star) Because she was a woman she was only able to work in the children’s section (don’t we all miss those from our modern newspapers.) Among other people, she met the tragic figures of Robin Hyde & Australasian author Eve Langley.
Google them if you haven’t heard of them – their stories will break your heart. When the children’s section was removed altogether (& with so many of the young male journalists going off to war) she was offered a job in the newsroom – but in spite of all her experience (a veteran male writer used to take her on his rounds with him) at a cadets near starvation rate of pay. So Ruth planned her next move.
Ruth got a job offer in San Francisco, but she was meant to set sail on the 10th of December, 1941. On the 7th, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. This meant entry conditions to the States had changed – & that is when Ruth moved to Australia. This was still a very brave move as Australia looked like it would be the next domino to fall in Japan’s march through the Pacific.
I have left out so much in this beautifully written book – but this will give you motivation to read this book. In spite of Ruth being nearly unknown in her country of birth this memoir is very easy to get hold of here. I don’t know how easy it will be to find outside of Australasia.
& I couldn’t work it into my review, but from my copy of the book here is Ruth as a toddler.
That cloud of ginger hair must have been really lovely!
by Charlotte Perkins Gillman
Deservedly a classic, a story about how control can be well meaning but it is still control!
Perkins Gilman writes beautifully which gives her protagonist a lot of charm as we watch her descent into madness.
by Winston Graham
I adored the first three books in the Poldark series, but wasn’t quite so keen on the fourth book Warleggan & decided to take a break from reading them.
What a coincidence – Graham also took a break from writing the books! Warleggan was published in 1953, The Black Moon in 1973. In the introduction to my edition, the author mentions that he himself became curious about his creations & decided to find out what happened to them!
Relationships between the Ross Poldarks & The Warleggans remain strained to the point of open hostility. Into this fraught scene comes a young relative of Elizabeth’s, Morwenna Chynoweth, & two younger brothers of Demelza’s, the fiercely Methodist Sam & the younger brother, Drake. Drake & Morwenna fall in love but the distance in social station & George Warleggan’s relentless hostility to all things Poldark mean this romance heads towards tragedy.
In a separate plot strand, the kindly doctor Dwight becomes imprisoned in France.
While other readers have long disliked Elizabeth (this apparently includes Winston Graham!) I felt her conduct could be explained by being powerless & later by Ross raping her. A wee bit of criticism of Ross would be nice!
But in this book Elizabeth’s inner bitch comes out. I don’t fault that – I like complex characters. But Elizabeth certainly shows a side that is insensitive at best, cruel & indifferent at the worst. She is quite definitely a Warleggan now!
But this book towards the end is piling so much on. It does become a bit much.
The book was heading towards a 3.5★ rating, but Graham pulled a number of dramatic strands together deftly. & the next stage in Dwight & Caroline’s romance was handled beautifully. I am now looking forward to The Four Swans.
by Mary Webb
I had never heard of this author before, so I had no expectations at all going into this read.
But this was a wonderful, book with a lyrical use of language. I am assuming this is an authentic example of Shropshire speech. In any case, I absolutely loved it.
Prue Sarn, she of the ‘hare-shotten’ lip, is such a wonderful heroine, hardworking, compassionate & brave. Her brother Gideon is ambitious & driven & wants to make a better life for them both. Unfortunately life doesn’t always go smoothly for any of us & terrible tragedies happen.
This book is now very easy to get hold of in the kindle/ebook format & I really recommend people try this one.
& in my younger years I was not a Thomas Hardy fan. Since Webb & Hardy’s writing styles are supposed to be similar, maybe I should give Hardy another chance.
by Georgette Heyer
I am a fanatical devotee of Georgette Heyer’s works & I wasn’t going to bother putting most of my GH reviews(as I call her – & I am sure she would have thought I was being a bit familiar!) on to this blog. Most of her books I have read multiple times starting when I was a pre teen. I know these books inside & out – I have said all I need to say about them.
