What I'm Reading Wednesday (the day late and a dollar short edition)

[thisbluespirit]

I accidentally let this drop for a month, but I've been tired a lot, and reading some more fanfic (I had quite a nice Obi Wan/Padme binge for a while, after rewatching AotC and RotS for that Janeway & Obi Wan coffee heist fic I had to write). And so there were stupid Regencies and things not worth mentioning, but otherwise, over the month:

What I've Finished Reading
One of the later books in the Daisy Dalrymple series, Superfluous Women, which I read at the same time as I made my way through We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars by Martin Pugh, an amusing combination as Martin Pugh kept reminding me that the whole 'superfluous women' business was as much a myth as that of the 'Lost Generation' (but I already knew that on both counts).

I also finally finished The Surgeon's Mate, and now I don't have the next one, which is probably a good thing for me and the series, and hopefully I will have more brain when I get back into the series. Hopefully. Or a level that works out, anyway.

And then recently I read and very much enjoyed Angela Thirkell's High Rising. It was written in the 1930s (I didn't actually plan my reading to be this thematic, it just happened) so has some of the usual hang-ups (although less than others, I'd have said), but Laura, the middle-aged heroine (who doesn't get married, but turns down two proposals in the course of the novel) was lovely and it even made me laugh aloud in patches. I enjoyed the three proposals that didn't go anywhere, and the trip to see King Lear even though nobody likes Shakespeare (and "the play is in in itself inherently improbable and in parts excessively coarse and painful. But they may do it in modern clothes, or in the dark, or all standing on stepladders. You never know.") And best of all the bit where the author George Knox gets out-talked by Laura's train-obsessed son Tony and swears he will never talk so much again... in a speech that lasts for a page and a half without a paragraph break.

I have another of hers that I picked up and I am now looking forward to reading that too. The introduction puzzled me mildly, as it is at pains to assure me that even though Angela Thirkell is completely forgotten these days, she is at times even nearly as good as Barbara Pym. I have heard of and seen Angela Thirkell's books before; I have sort of vaguely heard of Barbara Pym but have never seen her works on a shelf anywhere (although clearly I should keep an eye out). I'm not sure whether it's me that's back to front here, or just the introduction.


What I'm Reading Now
Having finished The Surgeon's Mate and being free to read lighter things more suited to a brainless person, I immediately started instead on Norman Davies's Vanished Kingdoms (but to be read in installments, kingdom by kingdom, so I have a Plan in this case), which is excellent and looks at European nations that no longer exist. It is over 700 pages, though, so it will probably take me longer than the next book in the Aubreyad would have done, but NF is easier as I don't have to follow a plot. And it should be very good!

And of course, this week I had my birthday, which naturally included me being given some presents, one of which was a copy of The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell, which I am now happily devouring.


For family history note-taking, I have started Useful Toil: Autobiographies of Working People From the 1820s to the 1920s (ed. John Burnett), which varies as to how relevant it is, but where it is, it's very useful indeed, as well as being interesting in itself, consisting of accounts of ordinary thing by ordinary people.


What I'm Reading Next
I don't know, Meme, but, given my birthday I am now a bit of a donkey with half a dozen carrots. I expect next up will be the light and hopefully interesting/entertaining A Viking in the Family and Other Family Tree Tales by Keith Gregson, a collection of small but interesting anecdotes about ancestors and how people found them. Less entertainly, but hopefully useful, I have The Wills of Our Ancestors by Stuart A. Raymond to help me understand wills and inventories and things. I also have The Pox: The Life and Near Death of a Very Social Disease by Kevin Brown, which is about Syphilis. (My ancestors, what can I say?)

Probably also that other Angela Thirkell, or something else I shall stumble over in a charity shop/free book shop/library.

Comments

[persiflage_1]

I know of Pym, but have never read anything of hers. I've not come across Thirkell, but am intrigued and will go poke the library catalogue.

I'm just about to start the final Cadfael and crawl my way back up out of this very soothing rabbit hole I fell into. (He's an awfully soothing fellow to spend time with, despite the murder and mayhem - and 12th century Civil War, of course!)

I suppose it's too much to hope my parcel has turned up?

[thisbluespirit]

Well, apparently both are worth reading if you like light 30s humour! :-) I mean, I've only read one Thirkell, so I can't speak for the rest, but if they're like that, they'll do very nicely as cheering comfort reads.

I'm just about to start the final Cadfael and crawl my way back up out of this very soothing rabbit hole I fell into. (He's an awfully soothing fellow to spend time with, despite the murder and mayhem - and 12th century Civil War, of course!)

It's been a while, but, yes, Cadfael is very soothing indeed, despite his period!

