Another episode of ‘Peas in a Podcast’, the podcast I make with my brother Colin – and in which we largely talk nonsense. In this episode, we discuss cushions, school musicals, and giving up tea for Lent. As usual, all the most pressing issues of the day.
Simon visited Rachel – so naturally took a look around the shelves. Come for the tour!
In a change from scheduled programming, we do a slightly different episode. I was staying with Rachel in her beautiful flat while I was at a conference – and we thought it would be fun for me to take a tour of her shelves, discussing the books that caught our eye as we went around. We’ll be back to normal service next time – and hopefully I’ll be able to return the favour with my shelves at some point.
We don’t usually record quite this haphazardly, so fingers crossed the audio is OK. And, don’t forget, you can support the podcast at Patreon, see us at iTunes, and please do rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. And do get in touch if you have any ideas for future episodes – particularly for the first halves.
We’re gonna mention a LOT of books and authors in this podcast, so ready yourself for a super long list:
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Mrs Christopher by Elizabeth Myers
Littleton Powys
A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
Wolf Solvent by John Cowper Powys
A Baker’s Dozen by Llewellyn Powys
Mr Weston’s Good Wine by T.F. Powys
The Letters of Elizabeth Myers
Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
Greengates by R.C. Sherriff
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Loved and Envied by Enid Bagnold
The Squire by Enid Bagnold
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys
Alva & Irva by Edward Carey
Little by Edward Carey
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
Crossriggs by Jane and Mary Findlater
The Green Road by Anne Enright
The Boat by L.P. Hartley
Seasoned Timber by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
A Perfect Woman by L.P. Hartley
News of the World by Paulette Giles
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
Four Hedges by Claire Leighton
Rosamund Lehmann
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
The Green Leaves of Summer by Oriel Malet
Marjory Fleming by Oriel Malet
Letters from Menabilly by Daphne du Maurier
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Four Days’ Wonder by A.A. Milne
Nancy Mitford
The Happy Tree by Rosalind Murray
Marilynne Robinson
Dorothy L Sayers
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Elizabeth Taylor
A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark
Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray
The Country Child by Alice Uttley
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Lisette’s List by Susan Vreeland
Sarah Waters
Evelyn Waugh
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
Stoner by John Williams
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Edith Wharton
Dorothy Whipple
All the Days and Nights by William Maxwell
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Noel Streatfeild
Finn Family Moonmintroll by Tove Jansson
E.M. Delafield
Jane Austen
Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton
St Clare’s series by Enid Blyton
Miss Read
Little House on the Prarie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Provincial Lady Goes Further by E.M. Delafield
Mazo de la Roche
How Like an Angel by A.G. Macdonnell
England, Their England by A.G. Macdonnell
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Goodnight, Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
Teaching Grammar Through Literature by Rachel Fenn (!!) and Anna McGlynn
Happily Ever After by Susannah Fullerton
The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
The Road to Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
Virginia Woolf by Alexandra Harris
Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light
Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne
The Path Through The Trees by Christopher Milne
The Other Day by Dorothy Whipple
Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
A Very Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Bluestockings by Jane Robinson
Knole and the Sackvilles by Vita Sackville-West
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood
The Long Weekend by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge
The Houses of the National Trust
The Illustrated Dust Jacket 1920-1970 by Martin Salisbury
Station to Station
Britain’s Lost Railways
A whole bunch of railway books that I couldn’t find the titles for. I just can’t.
Period Piece by Gwen Raverat
A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes
As mentioned in my Weekend Miscellany, I spent some of Saturday at Astley Book Farm – with some friends from university and their three children. It was super fun (and, let me tell you, Astley does not skimp on their cake slices). The turnover of books didn’t seem to be huge in the six months since I’d been there, and the children’s section might have been more restricted than I’d imagined (having not ventured into that section before). It was definitely still a joy to go back, and I bought four books – maybe the last books I’ll buy this year?? (But also probably not, let’s be honest.)
