Welcome to Litsy!

Centered around a group of anthropologists, it‘s students and their friends and family. This is the same snarky Pym that I met in “Excellent Women” and I loved it.

The two sisters competing over who is the most religious was just too much.

#BookSpin October @TheAromaofBooks
#1955 #192025 @Librarybelle

Thank you for the rec to read this one next @Ruthiella it felt like a companion piece to Excellent Women. Although I think Mildred would be a little shocked by Catherine, I suspect they would be friends. And Tom (the cad!) was, in many ways, the anti- Evered Bone. I don't know why I hadn't read Pym years ago. It won't be long till I read another one.

I basically sat out here all day and read this charming little novel. Pym is like a post-war Austen and a perfect vacation read. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

A quiet morning, watching the sun rise over the ocean and starting my #bookspin for October. What better way to start a #vacation. @TheAromaofBooks

Ah, Barbara Pym. What can you say except that it's funny, sharply observed with that air of tenderness that make them so readable. Less than angels is all of these, with its gently absurd characters and their complex relationships. Perfect for cosying up in a holiday cottage in the Isle of Mull while the rain pours down. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

The ‘currently reading‘ stack.

I always find (when reading several books at a time) that my ‘sweet spot‘ is one non-fiction, one vintage children‘s, and one adult fiction.

What‘s your ideal stack? 😊

This was my second Pym ... I preferred Excellent Women... but this was very good too , witty & amusing. & sad too I will read more Pym in the future.

For #Booked2021 #MustacheonCover

There‘s my man on the far left sporting a beard and #mustacheoncover #Booked2021 #Winter ...hoping to start later today ... they are all on the wine ! I might join them later 😁

“Catherine often wondered whether anthropologists became so absorbed in studying the ways of strange societies that they forgot what was the usual thing in their own (p. 21)”

Who knew the lives of anthropologists could be so interesting? Catherine is a marvelous outside observer to group as she is tossed by one for a younger student. The British wit, stoicism, and wry observations are perfection.

#currentlyreading #pym #anglophile #booklover

After being a sobbing mess when I finished the last book, my husband begged me to choose a lighter book next or take a break. 😂 I have to agree. Time for a palate cleanser. I have been slowly reading this on my kindle and enjoying it, so I will turn to knocking this out tonight before bed. I do love a comedy of manners and this is more amusing than I expected. My heart needs a rest so it‘s a good option.

I'm reading Pym's novels in sequence and this, her fourth, a tale of anthropologists and their loved ones in 1950s English suburbia, didn't grab me nearly as much as the first three. Not at first. But at a certain point Pym set her character Catherine, a nonconforming romance novelist, aflame: I was suddenly gobsmacked, wondering just how far the blaze might carry us.

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I shall never admit just how deeply this has been true for me at various points in my so-called adult life! 😂😂

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Don't tell anyone, but this might end up being my epitaph! 💜

It doesn't get any more Pymian than this. 💜❤️

Am I the only bookish introvert who can identify 250% with this? 😂

Love Barbara Pym so much. I read this one years ago and I can't believe how much of it I remember. (Granted, there's some overlap & similarities with her other books.) Great writing, great characters, brilliant insights into the human condition.

"Curiosity has its pains as well as its pleasures, and the bitterest of its pains must surely be the inability to follow up everything to its conclusion."