The Ladies of Missalonghi

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

“I notice Alicia has kept her choice to virgins only,” said Missy, whose stitch had been bothering her ever since the 7-mile walk from Missalonghi, and now was growing worse. To leave the room was impossible but nor could she sit still and silent a moment longer; to keep her mind off the pain, she started to talk. “Very orthodox of her,” she continued, “but I‘m *definitely* a virgin, and I didn‘t get picked.”

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

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BarbaraJean

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

“‘Darling, you look absolutely splendid! In a paddy, are we?‘

Missy took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. ‘Oh, just my cousin James Hurlingford. I told him to go bite his bum.‘

‘Good for you! Time someone told him.‘ Una giggled. ‘Though I imagine he‘d much rather someone else bit it for him—preferably someone masculine.‘

This sailed straight over Missy‘s head…”

👀🤣
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

TheAromaofBooks This quote felt a little anachronistic to me, but maybe not?? What did you think? 2d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Soooo anachronistic! There were several places where the dialogue felt completely mismatched to the era in which this was set (the other quote I posted was another one). I think it was this part that made me go double check when the book was supposed to take place! It felt so off to me. 2d

rubyslippersreads @BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Much of the book seems anachronistic to me. I have more comments, but I‘ll save them for after everyone has finished. (edited) 2d

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BarbaraJean @rubyslippersreads I just finished it and I have SO MANY comments. 2d

TheAromaofBooks I am almost done and I feel like an old lady pearl-clutching at a few of these scenes 😂 @rubyslippersreads 1d

rubyslippersreads @TheAromaofBooks Me too! 1d

TheAromaofBooks @BarbaraJean @rubyslippersreads What in the WHAT did I just read?! 😂 I finished this this morning and it was SO FREAKING WEIRD 😆 1d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Right?!? I came close to throwing it across the room. 17h

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks @rubyslippersreads I kept imagining LMM doing some pearl-clutching from her grave!!! I was so shocked by the “starting your honeymoon early“ part that I handed it to my husband to read. He said: “Wait, is this a pink-shelf book?“ then his face went 😳 and he said: “A woman wrote this? Your group should not be reading this. It's misogynistic crap.“ 😂 17h

TheAromaofBooks For real, though!!! What even! 10h

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BarbaraJean

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

Just a quick check-in partway through Ladies of Missalonghi!

How are you enjoying the book so far?
What are your first impressions?
How many plagiarism-like similarities have you found so far between this and Blue Castle?!

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

BarbaraJean Besides the similarities to Blue Castle, I‘ve been struck by a lot of dialogue that‘s hilarious, but surprising, for a book set just before WWI. I‘ll post a couple quotes! I‘m really enjoying Una as a character, but was a bit ambivalent about Missy until the bridal shower and its aftermath. 2d

DrSabrinaMoldenReads I got mine yesterday 2d

BarbaraJean @DrSabrinaMoldenReads I feel that—I had to read the first half on Internet Archive because my library hold didn‘t come in till yesterday! 2d

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TheAromaofBooks I just started this morning, because of the no-chapter thing I knew I wouldn't be able to stop 😂 I'm enjoying it, but parts of it do feel like quite the copy! I don't remember the history of this one - did the author acknowledge LMM in any way? 2d

rubyslippersreads I‘ve already finished. There are certainly similarities; it feels as though the author started with the premise of TBC (whether intentionally or accidentally) and then took off from there. (edited) 2d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks McCullough claimed “subconscious recollection“ in response to accusations of plagiarism. She said she'd read LMM's books when she was young & the similarities were due to subconsciously remembering TBC rather than intentionally copying. That defense rings false to me! @rubyslippersreads Yep, it seems to diverge more as the book goes on (at least so far--I'm a little over halfway), but it certainly feels like she started with TBC. 2d

TheAromaofBooks In fairness, this IS a bit like a weird fever-dream version of TBC 😂 The parts that feel plagerism-y to me are sentences that are almost word-for-word to something in TBC. The flip side is - I ended up justifying LMM's similarities between Anne and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - is this just something similar...??? 1d

lauraisntwilder I've just started today and, so far, it's the same book -- but this edition has illustrations for some reason. 1d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Hahaha... I had the same thought about Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne! This is way more blatant. I could dismiss the similarities with Rebecca as coincidence or unintentional. But here, these CANNOT be accidental/subconscious similarities. 17h