My Friend Says It’s Bullet-Proof by Penelope Mortimer
I’ve been meaning to buy this distinctively titled Mortimer novel for so long, and just waiting until the moment came. And the moment was here! I do have one or two books I’ve yet to read by her on my shelves, but another can’t hurt.
The Best Books of Our Time by Asa Don Dickinson
This is an annotated list of the best books published between 1900 and 1925. I have only dipped in so far, but the list will hopefully bring loads of suggestions into my life. It is based on the votes of many people, and is just the sort of book I couldn’t leave behind. Who was Asa D D? No idea…
The Dress Doctor by Edith Head
Ms Head might be a big name I hadn’t heard about, but this non-fic book about costume design in 1940s/50s Hollywood sounded fascinating. I flicked through and saw Our Hearts Were Young and Gay mentioned, and I had to have it.
Last Boat to Folly Bridge by Eric Hiscock
I used to leave near Folly Bridge (in south Oxford) and walked across it more or less every day for two years – so the title caught my eye. It’s a memoir about publishing, so even better.
Spotify’s recommendations have come up trumps again. Not to be confused with ‘This Town Is Killing Me’, which I featured here a few weeks ago, here is a spectacular song by Natalie Hemby – ‘This Town Still Talks About You’. As well as being beautiful, I love the story to it – which looks at a small town remembering somebody who has left it, rather than the usual narrative from the perspective of the leaver.
You know how I’m not buying books this year, except for special trips? Well – this Saturday I’m off on one of those trips, back to Astley Book Farm. It’s not been super long since I was last there, and I don’t know how quickly they replenish their stock, so who knows what I’ll come back with. But I suspect something. And I also think this might be the second and final bookshop trip of the year! I’d planned them both last year, which is why they were the caveats.
While I’m there, I hope you’re enjoying your weekends – and here’s a book, a blog post, and link to help you do just that:
1.) The link – is an ingenious idea for an article from the Guardian. They contacted five people who won ‘lifetime supplies’ of different things, from toilet roll to chicken, and learned how this affected their lives (and what ‘lifetime supply’ means in practice). Guys, one of them is books!
2.) The book – I keep going back to WhichBook (after testing out lots of book recommendation websites) and writing down book titles and not buying them – but I was particularly intrigued by Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verhulst. I can’t remember what I put in the sliders, but it did seem very up my street. Find out more! (Has anybody read it?)
3.) The blog post – Moira makes The Strange Case of Harriet Hall by Moray Dalton sound pretty appealing, but the main reason to visit Clothes in Books this week is those lovely pictures of 1930s clothes. Heaven!
I’ve been watching still more movies, and it’s fun to write a little about each of them. Not least because I never seem to remember what I’ve seen if I don’t write it down. Don’t let that put you off these films, though, because I’ve watched some really good stuff recently.
Lilting
I loved this moving film about a man (Ben Whishaw) whose boyfriend has died – the film sees him trying to connect with his boyfriend’s grieving mother (Cheng Pei-pei), who is Chinese and doesn’t speak much English. With the help of a translator, they try to connect (and Peter Bowles is in a supporting role!) If you speak Mandarin and English, it might be a bit annoying that every line is essentially repeated by the translator, but that was not an issue for me. A simple, beautiful, thoughtful film – and a brilliant performance by Whishaw.
Moonlight
It won the Best Film Oscar a couple of years ago – remember envelope-gate? – and I’d avoided watching it because I thought it had lots of drug-taking in it. Turns out, no. It shows three periods of one man’s life, from child to teenager to adult, as he deals with an abusive mother, his sexuality, and being bullied. If that sounds super dark, then fear not – the film is oddly lovely, even with all those elements, and that’s probably because of the way it’s shot. A worthy winner.
Paterson
I forget where I saw this recommended, but was pleased to see it on Amazon Prime. Adam Driver plays Paterson (who lives in Paterson) – a bus driver who also writes poetry. He lives with his creative, affectionate girlfriend and their dog, and the movie mostly sees him go about his ordinary, everyday life. It’s truly lovely. There are few momentous events, and those that seem momentous turn out not to be – it’s rare to see ordinary, contented people shown so well, and it’s another beautiful film to add to this list of beautiful films.
