Welcome to Litsy!

Next up . . . Back to the 20s I think.

Thank you so much, @Bren912 - this #jolabokaflod is great! I am super excited to try these candies (which sound perfect) and looking forward to finally reading Lissa Evans. Happy Christmas to you and yours!

Thanks for making it happen, @MaleficentBookDragon #jolabokaflodswap

This book was very enjoyable company as I spent 12 hours travelling home across the south of England during yesterday‘s storms

Taking stock of my progress: I finished Old Baggage by Lissa Evans, which was really great! 😀 I‘m about half way through The Seed Collectors... @Andrew65 . I‘m hoping work this week is chill so I can switch off when I log out!

#OutstandingOctober

In difficult times this gentle, funny, and moving book was perfect. Mattie simpkin is a great character + with flea + other former suffragettes we see what may of happened to some of the fighters for votes in 1928, a changed world where universal sufferage is due but yng women seem unaware of the past heroics and the spectre of fascism looms as a battle for the heart of the yng happens on parliament hill. Loved this, + put it down smiling.

“Just a sketch, really” is one of the lines of the Joker played by Jack Nicholson. Aileen destroyed a ceiling and a valuable painting by passing out and leaving the bathtub running. I‘ve read a lot of justifications by drunkards but this one is the best. Poor Aileen! #humor

For when you want a relatively gentle book that still engages the brain. An ageing suffragette creates a club to teach a group of girls how to be the women of the future. But gets sidetracked when she realises a relationship to one of the girls. Very good historical fiction with robust interesting characters. A little let down by the link from climax of story to ending. Overall very strong pick.

So to be clear nothing really happens in this book however for me it‘s a pick. The language is reminiscent of my much loved girls school stories and the characters are a delight. There is an underlying message here about social change not being ‘done‘ after one big win ether for society or the people who enable the change. I will be seeking out more of Lisa Evans books.

There's a touch of Wodehouse in Evans' character descriptions.

A rainy night, a book, and a London Fog. My idea of perfect. I used to drink them back in the day, but I'd forgotten how much I like them until my daughter announced her discovery of a London Fog in a tea shop a few months ago. London Fog = Earl Grey tea + vanilla + a splash of milk. I use vanilla syrup because I take sugar anyway, but Harney & Sons makes a Victorian London Fog tea, if adding sugar ain't your thing.

Ha!

I ordered this one after reading Crooked Heart, which was great. This takes place before CH and gives Mattie a starring role, much deserved. I‘ve had the same conversations with modern women who are complacent about their rights and say they “don‘t need feminism.” Frankly, that amazes me.

Oh I loved this!! Maggie was a really great character and I would‘ve loved to be in the Amazons!! The Flea was the perfect foil for her too, and Ida, what a strong young woman. I felt a bit sad when Ida cane back at the end with the little boy but got over it quickly when it clearly gave Mattie hope for the future. Funny, feisty and sweet, what a lovely book!

‘What utter spinach‘ .... ‘what an essentially meaningless succession of sentences!‘ I think I want to talk like this all the time!!

I‘m so excited for these books to arrive from Book Depository! They were both on the Women‘s Prize long list & I was intrigued by these specifically. Bottled Goods is set in Communist Romania, blending magical realism and political turmoil. Old Baggage is the story of a woman who was a suffragette who finds herself in Middle Age, unsatisfied with her normal existence. Now I just need to win the lottery so I can quit my job and read all day!

Started on this last night after a friend recommended it. I already love Mattie and The Flea. I think this‘ll be a good giggle!

I have now finished this delightful book - one of the finest I have read so far this year. Funny, sad and informative, with a cast of beautifully crafted characters. See my Goodreads review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2752173555. #book #lissaevans #oldbaggage #books #bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookishlife #booknerd #bookphotography #bookworm #bookcommunity #newbooks #booklove #fiction #suffragettes #womenssuffrage #votesforwomen

I was charmed by this book. In places it was so funny that I was laughing out loud, yet in others really poignant. What do you do with your life when the battle is won - or most people think it is won? I found the characters appealing and believable, albeit that Mattie's opponent is a plot device, not fully formed. I also wondered if the book appeals to those of a certain age - not sure my daughter would enjoy it in the same way that I did.

What a splendid novel! Great characters, a marvellous story and beautiful prose. I am facing that crushing dilemma that attends great books: I am eager to finish it to see how the story is resolved, but am also enjoying it so much that I don‘t want it to end. #lissaevans #oldbaggage #guardianbooks #book #books #bookstagram #bookish #booksbooksbooks #booknerd #bookworm #bookcommunity #bookphotography #tetherdown #dauntbooks #currentlyreading

I loved this book; I was glued to the last 50 pages, and it might be the best thing I‘ve read so far this year. There is a very slight element of Interwar Britain Bingo but only slight. On the whole it was so well executed, a really lovely story about a range of women and relationships.

Two things I discovered about this book while looking for the acknowledgements: (1) this is not the first book about this character, which I never would have guessed. The opening pages are exquisite and have none of the tells of a series. (2) this author wrote the book “Their Finest Hour” was based on (it was based on a book apparently). So many unknown unknowns!

I enjoyed the lively writing, and the light weave of feminist history. Otherwise, a humongous disappointment: what could have been a profound exploration of personal and political reinvention in the lives of aging suffragettes devolved into a silly, bloated story with all the nuance of a TV movie for children, crowded with underdeveloped characters and stripped of any power by the inanest of moral lapses at the center of its ridiculous plot.

Just lovely and wonderful. Mattie is an awesome MC.
I loved the suffragette backdrop and the general comments - you‘ve won the vote isn‘t it time to stop now. If only.....
A feel good book with lots of hidden little messages.

I am so loving Mattie in this book, so far she‘s an awesome MC 👍🏻

#howdouwantit - exactly like this 😁
Late brunch with daughter as we‘re off to see Mamma Mia 2
#heatofjuly

I'm on a reading roll. This was brilliant. Hoping they make this into a film too...

Oh my god. This is so good. What happens when you win the fight? When you‘ve won the battle for the thing you believe in, what do you do next? And how does life work out. Meet Mattie, the ex-suffragette struggling with being middle aged and wondering if her best years were actually the ones where she was getting arrested and imprisoned. In Old Baggage she tries to change the world again on a smaller scale but with huge ramifications for her.

Current train book is the new Lissa Evans. I loved her last book, Crooked Heart, which I‘ve described as Good Night Mr Tom but if William was raised by an old lady and Mr Tom was a slightly crooked lady in her 40s! Old Baggage is about Mattie - who we met in Crooked Heart - an ex-suffragette trying to work out what to do with herself in the late 1920s. So far it‘s fabulous.