TheAromaofBooks It's true, there were definitely passages that felt like she had just kind of reworded something directly from The Blue Castle. And where Anne was a far superior version of Rebecca, Ladies definitely was the absolute worst version of Blue Castle that I could imagine (worse, really, because I NEVER would have imagined most of this 😂) 10h

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LitsyEvents

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

Reposting for @BarbaraJean
Here‘s the next month for #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead! We‘re just starting the tagged book for #LMMAdjacent, then after one more week back in the #LMMJournals, we‘ll return to the Emily books with Emily Climbs for an #LMMReread. Tag lists are in the comments… but all are welcome! Let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

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BarbaraJean

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

Here‘s the next month for #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead! We‘re just starting the tagged book for #LMMAdjacent, then after one more week back in the #LMMJournals, we‘ll return to the Emily books with Emily Climbs for an #LMMReread. Tag lists are in the comments… but all are welcome! Let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

LitsyEvents

BarbaraJean Tag list for Missalonghi: @TheAromaofBooks, @julieclair, @lauraisntwilder, @rubyslippersreads, @DrSabrinaMoldenReads

The Ladies of Missalonghi

BarbaraJean Tag list for journals and Emily‘s Quest: @TheAromaofBooks @lauraisntwilder

Emily's Quest

BarbaraJean Okay, Missalonghi readers, I have no idea what‘s going on with chapters in this book. I have found no chapter divisions in the print copy. The Hoopla audio has 9 chapters. Searches online say: 1. There are chapters, 2. There are no chapters, 3. There are 19 chapters. All followed by the caveat: “AI answers may contain mistakes.” 🙄 I don‘t know where I got 22 chapters from. 🤷🏻‍♀️ So: read roughly half this week & we‘ll check in on Saturday! 😆 (edited) 7d

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TheAromaofBooks I just picked this up this morning and realized that it has no chapters 😂 Who does that!?!? 6d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Terry Pratchett does that and as much as I love Pratchett it drives me crazy! I started reading last night thinking I‘d read a couple chapters and see how far that took me. At page 30 of a 200-ish page book, I thought the first chapter was getting kind of long, and I started flipping ahead. By page 100 I realized I had yet again made a huge mistake in trusting a chapter count I found online 😂 6d

TheAromaofBooks That has actually been my biggest problem with reading the Discworld books! For some reason, the lack of chapters really turns me off of a book, and I can't even explain why 😂 6d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks I feel the same—the lack of chapters turns me off! I think my brain prefers defined units of content so I know how many bits there are to parcel out. I've seen quotes from Pratchett saying he thought chapters broke up the natural flow of a story. But NOT having them kind of breaks my brain a little. I mean, you have to stop somewhere and I'd rather know where the author would stop! I guess he does use scene breaks, but still. ⬇ 6d

BarbaraJean The last Pratchett I read was an ebook version on Hoopla and it didn't even have any designation of where the scene breaks were. It gave me narrative whiplash to start a new paragraph and find I was suddenly in a completely different place with a different group of characters. That pulled me out of the narrative flow more than chapters would have! 6d

TheAromaofBooks Oh wow, that would be SO confusing! He definitely jumps around, so I can't imagine not even having the warning of an extra space! 😂 5d

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kwmg40

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

so-so

A historical fiction novel set in Australia of the early 1900s, this story was a quick and enjoyable read, but I found some of the characters' words and actions to be problematic.

#JoysOfJune #BookSpinBingo
@Andrew65 @TheAromaofBooks
#BookCrossing

Andrew65 Looks fun, well done 👏👏👏 3y

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y

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Teresereading

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

pan

I started 2019 with a title from Colleen McCullough Lovely illustrations and the novella started promisingly, shades of a Thornbirds family saga. BUT the latter half descended into a slightly menacing farce. Disappointing, I often see it in charity shops and now I know why!

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Brona

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

#missyreadalong now happening for The Ladies of Missalonghi #ausreadingmonth
http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/the-ladies-of-missalonghi-by-colleen....

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Brona

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

It's #ausreadingmonth and we're having a readalong of TLOM - join us by #missyreadalong & pop over to the sign up post - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/ausreadingmonth-is-here.html?m=1

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Brona

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

That lovely moment when you realise you don't need a bookmark because your book has a pretty ribbon marker instead #happyreading #readathon @DeweysReadathon #missyreadalong

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