And, yes, I'm sorry, but nothing has arrived yet. I shall let you know at once if/when it does. :-/

[persiflage_1]

The library, annoyingly, only has hardback copies, so I just looked on Amazon - and read the intro to High Rise, and smiled - which is a good start. But I shall put them off temporarily as I have a heap of Net Galley arcs to get read (including finishing The Queens of Innis Lear - which I ought to have finished and reviewed weeks ago before Cadfael dragged me down that rabbit hole!)

*sigh* I fear it's gone astray. You should've had it by Friday or Saturday at the latest.

[thisbluespirit]

lol, what can you do when 11th C monks drag you down a rabbit hole? ;-)

*sigh* I fear it's gone astray. You should've had it by Friday or Saturday at the latest.

Oh noes! Still, here's hoping it's just gone in the wrong direction and will come back... :-/ (Bad Royal Mail!!)

[persiflage_1]

What indeed? (Though Cadfael's 12th century - but what's a century between friends?)

I hope so, but I'm not going to hold my breath!

[thisbluespirit]

Whoops, of course he is! /o\ (We time travellers find it so hard to keep track of things! ;-p)

No, I think holding one's breath while waiting for the Royal Mail to deliver would only result in undue pressure on the NHS.

[persiflage_1]

LOL True!

Well, given I'm asthmatic, there's a good chance I'd actually just die before the NHS even got involved.

[thisbluespirit]

Definitely don't do that, then!

[persiflage_1]

Yeah, not gonna happen!

[liadt]

The quote on seeing Lear made me laugh, it was about the time modern dress for Shakespeare came in wasn't it? And stepladders for Brecht. That's my early C20th theatre knowledge used up;p

Have fun choosing what to pick out of your birthday bounty!

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks, and your knowledge stretches further than mine, because I didn't know the stepladders ref!

[executrix]

Well, when you think of it, *Shakespeare* put everything in modern dress.

lost_spook, I think you'll like Barbara Pym, although everything she wrote was wistful and some of it is sad.

[thisbluespirit]

Given the lightness of Thirkell, I would not have expected wistfulness and sadness, so I appreciate the warning. Clearly, I shall have to see if I can find her, though. :-)

[executrix]

Despite Pym's publishers' complete lack of support for her, her books were pretty popular so there should be a lot of second-hand copies knocking around. If it didn't cost so bloody much to ship books I'd say here, have mine!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thanks! Shipping is just always a problem, isn't it? Whatever kind it is... ;-)

I'm sure I'll be able to pick up some around sometime. If nothing else, I checked Amazon and I could get 1p + p&p for one of them at least!

[executrix]

As a professional writer I always feel that they should charge 4 quid for the book with free shipping rather than the opposite! Way to make us feel valued, Amazon!

[thisbluespirit]

Well, this is in the second hand marketplace bit, so no writer is getting anything off me at all, unfortunately!!

[executrix]

I know, but it's the principle of the thing.

[bruttimabuoni]

I've very much enjoyed several Angela Thirkell novels, but be warned, she gets very snobby and bitter post-war. I'd check date of publication carefully, lest you get turned off her as I did. (If you can get Summer Half, that's wonderful, and was what got me started.)

I think Barbara Pym has more literary cachet, and some of her favourite tropes were referenced by other novelists certainly into the nineties. I like hers too, a lot, though they have real melancholy at the core. I'd never call it a comfort read, whereas I used to read Thirkell to cheer myself up.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, that is a shame! I think the ones I've been seeing about are carefully selected reprints, so I suspect they're mostly pre-war (the other one on my shelf is also a 30s one), but warning noted. High Rising wasn't free of plenty of the attitudes of the time, but it felt refreshingly free of any malice.

I think Barbara Pym has more literary cachet, and some of her favourite tropes were referenced by other novelists certainly into the nineties. I like hers too, a lot, though they have real melancholy at the core. I'd never call it a comfort read, whereas I used to read Thirkell to cheer myself up.

Which is pretty much what executrix said, too. Noted! Clearly I'll have to investigate, though.

Thanks!

[hyarrowen]

I've had Vanished Kingdoms on my shelves for years but have been to intimidated by its size to start it. But taking it one kingdom at a time is a good plan, I think. I hear you on how much easier non-fiction is than fiction. Same goes for writing. :(

[thisbluespirit]

One kingdom at a time is so much less intimidating. *nods* And the first couple of kingdoms have been very enjoyable.

I don't find NF easier to write, though, save blog entries. I have been trying in spates to try and write up bits of the family history and it makes my head hurt and my brain go hyper! But then I've always written fiction, no matter how short or rubbish, regardless, but NF writing isn't something I've done very often.

[dimity_blue]

"Useful Toil: Autobiographies of Working People From the 1820s to the 1920s" sounds very interesting! I should think a lot of those jobs don't even exist now.

I hope you keep on enjoying your books.

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! :-)