Ally's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 10 Dec 2024 11:15:40 -0800 60 Ally's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Prufrock and Other Observations]]> 197315 Prufrock and Other Observations are the following poems:

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Portrait of a Lady
Preludes
Rhapsody on a Windy Night
Morning at the Window
The Boston Evening Transcript
Aunt Helen
Cousin Nancy
Mr. Apollinax
Hysteria
Conversation Galante
La Figlia Che Piange]]> 48 T.S. Eliot 1419143328 Ally 4 poetry 4.33 1915 Prufrock and Other Observations
author: T.S. Eliot
name: Ally
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1915
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> Breakfast at Tiffany's 9888 157 Truman Capote 0140274111 Ally 4 modern-classics 3.72 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's
author: Truman Capote
name: Ally
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1958
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves: modern-classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels]]> 372812 The Pursuit of Love (1945)
Love in a Cold Climate (1949)
The Blessing (1951)

Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels casts a finely gauged net to capture perfectly the foibles and fancies of the English upper class, and includes an introduction by Philip Hensher in Penguin Modern Classics. Nancy Mitford's brilliantly witty, irreverent stories of the upper classes in pre-war London and Paris conjure up a world of glamour, gossip and decadence. In The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing, her extraordinary heroines deal with armies of hilariously eccentric relatives, the excitement of love and passion, and the thrills of the social Season. But beneath the glittering surfaces and perfectly timed comic dialogue, Nancy Mitford's novels are also touching hymns to a lost era and to the brevity of life and love from one of the most individual, beguiling and creative users of the language.]]> 493 Nancy Mitford 0141181494 Ally 0 to-read 4.10 Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels
author: Nancy Mitford
name: Ally
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Christmas Carol, and Other Christmas Books]]> 4839866 A Christmas Carol has gripped the public imagination since it was first published in 1843, and it is now as much a part of the holiday season as is mistletoe or Santa's reindeer. Here is a wonderful collection of Dickens' Christmas stories, graced with many of the original drawings that appeared in the first edition. Pride of place goes to A Christmas Carol, of course, but the book also includes four other marvelous tales: The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man. All five stories show Dickens at his unpredictable best, jumbling together comedy and melodrama, genial romance and urgent social satire. The volume also features an excellent introduction by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, who offers invaluable background to the Christmas stories, illuminating the social questions they address, outlining their reception and the enduring popularity of A Christmas Carol and highlighting how their style and themes resonate in more complex ways in his major fictions. In addition, the book includes two appendices containing Dickens's article, What Christmas Is As We Grow Older and facsimile pages from Dickens's reading version of A Christmas Carol.]]> 496 Charles Dickens 0199536309 Ally 3 3.88 1848 A Christmas Carol, and Other Christmas Books
author: Charles Dickens
name: Ally
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1848
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Ally 3 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Ally
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Madame Butterfly 7989287 60 John Luther Long 1151718181 Ally 0 to-read 2.00 1904 Madame Butterfly
author: John Luther Long
name: Ally
average rating: 2.00
book published: 1904
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Death on the Nile 28339771 416 Agatha Christie Ally 0 currently-reading 4.00 1937 Death on the Nile
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ally
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Portrait of a Lady 4100780 Washington Square and intricately woven and highly complex later novels such as The Golden Bowl and The Ambassadors, James's work is a required stop on any journey through our nation's artistic and cultural heritage.
An undisputed masterpiece, The Portrait of a Lady is arguably James's most popular work, and certainly the finest of his early novels. It focuses on Isabel Archer, a young, intelligent, and spirited American girl, determined to relish her first experience of Europe. She rejects two eligible suitors in her fervent commitment to liberty and independence, declaring that she will never marry. Thanks to the generosity of her devoted cousin Ralph, she is free to make her own choice about her destiny. Yet in the intoxicating worlds of Paris, Florence, and Rome, her fond illusions of self-reliance are twisted by the machinations of her friends and apparent allies. What had seemed to be a vista of infinite promise steadily closes around her and becomes instead a "house of suffocation."
Portrait of a Lady is at once a dramatic Victorian tale of betrayal and a wholly modern psychological study of a woman caught in a web of relations she only comes to understand too late. This new edition includes helpful notes on the numerous changes James made between the first edition and the revised New York Edition, reproduced here, an up-to-date bibliography, and a new chronology.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
]]> 600 Henry James 0199217947 Ally 0 the-classics 3.88 1881 The Portrait of a Lady
author: Henry James
name: Ally
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1881
rating: 0
read at: 2010/05/24
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves: the-classics
review:

]]> Lady Chatterley's Lover 49583709
With her soft brown hair, lithe figure and big, wondering eyes, Constance Chatterley is possessed of a certain vitality. Yet she is deeply unhappy; married to an invalid, she is almost as inwardly paralyzed as her husband Clifford is paralyzed below the waist. It is not until she finds refuge in the arms of Mellors the game-keeper, a solitary man of a class apart, that she feels regenerated. Together they move from an outer world of chaos towards an inner world of fulfillment.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700Ěýtitles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theĚýseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateĚýtranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 400 D.H. Lawrence 014303961X Ally 3 3.48 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover
author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Ally
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1928
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/10/18
shelves:
review:

]]> The Voyage Out 6631978 The Voyage Out, one of Woolf's wittiest, socially satirical novels, Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship, and is launched on a course of self-discovery in a modern version of the mythic voyage. Lorna Sage's Introduction and Explanatory Notes offer guidance to the reader new to Woolf, and illuminate Woolf's presence, not identifiable in the heroine, but in the social satire, lyricism and patterning of consciousness in one woman's rite of passage.
]]> 445 Virginia Woolf 0199539308 Ally 0 to-read 3.77 1915 The Voyage Out
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Ally
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Outsider 15686 'The sky seemed to rip apart from end to end to pour fire down upon me'

Meursault will not conform. When his mother dies, he refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of violence on a sun-drenched beach, his lack of remorse only compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and law.

Albert Camus' portrayal of a man confronting the absurdity of human life became an existentialist classic. Yet it is also a book filled with quiet joy in the "tender indifference" of the physical world, and Sandra Smith's new translation based on listening to a recording of Camus reading aloud, sensitively renders the subtleties and dreamlike atmosphere of The Outsider.]]> 119 Albert Camus 0141182504 Ally 0 to-read 4.02 1942 The Outsider
author: Albert Camus
name: Ally
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 84 Charing Cross Road 1074384
In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover.

When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic -- but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.

Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much."]]> 230 Helene Hanff 1860498507 Ally 4 4.11 1970 84 Charing Cross Road
author: Helene Hanff
name: Ally
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/09
date added: 2022/09/21
shelves:
review:
Absolutely charming - a real treat for book lovers. I really enjoyed this book, the letters are short and witty and convey friendship as well as dropping a few hints about the world around the characters...but I couldn't get on baord with Helene's view of fiction ... she says in one letter: "i never could get excited about things that never happened to characters that never lived" or something to that effect.
]]> The Great Gatsby 396094 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780141182636

Young, handsome and fabulously rich, Jay Gatsby is the bright star of the Jazz Age, but as writer Nick Carraway is drawn into the decadent orbit of his Long Island mansion, where the party never seems to end, he finds himself faced by the mystery of Gatsby's origins and desires. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life, Gatsby is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon, this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald brilliantly captures both the disillusionment of post-war America and the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth and status. But he does more than render the essence of a particular time and place, for in chronicling Gatsby's tragic pursuit of his dream, Fitzgerald re-creates the universal conflict between illusion and reality.]]> 177 F. Scott Fitzgerald Ally 5 the-classics
Fitzgerald has a gift with prose. As I was reading, there was a detached quality to the writing that I think really highlights the vapid vacant nature of a life that depends upon, and revolves around, money and materialism. Unfortunately, it reminds me of so much of what I see around me today. - For a book written in the 1920's it is still remarkably 'current'.

I've read in other reviews that this novel captures 'a moment in time'. - Yes, the decadence and moral vacancy of the monied classes in 1920's America is laid bare - in that sense, I agree, a moment in time has been skilfully captured. But for me there is also a timeless quality to the writing. Significant parallels can be drawn between the time setting of [Book: The Great Gatsby] and the extreme capitalist greed and wealth creating focus of more recent times, namely the 1980's, 90's and the early 2000's. Moral wellbeing and social responsibility once again gave way to greed and selfishness in an almost mirror image of the subject of Fitzgerald’s novel. Will we ever learn? Or will the cycle keep repeating itself across the coming generations?

I like how the title, 'The GREAT Gatsby' is completely ironic. From where I was sitting Gatsby came across as childlike and vulnerable and not at all GREAT. To me this powerfully illustrates that a 'great� image and a truly 'great' personality don't always follow naturally on from each other. Gatsby has become 'Great' purely through gossip, rumour and mystery. The true personalities of all the characters in this novel almost cease to matter, which is a clever device of Fitzgerald’s. Many reviewers may feel that the characters are not well rounded enough but I like the vague characterisation, it cleverly shows the inherent facelessness of someone with a strong reliance on money to develop their sense of self. This reading also has interesting connotations when applied to today's celebrity culture and makes you wonder if you’re being duped.

The plot is exciting, the characterisation is inspired, the writing is beautiful. It will leave a long-lasting impression. - All in all, this novel is an absolute triumph.

