Top Ten Books My Mom Would Love

Flowers for Mom!
(Actually, it's the Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands).

I'm a couple of days early for a Top Ten list, but in honor of Mother's Day, here's a list of books I think my mother would love. We have quite similar taste in books (and I'm pretty sure she's read some of these already). But this is my Top Ten List of Books My Mom Would Love.

Polly Walker, Joan Plowright, and Josie Lawrence in the film version of Enchanted April.

1. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. Four Edwardian women rent a castle in Italy for a month. Beautiful gardens, a castle, and ocean views. And Italian food! What is not to like? (Also has a great movie adaptation).

2.  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. Probably the most popular book in the Persephone catalog, and with good reason. A down-on-her-luck spinster accidentally gets the wrong assignment from an employment agency, and is swept into a whirlwind when she works as a secretary for a glamorous nightclub singer. The movie adaptation was brilliantly cast with Frances McDormand as Miss Pettigrew and Amy Adams as her employer, Delysia LaFosse. (McDormand also narrates the audio version, also wonderful).

The ladies of Wives & Daughters: from left, Cynthia, Molly, and her stepmother Hyacinth.

3.  Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. One of my favorite Victorian novels, it's the story of young Molly Gibson, whose life is upturned when her widower father remarries because he thinks she needs a woman's influence. She's not exactly a wicked stepmother but she's very misguided, and Molly also gets a stepsister Cynthia in the bargain. A great story about class and the role of women in 1830s England. And yet another great TV miniseries, one of my all-time favorites. (Also stars the brilliant Michael Gambon as the local squire).

4.  Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope. My mom is actually the one who introduced me to Trollope, but I don't think she's read this one. One of Trollope's romantic comedies about the course of true love never running smoothly. It's one of his shorter novels and it's not one of his two famous series, so it's a great introduction to Trollope if you're daunted by the Pallisers and the Barsetshire Chronicles. One of the few books on this list that hasn't been adapted for TV or movies, but I wish it were! 

Prunella Scales, left, as Miss Mapp; and Geraldine McEwan as Lucia.

5.  Mapp and Lucia by E. F. Benson. The fourth in the Lucia series, and my favorite (though they're all really funny). Set in the 1930s, two middle-aged social climbing women in an English village  constantly try to one-up each other, with hilarious results. There have been two TV adaptations so far. I haven't seen the 2014 version, but the 1980s version is brilliant -- Nigel Hawthorne is especially delightful as Lucia's best friend Georgie. 

6.  Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson. Another delightful book reprinted by Persephone. Like Miss Pettigrew, Miss Buncle is a spinster in financial straits, but she makes her own luck by publishing a thinly-veiled humorous book about her friends and neighbors in the small town of Silverstream, and life soon begins to imitate art. Stevenson wrote more than 40 novels and was a bestselling author with over 7 million copies of her books in print during the mid-century. Most of them are currently out of print but a few have been reprinted by Persephone and Sourcebooks and there are a lot of used copies for sale online. 

Dorothy Whipple

7.  The Priory by Dorothy Whipple -- well, pretty much anything by Dorothy Whipple, one of my favorite Persephone writers (though I already I forced a copy of Someone at a Distance on poor Mom on a previous visit. She did enjoy it!) Whipple is one of Persephone's most popular writers and her novels and short stories are just wonderful, though they're often tragic tales of mid-century domestic fiction. She's very middlebrow but there's nothing wrong with that. 

8.  84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. A charming true story of a postal friendship between a sassy New York journalist and a reserved London bookseller. Hanff was looking for particular classics in the 1950s  and couldn't find them in New York, so she began writing to a second-hand bookstore in Charing Cross. What followed was a long friendship based on books but is so much more. Ann Bancroft stars as Hanff in the movie adaptation -- she loved the book so much, her husband Mel Brooks bought her the film rights. Now, that's a lovely gift!

9.  The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. OK, this is an entire series, not just one book, but they're so good I have to include the whole series. It's the story of an extended upper-middle class family starting just before WWII, and how they react to the War and what follows. A great saga with well-developed characters, and I loved all five volumes.

