WhartonBuddyRead

LitsyEvents

The Children | Edith Wharton

Via @ Lcmscat

Quick reminder that discussions start next
Saturday! #Whartonbuddyread

37 likes

Lcsmcat

The Children | Edith Wharton

Quick reminder that discussions start next Saturday! #Whartonbuddyread

Graywacke, LitsyEvents

Lcsmcat @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @TheBookHippie 3d

Lcsmcat @mdm139 @graywacke @jewright @AllDebooks @amysisson @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi @Currey @dabbe @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER 3d

Graywacke Ok, ebook acquired. I‘ve started. 3d

See All 16 Comments

IMASLOWREADER oh cool 2d

CarolynM I‘ll try to join in, but I still haven‘t finished Twilight Sleep 😬 My reading is not what it should be. 2d

batsy I haven't started but will try my best! 2d

Currey @batsy @Lcsmcat Along with Betsy, I have not started but I did note that Book 1 is short. 2d

Lcsmcat @Currey It is short, but so far the characters are intriguing. 2d

TheBookHippie Free copy https://archive.org/details/children0000edit_d4r0 in case anyone needs it! 24h

Lcsmcat @TheBookHippie Thanks! I always forget about them for fiction. (I use them a lot for genealogy resources.) 23h

TheBookHippie @Lcsmcat 🙃 19h

Graywacke @Lcsmcat - please add @cindyash to the tag list. Thanks 18h

Lcsmcat @Graywacke @cindyash Absolutely! 18h

Graywacke @CarolynM i hope you‘re able to enjoy what you‘re reading. Twilight Sleep has a curious and maybe entertaining end. 18h

Currey @batsy Apologies for the autocorrect changing your name to Betsy. When I went to fix it Litsy went down and I gave up. 10h

batsy @Currey No worries at all, it's a username based on a silly nickname friends gave me in school 😆 3h

29 likes1 stack add16 comments

TheBookHippie

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

pick

Finally finished my #WhartonBuddyRead

I enjoyed this one quite a bit and I hope she becomes a nun 💟.

I very much enjoyed the read and l like the ending non ending. I enjoy Wharton's prose very much, even when it's about vapid people...

I‘d have never read this without the group so thanks all! Sorry I fell so far behind!!

Graywacke

Graywacke Glad you finished and enjoyed it! I like your ending non-ending description (edited) 2w

TheBookHippie @Graywacke 🙃 2w

batsy Ha, yes! #NunLife all the way 😆 1w

TheBookHippie @batsy Revenge and peace all in one move. 1w

62 likes2 stack adds4 comments

Lcsmcat

The Children | Edith Wharton

Good morning #whartonbuddyread! Are we ready for the Children? (Is anyone ever really ready for children? 😂) This one‘s just under 300 pages and divided into 3 books. I‘m proposing starting April 27 for Book 1, May 4 and 11 for books 2 & 3. Does that work for everyone?

Graywacke

Lcsmcat @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @TheBookHippie 2w

arubabookwoman i'm looking forward to this one. It's typical Wharton in many ways, but a darker theme--how the children, of the rich adults we've seen so much of, fare, as they are dragged around the world, but basically ignored, with constantly changing step-parents and step siblings and half siblings. When I read it years ago there are parts that reminded me of Lolita, to the extent I wondered if Nabokov had it in mind. 2w

See All 24 Comments

batsy Looking forward to it. Things are a bit hectic atm but I'll try my best to join in and keep to the schedule! 2w

Lcsmcat @arubabookwoman Interesting thought. I‘ll keep that in the back of my mind as I read. 2w

Lcsmcat @batsy Same here. What‘s up with this spring? 2w

Graywacke Sounds good @Lcsmcat ! I‘ll likely be quiet May 4, traveling. But this schedule works for me. Wish you and @batsy RL breaks. 2w

TheBookHippie Crazy busy but yes. 😵‍💫🙃 2w

Currey Sounds okay to me. Thanks 2w

batsy @Graywacke Thanks 🙂 2w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke Thanks. Chime in when you can, and safe travels. 2w

