Bright Young Things discussion

Please use this thread to tell us what you're currently reading (...even if its not from our time period!).

I'm just starting Middlemarch : a study of provincial life by George Eliot. I'm reading it with a group (not on GR) who are reading it one section per month. That is how it was first serialized in 1871 and that's the intention of this read - to feel what it was like have to wait for the next section to be published.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I'm freading this - loving it - its really creepy (in the best way).

Ransom Riggs - isn't that a great name for a writer?

Just received from my beloved library:
THE VICTORIAN AFTERMATH, Esme Wingfield-Stratford, 1934
and an enormous doorstopper of a book -
THE ENGLISH: A Social History 1066-1945, Christopher Hibbert

and in my current TBR:
THE DEVIL MAY CARE: Fifty Intrepid Americans and their quest for The Unknown, Tony Horwitz
about a dozen or so are from the relevant time-period
THE PROPER BOSTONIANS, Cleveland Amory, 1947
a lovely, gossipy, name-filled book about the past history of my much-loved hometown, written one year before my birth, at a time when my grandpa still had "commections"...! (he doesn't appear to be in it, alas... grin)
THE CONFIDENT YEARS: 1885-1915, Van Wyck Brooks, 1952
STATE OF MIND; A Boston Reader, Robert Linscott, 1948 - enormous compilation of articles, sermons, stories, etc., all with some sort of "Boston Connection", look forward to sampling it bit-by-bit for a while.
VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN COUNTRY HOUSE LIFE: from old photographs, Anthony J. Lambert, 1981
WHAT AMERICA READ: taste, class, and the novel 1920-1960, Gordon Hutner, 2009

hmmmm. doesn't seem to be much in the way of fiction....
I'll have to remedy that... (grin)

in non-BYT books, am currently reading
MAIDEN, MATRON, CRONE, edited by Martin Greenberg, short stories
THE RELIGIOUS BODY, Catharine Aird
IN THE LAST ANALYSIS, Amanda Cross

Ivan wrote: "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I'm freading this - loving it - its reall..."

Oh I loved that book! :)


Currently I'm reading Lady Almina And The Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy Of Highclere Castle and Death Watch. Lady Almina because I love the time period and Downton Abbey, Death Watch because I told the author I'd review it... I'm very bad about reading things I *have* to read though...

For school I'm going to try to read Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-41. So far I haven't actually read any of the books for class, so I'm hoping to actually read this one.

I got Snuff on clearance at school and really want to read it too, but I think I need to finish some others first... :)

Bronwyn wrote: "Ivan wrote: "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I'm freading this - loving i..."

Chuck Palahniuk wrote a book called Snuff - I was going to warn you off. Chuck at his best is not to everyones taste, and this is certainly NOT Chuck at his best.

Ivan wrote: "Bronwyn wrote: "Ivan wrote: "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I'm freading..."

Haha, different Snuff. Mine's the Discworld one. :)
I've read some Palahniuk, but haven't in years. They just weren't as good lately as his earlier ones.

It's like there are two Chucks - the old one and this horrible new one.

Exactly.

Bronwyn wrote: "Ivan wrote: "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I'm freading this - loving i..."

I have Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-41 but haven't picked it up lately.

I recently read Deep Creek, a fictional account of a massacre of Chinese miners in Oregon-Idaho and went right out and picked up the non-fiction version Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon. The fictional account was very good. Actually written by a couple of historians from Princeton, I think, under the name of Dana Hand.

I'm working my way through Margery Allingham and now I'm up to #3, Look to the Lady.

I recently saw David O Stewart on C-SPAN's BOOK-TV and he was talking about his new book, American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America which looks really good. I had been aware of some of the Aaron Burr story from a book I read several years ago, When the Mississippi Ran Backwards : Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes.

I read a lot of history and biographies. And old mysteries. Some of the old John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen stories have started showing up as available for the kindle and I am a big Carr fan.

I am about halfway through Dickens' Bleak House and loving it, as I love all Dickens.

I've just started The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

I'm feeling the need to stick with my holocaust reading theme for a while longer.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - something I've been meaning to read for ages.

Ally wrote: "I've just started The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

I'm feeling the need to stick with my holocaust reading theme for a while longer."

Have you read Sophie's Choice? Great novel.

Ivan wrote:Have you read Sophie's Choice? Great novel...."

