I‘m starting the tagged book today. Aren‘t they pretty together? 😊

Here it is, #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub : our 2024 reading schedule!

Thanks for all the speedy voting and my apologies if I‘ve missed tagging someone.

Anyone on Litsy is welcome to read along with us any month and join in on the discussion!

I was just looking through some options for @Ruthiella ‘s #CloakandDaggerChristmas and realized I hadn‘t posted about this eagerly awaited and recently republished 1951 novel.

It‘s blurbed as “a darkly witty portrait of a dysfunctional post-war English family‘s festivities for fans of Barbara Pym, Stella Gibbons, Nancy Mitford and Elizabeth Taylor.”

Doesn‘t it sound great? Too bad it‘s not a mystery and doesn‘t fit any of the prompts. 😆

@BarbaraBB ! It‘s here!

Thank you SO much for this delightful #BBGiveaway parcel; two lovely books, tea and Dutch sweets (I can‘t wait to try them!), and the cute book socks (I can never have enough!). I love it all and especially your sweet note.

Thanks so much, my dear friend! 😘😘

I‘m current reading and enjoying the 4th book in the highly amusing Provincial Lady series.

That‘s “Cook” on the cover being fitted for her gas mask. 😆

It‘s time! 👏

Please make a post suggesting two Furrowed Middlebrow books for us to vote on. Let‘s start with our January and March choices first and go from there.

January: @batsy
March: @Kimzey
May: @Jess_Read_This
July: @catebutler
September: @elkeOriginal
November: @erzascarletbookgasm

We have a few members who haven‘t been on Litsy much lately so I‘ll move on to the next person on the list if they don‘t respond to this post.

Well, this was a delight. I‘m going to start prescribing myself a Susan Scarlett book when I need a bit of a lift!

Beth Carson, fresh from school, has a “meet cute” with the son of the owner of a big department store where she works. Throw in a scheming tart of a cousin, a beloved little brother losing his eyesight, a couple of wiener dogs, and a fancy dress ball and you‘ve got the makings of a good old Cinderella story. Loved it!

Reposting for @teebe !

It‘s heeeere! There‘s only a short time to join, so if you‘re interested make sure to sign up as soon as possible. Please share

#CreepyChristmas is a book swap for anyone who wants to celebrate all things spooky beyond October 31. It‘s inspired by stories like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Krampus, and Black Christmas that blend the dark and scary with the delight of Christmas.

https://forms.gle/ePmom8c4GdQUAbuT9

🎶 It‘s the most wonderful time of the year…🎶

Well, pretty much. It‘s the time of year in which @shawnmooney and I do our read of another Elizabeth Jane Howard novel (in publication order) and check in each week on Voxer (with lots of chatty asides and wine). Heavenly! 🥰

Book mail!

The tagged book arrived today, the first in a four-volume series of comic mysteries originally published in the 1940s. Lady Lupin is a ditsy “Bright Young Thing” who marries a vicar and finds herself embroiled in local murders. Both the first in the series and the last (pictured) are set at Christmas.

I‘m current reading this charming story about young Tamsyn who is sent to live with her uncle and his big family in bustling Tudor London. It‘s just the sort of story I would‘ve loved as a child, with lots of daily and seasonal details of that time.

And it has recently been republished in a gorgeous new edition by Manderley Press. 👍

And even more birthday love…

Thank you so much @TrishB ! This one looks crazy (in the best sort of way) AND you ordered it from one of my very favourite local indie bookshops. I love it! ❤️

#MenopauseHorror 😆

Let‘s squeeze in one more Halloween read! 👻

Thank you for this wonderful birthday bundle, @Cathythoughts ! ❤️

The tagged book sounds so intriguing and I love the other two that you picked because you thought I‘d like the covers. I do! 😆 I‘m a Jane Gardam fan but I haven‘t read this one!

The pretty reading gloves will be much appreciated in this old house this winter and, as always, I loved your sweet note. You‘re a dear friend. 😘

Thank you so much @BookishTrish for my lovely #AllHallowsReadSwap gifts! 😍

I‘ve been eagerly wanting to read both of these books and your wrapping skills are awesome. Did you sustain a paper cut in the process? 😆😆 Thank you for the Smarties and the spooky pins and, as you can see, Regan from The Exorcist was the book clip in the mystery bag. 🤮😂 I love it all.

Thank you for hosting again, @MaleficentBookDragon ! 😘
#AHRS

Thank you @BookishMadHatter for this truly AMAZING #HauntedHollowSwap parcel!