Lcsmcat @TheBookHippie @Currey Great. 2w

Suet624 I keep missing out on reading these. 🥴😫 2w

Lcsmcat @Suet624 Join us this time! It‘s a shorter one. 2w

Suet624 @Lcsmcat my problem lies in finding the book! Hoopla has it but I literally have to wake up at 2 am to grab it before the daily collective quota allowed for the entire library system is hit. It‘s weird. I‘ll try though. 🤨 2w

Lcsmcat @Suet624 I have the entire works of Edith Wharton as an ebook that cost 1.99 (I think. It might have been .99) Or you could try Project Gutenberg. I‘m not sure if it‘s under copyright still or not. 2w

Suet624 Shoot. I always forget about Project Gutenberg. I‘ll check that out now. 2w

jewright I‘m in! 1w

jewright @Suet624–I bought the Kindle complete works. It was pretty inexpensive and has had everything. 1w

Suet624 @jewright Thanks! However, I don‘t use Kindle because it‘s owned by Amazon. I know…my little protest amounts to nothing really, but I try not to give amazon any money. 1w

Lcsmcat @jewright Great! 1w

CarolynM I will try to join in, but I was lagging behind on Twilight Sleep all the way and I still haven‘t finished, so I‘ll just have to see how I‘m going at the end of the month🙂 1w

Leftcoastzen I will try to keep up this time . 4d

Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen 🙂 4d

39 likes1 stack add24 comments

Graywacke

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

pick

This finally comes across as a playful satire on 1920‘s NY moneyed culture, mocking supposed progress and 1920‘s shallowness, spiritual fads, bad parenting and human frailties. But there are real weighty elements here. The youthful 1920‘s are represented in Lita and Nona. Clear-sighted Lita wants to be admired, maybe a movie star, disowning responsibility for consequences. Nona quietly sacrifices herself to manage her family‘s failures.

Graywacke #whartonbuddyread 2w

batsy "manage her family's failures" is so accurate! (and bleak) 2w

44 likes2 comments

batsy

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

pick

This was like a satirical Fitzgerald; depressing & amusing all at once. Characters that needed to be more thoughtful were a tad underdeveloped, as such (Nona). But I felt for her & almost wish there was a sequel where she gets her own version of a "happy ending". A 3-star pick because it didn't quite stick the landing as I expected it to, but it's astutely Whartonian in how it exposes the vacuousness of the capitalist elite. #WhartonBuddyRead

Yuki_Onna #coverlove 👏 2w

Graywacke Glad you gave it a pick. Not my favorite Wharton either, but I‘m certainly glad i read it. Maybe a different ending ties it better. 2w

batsy @Yuki_Onna It's so well-suited to the book 🙂 2w

See All 6 Comments

batsy @Graywacke I'm glad I read it, too. You can sense her discomfort with modern norms; it gives this book more of a cynical edge than her other works. 2w

Leftcoastzen It felt Fitzgerald-y to me as well. 5d

batsy @Leftcoastzen It's very interesting! Considering that Gatsby and this one were published within a few years of each other. 4d

88 likes6 comments

Leftcoastzen

Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth

#SpringSkies #BookClubRead #buddyread My book club reads that I am behind on !Twilight Sleep , I almost caught up for #WhartonBuddyRead but I‘m only on part 7 for #SuitableBoy2024 everyone else is on part 9 . between all the drop every thing and go errands & other diversions hard time keeping up ! I‘m even late with this post! 😁

Lindy, Lcsmcat, Eggs, Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks, Graywacke

Graywacke Can i send you free time to fritter away, between errands and commitments? I hope you‘re enjoying the reading. 3w

Leftcoastzen @Graywacke oh, I wish! I would be requesting buckets of time!😂 3w

Eggs I know the feeling😕 3w

Lindy Hang in there Linda! Be gentle with yourself. 🥹 3w

Leftcoastzen @Lindy THANKS! I hope to catch up soon, love the book, life stuff happens. 3w

51 likes5 comments

Graywacke

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

The image is from a 1916 documentary of the Twilight Sleep birth process (women only)

Book II - #whartonbuddyread

Characters develop. Mostly the Pauline satire (and the Alvah Loft frustration cure), but also a lot more on Lita, Dexter, Nona, and Stanley. We meet masked Aggie Heuston and Kitty Landish. And learn of Cleo Merrick.