Ally
]]> 3.88 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Ally
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at: 2009/10/31
date added: 2022/09/01
shelves: the-classics
review:
This is a surprisingly easy read given the profound thoughts and themes expressed within the novel.

Fitzgerald has a gift with prose. As I was reading, there was a detached quality to the writing that I think really highlights the vapid vacant nature of a life that depends upon, and revolves around, money and materialism. Unfortunately, it reminds me of so much of what I see around me today. - For a book written in the 1920's it is still remarkably 'current'.

I've read in other reviews that this novel captures 'a moment in time'. - Yes, the decadence and moral vacancy of the monied classes in 1920's America is laid bare - in that sense, I agree, a moment in time has been skilfully captured. But for me there is also a timeless quality to the writing. Significant parallels can be drawn between the time setting of [Book: The Great Gatsby] and the extreme capitalist greed and wealth creating focus of more recent times, namely the 1980's, 90's and the early 2000's. Moral wellbeing and social responsibility once again gave way to greed and selfishness in an almost mirror image of the subject of Fitzgerald’s novel. Will we ever learn? Or will the cycle keep repeating itself across the coming generations?

I like how the title, 'The GREAT Gatsby' is completely ironic. From where I was sitting Gatsby came across as childlike and vulnerable and not at all GREAT. To me this powerfully illustrates that a 'great� image and a truly 'great' personality don't always follow naturally on from each other. Gatsby has become 'Great' purely through gossip, rumour and mystery. The true personalities of all the characters in this novel almost cease to matter, which is a clever device of Fitzgerald’s. Many reviewers may feel that the characters are not well rounded enough but I like the vague characterisation, it cleverly shows the inherent facelessness of someone with a strong reliance on money to develop their sense of self. This reading also has interesting connotations when applied to today's celebrity culture and makes you wonder if you’re being duped.

The plot is exciting, the characterisation is inspired, the writing is beautiful. It will leave a long-lasting impression. - All in all, this novel is an absolute triumph.

Ally

]]> Hothouse Flower 10151892 For fans of The House at Riverton and ¸é±đ˛ú±đł¦ł¦˛ąâ€�a debut spanning from the 1930s to the present day, from a magnificent estate in war-torn England to Thailand, this sweeping novel tells the tale of a concert pianist, Julia, and the prominent Crawford family whose shocking secrets are revealed, leading to devastating consequences for generations to come.

As a child Julia Forrester spent many idyllic hours in the hothouse of Wharton Park, the great house where her grandfather tended exotic orchids. Years later, while struggling with overwhelming grief over the death of her husband and young child, she returns to the tranquility of the estate. There she reunites with Kit Crawford, heir to the estate and her possible salvation.

When they discover an old diary, Julia seeks out her grandmother to learn the truth behind a love affair that almost destroyed Wharton Park. Their search takes them back to the 1930s when a former heir to Wharton Park married his young society bride on the eve of World War II. When the two lovers are cruelly separated, the impact will be felt on generations to come.

Lucinda Riley skillfully sweeps her readers between the magical world of Wharton Park and Thailand during World War II with irresistible and atmospheric storytelling. Filled with twists and turns, passions and lies, and ultimately redemption, Hothouse Flower is a romantic, poignant novel that became an instant bestseller in the UK and Germany.

]]> 577 Lucinda Riley 0141049375 Ally 3 saga 3.87 2010 Hothouse Flower
author: Lucinda Riley
name: Ally
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/03/15
date added: 2022/05/19
shelves: saga
review:

]]> The Lost Estate 983730 The Lost Estate is Robin Buss's translation of Henri Alain-Fournier's poignant study of lost love, Le Grand Meaulnes. This Penguin Classics edition also contains an introduction by Adam Gopnik.

When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring and charisma. But when Meaulnes disappears for several days, and returns with tales of a strange party at a mysterious house - and his love for the beautiful girl hidden within it, Yvonne de Galais - his life has been changed forever. In his restless search for his Lost Estate and the happiness he found there, Meaulnes, observed by his loyal friend Francois, may risk losing everything he ever had. Poised between youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain-Fournier's compelling narrator carries the reader through this evocative and unbearably poignant portrayal of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence.

Robin Buss's translation of Le Grand Meaulnes sensitively and accurately renders Alain-Fournier's poetically charged, expressive and deceptively simple style. In his introduction, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik discusses the life of Alain-Fournier, who was killed in the First World War after writing this, his only novel.

I read it for the first time when I was seventeen and loved every page. I find its depiction of a golden time and place just as poignant now as I did then
Nick Hornby]]> 227 Henri Alain-Fournier 0141441895 Ally 0 to-read 3.72 1913 The Lost Estate
author: Henri Alain-Fournier
name: Ally
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1913
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bloomsbury Pie 33516179 Bloomsbury Pie is contemporary scholarship at its best. ]]> 1 Regina. Marler 186049384X Ally 0 to-read 5.00 1997 Bloomsbury Pie
author: Regina. Marler
name: Ally
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Diary of a Provincial Lady]]> 683264 Librarian's note: There are Alternate Cover Editions for this edition of this book here and here.

Behind this rather prim title lies the hilarious fictional diary of a disaster-prone lady of the 1930s, and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos: there’s her husband Robert, who, when he’s not snoozing behind The Times, does everything with grumbling recluctance; her gleefully troublesome children; and a succession of tricky sevants who invariably seem to gain the upper hand. And if her domestic trials are not enough, she must keep up appearances. Particularly with the maddeningly patronising Lady Boxe, whom our Provincial Lady eternally (and unsuccessfully) tries to compete with.

Also published here are the three enchanting sequels to The Diary of a Provincial Lady: The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America, and The Provincial Lady in Wartime.]]> 562 E.M. Delafield 0860685225 Ally 0 to-read 4.00 The Diary of a Provincial Lady
author: E.M. Delafield
name: Ally
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)]]> 997354
Against this richly imagined backdrop, filled with intrigue and treachery, Ken Follett draws the reader irresistibly into a wonderful epic of family drama, violent conflict and unswerving ambition. From humble stonemason to imperious monarch, the dreams, labours and loves of his characters come vividly to life. The Pillars of the Earth is, without doubt, a masterpiece - and has proved to be one of the most popular books of our time.

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780330450133 here.]]> 1076 Ken Follett 0330450131 Ally 0 to-read 4.21 1989 The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)
author: Ken Follett
name: Ally
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Silver Sword 756607 Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition for 0140301461 (ISBN13: 9780140301465).

The silver sword became the symbol of hope and courage which kept four deserted and starving children alive through the years of occupation, and afterwards on the search to find their parents, and is based on a true story.]]> 160 Ian Serraillier Ally 5 4.05 1956 The Silver Sword
author: Ian Serraillier
name: Ally
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/12/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Black Mischief 864296 238 Evelyn Waugh 0141183985 Ally 0 3.38 1932 Black Mischief
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Ally
average rating: 3.38
book published: 1932
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/31
shelves: to-read, 2013-byt-empire-challenge
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Awakening and Other Stories]]> 4324914 The Awakening, was first published in 1899, it stunned readers with its frank portrayal of the inner word of Edna Pontellier, and its daring criticisms of the limits of marriage and motherhood. The subtle beauty of her writing was contrasted with her unwomanly and sordid subject-matter: Edna's rejection of her domestic role, and her passionate quest for spiritual, sexual, and artistic freedom. From her first stories, Chopin was interested in independent characters who challenged convention. This selection, freshly edited from the first printing of each text, enables readers to follow her unfolding career as she experimented with a broad range of writing, from tales for children to decadent fin-de siecle sketches. The Awakening is set alongside thirty-two short stories, illustrating the spectrum of the fiction from her first published stories to her 1898 secret masterpiece, "The Storm."
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
]]> 480 Kate Chopin 0199536945 Ally 0 to-read 3.89 2000 The Awakening and Other Stories
author: Kate Chopin
name: Ally
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Winter Garden 21297035
Anna Hansen, a bride-to-be, is a pupil at one of Hitler's notorious Nazi Bride Schools, where young women are schooled on the art of being an SS officer's wife. Then, one night, she is brutally murdered and left in the gardens of the school. Her death will be hushed up and her life forgotten.

Clara Vine is an actress at Berlin's famous Ufa studios by day and an undercover British Intelligence agent by night. She knew Anna and is disturbed by news of her death. She cannot understand why someone would want to cover it up, but she soon discovers that Anna's murder is linked to a far more ominous secret.

With the newly abdicated Edward VIII and his wife Wallis set to arrive in Berlin, and the Mitford sisters dazzling on the social scene, Clara must work in the darkness to find the truth and send it back to London. It is a dangerous path she treads, and it will take everything she has to survive…]]> 448 Jane Thynne 1849839891 Ally 2 to-read 3.80 2014 The Winter Garden
author: Jane Thynne
name: Ally
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2015/01/18
date added: 2020/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Illustrated Old Possum 22593372

Some are good, and some are bad . . .