We the Animals
Speaking of, the cinematography in this film is mesmerising, and that’s not something I’d usually notice. It’s about three brothers who grow up with volatile parents in near-poverty – and about the confusion that can come about from the mix of love, angst, violence, affection, and the failure to fit in. It drags a little in places, but Raul Castillo’s performance is brilliant, and (again) the way it is shot and edited is stunning.
Isn’t it Romantic
And now a change of pace! I set aside my irritation that this title doesn’t have a question mark (why?!) to enjoy a sort of spoof rom-com that was made by Netflix. Rebel Wilson hits her head and wakes up in a world that resembles a rom-com – she lives in an enormous New York apartment, has a female nemesis at work, and Liam Hemsworth is in love with her. It’s certainly not groundbreaking, but Wilson is always very engaging to watch, and the whole thing is super fun.
Having surprised myself by how I loved Pigs in Heaven last year, I was keen to read more by Barbara Kingsolver. I wouldn’t have read Pigs in Heaven if it weren’t for A Century of Books, and I was glad to find it still on my shelf – as I’d got rid of a few Kingsolver novels when I moved house. Mostly because they’re usually chunksters, and take up too much room on my limited shelves. Well, I ended up kicking myself for that, didn’t I?
After asking around, I decided to give Prodigal Summer (2000) a go – and I also decided (shelf space still an issue) to listen to the audiobook, read by Kingsolver herself. I didn’t know a lot about it, except that it had multiple narratives. And that it was very many hours long.
Unlike many books with multiple narratives, these weren’t separate perspectives on the same central story. Rather, these are tales of three people living different lives in the same broad area in Virginia. It covers a single summer, transformative for each of them in different ways. They are:
It is a rich a complex novel. Each of the characters has enormous depth, including most of the many secondary characters, and Kingsolver unfolds this in a leisurely way over the course of the book. I particularly appreciated that Deanna is not a lonely spinster type, and that she loves the solitude – or, rather, the human solitude. One of my favourite moments in the book is the line that “solitude is a human presumption’, because of course she is always surrounded by any number of creatures, large and small.
Even characters who initially seem a little cartoonishly drawn, through the eyes of Lusa or Garnett, grow as Lusa and Garnett learn more about them – whether that be tragedies in Nannie’s past, or Lusa discovering more about her siblings-in-law, nephews, and nieces. I shan’t say the enormous moment that affects Lusa’s journey, but it happens very early on and sets the tone for all of her sections.
So, I loved almost anything which involved more than one (human!) character. Kingsolver is brilliant at the gradual evolving of human relationships (romantic or otherwise), and paces them wonderfully. What I didn’t love so much were scenes with only one person in – and there are a lot of them. Equally, some polemical scenes are rather overdone.
The reason for these introspective scenes is often because of biology. As you may have spotted, all three of the main characters are fascinated – even obsessed – by one element of nature. Lusa the entomologist, Garnett and his trees, Deanna and coyotes. If you are also interested in biology, then this might also fascinate you. I am profoundly uninterested in bugs, trees, or predators. Nothing in science has ever really captivated me, and biology was always bottom of the list. Kingsolver evidently shares these interests, and explores them at length, but I would have preferred more about the human interactions and less thinking about food chains or cross-pollination.
And there are some scenes where one character will elaborate to another why their biological perspective is wrong – the lack of subtlety here reminded me of Kingsolver’s lack of subtlety in The Poisonwood Bible, which had initially put me off reading anything more by her. Deanna, particularly, with her lectures on why you shouldn’t kill coyotes, really began to pall at times. It was narratively interesting to me.
On the other hand, what did work with an impressive subtlety was the interweaving of the narratives. It was very occasional, and didn’t lead to any enormous revelations or substantive changes in the direction the novel was heading, but we gradually learn about the connections between these seemingly distinct lives. It helped give greater reality to this world she’d created.