Does Lita have issues, or Pauline offended by the lack of appreciation? Any thoughts on this transitional section?

Lcsmcat

Graywacke @AllDebooks @amysisson @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi 4w

Graywacke @Currey @dabbe @Daisey @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER @IndoorDame @jewright @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler 4w

Graywacke @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @Tamra @TheBookHippie @willaful 4w

See All 20 Comments

Lcsmcat Some quotes I liked. “But when she had to compose a speech, though words never failed her, the mysterious relations between them sometimes did.” 4w

Lcsmcat “Perhaps, after all, her own principles were really obsolete to her children. Only, what was to take their place?” and “They seemed, all of them—lawyers, bankers, brokers, railway-directors and the rest—to be cheating their inner emptiness with activities as futile as those of the women they went home to.” 4w

Lcsmcat It all points to a feeling that the lives of the privileged class were frustrated with pointlessness. And they don‘t even quite know that they‘re searching for meaning. 4w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat on Pauline “Sternly she addressed herself to relaxation” 4w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke 😂🤣😂 4w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat on the pointlessness: there is a link between the blindness of Pauline and clear-sighted blindness of Lita. (One of my takes: Pauline holds the NY culture values even as she breaks them. Lita‘s ignorance of these values comes from believing what she sees.) 4w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke That‘s a good way to look at it. 4w

Currey @lcsmcat oh that is good. I was moving this week. I did the reading, but not sure I did the thinking. 🤔 4w

Graywacke @Currey it‘s kind of a transition section. More of the same. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Not really a conversation sparker. 3w

Graywacke @Currey i just processed “moving”. That‘s consuming. Hope it went well and you‘re settling in ok. 3w

Currey @Graywacke I know where the coffee is but not much else, but it will get better 3w

Graywacke @Currey coffee helps! 3w

CarolynM I‘m behind. I‘ll come back to the comments when I catch up🙂 3w

Lcsmcat @Currey If you know where the coffee and the spoons are you‘re half way there. 3w

cindyash @Graywacke I really got a chuckle from that whole paragraph 3w

batsy I just caught up with the reading, but I'm not sure what I think yet! Mainly I feel an awful sense of emptiness contemplating Lita's boredom and Pauline's cultivated sense of denial—perhaps akin to the present day "wellness" obsession. If one can control and submit oneself to potions and therapies and enforced relaxation, one can hope to avoid one's life? 3w

Graywacke @batsy your question seems to be theme so far. And emptiness 3w

36 likes20 comments

Leftcoastzen

The Great Oom: The Mysterious Origins of America's First Yogi | Robert Love

As I try to finish book 1 of #WhartonBuddyRead find myself thinking Edith was up to speed about Perry Baker who renamed himself Dr. Pierre Bernard bringing yoga to America. Lots of scandal & running from the law , criticism from clergy,etc. And was it sex cult? I‘m not sure, still on my TBR .

Lcsmcat, Graywacke

Lcsmcat Oooh, intriguing. You‘ll have to report back after you read it! 4w

Graywacke I don‘t know anything about this. Cool! 4w

45 likes2 comments

Lcsmcat

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty | Katherine Howe, Anderson Cooper

pick

I finished this on the treadmill this morning and it was a fascinating look at the gilded age and beyond. Told with love but not with blinders on, Cooper explores the faults and foibles, the triumphs and traumas, as he explores the rise and fall of the Vanderbilt dynasty. A nice companion to the #WhartonBuddyRead as it covers some of the same ground. A nice touch was the epilogue where he tells what stands now where the mansions once were.

46 likes

Welcome to Litsy!

Trending Hashtags

Trending Books