10.  The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer. Part Pride & Prejudice, part Emma, this Regency farce is pure fun, and just the thing when you've finished all of Jane Austen. Heyer's books are great escapist fiction -- and unlike Jane Austen, she wrote about 50 books, so it'll take a long time to finish all of them!

I could go on and on, but these are books I know my mother (and many other mothers) would love. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Top 10 Things That Will Instantly Make Me NOT Want to Read a Book

I'm a couple of days behind, but as a follow up to a recent Top Ten Tuesday list of triggers that will instant pique my interest in a book, here's the flip side: the top ten things that will make me NOT want to read a book.

1.  Fictional stories about real people. There are so many great biographies, I'd much rather read about the actual lives of famous people, which are usually pretty interesting. And this relates directly to #2.

2. Modern retellings/prequels/sequels, or stories about side characters in classic fiction. Honestly, it's just fan fiction -- authors, make up your own characters! It just seems gimmicky and unimaginative to me. I don't mind nearly as much reading about fictional characters set in historical time periods, like the French Revolution or the 1920s, but it does bother me when authors try to just reshape other people's characters. I'm much more impressed with authors who create their own situations and characters.

3. Chick-lit cutesy covers for classic books. Also, book covers of historical or classic books in which the people depicted on the cover are wearing fashions from the wrong time period. E-books are notorious for this.

4. "The Next (insert trendy book here)." If I wanted to read the next Gone Girl or Girl on the Train, I would probably just read the original (which I actually have). It just seems that authors just want to jump on the bandwagon of whatever was the most recent breakout best-seller, though to be fair, it's quite possible that it's the publishers who are really interested in publishing that type of thing. And I get it, they need to sell books, it just seems like the same thing over and over.

5. Violence against women and children. I had to give up reading thrillers and a lot of crime novels because it just seemed over and over to be gruesome crimes, particularly against women and girls. There's enough of that in real life.

6.  Books with hardly any female characters, or women in subservient roles. It's hard enough for women in real life. I really enjoy nonfiction, especially history, and some of those tend to be male-centric just because obviously, women didn't have opportunities. But some of my favorite nonfiction books have been about famous women.

7. Fictional stories inspired current events, especially tragedies. Relates to #1 -- I really don't want to read a story based on a school shooting or terrorist attack, and if it does have some historical significance, I'd probably read a non-fiction account, like I am Malala or Zeitoun. Basically, anything by Jodi Picoult fits this category.

8. High fantasy. I'll read an occasional fantasy book, but it's nearly always low fantasy. I'm much more interested in fantastic or magical things that happen to people in the real world. I tend to get overwhelmed by all the world-building in high fantasy -- if there's a glossary or huge history that goes with the book, it's usually too much for me (the exception was Game of Thrones, and I did see the TV series first. I did get bogged down by all the back-stories and different characters by the fifth book, though I still like the HBO adaptation which has actually caught up with the written version and continued the story because it's taking so long for George R. R. Martin to finish it).

9. Science fiction/dystopian novels. Dystopian novels are just too depressing, and there's usually too much tech in science fiction. I will make an exception for the occasional time-travel novel, but to me that's really low fantasy/historical -- I don't think I'd read a time-travel novel in which a character was going to the future, though a historical character traveling into our present might be interesting.

10. Supernatural stories. Not really interested in vampires, werewolves, zombies, or ghosts. I almost never read horror -- I went through a Stephen King phase back in middle school and high school and I think I stopped with Cujo. I can't watch horror movies either.

Bloggers, what are your bookish pet peeves? What turns you off a book?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Things That Will Instantly Make Me Want to Read a Book

It's been a long time since I participated in a Top Ten Tuesday! I can't think why I've waited so long, since I adore making lists (I sometimes make lists just so I can cross things off. Does anyone else do this?)

Anyway, this week's Top Ten topic is a good one: top ten things that will instantly make me want to read a book. Here are a ten of the literary keywords and topics that will normally pique my interest:

1. The Victorian time period. I love the Victorian period -- books written in the Victorian period, nonfiction about the Victorian period, and often, recent fiction set in the period. I'm incredibly glad I didn't live in that time -- I like modern medicine, sanitation, and women's rights, thanks very much! But I do love reading about it.

