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Our second Autumn read is Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope. We haven't read a Trollope work for the past two years, so this is something to look forward to. And I've never read Trollope before, so that adds to the excitement.

Anthony Trollope was a popular and successful Victorian author, best known for his Chronicles of Barsetshire. He has written 47 novels. And additionally dozens of short stories and a few books on travel.

A complete biography of his can be found through these links:

A short introduction on Rachel Ray can be found here. But it may contain spoilers.

This group read will be from 18th October to 28th November. We'll be reading the book at a slow pace. It'll be 5 chapters a week for 6 weeks.

Volume 1

Week 1: Chapters I - V: Oct 18th - 24th
Week 2: Chapters VI - X: Oct 25th - 31st
Week 3: Chapters XI - XV: Nov. 1st - 7th

Volume 2

Week 4: Chapters XVI - XX: Nov. 8th - 14th
Week 5: Chapters XXI - XV: Nov. 15th - 21st
Week 6: Chapters XXVI - XXX: Nov. 22nd - 28th

Hope you'll join in with me for this read. And please share any background knowledge you may have of the author and/or the book.

How fun for you Piyangie - it's your first Trollope!

I am new to him as well and will be reading this book with the group.

My first book by him a few months ago Ayala's Angel was not a favorite of mine at all. I did want to read more though so I've started the Chronicles of Barsetshire. I loved the first book The Warden, it was so endearing. I'm struggling a bit with the second though Barchester Towers. Some parts I love, some seem to drag a bit.

I do love the premise of Rachel Ray "small community living its life in mid-nineteenth-century England" and have enjoyed reading books of this nature lately.

Looking forward to reading this with the group!

So pleased you are joining in with us, Brenda. I too am thinking of reading his Chronicles of Barsetshire for which is he is so well known. Will see how I'll get on with him with this reading. 😊

I’ll definitely be joining in, I’m so excited about this group read. I love Trollope, so far I’ve read The Warden, Can You Forgive Her?, The Eustace Diamonds and The Way We Live Now.

Pamela wrote: "I’ll definitely be joining in, I’m so excited about this group read. I love Trollope, so far I’ve read The Warden, Can You Forgive Her?, [book:The Eustace Diamonds|73954..."

Pleased to hear that you are joining in with us, Pamela. You've read a fair number by Trollope there. I don't know why I didn't get to him before. He seems to have been a popular author in his time. Hope I'll like RR enough to tempt me to read him more.

Looking forward to reading this with you, Piyangie! It is also my first Trollope and I also do love the premise of the book like you, Brenda.

Charlotte wrote: "Looking forward to reading this with you, Piyangie! It is also my first Trollope and I also do love the premise of the book like you, Brenda."

So nice to have you with us again, Charlotte. Hope we both will enjoy our first Trollope book. 😊

I too will be joining you all, actually I have already started as I had already read Haunted Hotel, but I am a slow reader. Till now I like everything about the book. And this is first Trollope for me also.

Nidhi wrote: "I too will be joining you all, actually I have already started as I had already read Haunted Hotel, but I am a slow reader. Till now I like everything about the book. And this is first Trollope for..."

Glad to have you, Nidhi. Even if you finish reading by the time we begin, please join in with our discussion.

Trollope is one of my favourite author ever!!! I'm in.
The only problem will be that of not reading it too quickly!!!!

LauraT wrote: "Trollope is one of my favourite author ever!!! I'm in.
The only problem will be that of not reading it too quickly!!!!"

Ha ha 😊. You can read at your own pace, Laura. Only please don't forget to share your thoughts in our discussion threads.

I will be joining you.

Anne wrote: "I will be joining you."

Happy to have you, Anne.

I will join you! I have recently read with ŷ������ groups The Way We Live Now (which I liked) and Ayala's Angel (I found it a little boring) and Orley Farm and Christmas at Thompson Hall some time ago (and I liked them both).

I will be joining you as well, just hope the book book I ordered arrives soon, I much prefer it to my e-reader.

Happy to have you both, Daniela and Frances!

@ Frances, I understand you completely. A book is always preferred to an e-reader. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to get down books to my part of the world due to the pandemic. So I'll have to resort to the e-book. *sigh*

Great - I've been meaning to read Rachel Ray for ages. I love Trollope and have probably read about a dozen of his. He CAN be a bit long-winded sometimes but RR is nice and short! My favourites of his so far have been The Warden and Barchester Towers, and I also really liked Can You Forgive Her. I couldn't get into The Way We Live Now at all, even though some say it's his masterpiece. That was the first of his that I read and it completely put me off, until a friend persuaded me to try The Warden and I was hooked!

Happy to have you too, Lorna. We'll have our first discussion thread opening on next Sunday. Very excited for my first Trollope read.

After reading all your comments, I think I should seriously consider reading more Trollope. I'll probably start with Barsetshire series because I have the third book with me.

I asked the moderators if could start reading for Trollope ‘s hefty books ( series ) which are not eligible for nominations from 2021 . But I couldn’t follow the thread. So if more members are ready to read the series we can use older threads.

