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#TitlesAndTunes #DramaQueen

Well, Lucia is the biggest literary Drama Queen going, and I dare anybody to try and upstage or out-diva Grace Jones!
Book: Queen Lucia, of course. Song: Private Life.

🎶 Your marriage is a tragedy, but it's not my concern
I'm very superficial, I hate everything official
Your private life drama, baby, leave me out🎶

@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB

A historical-fiction comedy from my TBR list.

#LetterQ #AlphabetGame
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This didn‘t quite reach the magical heights of Mapp & Lucia. I can see why Nancy Mitford was such a fan of the series. The way Benson expertly caricatures the life of a small English town, full of nosy residents, is quite a feat. I love Georgie and Lucia. I absolutely love Lucia‘s ridiculous attitude and her struggle to maintain her position of matriarch of the town. She would irritate me to no end in real life, but she‘s a top notch character.

Originally published 1920.

In short order, Mrs. Lucas will learn that Mrs. Quantock has acquired a yoga teacher -- slightly vexing to her, because Lucia herself is the reigning queen of culture and the arts, but only until she rationalizes that she can annex this innovative and possibly applaudable social coup.

#marchintothe70s #dancingqueen
It is just an exquisite portrait of a society where pretentiousness, fake emotion, fake culture are the norm. A wonderful satirical view of a class of people that are still very much alive today. Human nature doesn't change that much.
Nothing to do with the song except the 👸
@Cinfhen @Lizpixie

Lucia seems far less likeable in this first installment than she does in Mapp and Lucia, while Georgie (if such a thing is possible) seems moreso.

As Lucia's prize party guest is Olga Bracely, an opera singer famous for her Brünnhilde, I thought I'd give Wagner another crack after a thirty year period of indifference. I must be growing into it as I'm enjoying this performance, at least: https://youtu.be/2JgMt8GWdyU
#booksandmusic

"I wonder if you can keep a secret?"
"Yes," said Georgie. He probably had never kept one yet, but there was no reason why he shouldn't begin now.

"The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the times which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other."

This neatly sums up the chief "action" in this book ❤
(I know the photo is of Tillingites, but a group shot of Riseholmeites is hard to find.)

Already so tired but sorry @rubyslippersreads I had to finish it today. I liked the last chapters so much, I couldn't wait one more day to finish it, even if I can't stay up any more second. 😂😊

I loved the setting and the idea behind the book pretty much and I tell you a secret, I even have two Queen Lucia in my life and I can tell, it is really like the book describes it. ☺️

Awesome book, well recommend.

Didn't read my daily part yesterday, so I need to read two chapters today. 😊 Such a little village and so much happens. Quite an amazing story. I sometimes have to think about my grandma, she would be definitely Queen Lucia, if she would be several years younger. 😂😂😂
I also like the intrigues that take place throughout the whole book. 😊👍

@rubyslippersreads how far are you and how do you like it?

Luckily no thunder today. Yeah. ☺️😊

Therefore I have other problems. Certain problems. I don't have enough time for all my buddyreads. 😱

Queen Lucia @rubyslippersreads
Dorian Gray @Bambolina_81
Mister Quin #agathachristieclub

A bit late but now I start my buddy read section. ☺️ I will tell you, how I liked the beginning. 😊 @rubyslippersreads

By the way do you like my edition? @rubyslippersreads

The tagged book is a buddy read with @Sarah83 , Mort is for the #ookbookclub, and #Persuasion is for the #janeaustenreadalong. Then two for my IRL book clubs, and Sunburn because the author is a #BetsyTacy fan. Plus ARCs! I'd better get busy reading. 😄 #juneTBR #readingresolutions

I've been reminded that I should really try to make an inroad into my Mapp and Lucia collection 🤔

I am new to The Queen. When life is busy and times seem tough there is no where to go but to Lucia. A great comedy of the petty nonsenses we create for ourselves. All hail to The Queen.

Way more entertaining than I expected! Very tempted to start book 2 straight away.

I generally prefer to like main characters, so I'm amazed how E.F.Benson manages to fill an entire village with people you really shouldn't like or sympathise with at all, and yet still comes out with a warm and funny book. Very curious to meet Miss Mapp now.

My current audiobook.

Every single character is perfectly dreadful! I'm quite enjoying them 😏. Very glad not to live in Riseholme , but Georgie has convinced me to dig out a half-finished cross-stitch project...

@rubyslippersreads so, when do you want to start? In November or December? 😉

If I'd read this first, I doubt I'd have gone on to discover Benson's masterpiece 'Mapp and Lucia'; but doing it out of sequence after having loved M&L so deeply made this a pretty disappointing read too - catch 22. Some funny situations and dialogue, and it was interesting to see the characters of Lucia and (gay-gay-flamingly-gay) Georgie in inchoate form. But this did not fit together into a memorable whole. Read Mapp and Lucia instead!

#QuoteOfTheDay

#QuoteOfTheDay

#QuoteOfTheDay

No, this is not a #QuoteOfTheDay. I'm just really curious about the grammar. Does the use of "must" here sound correct to you? I'm wondering if this is some British English or perhaps even more regional variation: as an English teacher and a Canadian it sounds completely incorrect to me, and I'm always correcting my students when they try to use "must" in the past like this. I am intrigued.

#QuoteOfTheDay

Months after finishing "Mapp and Lucia," the fourth in the series, how delighted am I to retrace E.F. Benson's steps and start at the beginning with this, the first! This time I'm doing it on audio. All I can say is it feels like being reunited with a dear, deliciously snobby and vindictive friend after a long absence! ❤️

"The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the time which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other." ??

?My only #StartsWithQ book on my shelf! I was sure I must have more...

#MayBookFlowers #EFBenson #QueenLucia

#maybookflowers #startswithq All my 'Q' titles are to do with queens! Currently reading Queen's Gambit, and the other two are TBR.

The comedy of 1920s middle class snobbery and one-upmanship! Need a fun, witty read? Queen Lucia is for you. #StartswithQ
#maybookflowers @RealLifeReading

Lucia's scheming to retain her status as the arbiter of culture in her little English village is entertaining, and the cast of characters is amusing. Although the book is meant to be a comic take on village life (and it is that), it also gives some insight into the very real social views of the time. I don't know if I will read the entire series, but I would like to visit Lucia again.

It's just an exquisite portrait of a society where pretentiousness, fake emotion, fake culture are the norm. A wonderful satirical view of a class of people that are still very much alive today. Human nature doesn't change that much. The plotting of who's on top of the food chain and the sweet but hardly innocent artiste that moves to the village and runs to the ground Lucia's little castle offer quite a romp.

A description of Lady Ambermere's companion. I'm so enjoying this read!