2.  The war at home. I love the WWII era, though not so much the actual battles -- I'm far more interested in how the war affected people and their everyday lives. I've mostly read books set in Great Britain but other countries are fascinating as well.

3.  Between the wars. I love reading about the 1920s and 1930s, again, mostly British, but American books are fun too. There are so many great stories set in great country houses, kind of the last gasp before that lifestyle began to fade. 

4.  Country houses.  British or American, mysteries or dramas, I love when groups of people are together in the country. Stories tend to be about the upper classes but I love reading about the whole upstairs/downstairs dynamic.

5. Books set on trains. I love, love, love train travel, and I love the idea of disparate people thrown together. Books set on long sea voyages and hotels also fit this category.

6. Books set on boats. I haven't done much sailing or cruising but I love the romance of boats and the sea. I'd love to go on a long sailing voyage someday, though I have no idea whether I'd be seasick or not! 

7. Books set in Scandinavia. I've developed a fascination with Scandinavian TV dramas and it's made me really intrigued with Scandinavian books as well. I read the first volume of Kristin Lavransdatter earlier this year and just loved it. I've read some crime fiction but I'm interested in literary fiction as well, either in translation or just set there. 

8.  Books with food. I have a culinary background and worked in some professional kitchens, mostly baking, so I always love when books have a lot of food descriptions in them. 

9.  Middlebrow women's fiction. Not highbrow but not trashy enough to be lowbrow, middlebrow are the often forgotten books that fall in the middle. Frequently the authors' works are out of print, but some are being rediscovered -- if you've ever read Persephone and Virago books, that's middlebrow. Now there's even new imprint from Dean Street press called Furrowed Middlebrow, curated by the blogger of the same name. For a great list of 100 great Middlebrow Books, see here. 

10. Small town life. I grew up in a pretty boring suburb, then spent years in a large city, so I've never really experienced life in a small town. I love stories about communities where everyone knows everyone -- I'd probably hate it in real life, but it's fun to read about.

Bloggers, what keywords immediately pique your interest in a book? And do you have any suggestions for me from this list? 

Top Ten Books To Read If Your Book Group Likes Classics

I don't write that many Top Ten Tuesday posts but I couldn't resist this one -- some of my happiest reading experiences have been with book groups and I've always found book groups to be the best ways to find kindred spirits. I've been in many book groups and it's always fun to throw in a classic every once in awhile. I've been pleasantly surprised by classics that I thought I would absolutely hate.

I actually couldn't narrow it down to ten, so there are two bonus choices. In no particular order:

1. Germinal by Emile Zola. By far, one of the classics that has had the greatest impact upon me as a reader. I'd read a couple of books by Zola but Amanda from The Zen Leaf suggested our real-life  classics book group read Germinal and I understood what all the fuss was about. It's amazing.

2. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Even though true crime really creeps me out, the writing is just masterful.

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This is short, but powerful, and it speaks to so many women. Some of it is in dialect but it's a really easy (and short) read.

4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I think I've read this with three different book groups, and it's been a hit every time. Set in China between the wars, the themes about family dynamics are universal.

5. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham. Another book set in China, but very different from The Good Earth.  Kitty Fane is the spoiled, self-centered wife of a doctor working in 1920s Hong Kong, and after her husband realizes she's been unfaithful, he takes her to the Chinese countryside so he can treat a cholera outbreak. It's tragic and beautiful, and one of Maugham's beat (also a great movie adaptation).

6. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. I finally finished this a couple of months ago and I so wish I could discuss it with a book group! Young and idealistic Carol Kennicott moves from Minneapolis to a small Minnesota town and thinks she can uplift and elevate the locals.

7. Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. Not so much crime noir as you'd think, this is the story of a really twisted relationship between a working-class mother trying to pull herself up by her bootstraps to impress her ungrateful daughter. They put the fun in dysfunction! I chose it for a book group simply because the library had enough copies and it one of the group's top reads of the year, I can't stop recommending it.