No - but it is one I'd like to read so I might put that one in my basket!

Ally, you might like The Berlin Diaries, 1940 1945 by Marie "Missie" Vassiltchikov. One of my favorite memoirs of WW11. Not about the holocaust, but about a White Russian Princess living in Berlin throughout the war. A terrific read and you really get a sense of what it was like in Berlin from 1940 through the end of the war.

Thanks Anne - I'll check that one out!

:)

'Nicholas Nickleby'
I always have a bit of Dickens on the go at this time of year seeing as I share a birthday with the great man!!

I'm reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which is set in our time period. So far, I'm liking it, but I'm hoping some "stuff" starts happening soon.

I'm also reading The Tree-Sitter: A Novel . Isn't that just the prettiest cover? The book's not too bad, either. ;)

I just started the audiobook of . I'm not far enough into it yet to decide what I think.

I've just started...

The Auschwitz Violin by Maria Àngels Anglada

I just started Charles Todd's A Cruel Treachery. The main character, Inspector Rutledge is a WWI survivor who carries a ghost in his head. This is a series that takes place directly after the war. This one is several books into the series so it may be 1919-1920 by now.

The interesting bit about this book is that here is a damaged but functioning (somehow) survivor and trying to do his job.

I'm reading Tim Blanning's THE PURSUIT OF GLORY: Europe 1648-1815.

This is the static time, when Vauban's forts had stabilized and centralized gunpowder-Europe into the outlines of modern states. Like fungus under a heavy rock, the tendrils of modernity began to grasp every part of European life in this time, until Napoleon unleashed the horrors of coagulate nationalism upon the Earth.

Loving it so far ;)

I'm now reading: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

I've heard that this is a look at the Holocaust from behind the mirror - the persepctive of ordinary Germans. It will be interesting to read that perspective.

Ally wrote: "I'm now reading: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

I've heard that this is a look at the Holocaust from behind the mirror - the persepctive of ordinary Germans. It wil..."

I loved it, Ally. Hope you do too.

I'm back with H. G. Wells - this time it's THE SEA LADY: a tissue of moonshine - only just started this.

Ally wrote: "I'm now reading: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

I've heard that this is a look at the Holocaust from behind the mirror - the persepctive of ordinary Germans. It wil..."

I got that for my mom a couple years ago. She loved it, too. :)

I picked up some Maud Hart Lovelace today that I'm hoping to start soon. It should read fast too. I'm really looking forward to it. :)

gnarh, the penguin 'classical literary criticism' compilation: plato's ion, some chapters from Aristotle's Poetics, horance and Longinus. Translated by Penelope Murray and TS Dorsch

Just started DEATH'S BRIGHT ANGEL, Janet Neel, and SHAKESPEARE'S CHRISTMAS, Charlaine Harris (#2 Lily Bard). Am very slowly wending my way through THE ENGLISH: A Social History 1066-1945, Christopher Hibbert - it's a massive doorstopper of a book, best sampled in small doses... Also sampling bit-by-bit WHAT AMERICA READ: Taste, Class, and the Novel, 1920-1960, Gordon Hutner. Gawd, I *love* that sort of thing!

Currently reading The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli. I have watched a few of her movies but have never been a fan. Then I heard that she was actually an intelligent woman with more than 400 books in her personal library, which I found interesting considering that she has become this ultimate dumb blonde, sexy icon. So far it is really good. Unbelievably hard, lonely and confusing childhood she had.

I am also reading Cranford and Selected Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell. It has been on my currently reading shelf for six months. I read one of the short stories every now and then but have only one more to go now. I really like this collection, the stories are all so different from each other.

Nina wrote: "Currently reading The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli. I have watched a few of her movies but have never been a fan. Then I heard that she was actually an inte..."

I saw a picture just yesterday of her reading Ulysses. So maybe there were hidden depths.

Yes, I think there were. I hope to find some of them in the biography

I've just started Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

I saw the film recently, which is a bit disappointing - now all I can see is the film's casting when I think of the characters! but the story is pretty good.

Still reading 828 pages of. Nicholas Nickleby Taking forever!

Ally wrote: "I've just started Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

I saw the film recently, which is a bit disappointing - now all I can see is the film's casting when I think of..."

I tried starting Sarah's key but I started feeling claustrophobic when someone was getting locked in the closet. So I was glad I got the kindle sample and hadn't yet paid for it.