Nidhi wrote: "I asked the moderators if could start reading for Trollope ‘s hefty books ( series ) which are not eligible for nominations from 2021 . But I couldn’t follow the thread. So if more members are read..."

I was planning to start the Barsetshire series soonish, so would love to do that with this group if others are up for that. It doesn't have to be that series, come to think of it. Either of the series will do.

I’ve been reading the Barsetshire series - I’m halfway through the 2nd book - and just love it !

So we are four , interested in reading Barchester series. First book is The Warden. This book has been nominated in other groups also it is quite famous among classics ‘s readers.

Nidhi wrote: "So we are four , interested in reading Barchester series. First book is The Warden. This book has been nominated in other groups also it is quite famous among classics ‘s readers."

Sounds good. When would we start? After Rachel Ray?

I’d be interested in joining the Barsetshire series from the 3rd book Dr. Thorne as I’ve almost finished the second one.

Nidhi wrote: "So we are four , interested in reading Barchester series. First book is The Warden. This book has been nominated in other groups also it is quite famous among classics ‘s readers."

I might like to join too.

I would suggest that we read Trollope ‘s series separate from the monthly reads , because they will take months and we have other Victorian authors to think of. Also people get bored reading one author continuously. Let moderators decide that.

On second thoughts , do we have option of buddy reading in this group?

Dear all, I'll pass on your interest on Trollope to other moderators. We'll see how it'll all turn up.

Thanks Piyangie.😊

I'm looking forward to this! Some reading schedules are overly ambitious, and I appreciate the moderators for making this feasible.
If anyone is interested in a buddy read, please send a message.

I will be joining in the read. I used to belong to a Trollope group on Yahoo, for which I read most of the author's work -- though I have not tackled Rachel Ray yet.

Happy to have you both, Daniel and Jim.

@Daniel, we do a pretty easy pace so that we won't be rushing those who join in with the read. And a slow pace is always good to appreciate the book. 😊

@Jim, hope you'll contribute your wealth of knowledge of Anthony Trollope with us. I'm new to him so I appreciate it. 😊

I would also like to read the Barsetshire series. I read the Pallisers and TWWLN with a group last year; but they had already completed Barsetshire, so I missed it. When were you thinking of starting? Beginning of the year?

Quite a few of you seem exceptionally excited about Anthony Trollope. He is still new to me and all the talk about his whole oeuvre looks a bit mysterious from the outside. Why are you so excited about this author?

Hello,
I will join in reading 'Rachel Ray'. I have previously read 'The Warden' and 'Barchester Towers' and I love Trollope's understated humour. Also I remember being very impressed with the TV series of 'The Way We Live Now' starring David Suchet as Melmotte, but I haven't actually read the book.

Triin wrote: "Hello,
I will join in reading 'Rachel Ray'. I have previously read 'The Warden' and 'Barchester Towers' and I love Trollope's understated humour. Also I remember being very impressed with the TV se..."

Happy to have you with us, Trian. And thanks for sharing the information on the TV series. Must check that out. I like Sir David Suchet. :)

Even though I have read many of Trollope’s novels, I will look forward to reading ‘Rachel Ray�� with this group. It is one I haven’t read. My favourites so far have been the Palliser novels but I have enjoyed most of them. There is some useful information, mainly about Trollope himself, on the Trollope Society website to be found at
The ‘timeline�� is particularly good in providing an overview of his life.

Trev wrote: "Even though I have read many of Trollope’s novels, I will look forward to reading ‘Rachel Ray�� with this group. It is one I haven’t read. My favourites so far have been the Palliser novels but I ha..."

Nice to have you too, Trev, and thanks for the link.

We can definitely set up a Buddy Read for Trollope or the Barsetshire novels. To me, it looked like you were thinking to start after RR. Is that correct? Or do you want to wait until January? Is someone taking the lead?

I am also interested in reading the Barsetshire series

We have Nidhi, Brenda, Pamela, Charlotte, Lili, and Daniela interested in reading Barsetsire Chronicles. As Renee mentioned we can set up a buddy read thread. Please let us know when you'll want to begin. You may select one among you to lead.

Sorry, but it looks like I won't be able to participate.

Anne wrote: "Sorry, but it looks like I won't be able to participate."

Noted, Anne. I'll remove your name from the list of interested. Thanks.

I think we should start from January 2021. But i will join if it is started early.

Piyangie wrote: We have Nidhi, Brenda, Pamela, Charlotte, Lili, and Daniela interested in reading Barsetsire Chronicles. As Renee mentioned we can set up a buddy read thread. Please let us know when you'll want to begin. You may select one among you to lead.

I would probably follow along the discussions, but as I've already started and more than 1/2 way through the 2nd book, I will have to see when the group starts, etc. I don't want to put it down at this point and will continue reading to not lose the story.

I’ve just begun reading “Rachel Ray��, and I’m enjoying it very much. I also appreciate having the schedule that you’ve set up.