Ultimately, then, I don’t think this book is ‘for me’ in the way that Pigs in Heaven was. But I think it would be the perfect book for somebody interested in biology and novels with real human depth – and, despite its faults or elements that put me off, I’ll be thinking about those wonderfully realised characters for a long time.
I’m sure you know about the exciting and excellent Furrowed Middlebrow series from Dean Street Press – if not, hurry to them – and today I’m going to share my post about Alice by Elizabeth Eliot. Below is the beginning of my review – you can read the rest over at Shiny New Books.
Hurrah to Dean Street Press and their continued Furrowed Middlebrow series, bringing back underrated women writers that most of us haven’t heard of before. Elizabeth Eliot certainly fits that category for me, but after reading Alice (1949), I’ll be keen to read more Eliot.
Despite being called Alice, the narrator is Margaret – she first encounters Alice when they are at boarding school together, in the late 1920s. It is immediately clear that Alice has left a significant effect on her schoolfriend, with Alice’s almost artless carefreeness showing options for a bohemian lifestyle that Margaret can’t quite aspire to.
Let’s face it, I’m never at a loss for book recommendations. Even if I somehow got through the 1300+ books on my shelves that I haven’t read, there are enough titles that I read about on blogs, hear about on podcasts, and learn about from friends that I am never going to run dry. And yet, nonetheless, I am intrigued by the concept of book recommendation websites. Do they work? Can algorithms understand my tastes?
Well, let’s see.
I’m using the first list of sites that I came across, which is on a site called Life Hack – “10 Best Book Recommendation Sites You Need to Know“. The article isn’t dated but, as we shall see, I think it must be a little bit old. I’ll be trying each of the sites out, and where they require me to add in some books to guess my taste, I’ll be using the three listed below. (I thought it might be mean and unhelpful to pick wildly different things I’ve liked.)
Let’s take the recommended recommendation sites one at a time, and see how things go.
This relies on you having put all your books in already. I have a GoodReads account, but I don’t use it, and I have no books listed there. Strike one.
I do, however, have a LibraryThing account, and have all my books listed there! So I don’t have to put in my test three, because it’s using nearly 3000 books to recommend from. And these are the top five books it tells me I should read:
You can even click on ‘Why?’, next to the recommendation, and it will list all the books that have made them bring up that recommendation. There were 83 reasons why for the Frankau!
These recommendations look really good, and I’ve been meaning to read more Frankau and try Jameson. I’m less sure about the Hannah, but the Marsh and Pym would be great. And they’ve listed 1,999 recommendations for me! (#1999, in case you’re wondering, is A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys, which is way too long.) You can even remove all authors that you already have books by – then I get 786, from Sophie Hannah to Katherine White.
I’m off to a very strong start with LibraryThing.
Points for clarity in the name. You can only add one title, it seems, and they didn’t have Miss Hargreaves in their database. I was able to add it via ISBN, but then got this screen:
Ok, let’s try I Capture the Castle instead. Yep, more luck here – and this is the top five:
Ah. This is where the strength of LibraryThing’s hand becomes clear. Because WhatShouldIReadNext.com can’t tell that I already own all these books, and have read four of them (Good Wives is tbr). On the plus side, I love the Gibbons, Bronte, and Mitford. I really didn’t like The Woman in White, but 3/4 ain’t bad.
I got 14 recommendations in total, and none of them are particularly adventurous or out of the ordinary. The most unusual is probably Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (which I’ve also read and loved). Oh, wait, except Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan and PJ Lynch, which I’ve never heard of, and is tagged ‘frontier and pioneer life’, ‘stepmothers’, ‘mail order brides’…
Hmm. The website still exists, but they don’t seem to have any recommendation function any longer. I guess they changed their purpose?
This just plain doesn’t exist. It’s merged with GoodReads.