But Goodreads has been really unstable recently & I am scared of the site going down altogether & losing all my reviews. It did have a major outage at the start of the month – I think it probably collapsed under the weight of all the junk out of control bots are importing from Amazon. Other GR members theorised that they could have shut down after unfavourable publicity in the NYT & the Washington Post about one ★ review posses. Let’s hope GR is also going to crack down on authors who do review swaps (says she without much hope)
Anyway, onto my review.
Review November 2019
Could there be any greater happiness for a Heyer devotee to discover a book of hers that you haven’t read – one that is actually excellent!
Ok, I have come back to earth now. I powered through the book in less than 24 hours.
Believe anyone that tells you this is the best GH mystery – it quite definitely is!
It has everything I want in a murder mystery – a loathsome victim, a colourful cast of characters, most of whom have plenty of motives to kill the unlovely General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith. Just when I was reading, smugly thinking I had guessed the solution – there is The Twist. & she twists again. Wow.
My only quibble. It is Heyer. So there was a romance. Heyer just can’t help herself.
Heyer in this mystery proves the equal of my personal big three in Golden Age mysteries – Christie, Sayers and Tey. Read it. I know I’m right.
Reread July 2023 I’m not going to reduce my rating, but for me this book isn’t quite as strong on the reread. This is only the third mystery GH wrote so it is still an excellent book for an author so early on in her detective story career. But when you take out the Double Twist & The Romance there isn’t that much left.
But still highly recommended to those who haven’t read it before.
& I guess I need to think about which Heyer is my favourite mystery! Death in the Stocks is my sentimental favourite – it is the first of her mysteries I read – but it is a flawed book. Hmmmm.
by Coco Solid (real name Jessica Hansell)
I check out the Goodreads blog posts every now & then. I’m a sucker for a pretty book cover, & sometimes I am in the mood for trollish and/or entitled comments. Certainly on both counts this list https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2460?ref=aapi2023_eb
did not disappoint (quite a few comments have now been deleted) What is left is a list that was meant to be both American Asian & American Pacific Islanders. But there are 174 books listed – & only one by an API. Some of the comments give API recommendations, some of which were published by a major publisher. I guess finding those was simply Too Much Trouble.
So I thought I would look at the literature of my own country as Auckland is ther Polynesian capital of the world.
Coco Solid (real name Jessica Hansell & the amazing cover art & illustrations in this book are credited under that name) is of Ngāpuhi/Sāmoan descent.
This is a day in the life of three friends who live in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) You may not like the first few stories. (each chapter is a self contained short story really) If, like me, you find them a bit ragged at the start, either persevere or skip through to the final six as these are really good!
She gives him a hurled brick wrapped up in a smile
Powerful.
I also really like the way this book handles speech.
Recommended for those who like learning about different cultures.
by Rangi Matamua & Miriama Kamo. Illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
Visually this book is very impressive – I liked the tactile feel of the almost silky, embossed cover!
Isobel Joy Te Aho-White’s illustrations are also lovely.
I felt the need to educate myself about Matariki. Matariki is the Māori New Year & it is celebrated with the constellation of stars called Pleiades in other parts of the world & this book also covers these legends from around the world.
Unfortunately not all of the written words were the equal of the drawings – some of it was a bit silly.
But this book is a good jumping off point for learning about this part of Māori culture.
by Angela Thirkell
I acquired this book from Faded Page & this charming cover is what they used.
I’m delighted to use it here.
Read With Retro Reads Group & this definitely has increased my enjoyment by half a ★!
Other members have picked up on things I missed, as at the start of the book, I was wondering if I had reached the end of my Thirkell tolerance. Certainly, unlike the males in this book, I found Mrs Brandon more tiresome than charming & irresistible!
But there was the welcome return of my old friend Tony, a hilarious send up of a Golden Age of mystery trope, I really loved secondary character Miss Morris & above all The Fête! My low mind was just howling when they were riding the cock, but The Fête was altogether delightful!
Special mention should go to Mrs Grant. There is a Certain Sort of Traveler that remains timeless – & Mrs Grant is a worthy representative of that species.
So far, my favourite Thirkell. & since this is a Thirkell this isn’t a spoiler – everyone got the ending they deserved!
Carol - She's So Novel! 