Category: Classic Novels
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Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart
Last month, I went on a little spending spree and bought five of the new vintage-looking Mary Stewart editions published by Hodder & Stoughton last year. I just love the way these colorful covers look. They do Mary Stewart proud and make her novels a tad more enticing to today’s readers (I hope). Thunder On…
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The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
If ever there was an impulse read, this would be it. I was perusing blogs one Saturday at work about a month ago and came across ‘The 10 Best Neglected Literary Classics’ list in the Guardian. I adore lists like this. I think they are a great source for finding exciting new reads. I…
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Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
I’m going to admit it – I was wrong about Dickens. Great Expectations is a fantastic book and Charles Dickens is not a demon sent to earth to torture centuries of school children – he’s actually a good writer! The story of Pip’s journey from humble beginnings as a blacksmith’s apprentice to London and his…
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Loving by Henry Green
When Stu at Winstonsdad’s Blog proposed a Henry Green Week I instantly decided to participate. I had bought a really lovely 1953 copy of Loving by Green some years before and had never even cracked it open. It sat lingering on my shelf until I moved last summer when it was put into a…
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Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart
Another Mary Stewart, another thumbs up! Touch Not the Cat is my second Mary Stewart and I enjoyed it just as much as the first. Like Thornyhold it is a combination romance/suspense/family drama that is smart, thrilling and has that sprinkling of the supernatural that I so enjoy. Bryony Ashley is telepathic. Not just with…
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Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
There is a magical quality to Willa Cather’s writing that greatly affects me. I have long been an admirer of My Antonia and can’t read more than 2 sentences of that entrancing novel without getting teary. It’s not so much the subject matter that moves me (though it does) but the words themselves, the images…
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Christmas Reading: A Holiday for Murder by Agatha Christie
My continued craving for holiday reading brought me to A Holiday for Murder, also known as Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. I’ve seen the tv version of this mystery novel, but couldn’t remember who the culprit was so thought it would be safe to read it. It isn’t really a Christmas story – the murder takes place at…
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Christmas Reading: Dylan Thomas + Truman Capote
This past weekend I was craving some cozy, Christmas, comfort fiction so I turned to two stories I had on my shelves. Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales and A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. A Child’s Christmas in Wales is a charming remembrance, an adult’s memories of his childhood holidays filled with food,…
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Thornyhold by Mary Stewart
First off I want to take a moment to *gush* about Mary Stewart. She is amazing. I’ve been reading a lot about her the past few months here and here and here. I felt immediately sure that I would like her novels, but I didn’t know how smitten I would be. Her writing is dreamy…
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The Dark Tide by Vera Brittain
The Dark Tide was published in 1923 and was Vera Brittain’s first novel. It caused quite a stir when it was released as it caricatured several Oxford dons and nearly insulted her good friend Winifred Holtby, whom the main character is modeled after. However, Holtby took it “with good humor”. I think I would have…
A Certain Fondness 