Welcome to Litsy!

What a delightful treat this is! Writing that has that easy-breezy lightness of touch that makes your eyes just gobble it up, characters that are hilarious, ludicrous, sometimes hideous, events so ridiculous but also poignant, insightful, devastatingly real - just an utter joy to read! The satire is deliciously arch, the mocking merciless but affectionate & it feels so fresh! Such a rich reading experience - the perfect blend of funny & sad.

So funny..and so true.
So all my well read Littens, what are your opinions on the surprisingly dark ending she gives to this book?She doesn't end her other Radlett-Montdore books on a note of such sadness, why do you think she chose this ending for this one?

Nancy Mitford is so insightful

Part of my long running Nancy Mitford project. The was quite good on audio as well. Just prior to WW2 up until the end of the war and follows the sisters and daughters of Landed gentry- the Hons and the Counter-Hons. I am glad I read Jessica Mitford‘s Hons and Rebels first. 4 stars.

Hey Lauralee 🤗
Thank you for the lovely #LittleChristmasSwap package! I am looking forward to reading this book next month. And I have already devoured a few chocolate cherries. They are like Black Forest cake (my favourite) in candy form.

Thank you @bookish_wookish for organising this fun swap. 💕

I've lost count of how many times I've read this book and it still makes me laugh. Delightful. Thank you @LeeRHarry for the impetus for this reread. I'm off to get Love in a Cold Climate off the shelf. I need Lady Montdore and Cedric now.

I first encountered Nancy Mitford's books via the 1980 TV series Love in a Cold Climate which combined the stories of that book and this one (The Pursuit of Love). It left a deep impression and I can't read these books without seeing and hearing those actors. Uncle Matthew in this illustration from my Folio edition looks enough like Michael Aldridge to make me happy.
@LeeRHarry

Just finished watching Downton Abbey on Netflix and wanted more British aristocracy in between the wars. This novel was really really funny and witty and I very much enjoyed it. It follows the romantic adventures of Linda, who marries twice and then finds the love of her life in Paris, only to be separated from him a few months later when Germany invaded France during WWII. This novel was hilarious and I can‘t wait to continue on with the series.

DNF - This was on my list because the BBC series is now available in the States, but I just couldn‘t get into this one. It was my #BookSpin pick for this month, so I‘m checking it off and moving onward (and watching the series guilt-free!)

#CuriousCovers Day 25: Flowers

A lovely cover, featuring lots of flowers. On my TBR.

Yay! I finished this book before the end of May! I have had it on my shelf for quite a while and I wasn‘t sure I would like it. I thought it would be one of “those” books, but the story grew into something I was glad to have read. #100YEARS100BOOKS #73 #BookSpinBingo #21 and makes a bingo! #20in4

Finally getting around to watching The Pursuit of Love ... it‘s brilliant 💫

I only read The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (this library book also had Love in a Cold Climate, which is book 2 about the Radlett family.) I confess my primary reason for reading it is to do so before the BBC series becomes available in the states. It is campy and silly, high society British families worrying about fashion and marriage in the years right before WWII. I understand the characters are all based on Nancy Mitford's family.

"Storms and difficulties left them unmoved, but day after day of ordinary existence produced an unbearable torture of ennui, because they completely lacked any form of mental discipline."

Initially I wasn‘t very interested in the lives of the wealthy between the wars, but Nancy‘s humour won me over. Funny, lively, incredibly charming and easy to read. The cover is beautiful as well! 7/10

UK bookseller Heywood Hill new subscription is A Mitford Year. Releasing 5 of N Mitford‘s novels & 7 hardbacks of current women writers, The Pursuit of Love is the 1st I rec‘d. LOVE the cover! LOVE this amazing novel. Linda is a classic character & completely eccentric & one of many lovable characters. (Davey!) Autobiographical references to the Mitfords are obvious but this novel stands strongly on it‘s own. Fun & joyful, yet serious. 5/5

I‘ll never tire of these gorgeous covers. 😍

#foliosociety #foliofreaks

Some great lines in this book.

'Have you read Brothers?' Lady Kroesig asked Uncle Matthew conversationally, as they settled down to their soup. "What's that? "The new Ursula Langdok - Brothers - it's about two brothers. You ought to read it.'
"My dear Lady Kroesig, I have only ever read one book in my life, and that is White Fang. It's so frightfully good I've never bothered to read another.

Last holidays our great obsession had been childbirth, on which entrancing subject we were informed remarkably late, having supposed for a long time that a mother's stomach swelled up for nine months and then burst open like a ripe pumpkin, shooting out the infant. When the real truth dawned upon us it seemed rather an anticlimax...

I loved this 💕💕💕💕
And so have completed with this book #Booked2020
Will post up my completed list shortly!
Loved this challenge again ! Thanks so much lovely ladies for organizing & keeping us all together .. 😘😘😘

#ThinkPink for #Booked2020 So this is my first Mitford .... what can I say ? It‘s captivating 💕💕💕Loving it ... breakfast reading with Granny‘s tea set ( took a cup & saucer out of the box ... nice way to have a cup of tea...

