It‘s brave to begin a feel good story with an octogenarian contemplating the end of their life, but this book brings it off triumphantly. Sad in places, heartwarming in others, some laugh out loud moments (comparing a baby‘s birth to a the ball popping out of a rugby scrum 😳🤣) & some Richard Osman appreciation. Eudora, Rose & Stanley have been excellent company and I‘m sorry to be leaving them behind. Thanks for the rec Cindy - I loved it.

Orphan cousins Jane & Lucilla have just left school when they discover they have been cheated out of most of their inheritance. Their high spirits & generous natures attract a wide variety of new friends while their efforts to make ends meet don‘t always go to plan. Fabulous characters, gentle humour & a story that resembles old fashioned children-on-summer-holidays type books made for another lovely #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub read.

While her elderly father drifts in and out of coherence & consciousness in a nursing home, Anne begins packing up the family home. A revelation from the past calls her memories into question & a new acquaintance casts doubt over her future. A quiet story about the ways in which our understanding of the past can affect the present.

I can relate.

A sweet F/F romance and more than I ever wanted to know about curling😂 #romantsy #gaymay #bookspin

A few weeks after her father‘s suicide, a woman travels to an Italian village where her best friend is about to marry a local. While this is fundamentally a story about grief, it‘s also an ode to friendship & to the solace to be found in a slow pace of life where domestic chores & preparing & eating food take priority. There are some lovely descriptions & interesting takes on social media, politics & the #metoo movement.
#ozfiction

Ethan Frome is one of those books I‘ve been aware of for a long time without knowing anything about the story - I don‘t know what I was expecting from it, but it was nothing like what I got! A cold, bleak rural landscape, a claustrophobic poverty stricken household of 3 mismatched people and a desperation in each of them that leads to terrible consequences. It is beautifully written and deeply affecting.
#WhartonBuddyRead

#BookMail

May #Bookspin list. I‘ll try for #Doublespin too, even though I haven‘t managed either for the last 3 months. Thanks Sarah😘

@LeahBergen I promised you some pretty spines.

#Book Report for April. My favourite for the month is The Long Game - after so much anticipation it did not disappoint.

Thought I should finally read this since it‘s just won the Stella Prize. Interesting interplay of Aboriginal, colonial and modern Australian culture. I really enjoyed the pieces about her partner and family which tended to be the most straightforward. While I recognised a lot of the tropes, iconography and literary references, I think I‘d need a more academic understanding of literature to fully get it. Have you read this @MrsMalaprop ?

I think this book was trying to be a thriller, but it was much too bogged down in the messed up characters and dysfunctional family dynamics to create any tension. I enjoyed the local references and the backdrop of late 2010‘s Australian politics but I would have enjoyed it more without the multiple perspectives and frequent time shifts. I‘m a bit frustrated by it because it could have been a lot better if it were a bit more focussed. #ozfiction

My #RecipeSwap parcel went in the post this afternoon. Fingers crossed it reaches its destination in time for opening day.
@BennettBookworm

💖 SWOON 💖

I didn‘t think I could love Ilya and Shane any more than I already did.
#romantsy

Light and frothy romantic comedy, just what I was I'm the mood for #romantsy

Julian Barnes writes beautifully & always makes me think. As a mature age students at a tertiary institution the narrator is entranced by Elizabeth Finch's idiosyncratic teaching & her interest in Julian the Apostate. The novel is his attempt to nderstand more about her & to memorialise her by writing an essay on Julian. A review in The Age newspaper asserted that EF is based on Anita Brookner - no idea if that's true, but it's an interesting idea

I try to feel pity but the anger overwhelms me.

I'd like to retitle this book "Muriel's Progress". While it is very much about the times in which it was set & the limitations on women's lives then, it is also about what happens when other people's values, expectations & approval are allowed to drive the way you live your life. I was cheering for Muriel as she shook off her upbringing & took control of her own destiny.
#PersephoneClub
I'm off to read everyone else's reviews now.

A murder, a robbery, a fraud and a suicide present a difficult problem for Scotland Yard, but young Constable Bobby Owen & voluble Superintendent Mitchell crack the case. This Golden Age mystery has plenty of twists & turns & the odd couple detectives are quietly amusing. This no.1 of a series of 35 so I have lots of good reading ahead!
#paskekrim @LeahBergen

1. Um, yes. At the moment I'm delaying reading ALL the books I own.
2. No idea, but some of them moved out of my parents' house with me 35 years ago...

Thanks of the tag @thegirlwiththelibrarybag

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

Enjoying my #PersephoneClub read in the sunshine.

@Leahb @Cathythoughts @quietjenn @rubyslippersreads @elkeOriginal @mklong @Tamra @andrew61 @tenar

Another charming comedy of manners from Barbara Pym. Dulcie, an excellent woman, engages in some borderline stalking, while her friends & family stumble through a series of romantic entanglements. I loved it. Thank you again @LeahBergen

Recent acquisitions

I didn't get to either book last month but I'm going to try again for #Bookspin and #Doublespin in April.
Thanks Sarah😘
@TheAromaofBooks

#BookReport for March. I haven't had a lot of time for reading or Litsying this month. I'm hoping April will be better. Cold Enough for Snow is my standout book this month.
@Cinfhen

I'm a sucker for a hockey romance and I particularly enjoy Sarina Bowen's take on the genre, especially with the addition of the women's team. I had a great time with this story - heart, heat and laughter aplenty. So good. #romantsy

In the summer of 1984-85 Australian cricket was in crisis. In this alternate history a country cricketer who has never been out in 20+ seasons is selected to play for the national team. At first I wondered how this book got published - it is so unPC I felt like it wasn't just set, but also written, in 1984! While some things grated, overall I was amused by it & the narrator does a creditable Richie Benaud impersonation. #ozfiction 👇

