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#12Booksof2023 June

I just loved the snarkiness in this novel about two women who‘s been friends since Prudence was taught by Jane. Jane is married to a priest, and they have just moved into a new parish and Jane is the least likely vicar‘s wife there is.

Naturally a book about Jane and Prudence. Jane is a 40 something vicar‘s wife who doesn‘t behave as your stereotypical vicar‘s wife and tend to say the wrong thing. Prudence is in her late 20s and enjoying her love affairs. Two friends with not much in common.

I just love Pym‘s snarkiness and wit and her writing that‘s just to the point.

‘Poor Constance was left alone a great deal,‘ said Miss Doggett. ‘In many ways, of course, Mr Driver is a very charming man. They say, though, that men only want one thing - that‘s the truth of the matter.‘ Miss Doggett again looked puzzled; it was as if she had heard that men only wanted one thing, but had forgotten for the moment what it was.

‘I wonder if we might have one bar of the fire on?‘ asked Miss Clothier at last.
‘Oh, it isn‘t cold,‘ said Miss Trapnell. ‘Do you find it cold, Miss Bates?‘
Prudence disliked being called ‘Miss Bates‘; if she resembled any character in fiction, it was certainly not poor silly Miss Bates.

#Pemberlittens Sale for those wanting more Pym. #excellentwomenandboiledpotatoes

This book made me laugh out loud as I finished reading it on my train journey to Bath. I don‘t think it is as fine a book as Excellent Women but its eminently quotable shrewd observations on male/female relationships and Jane‘s perplexity at every day conventions were very rewarding and entertaining!

Oh but it was splendid the things women were doing for men all the time,thought Jane. Making them feel, perhaps sometimes by no more than a casual glance, that they were loved and admired and desired when they weee worthy of none of those things- enabling them to preen themselves and puff out their plumage like birds and bask in the sunshine of love, real or imagined, it didn‘t matter which.

The passion of those early days,the fragments of Donne and Marvell and Jane‘s obscure seventeenth century poets, the objects of her abortive research, all these faded away into mild kindly looks and spectacles. There came a day when one didn‘t quote poetry to one‘s husband anymore. When had that day been? Could she have noted it and mourned it if she had been more observant?

We can only go blundering along in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call us.

I love how Pym's characters let others live their lives and make their own choices, despite sometimes having strong opinions about those choices. She also beautifully captures what it's like to be basically happy while still having doubts and wondering if life could be better.

Seriously goodreads? 😂😂😂 Their recommendation algorithm is completely whack!

#ThoughtfulThursday

🎒 This time of year- flip flops!
🏜I‘ve driven through the Mojave desert a few times on the way to Las Vegas.
📚 I‘m taking a break from the behemoth The Magic Mountain to read the tagged book by the delightful Barbara Pym.

Thanks for the tag @Klou !😍

Mentioning Barbara Pym makes me think of you @LeahBergen . Would you like to play?😀

So, I‘ve made my own bingo card to work through some of the authors (or publishers) on my TBR shelves. I don‘t like to plan specific reads too far in advance so these categories should give me ample choice.

(Oh, and I‘m going to reward myself for each line completed by buying more books. 😆😆)

What do you think?

Well, I guess my last read of 2019 WAS The Hunting Party after all. My first read of 2020 will be Jane and Prudence.

Thanks for the fun giveaway, @BookNAround , and Happy New Year!

#LastFirst

This was a lovely read, and just what I felt like. A slice of gentle village life, complete with tea and cakes, but with a large helping of poking fun at stereotypes of male and female roles.
Jane is a vicar‘s wife newly moved to the village, she‘s creative and eccentric and never quite seems to fit her role. She enjoys playing match maker for her younger more glamorous friend Prudence. A knowing wink to ‘Emma‘ along the way. ⬇️

HOMG it may be the jet lag talking, but i forgot how hilarious the english novel of manners can be 😂 😂 😂

Not your typical book heroine, but 40-something Jane Cleveland might be my favorite character from this past year's reading. She's bright, observant, kind, absentminded, snoopy, meddlesome, and slightly-too-honest. And she's a terrible homemaker to boot. (Poor Jane, so unsuited to being a vicar's wife!) I found her an absolute delight! More Pym for me in 2019!
#bookishrewind2018 #favoritebookheroes

I loved this! It's been a while since I have read Pym. She is a delight! And so astute at capturing social absurdities and personal foibles while still creating sympathetic characters. And it's hilarious! Maybe better than Austen? 😯 😬
Thanks for choosing this @kspenmoll. Sorry it's late @BookwormAHN, but it's in the mail tomorrow!
#lmpbc @bookish_wookish

Packing for my annual girls trip. I leave tomorrow and am gone four days -- to Arkansas. (We get teased for our exotic getaway locations 🙂).
Whaddya think enablers, is a novel, a couple of literary mags, a Shakespeare, and a Kindle too much?