The original Old Possum's illustrations have been lovingly restored and are showcased in this beautiful new hardback edition with ribbon, perfect for children and Eliot aficionados alike. These lovable cat poems were written by T. S. Eliot for his godchildren and continue to delight children and grown-ups. The collection inspired the musical Cats!, and features Macavity, Mr Mistofelees and Growltiger!]]> 128 T.S. Eliot 0571313086 Ally 0 to-read 4.30 1939 The Illustrated Old Possum
author: T.S. Eliot
name: Ally
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atonement 1601100 Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.
(back cover)]]> 480 Ian McEwan 0307388840 Ally 5 3.76 2001 Atonement
author: Ian McEwan
name: Ally
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/05/20
shelves: war, historical-fiction, modern-classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl Who Fell From The Sky]]> 12243540 302 Simon Mawer 1408703505 Ally 4 3.61 2012 The Girl Who Fell From The Sky
author: Simon Mawer
name: Ally
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/10/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[John Keats (Everyman's Poetry, #4)]]> 1832670 110 John Keats Ally 3 3.68 1990 John Keats (Everyman's Poetry, #4)
author: John Keats
name: Ally
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2018/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Bookshop 4737 Alternative cover editions for this ISBN can be found here and here

In the small East Anglian coastal town of Hardborough, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.

Hardborough quickly becomes a battleground � for Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done. As a result, she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important, but natural and even supernatural forces too. Her fate will strike a chord with anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice.]]> 156 Penelope Fitzgerald 0006543545 Ally 4 3.54 1978 The Bookshop
author: Penelope Fitzgerald
name: Ally
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 2012/05/07
date added: 2017/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Poem for the Day One 1339745 400 Nicholas Albery 185619499X Ally 5 poetry 4.06 1996 Poem for the Day One
author: Nicholas Albery
name: Ally
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/08/11
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fortune's Daughters : The Extravagant Lives of the Jerome Sisters - Jennie Churchill, Clara Frewen and Leonie Leslie]]> 2036321 304 Elisabeth Kehoe 1843541580 Ally 4 3.76 2004 Fortune's Daughters : The Extravagant Lives of the Jerome Sisters - Jennie Churchill, Clara Frewen and Leonie Leslie
author: Elisabeth Kehoe
name: Ally
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Beatrice Webb: Woman of Conflict]]> 2217032 384 Carole Seymour-Jones 0044408722 Ally 0 to-read 3.50 1992 Beatrice Webb: Woman of Conflict
author: Carole Seymour-Jones
name: Ally
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Diary of Beatrice Webb 508823 656 Beatrice Potter Webb 186049823X Ally 0 to-read 3.00 1985 Diary of Beatrice Webb
author: Beatrice Potter Webb
name: Ally
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Weather in the Streets 1768393 Invitation to the Waltz left off, The Weather in the Streets shows us Olivia Curtis ten years older, a failed marriage behind her, thinner, sadder, and apprently not much wiser. A chance encounter on a train with a man who enchanted her as a teenager leads to a forbidden love affair and a new world of secret meetings, brief phone calls, and snatched liaisons in anonymous hotel rooms. Years ahead of its time when first published, this subtle and powerful novel shocked even the most stalwart Lehmann fans with its searing honesty and passionate portrayal of clandestine love.]]> 372 Rosamond Lehmann 1844083063 Ally 0 to-read 3.98 1936 The Weather in the Streets
author: Rosamond Lehmann
name: Ally
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Invitation to the Waltz 1477344
Exploring the daydreams and miseries attendant upon even the most innocent of social events, Rosamond Lehmann perfectly captures the emotions of a girl standing poised on the threshold of womanhood.]]> 256 Rosamond Lehmann 1844083055 Ally 5
The writing is beautiful and, although I thought it was going to be a difficult read at first, I soon got into the rhythm. It's told from the perspective of the main character Olivia and occasionally that of her sister Kate. As we hear her thoughts, opinions and insecurities we can't help but remember our own experiences at that age. The stream of consciousness style is not impenetrable here because it's used to describe some very human and relatable experiences.

There are several wonderful character sketches of the people that Olivia encounters, from the children of the sweep, the unmarried dressmaker and the lace saleswoman, to the retired Major from India and the lonely widower, to the blind chicken farmer and the disappointing Curate, from the angry aesthete, to the drunken soldier and on to the kind and sophisticated Rollo. These encounters bring real depth to the tale by exploring class issues, social injustices and the effects of the recent war on all aspects of society.

A very enjoyable read that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to others. I'm now really looking forward to reading the sequel, which picks up with these characters after a 10 year interval - 'The Weather in the Streets'.
]]> 3.90 1932 Invitation to the Waltz
author: Rosamond Lehmann
name: Ally
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1932
rating: 5
read at: 2017/07/03
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves:
review:
A fairly simple and charming tale of a young girl on the occasion of her 17th Birthday and of the preparations for her first dance.

The writing is beautiful and, although I thought it was going to be a difficult read at first, I soon got into the rhythm. It's told from the perspective of the main character Olivia and occasionally that of her sister Kate. As we hear her thoughts, opinions and insecurities we can't help but remember our own experiences at that age. The stream of consciousness style is not impenetrable here because it's used to describe some very human and relatable experiences.

There are several wonderful character sketches of the people that Olivia encounters, from the children of the sweep, the unmarried dressmaker and the lace saleswoman, to the retired Major from India and the lonely widower, to the blind chicken farmer and the disappointing Curate, from the angry aesthete, to the drunken soldier and on to the kind and sophisticated Rollo. These encounters bring real depth to the tale by exploring class issues, social injustices and the effects of the recent war on all aspects of society.

A very enjoyable read that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to others. I'm now really looking forward to reading the sequel, which picks up with these characters after a 10 year interval - 'The Weather in the Streets'.

]]> The Go-Between 89900 The Go-Between is edited with an introduction and notes by Douglas Brooks-Davies in Penguin Modern Classics.

'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there'

When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature revelation. The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world, The Go-Between is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society.

Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972) was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for periodicals including the Spectator and Saturday Review. His first book, Night Fears (1924) was a collection of short stories; but it was not until the publication of Eustace and Hilda (1947), which won the James Tait Black prize, that Hartley gained widespread recognition as an author. His other novels include The Go-Between (1953), which was adapted into an internationally-successful film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, and The Hireling (1957), the film version of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

If you enjoyed The Go-Between, you might like Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'Magical and disturbing'
Independent

'On a first reading, it is a beautifully wrought description of a small boy's loss of innocence long ago. But, visited a second time, the knowledge of approaching, unavoidable tragedy makes it far more poignant and painful'
Express]]> 327 L.P. Hartley Ally 0 to-read 3.93 1953 The Go-Between
author: L.P. Hartley
name: Ally
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1953
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Straight on Till Morning: The Life of Beryl Markham]]> 3368516 * Reissue of the acclaimed biography of Beryl Markam

Beryl Markham, like Karen Blixen, could only have come out of Africa. Pioneering aviatrix, flamboyant beauty, brilliant race-horse trainer, unscrupulous seducer - her life story is for every reader who was enthralled by Blixen's exotic world, that of Kenya between the wars.

This fully authorised biography, drawn from the author's personal association with Beryl and her family, paints a vivid portrait of a tempestuous and controversial character. It tells of her friendship with Karen Blixen (though she commandeered Blixen's husband Bror and lover Denys Finch Hatton), of her spectacular courage when she became the first person to fly from England to America, and of the mysteries surrounding her highly praised, bestselling book WEST WITH THE NIGHT.]]> 448 Mary S. Lovell 0349121753 Ally 0 currently-reading 3.53 1983 Straight on Till Morning: The Life of Beryl Markham
author: Mary S. Lovell
name: Ally
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944]]> 34379459
It is a story of confusion and bewilderment as a peasant society is confronted by disaster and, in the space of a few months, a whole way of life is changed beyond recognition. It is also a story of tragedy and suffering, of individual courage, generosity and heroism.]]> 320 Iris Origo 1782272658 Ally 0 currently-reading 4.17 1947 War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944
author: Iris Origo
name: Ally
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics)]]> 18079524 It Can’t Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis’s later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.

Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler’s aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.

Called “a message to thinking Americans� by the Springfield Republican when it was published in 1935, It Can’t Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.

Includes an Introduction by Michael Meyer
andĚýan Afterword by Gary Scharnhorst]]> 416 Sinclair Lewis 0451465644 Ally 0 to-read 3.84 1935 It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics)
author: Sinclair Lewis
name: Ally
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1935
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bolter: Edwardian Heartbreak and High Society Scandal in Kenya]]> 3238763
An inspiration for Nancy Mitford's character The Bolter, painted by William Orpen, and photographed by Cecil Beaton, Sackville went on to divorce a total of five times, yet died with a picture of her first love by her bed. Her struggle to reinvent her life with each new marriage left one husband murdered and branded her the 'high priestess' of White Mischief's bed-hopping Happy Valley in Kenya. Sackville's life was so scandalous that it was kept a secret from her great-granddaughter Frances Osborne. Now, Osborne tells the moving tale of betrayal and heartbreak behind Sackville's road to scandal and return, painting a dazzling portrait of high society in the early twentieth century.]]> 310 Frances Osborne 1844084817 Ally 4 3.71 2008 The Bolter: Edwardian Heartbreak and High Society Scandal in Kenya
author: Frances Osborne
name: Ally
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2017/06/17
date added: 2017/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington]]> 6240773
When Roald Dahl, a dashing young wounded RAF pilot, took up his post at the British Embassy in 1942, his assignment was to use his good looks, wit, and considerable charm to gain access to the most powerful figures in American political life. Better than any spy fiction, The Irregulars is a fascinating, lively account of deceit, double dealing, and moral ambiguity—all in the name of victory. Richly detailed and carefully researched, Conant’s masterful narrative is based on never-before-seen wartime letters, diaries, and interviews.]]> 390 Jennet Conant 0743294599 Ally 0 to-read 3.55 2008 The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington
author: Jennet Conant
name: Ally
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg]]> 7115074 The Romanov Sisters, offering a never-before-seen glimpse at the lives of the Tsar's beautiful daughters and a celebration of their unique stories, will be published in 2014.

