Category: Classic Novels
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Book Club: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
I read Rebecca when I was a teen, but haven’t read it since so I added it to my book club’s list of possibilities thinking that it would be a wonderful way to slip a classic into our selections. The August host chose it because she hadn’t read it before and really likes Gothic novels,…
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The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford
“Ralph was ten and Molly was eight when they had scarlet fever.” When I got home from Colorado I was seized with the desire to read about the American West. Traveling through that dramatic landscape just demanded it. As much as I love reading books set in England or among the privileged in the eastern…
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At Mrs. Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor
“Did the old man die here? What do you think?” Julia asked, as her husband began to come upstairs. One Christmas break when I was in college I house sat for a neighbor while she was on vacation. For two weeks I slept in her bed, cooked in her kitchen, watched her tv, read on…
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Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
In the winter of 2008 I served on my very first jury. The case was at the Superior Court of Maricopa County in Phoenix and the defendant was a twenty-five -year old man who was accused of auto theft. He had stolen a truck from an apartment complex and when he was pulled over by…
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The Secret History + The Blush
The Secret History by Donna Tartt – I don’t know how to describe my experience of The Secret History. It is about an elite group of college students who primarily study Classics under a dynamic mentor named Julian. They have special status at their college and are seen by the other students as odd and…
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Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Ellen North lives at Netherfold with her publisher husband Avery. Her children live away from home; Hugh is in the army and Anne is at school, but they visit during breaks and adore their parents and their beautiful home. Their grandmother, Mrs. North, lives quite close by and is bored and lonely so she engages…
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Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther
I bought a copy of this 1940 edition of Mrs. Miniver about a year ago, but only chose to read it after I read that it is one of the books that most inspires Jane Brocket (in her book The Gentle Art of Domesticity ). The book is constructed of short, comic chapters that were…
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Mini Thoughts on Recent Reads #2
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I listened to this blockbuster teen novel on audio and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It is read by Kate Rudd, who does an excellent job of rendering the voice of Hazel, the main character, who is 16 and has had terminal cancer for several years. When…
A Certain Fondness 