“House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton
If you are hoping for actual mirth, go elsewhere. A description of Lily Bart’s descent of the social scale. It didn’t encourage me to try more Edith Wharton.
“A Dance with Dragons” by George RR Martin
If you like this stuff, it will keep you going. I am not a massive fan but I find fantasy stories moderately entertaining in general and this falls into that camp.
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by JK Rowling
It’s a play. If you can get over that, it’s alright. Better on stage than on the page, I imagine.
“The Light Years“, “Marking Time” and “Confusion” all by Elizabeth Jane Howard
I am loving this series of books about an upper middle class English family, the Cazalets. The first book begins in the mid 30s and I’ve just got as far as the end of the war. I am feverishly waiting for the library to contact me and tell me that they’ve got in volume four. I cannot recommend this series highly enough and don’t know how I managed to miss it until now.
“Vinegar Girl” by Anne Tyler
This is a retelling of “The Taming of the Shrew”. I like Anne Tyler’s books very much but this one is, frankly, a bit forgettable.
“The Taming of the Shrew” by Shakespeare
I went back and reread the play after reading “Vinegar Girl”. If you ask me, it’s nothing to write home about.
“Love and Other Man Made Disasters” by Nicola Doherty
This is a sweet, funny romantic tale for teenagers. I really enjoyed it; not my normal cup of tea and I should caveat that the author is nearly related to me but that would not make me lie to you. I am told it would make an excellent stocking filler for the young teen in your life.
“Bedsit Disco Queen” by Tracey Thorn
A surprisingly entertaining autobiography by one half of the band Everything but the Girl.
I love November because every morning I get up to a blog from you and that is great. Pleased to hear that your Aunt has a new hip which should keep her whirling around a bit longer.
I am trying to read Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, abridged by D M Low. I found it in a second hand bookshop for £3 and at 900 pages that makes it 0.3 pence per page. It is fascinating to read as the grammar and use of words are just slightly out of kilter (technical term used by experts in the English language) and it is wickedly funny. His description of Scotland and why the romans could not be bothered to invade fully are very far funny and would probably cause apoplexy north of the border if better known.
My father brought volume 1 on his honeymoon and every year thereafter but never really it beyond that. A question of taste, I suppose..
Oh Heather, thank you. How kind!
I recommend you try Ethan Frome or any of Edith Wharton’s ghost stories.
If the ghost stories are short, I might give them a go. I’m not sure about another novel. I’m still recovering from poor, old Lily Bart’s end.
I feel a bit embarrassed about how much I enjoyed the Cazalets. I suspect that they are basically a literary respectable Downton Abbey but once you start reading them you cannot stop until they are all gone.
They are amazing. I am utterly unembarrassed. I clearly have lower standards than you.