The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July 16�17, 1918 has long been a defining moment in world history. The Last Days of the Romanovs reveals in exceptional detail how the conspiracy to kill them unfolded.

In the vivid style of a TV documentary, Helen Rappaport reveals both the atmosphere inside the family's claustrophobic prison and the political maneuverings of those who wished to save—or destroy—them. With the watching world and European monarchies proving incapable of saving the Romanovs, the narrative brings this tragic story to life in a compellingly new and dramatic way, culminating in a bloody night of horror in a cramped basement room.]]> 254 Helen Rappaport 0312603479 Ally 0 to-read 4.06 2009 The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg
author: Helen Rappaport
name: Ally
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Camomile Lawn 276967
The Camomile Lawn moves from Cornwall to London and back again, over the years, telling the stories of the cousins, their family and their friends, united by shared losses and lovers, by family ties and the absurd conditions imposed by war as their paths cross and recross over the years. Mary Wesley presents an extraordinarily vivid and lively picture of wartime London: the rationing, imaginatively circumvented; the fallen houses; the parties, the new-found comforts of sex, the desperate humour of survival - all of it evoked with warmth, clarity and stunning wit. And through it all, the cousins and their friends try to hold on to the part of themselves that laughed and played dangerous games on that camomile lawn.]]> 336 Mary Wesley 0099499142 Ally 3 3.82 1984 The Camomile Lawn
author: Mary Wesley
name: Ally
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2017/06/13
date added: 2017/06/13
shelves:
review:
Although this is a good book, well written, I was disconcerted by the author's light treatment of some unpalatable themes. The story opens in Cornwall at the end of the summer of 1939 where a family of cousins is holidaying just before World War II and events then move between Cornwall and London. Told partially in flashback we learn about how the war affects them and those connected to the family such as a German Jewish couple who have sought safety in England and family friends from the rectory. The relationships are often incestuous with lots of bed hopping, affairs and promiscuity. The author seems to think that it's inevitable that male characters would be sexually attracted to young girls. There was also the casual racism of Aunt Helena towards Sophy and the General with his Nazi sympathies. All of these themes were presented without moral commentary as just part and parcel of life. None of these characters were particularly likable. And yet the book was quite compelling, the female characters seemed to have felt empowered by the war and in control of their unconventional lives.
]]> <![CDATA[The Life and Death of Lord Erroll]]> 21081885 432 Errol Trzebinski 0007306970 Ally 0 currently-reading 0.0 2000 The Life and Death of Lord Erroll
author: Errol Trzebinski
name: Ally
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2017/06/13
date added: 2017/06/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance]]> 9284082 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined.
From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.]]> 354 Edmund de Waal 0099539551 Ally 0 to-read 3.90 2010 The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
author: Edmund de Waal
name: Ally
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Darkness Falls from the Air (CASSELL MILITARY PAPERBACKS)]]> 28090214
Featured on BACKLISTED podcast

Bill Sarratt is a civil servant working on the war effort. Thwarted at every turn by bureaucracy and the vested interests of big business, the seemingly unflappable Bill is also on the verge of losing his wife Marcia to a literary poseur named Stephen. As the bombs continue to fall, Bill must decide whether he his willing to compromise his principles and prevent his life from crumbling before his very eyes.]]> 208 Nigel Balchin 1474601189 Ally 0 currently-reading 3.74 1942 Darkness Falls from the Air (CASSELL MILITARY PAPERBACKS)
author: Nigel Balchin
name: Ally
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Grand Sophy 17307203 336 Georgette Heyer 0099585545 Ally 0 to-read 3.99 1950 The Grand Sophy
author: Georgette Heyer
name: Ally
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Friday's Child 311178 376 Georgette Heyer 0099468042 Ally 0 to-read 3.92 1944 Friday's Child
author: Georgette Heyer
name: Ally
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1944
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Regency Buck (Alastair-Audley, #3)]]> 311127 "From the moment when I first set eyes on you I have disliked you ..."

Rich and lovely, ardent and wilful, any restraint maddened Judith Taverner. But in her handsome guardian she met her match - and more.

Julian St John Audley, Fifth Earl of Worth, was one of the Bow-window set, a gamester, an excellent whip and a friend of Beau Brummell. Merely thinking of him was enough to put Judith into a rage. Before long she discovered there were other people who also hated her legal guardian ...]]> 368 Georgette Heyer 0099465582 Ally 0 to-read 3.87 1935 Regency Buck (Alastair-Audley, #3)
author: Georgette Heyer
name: Ally
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1935
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Viking Myths & Sagas 29850493
The ONLY book to feature little known Viking Age sagas and heroic legends alongside the Norse myths � and the FIRST major new retellings of the myths for 35 years.�

Brings alive all the most significant and interesting Viking Age stories, painting vivid portraits of Viking people, culture and beliefs.�

Includes many fascinating tales previously only known within the academic world.�

Each story complemented by detailed notes discussing its origins, similar narratives, archaeological evidence etc.�

Also features authentic Viking Age proverbs, poems, riddles and spells.�

Introduces many iconic Viking women: real life queens, noblewomen, farmwives and slaves; alongside mythical giantesses, goddesses and valkyries.�

Presents the true story of the Vikings� discovery of North America 500 years before Columbus; legends of the cursed ring that inspired Tolkien, and the Viking story behind Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Written in consultation with leading academics.
]]> 416 Rosalind Kerven 0953745473 Ally 0 to-read 3.96 2015 Viking Myths & Sagas
author: Rosalind Kerven
name: Ally
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Jacaranda Tree 1273424 288 H.E. Bates 0413775992 Ally 3 3.81 1949 The Jacaranda Tree
author: H.E. Bates
name: Ally
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1949
rating: 3
read at: 2017/05/06
date added: 2017/05/06
shelves:
review:
Lovely writing and a very easy to read tale about a group of English expats fleeing Burma to escape the Japanese invasion. This book isn't really abut the war but about the characters and their experiences and prejudices. The descriptions of the country were wonderful particularly with the author's use of colours. The plot was pacey with plenty of twists and turns. Not all of the people who set out on the journey make it to the end...and as some of the characters were very unlikeable it wasn't always a blow when they met their ultimate fate! The only downside to this book was the way the author wrote about the female characters. There were altogether too many scenes in incongruous places where the women in question were suggestively manoeuvring their clothes or where their blouse or nightdress became 'taut across their breasts'. There was even a scene where, in illness and delirium, a female character was still almost desperate for male attention. It struck me that the writer didn't know women particularly well, or perhaps that was just a product of the time. Overall though a very enjoyable book that was difficult to put down.
]]> <![CDATA[Ragtime in Simla (Joe Sandilands)]]> 30368979 288 Barbara Cleverly 1472111559 Ally 3 3.60 2002 Ragtime in Simla (Joe Sandilands)
author: Barbara Cleverly
name: Ally
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2017/04/22
date added: 2017/04/24
shelves:
review:
Great fun. A good old fashioned whodunit. I loved the descriptions of the settings and the characters. The plot had plenty of twists and turns although the ending was a little drawn out. I could easily imagine an Agatha Christie style Sunday evening drama as I read this one. A light and easy read. Very enjoyable.
]]> The Suffragettes 27251758
A potted history of the women who pioneered feminism and changed the world.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.]]> 57 Emmeline Pankhurst 0241252113 Ally 0 to-read 3.91 2016 The Suffragettes
author: Emmeline Pankhurst
name: Ally
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lost Horizon 23346524 The gripping adventure that invented the mystery of Shangri-La.

Flying out of India, a light aircraft is hi-jacked and flown into the high Tibetan Himalayas. The few passengers on board anxiously await their fate, among them Conway, a talented British consul. But on landing they are unexpectedly conducted to a remote valley, a legendary paradise of peace and beauty, known as Shangri-La. Have they been kidnapped? Can they escape? And do they even want to?