I love that you chose all “House” titled books from my TBR 😆. The candies (sampled!), socks, magnets, bookmark, stickers, and eyeball mug are awesome but you KNOW my favourite things are your handmade gifts! Each book was wrapped in its own gorgeous book sleeve. And the wee candy corn, pumpkin and spider! And a cozy earband!

You‘re so thoughtful and I love it all! 😘

Thank you so much, @CarolynM , for my birthday parcel! ❤️

An Australian vintage children‘s book?? I‘m terrifically excited to see what the Warren family gets up to at Wombat Flat and if they learn how to run a sheep station. 😂😂 I love it!

The chocolates look divine and I must show my (now adult) nephew these Hairy Maclary bookmarks; I read these books over and over to him when he was tiny.

Thanks again, dear friend! 😘😘

Thank you so much, @rubyslippersreads , for these lovely birthday gifts! I hope you got a copy of Jane Austen‘s Wardrobe for yourself because… wow… it is a gorgeously illustrated book! I‘ve heard of The Moonflower Vine but haven‘t read it; I‘ll be sure to now that I know it‘s a favourite of yours. And chocolates, too!

Thank you, my dear friend, for always thinking of me on my birthday! 😘😘😘

I‘ve been flying through this vintage (1976) creepy YA novel and absolutely loving it.

It‘s 1938 and Sandy is spending the summer at her family‘s holiday home in Sussex with her new friend, Honorine. While exploring an abandoned property next door they discover an old French doll and Honorine quickly becomes obsessed with it. But “Bella” has a mind of her own. 😆

It‘s been a hot chocolate sort of day here as we‘re having our first snow!

It‘s time for a creepy retro horror read!

This 1976 book about a “bad seed” child has been republished by #ValancourtBooks and I‘m going in.

I was feeling like a ghost story and (almost) forgot I had this teeny little copy from the Faber Stories collection.

It‘s only two stories but I LOVE Celia Fremlin. Here I go… 👻

In 1974 Ruth Evans found a manuscript package of letters that her mother had written in Germany in WW2: unsent letters to her adult children in far-flung areas of the world describing daily life in an upper middle class household in Hamburg.

This was a bit of a hard read at times (and especially with the current news) but I think it‘s an important eyewitness account from “the other side” about the ravages of war.

#PersephoneClub

Well, I can‘t say I loved this one AT ALL.

I enjoyed the beginning quite a bit but quickly found myself annoyed by Clarissa‘s perfection and verbosity. I probably “hate read” a good 900 pages of this tome and only sheer obstinacy made me finish it. 😂😂

Thank you to @Lcsmcat and the rest of my fellow buddy readers for helping me finally get to this book (and for amusing me along the way with your commentary 😂)!

#Clarissa

My #HauntedHollowSwap just arrived, @BookishMadHatter , and I was so excited to see it was from YOU! 😆❤️ Thank you so much!

#HHS
#HHS23
@wanderinglynn

Yay!!!! My #AllHallowsReadSwap package has arrived @BookishTrish !

It arrived this weekend while I was away and I just retrieved it from my neighbour. I hope you weren‘t worried when I hadn‘t posted. Thanks so much! 🧡

#AHRS
@MaleficentBookDragon

We‘ve been spending a longish weekend in Seattle to celebrate our anniversary and I got to attend the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair.

Treasures were found! 😮

My current reads!

For some reason I‘ve never felt drawn to read A Tale for the Time Being but it is a current pick for my IRL book club and I‘m really enjoying it.

Also, this month‘s #PersephoneClub. 👍

@wanderinglynn and @MaleficentBookDragon These were shipped off today! 🎃🎃🎃

#HauntedHollowSwap #HHS #HHS23
#AllHallowsReadSwap

What a great idea for a giveaway, @BarbaraBB , and I‘m so glad we “met” here on Litsy! ❤️❤️❤️

One of my most anticipated books of 2024 is this one and I‘ll tag two people who I know also like a good food memoir: @DebinHawaii and @Mitch .

#BBGiveaway

Thank you so much, @ShelleyBooksie , for my lovely #FallingForFallSwap package! I‘ve been looking forward to this republished book for ages (and I‘ll be enjoying this tea in my new fall mug this afternoon). ❤️❤️❤️

And a big thank you to our hosts, @Chrissyreadit and @Avanders ! ❤️❤️❤️

#FFFS

It‘s now October so that means it‘s time for one of our #PersephoneClub reads!

