Thursday 2 July 2009

A pile of Persephones!


Firstly, my little misdemeanor from yesterday. Well, I couldn't go to the shop and NOT buy a book. I thought the shop was amazing - it was incredible seeing all of those grey books at once, and stacks of them. It renewed my desire to own the complete set - not a good thing. Anyway, I picked up a copy of Family Roundabout which I read a while ago (it was my first Persephone), but want to read again. I was a bit too shy to talk to the people in the shop but I did ask them about bookmarks, and they let me have 2 free for some of my books missing bookmarks. I'm going to make a list of my books missing bookmarks and order them from them! So I got bookmarks for Every eye and Fortnight in September :)
As I mentioned earlier in the week I planned to read a Persephone each day in celebration of my holidays. It's been good - I've literally just picked the books from the TBRBC at random, and this has produced a good mixture. I'm far too hot to review in depth (and need to start packing for weekend away), so I shall just briefly outline which ones I've read. All of them, with the possible exception of Wednesday's, highly recommended (well, I can't speak for Friday's yet!).



Monday - The blank wall (Elisabeth Saskay Holding) - an extremely gripping mystery/crime story.

Tuesday - Brook Evans (Susan Glaspell) - very good coming of age stories of mother and daughter, set in America. Unpredicatable.

Wednesday - Marjory Fleming (Oriel Malet) -biography of the youngest person ever to appear in the Dictionary of National Biography. Interesting, but didn't hugely warm to the precocious character of Marjory. Bit twee.

Thursday - Princes in the land (Joanna Cannan) - only just started this, set in Oxford, so appropriate for me to be reading while I'm at home.

Friday - The young pretenders (Edith Fowler) - one of the children's stories, so perfect for some lighter whilst on holiday reading!

Unfortunately I've been so busy with catching up that I haven't done much other reading apart from a chick-lit-book, Millie's Fling (by Jill Mansell - fairly innocuous, but just right for before bedtime, and set in Cornwall which seemed appropriate), and finishing off The lost garden by Helen Humphreys, which was really good and I'll be seeking out more by her in due course.

We're off to the beach for two nights tomorrow, so there will be a bit of a blogging but hopefully not reading hiatus. The weather is set to break unfortunately, but it will be so nice to see the sea. I grew up only half an hours drive from the sea, and miss it desperately in land-locked Oxford. Normal service will be resumed after the weekend....

9 comments:

  1. Loved reading about your visit to Persephone! Honestly, I think that I was so excited to be standing there amongst the books that I don't feel as though I took it all in properly. So glad that you enjoyed The Lost Garden, try Coventry at some point, you'll love it! Enjoy your time away with your books, it sounds wonderful.

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  2. Enjoy your weekend break! Reading beside the sea sounds perfect.

    I have Thursday and Friday's Persephones, which I really must read soon... I want to indulge in a PErsephone week too but the TBR pile is calling... perhaps when I go home to Glasgow in August I could pack only Persephones...

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  3. I loved reading about your week of Persephones. Enjoy the weekend!

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  4. It was a really good idea to have a week of Persephone, I'd really recommend it - the titles are so different it's not like having a week of the same author.
    I thought Princes in the Land was rather depressing, why not to get married perhaps (and as I'd love to marry my boyfriend I didn't enjoy reading it). The young pretenders was ok, but memorable for the beautiful "children's speak" rather than plot or writing. I would love to have time to blog properly about them, but I'm snowed under having been off work for 4.25 days :(
    I will look out for more Helen Humphreys - unfortunately the only one our library has apart from the Lost garden is leaving earth.

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  5. Catch up with work, Verity, and you can always blog about them fully at a later date - we won't hold it against you! We would quite enjoy it, in fact. Offset in the future with a week of Persephone blogging, perhaps?
    I am still sorely tempted by a Persephone week of my own but only once the daunting TBR pile has dwindled some.

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  6. Wow, quick reader. And you read five Persephones that I haven't read, which is no mean feat! Next up for me is Alas, Poor Lady for the Persephone Book Group.

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  7. I definitely want another Persephone week, I have some more leave to book off I think in August, so maybe then! I definitely read faster than I can blog, and I've got two books from the w/end that I need to blog about...

    Simon - I read insanely fast, it's quite distressing as even with my massive TBR pile it's difficult to keep up the supplies. I've already read 350 books this year, but mainly that has been to do with being too poorly to do anything apart from work and read! I would love to come to the Persephone Book Group but I'm not holding out huge amounts of hope for getting beyond the sofa that night.

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  8. 350 BOOKS?! That is insanely fast! I am incredibly envious; I'm lucky if I read that in three years. I don't want to minimalise your poorliness but ... wow. You seem to embody my day-dream of "if only I were in prison, then I could catch up on my reading".

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  9. Even last year, which wasn't a vintage year for reading (boyfriend moved in, and reading dramatically declined owing to need for conversation over dinner), I read 300.
    I have to say, I'd rather be managing to go out for the evening more than on average once every two months. I had such a lovely time in London last week with one of my best friends.
    Oh well, every cloud has a silver lining...and at least I can justify some of the money I'm spending on books as money I'm saving on petrol and cinema trips and coffees and drinks!

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