From the author of Goodbye Mr Chips, this is the epic adventure story of literature's most entrancing utopia and one of our most enduring literary mysteries.]]> 224 James Hilton 0099595869 Ally 4 3.95 1933 Lost Horizon
author: James Hilton
name: Ally
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1933
rating: 4
read at: 2017/04/12
date added: 2017/04/12
shelves:
review:
This is a great book. It is a short read but provokes deep thought and questions about what we want of life and existence. It's very much rooted in the time it was written and, without any direct references, reflects the emotional, societal and physical damage that WWI created and that tipped reality on its axis. It is a sort of adventure story but, be warned, it's not pacey...it takes a while for both the characters and the reader to get to a point of understanding but its worth the wait. A very well written and charming tale.
]]> Child of Happy Valley 4654937 208 Juanita Carberry 0099281392 Ally 4 4.08 1999 Child of Happy Valley
author: Juanita Carberry
name: Ally
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2017/04/07
date added: 2017/04/12
shelves:
review:
A very enjoyable memoir of a childhood spent in Kenya during the infamous 'White Mischief' era. It was easy to read and the descriptions of the landscapes were great. Juanita's father clearly had a lot of issues that led him to cruel and unpredictable behaviour. I can't quite understand a father that would force his daughter to swim in shark infested waters or bet on her diving from the highest boards when she was terrified. Her stepmother, June Carberry, was another interesting character was a key witness in the trial relating to the death of the Earl of Erroll. Much as been made of Juanita Carberry's potential evidence but this forms only a very small part of this book and is less sensational than has been made out in other books about the incident. If you're coming to this memoir as part of wider reading about the Happy Valley set I'd leave this one until last.
]]> I Was Amelia Earhart 969392 Jane Mendelsohn 0099744112 Ally 0 to-read 3.96 1996 I Was Amelia Earhart
author: Jane Mendelsohn
name: Ally
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Liberation 29232459 560 Kate Furnivall 1471155552 Ally 0 to-read 3.75 2016 The Liberation
author: Kate Furnivall
name: Ally
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Inspector Calls and Other Plays]]> 900681 302 J.B. Priestley 014118535X Ally 5 3.91 1947 An Inspector Calls and Other Plays
author: J.B. Priestley
name: Ally
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at: 2017/03/25
date added: 2017/03/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Out of Africa 73315 330 Isak Dinesen 0140282610 Ally 4 3.84 1937 Out of Africa
author: Isak Dinesen
name: Ally
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2017/03/25
date added: 2017/03/25
shelves:
review:
I listened to an audio version of this narrated by Susan Lyons as I'd previously struggled to maintain interest in reading my paperback version. I'm really pleased I did. It's been great to listen to someone telling stories about their time in Africa. Rose tinted, nostalgic and comforting stories alongside stories that make you think about cultural strain and difference. The landscape described is now lost to time but the beauty and attachment to the land is wonderfully expressed.
]]> <![CDATA[Consuelo and Alva : Love, Power and Suffrage in the Gilded Age]]> 25717661 608 amanda-mackenzie-stuart 0007127308 Ally 0 to-read 2.33 2005 Consuelo and Alva : Love, Power and Suffrage in the Gilded Age
author: amanda-mackenzie-stuart
name: Ally
average rating: 2.33
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Circling the Sun 29429321 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •Ě�NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR, BOOKPAGE, AND SHELF AWARENESSĚýâ€�Ěý“Paula McLain is considered the new star of historical fiction, and for good reason. Fans of The Paris Wife will be captivated by Circling the Sun, which . . . is both beautifully written and utterly engrossing.”—Ann Patchett, Country Living

Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller The Paris Wife, now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote the classic memoir Out of Africa.

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.

Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.

Set against the majestic landscape of early-twentieth-century Africa, McLain’s powerful tale reveals the extraordinary adventures of a woman before her time, the exhilaration of freedom and its cost, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

Praise for Circling the Sun

“In McLain’s confident hands, Beryl Markham crackles to life, and we readers truly understand what made a woman so far ahead of her time believe she had the power to soar.�—Jodi Picoult, author of Leaving Time

“Enchanting . . . a worthy heir to [Isak] Dinesen . . . Like Africa as it’s so gorgeously depicted here, this novel will never let you go.��The Boston Globe

“Famed aviator Beryl Markham is a novelist’s dream. . . . [A] wonderful portrait of a complex woman who lived—defiantly—on her own terms.��People (Book of the Week)

â€�Circling the Sun ˛ő´Ç˛ą°ů˛ő.â€�â€�Newsday

“Captivating . . . [an] irresistible novel.� —The Seattle Times
“Like its high-flying subject, Circling the Sun is audacious and glamorous and hard not to be drawn in by. Beryl Markham may have married more than once, but she was nobody’s wife.� —Entertainment Weekly
“[An] eloquent evocation of Beryl’s daring life.��O: The Oprah Magazine

“Markham’s life is the stuff of legend. . . . McLain has created a voice that is lush and intricate to evoke a character who is enviably brave and independent.��NPR

“Bold, absorbing fiction.�—New York Daily News

“Paula McLain has such a gift for bringing characters to life. I loved discovering the singular Beryl Markham, with all her strengths and passions and complexities.�—Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You




From the Hardcover edition.]]> 420 Paula McLain 1844088308 Ally 3
It was 0nly 30+ pages before the end that Beryl started learning to fly. Although framing the book with a prologue and epilogue about her pioneering flight across the Atlantic was great, it gives a false sense of expectation of where the story will go and there isn't a great deal in there about her flying.

Equally there were some very frustrating 'avoidance' techniques...particularly around whether or not Beryl had a relationship with the Royal princes or not so the scandal is covered in a paragraph and left to the reader's imagination rather than the author choosing a narrative to get behind...it's fiction so some artistic licence would be fine.

I loved the descriptions of Africa and the depiction of Beryl's lifelong friendship with Ruta and her deep love of his family and their culture. I also think that the author has captured the financial hardships of the white farmers and big game hunters that I've read about in other non-fiction accounts of Africa at that time. It's a shame that some of the difficult cultural impacts of colonialism weren't explored further but some of the impact and attitudes of the tourists who hired the big game hunters at that time and their lack of respect for the animals and their environment are explored.

Overall I did enjoy this book.

]]> 3.85 2015 Circling the Sun
author: Paula McLain
name: Ally
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2017/03/09
date added: 2017/03/09
shelves:
review:
Great writing but strange choices over what to include and focus the fictional narrative on from the fascinating and eventful life of Beryl Markham. For me there was too much concentration on childhood and on horses and not enough time spent on flying and the Royals.

It was 0nly 30+ pages before the end that Beryl started learning to fly. Although framing the book with a prologue and epilogue about her pioneering flight across the Atlantic was great, it gives a false sense of expectation of where the story will go and there isn't a great deal in there about her flying.

Equally there were some very frustrating 'avoidance' techniques...particularly around whether or not Beryl had a relationship with the Royal princes or not so the scandal is covered in a paragraph and left to the reader's imagination rather than the author choosing a narrative to get behind...it's fiction so some artistic licence would be fine.

I loved the descriptions of Africa and the depiction of Beryl's lifelong friendship with Ruta and her deep love of his family and their culture. I also think that the author has captured the financial hardships of the white farmers and big game hunters that I've read about in other non-fiction accounts of Africa at that time. It's a shame that some of the difficult cultural impacts of colonialism weren't explored further but some of the impact and attitudes of the tourists who hired the big game hunters at that time and their lack of respect for the animals and their environment are explored.

Overall I did enjoy this book.


]]> Their Eyes Were Watching God 730364 272 Zora Neale Hurston Ally 4 4.01 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God
author: Zora Neale Hurston
name: Ally
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2017/03/02
date added: 2017/03/02
shelves:
review:
It took me a couple of chapters to get into this one as I found the dialect speech very difficult to read at first but I'm really glad that I stuck with it as it got much easier. Indeed I could not really put it down towards the end. It's a really well paced story with some fascinating and difficult themes and events. I'm not even sure that I liked Janie that much but wow what a life she had.
]]> <![CDATA[The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood]]> 18160160 ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý
In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers among the Kikuyu people, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases and discovered -- the hard way -- the world of the African.]]> 288 Elspeth Huxley 0099577267 Ally 0 currently-reading 3.85 1959 The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood
author: Elspeth Huxley
name: Ally
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Temptress 8347526
In the spirit of Frances Osborne’s The Bolter, this fascinating life of femme fatale and gorgeous Chicago heiress, Alice de Janzé, offers a solution to the decadesold murder of Lord Erroll—the story at the center of James Fox’s acclaimed book and movie White Mischief

A glamorous American multi-millionairess, Alice de Janzé scandalized 1920’s Paris when she left her aristocratic French husband for an English lover—whom she later tried to kill in a failed murder-suicide in the Gare du Nord. Abandoning Paris for the moneyed British colonial society known as Kenya’s Happy Valley, she became the lover of the handsome womanizer, Joss Hay, Lord Erroll. In 1941, Erroll was shot in his car on an isolated road. A cuckolded husband was brought to trial and acquitted, and the crime remained tantalizingly unsolved.

Paul Spicer, whose mother was a confidante of Alice’s, used personal letters and his own extensive research to piece together what really happened that fateful evening. He brings to life an era of unimaginable wealth and indulgence, where people changed bed partners as easily as they would order a cocktail, and where jealousy and hidden passions brewed. At the heart of The Temptress is Alice, whose seductive charms no man could resist, and whose unfulfilled quest for love ended in her own suicide at age forty-two.

]]> 320 Paul Spicer 1847399142 Ally 4 3.72 2010 The Temptress
author: Paul Spicer
name: Ally
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2017/02/23
date added: 2017/02/23
shelves:
review:
A great book, a quick and easy read with fascinating subject matter. Alice, Countess De Janze, an American who married into the French aristocracy and then found herself in Kenya. She was a lover of Josselyn Hay, Earl of Erroll who was murdered in Kenya in 1941. I came to this book because I was keen to read more about the characters of Happy Valley in the 1920s and 30s and Alice is one of the most fascinating, and tragic, so far. I'm not swayed by the author's explanation of the near century old murder mystery but it may be plausible, we may never know the truth.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ghosts of Happy Valley: Searching for the Lost World of Africa's Infamous Aristocrats]]> 20988492 The Bolter.

The era culminated with the notorious murder of the Earl of Erroll in 1941, the investigation of which laid bare the Happy Valley set's decadence and irresponsibility, chronicled in another bestseller, James Fox's White Mischief. But what is left now? In a remarkable and indefatigable archaeological quest Juliet Barnes, who has lived in Kenya all her life and whose grandparents knew some of the Happy Valley characters, has set out to explore Happy Valley to find the former homes and haunts of this extraordinary and transient set of people.