#inmemorium
My mother adored Barbara Pym.Decided to see the allure. Did not expect a comedy, with well drawn, contrasting, characters: Jane,41,the scattered, poetry spouting ministers wife, who measured her success( or rather lack thereof) by ministers wives in novels, & Prudence,at 29, younger,urbane,single working woman, London dweller, with multiple love affairs. An unlikely, yet enduring,mutually valuable friendship.Such an enjoyable,read! 😂

#PymHumor #LMPBC#GroupG #roundtwo
Chose this book because my mother loved this author. Did not expect humor...😂

#LMPBC #G
Group G (first round) @merelybookish @bookish_wookish @BookwormAHN I am behind in many things this month including this book mail. Has anyone read this? Never read this author, but she was a favorite of my mothers. Feeling nostalgic...let me know your thoughts. Apologies!

The cover on my kindle version was boring, so I posted the screenshot from GR. I enjoyed this light breezy book, even though I did find myself spacing out some in the middle. #MountTBRChallenge #14

#macabre #quotsyjan18 @TK-421

Matchmaking gone awry, this put me in the mind of Austen's Emma. A comedy of manners though not quite so highborn. Jane's determined to marry off her young friend Prudence. Full of your cozy English countryside characters, this was a quiet read with much ado about nothing, other than Jane's capacity to get all the romances wrong.

“So the table held only the roses, a book of poems...and a novel of the kind that Prudence enjoyed, well written and tortuous, with a good dash of culture and the inevitable unhappy or indifferent ending, which was so like life.”

I don‘t eat a lot of packaged foods, but these crackers comprise one of my favorite reading #snacks. And it simply won‘t do to read this book without a nice cuppa!

#30daysofreadathon

‘Who has she married?‘ asked Miss Morrow.
‘An anthropophagist,‘ declared Miss Doggett in an authoritative tone. ‘He does some kind of scientific work, I believe.‘
‘I thought it meant a cannibal – one who ate human flesh,‘ said Jane in wonder.
‘Well, science has made such strides,‘ said Miss Doggett doubtfully. ‘His name is Mr Bone.‘
‘That certainly does seem to be a connection,‘ said Jane, laughing...

"Prudence sat for the rest of the meal, listening to her neighbours' conversation, her eyes full of tears. Disliking humanity in general, she was one of those excessively tenderhearted people who are greatly moved by the troubles of complete strangers, in which she sometimes imagined herself playing a noble part."

I read a few chapters of this on Kindle a few moons ago, but started fresh when I acquired this lovely copy. I'm loving it anew!

A fun (and funny) read that #startswithJ #anditsAugust @RealLifeReading

Oh, to be 18 again.

Why, yes, I do have three buddy read books that I could be reading. Oops?

When you have a second glass of wine and check out Book Depository = #DrunkPyming

Right, @shawnmooney ? 😉

My second Pym novel, I am absolutely charmed by her style.

Loved discovering this new-to-me author and her charming books. It was a short, sweet book reminiscent of Jane Austen but set in 1950's England. Similar sort of gentle wit and subtle commentary about social conventions and relationships. Chuckle-out-loud funny at times. I'm definitely going to look for more by Barbara Pym. Also I just really love how it looks with my three Austen Word Cloud Classics...

While I didn't love this as much as Pym's first two novels, it was still a delight. Here again Pym softly skewers mid-20th-century British notions of gender, class, religion, sex, and whatnot. Jane—perfectly summed up in the blurb as "an incompetent vicar's wife, who always looks like she's about to feed the chickens" was richly drawn; her younger, sexually-liberated friend Prudence did not come as alive on the page, I didn't think.

A wonderful Pym specimen with lots of period detail of austerity Britain. Love, in Pym books, is always understood according to the conventions of fiction but experienced in much more humble ways; and the resolution isn't about engagements so much as a fuller appreciation of one's own life in the moment. Plus: it's funny.

Bought this little beauty on a whim from Book Depository. I've seen the author mentioned on a couple of Bookstagram accounts I follow and decided to try one out. So far a fun read... described as kind of a more contemporary (early 1950's) Jane Austen. Adore the cover...

Taking a break from my Best of the Booker list to refresh with some Barbara Pym.

You know that "nope, I'm done with work now" feeling? Well, that was me about ten seconds ago.