Wise Children: A Novel | 
#NewYearNewBooks I‘ve been very slowly reading Angelica Carter‘s books.This one was her last novel , haven‘t gotten to it yet!It features #Twins Dora and Nora and another set ,I am told. This book is said to have many Shakespearean tropes, I hope I remember them when I get to this one!
pick#ThinkPink #booked2020 @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen
Autumn starts with a bang with this v pink & irreverently farcical + uplifting story of nora+dora chance, twins who trod the music hall stage and pre war Hollywood in a film of midsummer nights dream. With twins in abundance incl their father/uncle, cousins/step siblings (the hazards) it is a Shakespeare comedy mixed with carry on. Loved it as I do every Angela Carter I rd.
so-soI feel like it‘s taken me an age to read this. I liked it but I didn‘t love it. I think my brain was too tired to catch on to deeper meanings and to keep up with the many branches of the complicated family tree! A slow first for #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks
This description of a tea room makes me miss my little visits to bookshop cafés more than ever!!
pickMadcap, unbelievable, larger that life, shocking, crude, sophisticated, yet down to earth. This book contains multitudes in just 232 wildly tangential pages. And I think it must be the ultimate book of sisterhood.
About to start my pinkest book. 😲😆
One kid is on a school trip coming back late, and the other is going home with a friend after school. So I have some extra time and decided to treat myself to an iced latte (which became a whole lunch deal 🤣).
#Reading1001
Cheesecake Factory‘s Lemon Meringue Cheesecake and iced coffee for lunch Mmmmmm!
Cover‘s not much so here‘s one with the cute Bella! (17 weeks old yellow lab)
July BOTM #Reading1001 #1001books
This one is up as BOTM in #Reading1001 for June. Looks fun.
pickThe story of Dora & Nora, dancers in London between the wars, told as a fictional memoir. I loved much of this: it‘s infused with Angela Carter‘s great intelligence, wit & ability to mix high & low culture (Shakespeare, vaudeville, a magic show at Brighton pier). Themes of twins, identity & family in all its forms. Loved the single, singular women protagonists. She sustains a high-energy, exuberant tone. But it‘s so busy I got lost at times!
panI finally finished!! It took months--and I maxed out renewals, had to re-request. This is written in a style that isn't quite stream of consciousness, but I found it exhausting to follow. Looooong chapters. About a song/dance movie family and all the branches, divorces, cheating, etc, and all the twins in the extended family. Not sure why this is on the #1001books list, but it's done! #192019 #1991
I had lost this to the library renewal limit and finally got it back. It's going better now (I'm over halfway!) but it's still a struggle. Why is this on the #1001books list?!
Started this on the train to work tonight but clearly my brain is already too frazzled by nightshifts to cope with complicated writing, so I've put it down and moved on to some historical romance!
My other secondhand bookshop purchase is this Angela Carter which keeps coming up in my "if you like that try this" suggestions!
pickI've been in need of some fun reading and Angela Carter's bawdy, big-hearted story of a complicated vaudeville family is brimming with infidelity and humour. Just what I needed
Up next!! #1001books #1991
For #alltheworldsastage, I immediately thought of Angela Carter's Wise Children, a novel about the fortunes of two theatrical families. #feistyfeb
pickBawdy and ribald. Not everyone's cup of tea, at times showing its age. Magical realism where the magic comes from the world of theatre. Oh, and the structure is based on Shakespeare's five act plays. At times so-so, but good enough to be a "pick" all round.
Started a new book during my coffee break. I love Angela Carter.
pickAnother one that took ages to find! #titlesstartingwithxyz shouldn't be so difficult! Wise Children is often described as Angela Carter's most accessible novel, and is recommended as the best place for a new reader to start. It's certainly the most straightforward and I did really enjoy its tale of a bizarre theatrical family, but it's not quite as magical and pacey as Nights at the Circus, one of my favourite books ever. #seasonsreadings2016
pickA friend recently sent me a postcard of Angela Carter saying that she had never read Angela Carter. This is not ok. You all need to read her, start with this book. It's about perfume & Brixton & twins & vaudeville. It's the best introduction to one of my best loved authors.
pickIf she must be compared to anyone, I'd say she was the English Atwood maybe? But really Angela Carter is her own brand of weird magically realistic feminism. Even if these books were terrible (they're not) I'd have a hard time resisting these Penguin edition covers.