Ok, sure. Now, this will give me some recommendations based on my purchases (the first five are Furrowed Middlebrow publications, four of which I already have) – but, to return to my initial aim, let’s see what they recommend alongside Miss Hargreaves.
Unsurprisingly, since it was a Bloomsbury Group reprint, they’ve picked three others – Henrietta’s War and Henrietta Sees It Through by Joyce Dennys and The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson. Equally unsurprisingly, I already have them all.
When I look up I Capture the Castle, I am recommended… two other editions of I Capture the Castle, but also:
We’ve already covered the Gibbons. I’ve heard the Rosoff recommended glowingly before, but the Cassidy seems a bit of a curve ball. Does I Capture the Castle really scream “would love a book about child murder”?
This isn’t an enter-a-title-and-get-a-recommendation site; rather, it’s a newsletter that gears towards cheap books. I took a several-step questionnaire where I said what sort of books I was into. Having done all that, though, they did come up with some suggestions (that made me want to instantly unsubscribe). Here are the first five:
I wouldn’t dream of reading any of these. The worst one yet.
This one isn’t personalised, it’s just a list of books they think you might like. Though how they’re deciding that when they don’t know anything about me is anyone’s guess. Let’s see what they say under ‘fiction’…
I haven’t heard of three of these, so I like that it’s out of the ordinary. But, having clicked on the middle three, I have no wish to read them. Why so many child-killing books out there?? I do want to read more Kate Atkinson, though, so thanks for the reminder. There’s a good mix of genres/periods/authors, and I had to get to the 48th recommendation before I came to a book I’d already read (The Stranger by Albert Camus).
Oo, fun! This one is based on slider scales of emotions and types of content – as below. So I can’t put in my favourite titles, but I can try to match my mood. You can only do four sliders at a time – you can see what I chose in the screenshot.
So, what did it choose? Here are the first five:
It sorts in ‘Best matches’, ‘Good matches’, ‘Fair matches’ etc. I had no ‘Best matches’, and only the first of these was a ‘Good match’, so apparently my combination of requests is unusual. But, onwards – I haven’t heard of any of these authors or books, and I love what an unusual selection it is. I’ve added Natural Novel to my wishlist, and I can see these sliders becoming super addictive.
You have to sign up, but you can add categories you like, the book you’re currently reading (Noah’s Ark by Barbara Trapido), and three favourites. There are various other options – find good local bookshops, etc. – but what did it end up recommending?
Well, it does recommendations per book, rather than collectively. Some of these are a little uninspired (all of the recommendations related to Noah’s Ark were other novels by Barbara Trapido), but here’s what it had to suggest for Miss Hargreaves:
We’ve established that I love Ferguson, and I’ve been happily dipping in and out of the Edwards for a long time. My podcast co-host Rachel loves Norman Collins, so I was pleased to see that come up – and I haven’t heard of the Wood.
Conclusions
As I said, I’m unlikely to need to throw myself on the mercy of book recommendation sites – but it’s been fun to see what options are out there! Of this mixed list, I can certainly see myself exploring the LibraryThing recommendations list more often – but the one I’m most likely to return to is WhichBook. I love the idea of those sliders, and it brought up such intriguing and unusual titles that I’d be very unlikely to come across them otherwise. And it’s easily the most fun!
Let me know if you go delving into any of these sites – I’d love to know what you come up with.
That early summer sunshine we got last week seems to have hidden again, so I hope you have a nice March weekend planned. I’ll be visiting friends in various locations, and probably not getting much reading done. But I can leave you with a book, a blog post, and a link… (and don’t forget that the #1965Club is only a few weeks away!)
1.) The blog post – is Karen’s/Kaggsy’s excellent review of Olivia Laing’s wonderful book To The River. Go over and find out more…
2.) The link – I won’t often link to rap battles, but this one is an exception.
3.) The book – now that I’ve read Paul Collins’ excellent book about Shakespeare, I’m going to have to read Sixpence House, about the time he and his family lived in Hay-on-Wye. Since I’m not buying books this year, that could be tricky…