Jan C wrote: I tried starting Sarah's key but I started feeling claustrophobic when someone was getting locked in the closet. So I was glad I got the kindle sample and hadn't yet paid for it...."

It's an incredible story though - really well counterpointed between a modern American who married into a French family and the 'at the time' view of the jewish family involved. - if you can get over the claustrophobia I think you'd enjoy it!

I'm now moving onto...

Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally

Has anyone read it?

I'm just about to start A Month In The Country by J.L. Carr * In J. L. Carr's deeply charged poetic novel, Tom Birkin, a veteran of the Great War and a broken marriage, arrives in the remote Yorkshire village of Oxgodby where he is to restore a recently discovered medieval mural in the local church. Living in the bell tower, surrounded by the resplendent countryside of high summer, and laboring each day to uncover an anonymous painter's depiction of the apocalypse, Birkin finds that he himself has been restored to a new, and hopeful, attachment to life. But summer ends, and with the work done, Birkin must leave. Now, long after, as he reflects on the passage of time and the power of art, he finds in his memories some consolation for all that has been lost.

Sounds like my kind of book (a novella!). There is a film with Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh which I've heard good things about - and I may order it when I'm done with the book (we'll see). Anyway, this sounds like it may be something for either BYT or The Novella Club; I'll keep you posted.

Ally, I read Schindler's Ark earlier this month. I've seen the film and I've always meant to read the book. I finally got around to it and found it even more moving and harrowing than the film but I'm glad I read it. I'd love to know your thoughts on it when you've finished.

I just finished Lady Almina And The Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy Of Highclere Castle. It was alright. I liked the first half much better than the second. I wanted more of the house and staff stuff than the war and Lord Carnarvon's exploits in Egypt.

I'm still working on Death Watch. It's picked up a bit and it's reading easier. I'm also reading the Betsy Tacy Treasury. I'm on the last book in it and I'm loving it. I need to get the next Betsy-Tacy books but I might move on to a different Lovelace first. Or something quicker reading. I'm getting a little exhausted of such long books lately...

Between books. Just finished Janwillem van de Wettering's detective novel Stranger In Amsterdam 1975 and about to start Beerbohm's Zuleika Dobson (1911) for the second time. Pretty much forgotten it. Also Cyril Hare Tragedy at Law (1942) for the second time, a pretty good Classic detective novel.

Anna wrote: "Ally, I read Schindler's Ark earlier this month. I've seen the film and I've always meant to read the book. I finally got around to it and found it even more moving and harrowing than the film but I'm glad I read it. I'd love to know your thoughts on it when you've finished...."

What did I think of it? - well...there's no denying that it's a moving and heart wrenching story but with some real heartwarming and life affirming elements. But I didn't think it was written very well. I feel like I'm missing something because this won a Booker! - but to me this was just a set of notes from which a great book could be written.

I'm now reading...

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

It's got great reviews but its not really grabbing me...maybe by reading so many books in this genre I'm raising the bar too high! ;-)

Ally wrote: "I'm now reading...

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

It's got great reviews but its not really..."

It didn't grab me the first time I tried to read it, either. But, for an unfinished manuscript, I think it's pretty good.

...and I suppose since it was written 'as it happened' it has to have a certain level of credibility too. I'm not going to give up!

Suite Francaise is one I'd like to read at some point, so I hope it picks up for you Ally. I'm struggling my way through Rabbit, Run. I've also started a re-read of Mrs. Dalloway. I'm hoping this weekend to get into The Swan Thieves.

Ally wrote: "...and I suppose since it was written 'as it happened' it has to have a certain level of credibility too. I'm not going to give up!"

Yeah. I think she wrote about what she saw and heard about.

Anne wrote: "Ally wrote: "...and I suppose since it was written 'as it happened' it has to have a certain level of credibility too. I'm not going to give up!"

Yeah. I think she wrote about what she saw and he..."

I, too, am reading this one, off and on. I really liked the sample I read of it but like some other books there is kind of a let down directly afterwards.

But I am a little puzzled why this woman was giving her food away -with not realizing she wouldn't be able to buy more.

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

I've been reading lots of children's lit of late. This one is good, but not so good as The Borrowers or The Children of Green Knowe - at least not yet.

I loved Tom's Midnight Garden when I was a kid - they made a childrens tv programme out of it and I just loved the time travelling ice skates!