8 & 9. Ethan Frome or House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Ethan Frome is shorter but House of Mirth has Lily Bart, one of literature's most tragic heroine. They have totally different settings but both of them are about the futility of loving the wrong person.

10. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. I'd never had any desire to read this but it was for a book group. I was blown away by the beautiful writing and themes of this book about a group of misfits living in a boarding house in a small Southern town. This would be a great choice for a book group that's already discussed To Kill a Mockingbird.

11. West with the Night by Beryl Markham. An amazing memoir by an aviatrix raised in Africa, she was a contemporary of Isak Denisen, Denys Finch-Hatton, and Ernest Hemingway. The writing is just beautiful. There's also a beautiful illustrated edition with lovely photos.

12. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I was nearly done with the list and I realized how tragic most of them are! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has sad elements, but it's a beautiful and uplifting book. I didn't read it until I was grown up and I am so sorry I waited!

And I can't believed I left out Steinbeck, Dickens, and Hardy! If I don't stop now the list will be twice as long. Bloggers, which classics would you recommend for book groups? Please let me know in the comments.

Top Ten Books If You're Sad About Downton Abbey Ending

I haven't participated in a Top Ten Tuesday for a long time, but I'm a little bereft at the end of my favorite Masterpiece show. Sure, it was really a gorgeously shot period soap opera with fabulous costumes, and the ending was mostly predictable, but here are some suggestions to fill the void until there's a new Masterpiece obsession. All but one of these has been adapted into a movie or TV miniseries, some of them more than once. 

In no particular order, here are ten Downton-esque novels that I've read and loved (some are series):

1. The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford.  Two books in one! These are the first two in Mitford's hilarious satires of upper-crust life in country mansion. Mitford's own father is skewed as the bellowing Uncle Matthew. Also a great BBC adaptation with the luminous Rosamund Pike.

2. The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse. Bertie Wooster is ensnared by his Aunt Dahlia to steal an antique silver cow creamer while simultaneously trying to save the engagements of two friends. Jeeves just wants to go on a cruise around the world, but saves the day anyway. Highclere Castle (the real-life Downton Abbey) was the location for parts of the BBC episode of Jeeves & Wooster that adapted this book (it's Season 2, Episode 1 if you want to watch the DVD, or it's available on demand from Amazon.)

3. The Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiguro. What if Carson wrote a book about his life at Downton? A long-suffering butler reflects on his years in service. 

4. The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton. Cora Crawley isn't the only American heiress to marry a cash-poor British aristocrat. Her last novel is the story of four American debs on the hunt for titled husbands. Wharton died before finishing the last third of the novel, which was completed based on her notes. 

5. The Light Years and the entire Cazalet series by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Great family saga about an extended British family that starts in the 1930s and continues through WWII and the aftermath. And there are five books, enough to fall in love with all the characters. 

6. The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. Forbidden love on an estate between a wealthy young woman and a handsome farmer, as viewed by a twelve-year old boy. 

7. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Fanny Price isn't actually a servant, but her snobbish cousins treat her like a second-class citizen after they take her in. Lots of scandalous behavior upstairs, enough to rival Downton Abbey.

8. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. A shy, introverted paid companion of a rich American meets a handsome, wealthy English widower in Monte Carlo, and after a brief and odd courtship, he marries her and takes her home to the family estate in Cornwall, where the secrets of his first marriage are exposed. Great atmosphere and a seriously messed-up housekeeper make this one of my all-time favorites. 

9. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. Another Masterpiece favorite, this book moves through the Victorian, Edwardian, and WWI eras of English history, and shows how an upper-class family changing to keep up with the times. Originally published as three books, it won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932. 

10. The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt. Another saga about an extended family, this one in the Edwardian era and beyond. It's basically a really great history lesson about English society as it transitions from the Victorian Era to the horrors of the Great War, with the family of an eccentric children's book author as a microcosm. It hasn't been adapted as a TV miniseries yet, but it would be amazing if someone adapted it. BBC, are you reading this? 

And of course there are lots more books about the Edwardians, WWI, and 1920s, both fiction and nonfiction. Bloggers, what do you recommend? And what are you watching now that Downton is all over?