@elkeOriginal ‘s pick for us this month is On the Other Side by Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg. This is a casual buddy read; read and comment on each other‘s posts and reviews as you see them. We usually aim to finish by the middle of the month but that‘s not written in stone. ? And anyone is welcome to read along with us, of course!

Aging Mrs. Rampage lives alone and is persuaded by family to take in another widow as a housemate and companion. The relationship takes a nasty turn when Mrs. Roach has her own ideas about how things should be run and a battle of wills ensues.

I‘m very much enjoying this darkly humourous story which was published in 1954 (aside from this bland “print on demand” cover, that is 😬).

I finally got to see The Mousetrap and it was so much fun!

I love the tradition that, at the end of each performance, the person revealed to be the murderer steps forward and tells the audience to “keep the secret of whodunit locked in your heart.”

This 1954 novel, set primarily in a gorgeously described French Riviera setting, shows how the events of one evening go on to impact two teenagers later lives. I liked it more than you did, @squirrelbrain , but not NEARLY as much as I Capture the Castle, a novel to which it has been compared. A lower pick for me!

What‘s better than an art heist caper? A middlebrow art heist caper!

I‘m going to echo what the rest of you have already said in your reviews of this #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub pick; it was a thoroughly enjoyable and delightfully suspenseful read (and I enjoyed it even more than the last one we read by this author).

What do you all think of the illustration of the trunk on the cover of my edition? I can see several items that were mentioned! 😆

Today‘s book mail!

I‘m a bit of a sucker for “literary tie-in” cookbooks; I don‘t always cook from them but I very much enjoy reading them.

I posted my #FallingForFallSwap today, @Chrissyreadit and @Avanders ! 🍁

#FFFS

My #FallingForFallSwap has arrived! 🍁
#FFFS

A rainy day when you‘re camping means it‘s time for a thriller (and a sleepy dog in his window seat 😆).

#JohnnyBergen

Creepy dolls and puppets? I‘m heading in! 😆

Well … that was a beautifully perfect little novella. 💙

I‘m finally getting around to this lovely gift from @Cathythoughts and I‘m really enjoying it.

As one of the blurbs mentions, there is a bit of a Patricia Highsmith feel to it so far (and that is a definite plus for me!).

I was quite dreading this month‘s #PersephoneClub pick, a 1944 novel about a famed bluestocking facing her last years alone and suffering from dementia. It ended up being a quite delicately nuanced treatment with flashes of humour and something to say about the fate of women from several different classes during the London Blitz.

A pick for me!

It‘s now August so that means it‘s time for one of our #PersephoneClub reads!

@Cathythoughts ‘ pick for us this month is There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult. This is a casual buddy read; read and comment on each other‘s posts and reviews as you see them. We usually aim to finish by the middle of the month but that‘s not written in stone. 😉 And anyone is welcome to read along with us, of course!

I sometimes think my Anita Brookners are breeding when I don‘t look at that specific shelf for a while … thus, here‘s my next read. 😆

It‘s time once again for a vintage children‘s read!

All Summer Through (published in 1951) is the first of the Nettleford books, a series following the adventures of 3 siblings who live above their father‘s bookshop (The Wise Owl) in the small village of Nettleford.

Book mail!

I‘m loving the cover on this newly republished 1959 novel of domestic suspense (and hope they continue with more of Fremlin‘s backlist 👍).

I can only imagine how refreshing this fairytale-like novel must have been when it was published in 1945, after the austerity of WW2.

A middle-aged spinster buys some old wood blocks to heat her home. When she throws one on the fire she unleashes a genie (an Ifrit) who suddenly brightens her home with longed-for companionship, scarce foods and other material items (not to mention finding the man she loved in her younger years!). A sweet delight.

After just reading a very mediocre (in my opinion) thriller (Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson 😐), I‘ve opted for an old Puffin that I‘ve picked up on my travels.

Ten-year-old Carrie goes to a seaside resort in 1971 Wales during the off-season for two weeks and finds a family on the pier that no one else can see, a family that seems to be stuck in 1921.

I‘m more “in the woods” right now than “up the pier” as you can see but … 😆.

Well, I‘m chiming in to add my love to the chorus of #PersephoneClub readers who loved this book, too.

An exquisitely wrought story of a 1950s housewife who is slowly going mad until she finds a purpose: to try to save her 18-year-old daughter from the same sort of life in which she herself is stuck.

#JohnnyBergen has been finding camper life exhausting. We‘ve been on the road for a couple of weeks. 😆