With the help of a remarkable African guide and further assisted by the memories of elderly former settlers, she finds the remains of grand residences tucked away beneath the mountains and speaks to local elders who share first-hand memories of these bygone times. Nowadays these old homes, she discovers, have become tumbledown dwellings for many African families, school buildings, or their ruins have almost disappeared without trace - a revelation of the state of modern Africa that makes the gilded era of the Happy Valley set even more fantastic. A book to set alongside such singular evocations of Africa's strange colonial history as The Africa House, The Ghosts of Happy Valley is a mesmerising blend of travel narrative, social history and personal quest.]]> 336 Juliet Barnes 1781311676 Ally 3
I'm really interested in the legacy of Britain's colonial past and this book does a good job of exploring that. The author goes in search of the houses once lived in by the now infamous characters of Kenya's 'Happy Valley' from the 1920s and 30s. She finds some of the houses still standing, some put to new uses as schools and some only ruins. She talks to many elders within both the white and the Kikuyu community who knew the people that had lived there and were pleased to share their memories. She covers right the way up to the time of Mau Mau and independence and beyond. She weaves in some of the spirituality of the people and the traditions of the area and the idea of good and bad spirits working in certain places. Her guide Solomon, a keen conservationist, offers a really good view of how the area has changed in the almost 100 years that have now passed and the effects of deforestation and land clearances on the ecosystem and wildlife of the area.

The snippets of information you get about the farmers and aristocrats who once lived there are fascinating and sometimes terrifying but they are just snippets and overall I felt that the book didn't really hold together very well. It seemed to have been almost a diary of the research that the author had undertaken recounting 10 or more years worth of visits to the region and the different houses seen on each visit in chronological order. This meant that stories about the houses and the people were fragmented and I felt that it might have been better to group chapters around each of the houses in turn and spend a good chunk of time talking about what had been learnt about that house and its inhabitants.

One thing that the author does well towards the end of the book is to almost summarise other books written about the death of the Earl of Erroll and the various theories about who could have been responsible for the murder. In those summaries the author alights on a brand new character like Beryl Markham or murder theories such as MI6 perhaps being involved and it's such a small but tantalising entry that is not fully explored and that leaves you wanting much more...so I'm off to find some of the books she's mentioned so that I can read on!]]> 3.61 2013 The Ghosts of Happy Valley: Searching for the Lost World of Africa's Infamous Aristocrats
author: Juliet Barnes
name: Ally
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2017/02/18
date added: 2017/02/18
shelves:
review:
If you read this book after you've read others about the 'Happy Valley' set or the murder of the Earl of Erroll it's a good book with a different approach that is well worth a read but if you want to know more about the people and the murder mystery it is probably better to try other books first.

I'm really interested in the legacy of Britain's colonial past and this book does a good job of exploring that. The author goes in search of the houses once lived in by the now infamous characters of Kenya's 'Happy Valley' from the 1920s and 30s. She finds some of the houses still standing, some put to new uses as schools and some only ruins. She talks to many elders within both the white and the Kikuyu community who knew the people that had lived there and were pleased to share their memories. She covers right the way up to the time of Mau Mau and independence and beyond. She weaves in some of the spirituality of the people and the traditions of the area and the idea of good and bad spirits working in certain places. Her guide Solomon, a keen conservationist, offers a really good view of how the area has changed in the almost 100 years that have now passed and the effects of deforestation and land clearances on the ecosystem and wildlife of the area.

The snippets of information you get about the farmers and aristocrats who once lived there are fascinating and sometimes terrifying but they are just snippets and overall I felt that the book didn't really hold together very well. It seemed to have been almost a diary of the research that the author had undertaken recounting 10 or more years worth of visits to the region and the different houses seen on each visit in chronological order. This meant that stories about the houses and the people were fragmented and I felt that it might have been better to group chapters around each of the houses in turn and spend a good chunk of time talking about what had been learnt about that house and its inhabitants.

One thing that the author does well towards the end of the book is to almost summarise other books written about the death of the Earl of Erroll and the various theories about who could have been responsible for the murder. In those summaries the author alights on a brand new character like Beryl Markham or murder theories such as MI6 perhaps being involved and it's such a small but tantalising entry that is not fully explored and that leaves you wanting much more...so I'm off to find some of the books she's mentioned so that I can read on!
]]> <![CDATA[Twilight at the World of Tomorrow : Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War]]> 8550475 401 James Mauro 0345512146 Ally 1
I wanted to know more about the fair, the exhibits, the reaction of the public. I enjoyed some of the descriptions of how they worked by committee, how they worked out how to finance the fair and what the cost/benefit might look like.

I liked the chapter about Einstein, his persecution and how he ended up in America but there wasn't much more about him in the rest of the book so I'm not sure why he was included.

I gave up on this one due to lack of interest.]]> 3.64 2010 Twilight at the World of Tomorrow : Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War
author: James Mauro
name: Ally
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2010
rating: 1
read at: 2017/02/12
date added: 2017/02/12
shelves:
review:
Don't take too much notice of my review...as a Brit I just don't think there was enough of a 'local' connection to any of the characters that populate this book to hold my interest. I also think that I had expectations of this book that it would never have lived up to.

I wanted to know more about the fair, the exhibits, the reaction of the public. I enjoyed some of the descriptions of how they worked by committee, how they worked out how to finance the fair and what the cost/benefit might look like.

I liked the chapter about Einstein, his persecution and how he ended up in America but there wasn't much more about him in the rest of the book so I'm not sure why he was included.

I gave up on this one due to lack of interest.
]]> Poetry of the Thirties 625162 304 Robin Skelton 0141184574 Ally 0 to-read 3.71 1964 Poetry of the Thirties
author: Robin Skelton
name: Ally
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ghost Road (Regeneration #3)]]> 3483606 288 Pat Barker Ally 0 to-read 3.84 1995 The Ghost Road (Regeneration #3)
author: Pat Barker
name: Ally
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud: ...And Other Poems You Half-Remember from School]]> 7261774 192 Ana Sampson 1843173948 Ally 0 to-read 4.00 2009 I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud: ...And Other Poems You Half-Remember from School
author: Ana Sampson
name: Ally
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tom's Midnight Garden 1470245
Eleven . . . Twelve . . . Thirteen . . .

Thirteen! Tom races down the stairs and finds, outside the back door, a wonderful garden. A garden that everyone told him didn't exist. Tom's midnight garden is full of magic and adventure, and children too.

Are they ghosts?

Or is it Tom who is really the ghost …]]> 227 Philippa Pearce 0192792423 Ally 0 to-read 4.00 1958 Tom's Midnight Garden
author: Philippa Pearce
name: Ally
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry 1177751 274 Mildred D. Taylor 0140366253 Ally 0 to-read 3.96 1976 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
author: Mildred D. Taylor
name: Ally
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> °äłóĂ©°ůľ± 389115 122 Colette Gauthier-Villars 009942276X Ally 0 to-read 3.70 1920 °äłóĂ©°ůľ±
author: Colette Gauthier-Villars
name: Ally
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1920
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Green Hat (Capuchin Classics)]]> 2352042 272 Michael Arlen 0955519659 Ally 0 to-read 3.44 1924 The Green Hat (Capuchin Classics)
author: Michael Arlen
name: Ally
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1924
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)]]> 12577977 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780241956281, which can be found here.

Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out - and that's before he stumbles over the first corpse . . .

Best-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction. His books include The Big Sleep, The Little Sister, Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Good-bye, The Lady in the Lake, Playback, Killer in the Rain, The High Window and Trouble is My Business.]]> 251 Raymond Chandler Ally 0 to-read 3.69 1939 The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)
author: Raymond Chandler
name: Ally
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1939
rating: 0
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review:

]]> Light of Paris 34044142 Light of Paris 320 Eleanor Brown 0007393687 Ally 0 to-read 3.37 2016 Light of Paris
author: Eleanor Brown
name: Ally
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe]]> 22856197
From National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer comes the gripping story of Pope Pius XI’s secret relations with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. This groundbreaking work, based on seven years of research in the Vatican and Fascist archives, including reports from Mussolini’s spies inside the highest levels of the Church, will forever change our understanding of the Vatican’s role in the rise of Fascism in Europe.
Ěý
The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of two men who came to power in 1922, and together changed the course of twentieth-century history. In most respects, they could not have been more different. One was scholarly and devout, the other thuggish and profane. Yet Pius XI and “Il Duce� had many things in common. They shared a distrust of democracy and a visceral hatred of Communism. Both were prone to sudden fits of temper and were fiercely protective of the prerogatives of their office. (“We have many interests to protect,� the Pope declared, soon after Mussolini seized control of the government in 1922.) Each relied on the other to consolidate his power and achieve his political goals.
Ěý
In a challenge to the conventional history of this period, in which a heroic Church does battle with the Fascist regime, Kertzer shows how Pius XI played a crucial role in making Mussolini’s dictatorship possible and keeping him in power. In exchange for Vatican support, Mussolini restored many of the privileges the Church had lost and gave in to the pope’s demands that the police enforce Catholic morality. Yet in the last years of his life—as the Italian dictator grew ever closer to Hitler—the pontiff’s faith in this treacherous bargain started to waver. With his health failing, he began to lash out at the Duce and threatened to denounce Mussolini’s anti-Semitic racial laws before it was too late. Horrified by the threat to the Church-Fascist alliance, the Vatican’s inner circle, including the future Pope Pius XII, struggled to restrain the headstrong pope from destroying a partnership that had served both the Church and the dictator for many years.
Ěý
The Pope and Mussolini brims with memorable portraits of the men who helped enable the reign of Fascism in Italy: Father Pietro Tacchi Venturi, Pius’s personal emissary to the dictator, a wily anti-Semite known as Mussolini’s Rasputin; Victor Emmanuel III, the king of Italy, an object of widespread derision who lacked the stature—literally and figuratively—to stand up to the domineering Duce; and Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, whose political skills and ambition made him Mussolini’s most powerful ally inside the Vatican, and positioned him to succeed the pontiff as the controversial Pius XII, whose actions during World War II would be subject for debate for decades to come.
Ěý
With the recent opening of the Vatican archives covering Pius XI’s papacy, the full story of the Pope’s complex relationship with his Fascist partner can finally be told. Vivid, dramatic, with surprises at every turn, The Pope and Mussolini is history writ large and with the lightning hand of truth.]]> 592 David I. Kertzer 081298367X Ally 0 to-read 4.25 2014 The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe
author: David I. Kertzer
name: Ally
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> White Mischief 776598 304 James Fox 009976671X Ally 4 3.65 1982 White Mischief
author: James Fox
name: Ally
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2017/02/09
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Goddess and the Thief 22028893
Uprooted from her home in India, Alice is raised by her aunt, a spiritualist medium in Windsor. When the mysterious Mr Tilsbury enters their lives, Alice is drawn into a plot to steal the priceless Koh-i-Noor diamond, claimed by the British Empire at the end of the Anglo-Sikh wars.

Said to be both blessed and cursed, the sacred Indian stone exerts its power over all who encounter it: a handsome deposed maharajah determined to claim his rightful throne, a man hell-bent on discovering the secrets of eternity, and a widowed queen who hopes the jewel can draw her husband's spirit back. In the midst of all this madness, Alice must discover a way to regain control of her life and fate...

'intricate and beautifully turned' THE TIMES

'an entertaining slice of Victoriana, rich in historical detail' MARIE CLAIRE

'Fox's take on the Victorian mystery novel will transport you to a world of intrigue and superstition . . . A gem of a read' THE LADY]]> 320 Essie Fox 1409146200 Ally 4 3.15 2013 The Goddess and the Thief
author: Essie Fox
name: Ally
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2017/02/03
date added: 2017/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Sky at Sunrise: Cider with Rosie; As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning; A Moment of War]]> 22078425 Spanning the first twenty-three years of his remarkable life, Laurie Lee's celebrated autobiographical trilogy is presented here in one delightful volume.



Beginning with Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee writes evocatively of his idyllic childhood in the Cotswolds of the twenties, a world of rich sensuousness and native innocence. 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' picks up the story as he leaves his valley for London and then for Spain. There, equipped only with a violin and his wits, he crossed the dramatic landscape of a vibrant and still almost medieval Spain for which he developed an abiding affection. In the winter of 1937 he returned to a country now in the grip of Civil War and joined the International Brigade, describing in A Moment of War his journey into the dark side of Spain with unsparing honesty and poignancy.

]]> 537 Laurie Lee Ally 0 to-read 4.48 1992 Red Sky at Sunrise: Cider with Rosie; As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning; A Moment of War
author: Laurie Lee
name: Ally
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Captain Corelli's Mandolin 578519 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780749397548

It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous - and a consummate musician.

When the local doctor's daughter's letters to her fiancé - a member of the underground - go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?]]> 436 Louis de Bernières Ally 0 to-read 4.21 1994 Captain Corelli's Mandolin
author: Louis de Bernières
name: Ally
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/31
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy, #1)]]> 9859616
It's 1911, and the coronation day of King George V. Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams begins his first day at work in a coal mine.

Drama and intrique unfold as Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty. As always, Ken Follett's richly developed historical background only enhances fast-moving action and powerful emotion of this absorbing narrative.]]> 850 follett-ken 0330460552 Ally 0 to-read 4.31 2010 Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy, #1)
author: follett-ken
name: Ally
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A History of Modern Britain 6431288 602 Andrew Marr 0330511475 Ally 0 to-read 4.02 2007 A History of Modern Britain
author: Andrew Marr
name: Ally
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Catcher in the Rye 578651 "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.]]> 192 J.D. Salinger 014023750X Ally 0 to-read 3.66 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Ally
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/31
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their Place in History]]> 9927312 304 Louise Raw 1441114262 Ally 0 to-read 4.10 2009 Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their Place in History
author: Louise Raw
name: Ally
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Short Stories: Volume 1]]> 10774685 528 W. Somerset Maugham Ally 0 to-read 4.18 1951 The Complete Short Stories: Volume 1
author: W. Somerset Maugham
name: Ally
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1951
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/01/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Alamut (Scala Translation) 1664129 Alamut takes place in 11th Century Persia, in the fortress of Alamut, where self-proclaimed prophet Hasan ibn Sabbah is setting up his mad but brilliant plan to rule the region with a handful elite fighters who are to become his "living daggers." By creating a virtual paradise at Alamut, filled with beautiful women, lush gardens, wine and hashish, Sabbah is able to convince his young fighters that they can reach paradise if they follow his commands. With parallels to Osama bin Laden, Alamut tells the story of how Sabbah was able to instill fear into the ruling class by creating a small army of devotees who were willing to kill, and be killed, in order to achieve paradise. Believing in the supreme Ismaili motto “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,� Sabbah wanted to “experiment� with how far he could manipulate religious devotion for his own political gain through appealing to what he called the stupidity and gullibility of people and their passion for pleasure and selfish desires.
The novel focuses on Sabbah as he unveils his plan to his inner circle, and on two of his young followers � the beautiful slave girl Halima, who has come to Alamut to join Sabbah's paradise on earth, and young ibn Tahir, Sabbah's most gifted fighter. As both Halima and ibn Tahir become disillusioned with Sabbah's vision, their lives take unexpected turns.

Alamut was originally written in 1938 as an allegory to Mussolini's fascist state. In the 1960's it became a cult favorite throughout Tito's Yugoslavia, and in the 1990s, during the Balkan's War, it was read as an allegory of the region's strife and became a bestseller in Germany, France and Spain. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the book once again took on a new life, selling more than 20,000 copies in a new Slovenian edition, and being translated around the world in more than 19 languages. This edition, translated by Michael Biggins, in the first-ever English translation.

Ěý]]> 389 Vladimir Bartol 1556436815 Ally 0 to-read 4.18 1938 Alamut (Scala Translation)
author: Vladimir Bartol
name: Ally
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1938
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars]]> 7240115

From the Hardcover edition.]]> 400 Martin Pugh 1844139239 Ally 0 to-read 3.60 2008 We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars
author: Martin Pugh
name: Ally
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/29
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]]> Helena 1934249 158 Evelyn Waugh Ally 0 to-read 3.33 1950 Helena
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Ally
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1950
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/29
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]]> Parade's End 13561867
In four volumes (Some Do Not�, No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up� and The Last Post), Parade's End traces the psychological damage inflicted by battle, the collapse of England's secure Edwardian values and the new age, embodied by Tietjens's beautiful, selfish wife, Sylvia. It is an elegy for the war dead and the passing of a way of life, and a work of amazing subtlety and profundity.]]> 836 Ford Madox Ford 0141392193 Ally 0 to-read 3.82 1928 Parade's End
author: Ford Madox Ford
name: Ally
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1928
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Ryton, Crawcrook & Greenside Through Time]]> 14443606 96 Nick Neave 1445607107 Ally 5 5.00 2012 Ryton, Crawcrook & Greenside Through Time
author: Nick Neave
name: Ally
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/01/29
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review:

]]> Dream of the Walled City 142573 Dream of the Walled City

Born in 1890, the privileged and sheltered daughter of a high-ranking imperial official, Jade Virtue spends her childhood enclosed by the towering walls of her family's sprawling mansion, never glimpsing the desperate struggle of China's ancient society, as the old ways are challenged and the twentieth century - fast, fearsome, and tumultuous - rushes in. But when her father mysteriously dies, young Jade Virtue is suddenly thrust into poverty, and experiences firsthand a traditional culture falling apart under the onslaught of growing rebellion against the Emperor, rapid social changes, and the mounting aggression of Japan and the West.

Fleischman has rendered a richly textured, panoramic vision of Chinese life in the perilous years between the end of the empire and the Communist triumph of 1949, charting Jade Virtue's arranged first marriage to the corrupt opium addict Wang Mang, who harbors a terrible secret in his family's past; her awakening independence and ambivalent politics; her struggles with motherhood; and her fascinating acquaintance with a gifted, idealistic, fiercely ambitious young man named Mao Zedong. But the most important choices of her life are shaped by her conflicting loyalties to her intense lifelong friendship with Jinyu, a fiery woman revolutionary, and to Guai, a government official and sworn enemy of the Communists, with whom she finally discovers true and redemptive love.