While very much a book of its time (1907) many of the issues raised in it are still relevant. Euthanasia, ccupational health & safety, labour relations, conditions & opportunities for the working poor & duties of captains if industry to society as well as their shareholders all feature. The personal story has aged less well, I think, although some of the observations of relations between the sexes resonated.
#WhartonBuddyRead
@Graywacke @Lcsmcat

Lovely YA coming of age story about a pivotal summer in the life of a young man in a rural aboriginal community. Themes of family, identity and finding the confidence to be your true self. Honest and evocative story telling. #ozfiction

Like After Story, this is a novel about an Australian mother & daughter on an overseas holiday, but here they are of Chinese heritage and they are travelling in Japan. The writing & the atmosphere are completely different, but the love & the distance between the generations is so similar. "So calm and clear and deep" is the quote from Helen Garner on the back cover - I can't describe it better than that. #ozfiction
The photo is Lake Jindabyne.

Like most collections of short stories, I enjoyed some of these stories more than others, but the writing was always sharp and the observations on point. I can see why this received NZ's highest literary prize. Thanks again Paula😘
@Centique

Carrie's adult life had 4 distinct stages and each had its own garden. She was such a kind and gentle soul it was lovely to spend time in her company. I was both amused by and sympathetic to her bemusement at the goings on of her grown up children and I adored Lady Tregarthan.
#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
@LeahBergen @Cathythoughts @batsy @Ruthiella @erzascarletbookgasm @quietjenn @catebutler @rubyslippersreads @Tamra

Berkelouw's Book Barn has long been a favourite place to visit. It's changed a lot over the years but still has a fabulous stock of second hand and antiquarian books. I'm very pleased with my #bookhaul.

Road trip to Sydney, with a detour through the mountains and an overnight stay in Batlow. The Eagle-Eyed will spot the Batlow Literary Institute 🤔 (Batlow is a tiny town in the mountains, almost entirely devoted to apple growing) and Berkelouw's Book Barn (more photos to follow).

It's obviously my lucky day because your parcel arrived today too, Leah! It must have been on a leisurely cruise across the Pacific because there was no sign of it having been on any detours 😆 I'm just delighted with it all, thank you so much. Friendship across the miles is the Litsy way and I'm beyond grateful for yours💕
@LeahBergen

#Bookmail

Thank you, Paula, this book looks so interesting! I'm going to start it straight away.

@Centique

A couple of Sydney corporate types move to a property in the Hunter Valley with plans to open a B&B, make wine & generally live off the land. Hilarity ensues. Well, not quite hilarity, but a few quiet chuckles. Ultimately, though, I was annoyed by Todd's disingenuousness and finished the book feeling he was quite unpleasantly smug.

@Cinfhen Our first sunflower is out.

Ukraine ❣

It's London, 1976, when ex rent boy Tommy Wildeblood is mistaken for the private detective he does shady jobs for, leading him into an investigation that threatens the political elite. This is a cracking thriller that is a fictionalised take on the Jeremy Thorpe scandal, using real names for all the public figures involved. It also does a great job of evoking the era & the seedy side of London. I enjoyed it a lot. Might be up your alley @TrishB ?

1. I used to really dislike first person narratives, but I'm well and truly over that now. I don't have a preference between single/multiple POV.
2. No.
3. I'm very much a mood reader.

Thanks for the tag @Lizpixie 😘

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

Here's my March #Bookspin List. I'll try for #Doublespin too. Thanks Sarah😘
@TheAromaofBooks

Look what arrived today! Thank you Paula, you are too kind🤗😘
@Centique

Barbara Pym explains the Victoria Plum joke in Miss Plum and Miss Penny. A very weak joke indeed!

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
@LeahBergen @Cathythoughts @Ruthiella @quietjenn @erzascarletbookgasm @batsy @rubyslippersreads

#BookReport for February. A bit of a slow month, but Crossroads was VERY long! Happy Hour was my favourite.

@Cinfhen

Who would have thought that the retirement of a "bowler-hatted man of the Banks and Insurances Offices" 100 years ago could form the basis for such a delightful novel? I marvel at a writer who can keep me engaged in such a modest story. An excellent first book for the #PersephoneClub. Can't wait to chat when we have all finished reading.

@LeahBergen @Cathythoughts @quietjenn @Tamra @rubyslippersreads @elkeOriginal

Sixty-one next Saturday and suddenly, unbelievably, a gambler.

I'm getting very worried for the Baldwins🥺

#PersephoneClub

@LeahBergen @Cathythoughts @rubyslippersreads @quietjenn @tamra @elkeOriginal

Franny, a fierce & fabulous older lady, finds her way out of 3 years of grief over the death of her beloved husband with the help of her 2 dogs & the family who have just moved in next door. The story is written with tremendous wit & is by turns funny, sad & heart-warming. I loved Franny to bits. The narration, by Nell Campbell, was spectacularly good too. It is without doubt the most entertaining book I've encountered in a long time. #ozfiction

1. Gosh, there are quite a few authors I've read a lot of. The right answer is probably Enid Blyton because I read as many of those as I could get my hands on when I was a child. As an adult I've read all of Elizabeth Peters (& quite a few Barbara Michaels) & most of Reginald Hill
2. On the couch, but I'll read anywhere
3. No. My life is a readathon 😆

Thanks for the tag, Sarah😘

#WondrousWednesday

@TheAromaofBooks @Eggs

The blurb says this is a hockey romance for hockey fans and, yes, it certainly is. There is a lot of hockey. There is also a wonderfully slow burn m/m romance and lots of lovely warm and fuzzies off the ice. I believe this is to be the first in a series. I'll be looking out for the next one.
#romantsy