Last month, the fabulous ladies who host the @diving_in_podcast, chatted, discussed & shared all things Mitford. A subject I‘m also passionate about. This month, I did a re-read of the tagged book.

May I suggest, if you haven‘t read, ‘The Pursuit of Love‘. Find a quiet corner, get comfy, pick this novel up, and dive head first into this brilliant book. I guarantee, you won‘t be able to read the first chapter without a chuckle or two.

Set among England's landed gentry between the two world wars. this is the story of two cousins. Narrated by Fanny, it focuses on the beautiful and wild Linda. As they grow into adulthood, Linda's life consists of frivolity and dreaming of a prince who will whisk her away resulting in Linda lurching from one incompatible husband to another, searching for “love“. A fun read unless one thinks too much about the contrast between the cousins' lives.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Witty, biting, satirical look at an aristocratic family‘s decline in the years leading up to WWII. Loved every minute of this one, and I‘m looking forward to reading more Mitford.

Another view of this gorgeous #foliosociety edition. I paid $16 and it is in pristine condition. I‘m so in love. 🥰 #foliofreaks

My recent #bookmail makes me smile. I hope to reread both of these books this year for #classicschallenge2020

Wonderful wit and verve. Surprisingly moving at the end. Very enjoyable read.

No end of awesome covers for this unsung classic about Linda aka "the Bolter" who is too busy #livingforlove to worry about being a mother. Always fun to have some insight (albeit fictional) into the world of the Mitfords!
@cinfhen #MOvember

#AyUpAugust
#IsThisLove ? Well, I sure am in love with these two gorgeous covers! 😍💕
Trying to decide which one to read for one of my remaining #pop19 prompts, #abookwithloveinthetitle
Anyone read either of these? 🤷‍♀️

The title of book says it all, or as the blurb says: “Oh, the tidium of waiting to grow up! Longing for love, obsessed with weddings and sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the lookout for the perfect lover. But finding Mr. Right is much harder than any of the sisters had thought.”

And for the reader, to follow this process is quite fun and a look into the pre-WW2 period.

And the cover. Can we just take a minute to gaze at it?

Next up.

My first book for #14Books14Weeks

#bookhaul #2 from today from Daunts
3 from my #TBR for #pop19

I love this 🐧 edition of the tagged book with the Lourdes Sanchez cover design. So pretty.

I‘ve been wanting to read this McEwan for ages (and this Vintage edition has a blurb from John Boyne on the cover!) They had every one of McEwan‘s novels in these editions, which are really lovely.

And I‘m so looking forward to ‘The Summer Book‘ as I 💙 Jansson‘s Moomin books as a kid.

My Uncle Matthew had four magnificent bloodhounds, with which he used to hunt his children...It was great fun...This caused the most tremendous stir locally, the Kentish week-enders on their way to church were appalled by the sight of four great hounds in full cry after two little girls.

Slump over!!! I know the solution now to cure a reading lull- find a book with wickedly amusing writing! This is my first time reading Nancy Mitford and I‘m over the moon and only at page 22! I find her backstory so fascinating and now that I have a taste of her writing, I am hooked! The mix of biting humor and allusions to darker complexity is sucking me in. I am now excited for a weekend of solid reading!

My evening is shaping up quite nicely. 🙂

#CurrentlyReading
#SlightlyFoxed

Finished!! Book one of three of my weekend reads is d-o-n-e! 🌻🖤 I‘ve read this in less than 23 hours since I started it and I‘m not so secretly pleased with myself as I didn‘t think I‘d have time to read one let alone FINISH one on day one! Woo! 💪🖤 Anyway, onwards! #bookaddict #booklover #bookblog #bookish #bookworm #bookstamums

Utterly spur of the moment shot. 🌻🖤

Sat reading and drinking coffee whilst the little one watches Despicable Me 2 and eats her breakfast. Great start to a great weekend. We‘re living our best lives. 👌🏻🖤😹 #bookaddict #booklover #currentlyreading #bookblog #bookish #bookworm #bookstamums

Thanks for your help this morning beauties. Thanks to Klaudia‘s (@onechaptermore1) naughty but nice suggestion I‘m taking all four books - but substituted Anaïs with Françoise Sagan because it‘s smaller. I‘m still swaying between taking the Cleland or not but these four are definites for the long weekend. ? #bookaddict #booklover #bookblog #nancymitford #bookish #bookworm #bookstamums

Now that I'm enthralled with the Mitford girls, time to read something by Nancy! (Continuing Only Books I Own April.)

“I think housework is far more tiring and frightening than hunting is, no comparison, and yet after hunting we had eggs for tea and were made to rest for hours, but after housework people expect one to go on as if nothing special had happened.”

OMG how had I never read this before????? It‘s brilliant.