Exquisitely nuanced and lyrical yet marked with a driving power, Dream Of The Walled City is an enthralling novel of hard-won personal independence set against the vivid backdrop of a rapidly changing world. From the final days of the last dynasty through the savage Japanese invasion during World War II to the formidable red dawn of the Communist triumph; from the backward rural province of Hunan to exile on the tropical shores of Taiwan; and from the binding chains of predetermined fate to the exhilarating liberation of a human spirit, this is a remarkable odyssey you will never forget.]]> 448 Lisa Huang Fleischman 0671042297 Ally 0 to-read 4.03 1991 Dream of the Walled City
author: Lisa Huang Fleischman
name: Ally
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1991
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]]> <![CDATA[Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939]]> 1080662 Among the Bohemians is a portrait of England's artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century, engaged in a grand experiment.

Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant - the Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they painted and danced and didn't care what people thought. They sent their children to co-ed schools; explored homosexuality and Free Love. They were often drunk, broke and hungry but they were rebels.

In this fascinating book Virginia Nicholson examines the way the Bohemians refashioned the way we live our lives.

'Interesting, gorgeous, wonderful.... this book displays the best of bohemia itself - playful, dazzling, original' Julie Burchill, Spectator

'Racy, vivacious, warm-hearted. Offers an illuminating and well-researched portrait of life among the artists, a century ago' TLS

Virginia Nicholson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She has worked as a documentary researcher for BBC Television and her first book, Charleston - A Bloomsbury House and Garden (written in collaboration with her father, Quentin Bell), was an account of the Sussex home of her grandmother, the painter Vanessa Bell. Her second book, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, was published by Penguin in 2002. She lives in Sussex.]]> 362 Virginia Nicholson 014028978X Ally 0 to-read 3.84 2002 Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939
author: Virginia Nicholson
name: Ally
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2002
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]]> <![CDATA[Dying in the Wool (Kate Shackleton, #1)]]> 6940151
Add a measure of mystery ...

Until the day that Master of the Mill Joshua Braithwaite goes missing in dramatic circumstances, never to be heard of again.

A sprinkling of scandal ...

Now Joshua's daughter is getting married and wants one last attempt at finding her father. Has he run off with his mistress, or was he murdered for his mounting coffers?

And Kate Shackleton, amateur sleuth extraordinaire!

Kate Shackleton has always loved solving puzzles. So who better to get to the bottom of Joshua's mysterious disappearance? But as Kate taps into the lives of the Bridgestead dwellers, she opens cracks that some would kill to keep closed.]]> 357 Frances Brody 0749941871 Ally 0 to-read 3.55 2009 Dying in the Wool (Kate Shackleton, #1)
author: Frances Brody
name: Ally
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2009
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]]> The Painted Kiss 276578 The Kiss - and whose name he uttered with is dying breath.

Vienna in 1886 was a city of elegant cafés, grand opera houses, and a thriving and adventurous artistic community. It is here where the twelve-year-old Emilie meets the controversial libertine and painter. Hired by her bourgeois father for basic drawing lessons, Klimt introduces Emilie to a subculture of dissolute artists, wanton models, and decadent patrons that both terrifies and inspires her. The Painted Kiss follows Emilie as she blossoms from a naïve young girl to one of Europe's most exclusive couturiers—and Klimt's most beloved model and mistress. A provocative love story that brings to life Vienna's cultural milieu, The Painted Kiss is as compelling as a work by Klimt himself.

~from the back cover]]> 289 Elizabeth Hickey 0743492617 Ally 0 to-read 3.74 2005 The Painted Kiss
author: Elizabeth Hickey
name: Ally
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
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]]> The Assassin's Cloak 759339
Spanning centuries and international in scope, this peerless anthology pays tribute to a genre that is at once the most intimate and public of all literary forms.

This new updated edition is published to mark the twentieth anniversary of the book's original publication.]]> 698 Irene Taylor 1841954594 Ally 0 to-read 4.00 1990 The Assassin's Cloak
author: Irene Taylor
name: Ally
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
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]]> <![CDATA[The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo - Scottish Border Reivers]]> 199993 The Steel Bonnets tells their true story in its historical context - how the reivers ran their raids and operated their system of blackmail and terrorism, and how the March Wardens, enforcing the unique Border law, fought the great lawless community. A superb work of scholarship and a spellbinding narrative. George MacDonald Fraser is the celebrated author of the Flashman novels, The Candlemass Road, The Pyrates, and the Private McAuslan stories.]]> 404 George MacDonald Fraser 0002727463 Ally 0 to-read 4.07 1972 The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo - Scottish Border Reivers
author: George MacDonald Fraser
name: Ally
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1972
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]]> Tom Fleck 10664161 'Sharp as quivering hares are the Flecks. We've eyes and ears for things other folk miss.'

Much later, in the aftermath of Flodden, a young man finally understands his father's words.

The year: 1513. The place: North-East England.

Tom Fleck, a downtrodden farm worker but gifted archer, yearns to escape his masters. He unearths two objects that could be keys to freedom: a torque of ancient gold and a Tudor seal ring. He cannot know how these finds will determine his future.

Rachel Coronel craves an end to her Jewish wanderings. When the torque comes to rest around the neck of this mysterious woman, an odyssey begins which draws Tom Fleck into borderlands of belief and race.

The seal ring propels Tom on a journey of self-knowledge that can only climax in another borderland - among the flowers and banners of Flodden Field.]]> 266 Harry Nicholson 1908147768 Ally 0 to-read 4.52 2011 Tom Fleck
author: Harry Nicholson
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average rating: 4.52
book published: 2011
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]]> <![CDATA[Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford]]> 1295277 Jessica Mitford 0753822296 Ally 0 to-read 4.23 2006 Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford
author: Jessica Mitford
name: Ally
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2006
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]]> At the Bay 3151496 39 Katherine Mansfield 1857997425 Ally 0 to-read 3.72 1922 At the Bay
author: Katherine Mansfield
name: Ally
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1922
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]]> <![CDATA[A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness & a Trove of Letters Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression]]> 8860297
Shortly before Christmas 1933 in Depression-scarred Canton, Ohio, a small newspaper ad offered $10, no strings attached, to 75 families in distress. Interested readers were asked to submit letters describing their hardships to a benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot. The author's grandfather Sam Stone was inspired to place this ad and assist his fellow Cantonians as they prepared for the cruelest Christmas most of them would ever witness.

Moved by the tales of suffering and expressions of hope contained in the letters, which he discovered in a suitcase 75 years later, Ted Gup initially set out to unveil the lives behind them, searching for records and relatives all over the country who could help him flesh out the family sagas hinted at in those letters. From these sources, Gup has re-created the impact that Mr B. Virdot's gift had on each family. Many people yearned for bread, coal, or other necessities, but many others received money from B. Virdot for more fanciful items-a toy horse, say, or a set of encyclopedias. As Gup's investigations revealed, all these things had the power to turn people's lives around- even to save them.

But as he uncovered the suffering and triumphs of dozens of strangers, Gup also learned that Sam Stone was far more complex than the lovable- retiree persona he'd always shown his grandson. Gup unearths deeply buried details about Sam's life-from his impoverished, abusive upbringing to felonious efforts to hide his immigrant origins from U.S. officials-that help explain why he felt such a strong affinity to strangers in need. Drawing on his unique find and his award-winning reportorial gifts, Ted Gup solves a singular family mystery even while he pulls away the veil of eight decades that separate us from the hardships that united America during the Depression. In A Secret Gift , he weaves these revelations seamlessly into a tapestry of Depression-era America, which will fascinate and inspire in equal measure.

Watch a Video]]> 384 Ted Gup 1594202702 Ally 5 3.58 2010 A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness & a Trove of Letters Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression
author: Ted Gup
name: Ally
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Love-Charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War]]> 17170088 519 Lara Feigel 1408830442 Ally 0 to-read 3.70 2013 The Love-Charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War
author: Lara Feigel
name: Ally
average rating: 3.70
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]]> Sword of Honour 624935 Sword of Honour is the complete one-volume edition of his masterful trilogy, edited with an introduction by Angus Calder in Penguin Modern Classics.

Waugh's own unhappy experience of being a soldier is superbly re-enacted in this story of Guy Crouchback, a Catholic and a gentleman, commissioned into the Royal Corps of Halberdiers during the war years 1939-45. High comedy - in the company of Brigadier Ritchie-Hook or the denizens of Bellamy's Club - is only part of the shambles of Crouchback's war. When action comes in Crete and in Yugoslavia, he discovers not heroism, but humanity. Sword of Honour combines three volumes: Officers and Gentlemen, Men at Arms and Unconditional Surrender, which were originally published separately. Extensively revised by Waugh, they were published as the one-volume Sword of Honour in 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read.

Evelyn Waugh (1903-66) was born in Hampstead, second son of Arthur Waugh, publisher and literary critic, and brother of Alec Waugh, the popular novelist. In 1928 he published his first work, a life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and his first novel, Decline and Fall, which was soon followed by Vile Bodies (1930), A Handful of Dust (1934) and Scoop (1938). In 1939 he was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, serving in the Middle East and in Yugoslavia. In 1942 he published Put Out More Flags and then in 1945 Brideshead Revisited. Men at Arms (1952) was the first volume of 'The Sword of Honour' trilogy, and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; the other volumes, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender, followed in 1955 and 1961.

If you enjoyed Sword of Honour, you might like Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'Marvellous ... one of the masterpieces of the century'
John Banville, Irish Times]]> 694 Evelyn Waugh Ally 0 to-read 4.20 1965 Sword of Honour
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Ally
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1965
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