Welcome to Litsy!

Tuesday‘s scores at the 📕 swap on the way home from work. I returned the day after with a replacement bag of 📚 for the swap. Had a massive long weekend so needed a 📕 swap blow out! We had been to a friend‘s 50th at a beach further up the coast and many crazy fun times were had. The beach was beautiful. It poured most of one day then the sun came out just in time for the 🥳 night. I danced so hard that night the 🍷 I drank came back out. Opps.

😂😂😂My husband and I are both bankers. I love how Mitford sends up the ludicrous snobbery of the English upper classes.

Absolutely delightful

Look what‘s arrived, @rubyslippersreads !

I‘m so glad I didn‘t go ahead and buy a #FolioSociety edition of Love in a Cold Climate after you bought me The Pursuit of Love for my birthday. 😆 And a #PersephoneBooks that I don‘t own! Please thank Sadie and Nicky for the cat poetry and book-shaped paper clips and let them know I‘ll read a verse to #JohnnyBergen. 😆

Thanks so much, my dear friend. I love everything!! 😘😘😘

The essential companion piece to The Pursuit of Love. Maybe not quite as funny, but it certainly has its moments. As well as the glorious Radletts we have the dreadful Lady Montdore, beautiful, cold Polly and (in my view the star of the show, I always forget he only appears 60 pages from the end) spectacular Cedric. Thank you again for getting me to reread @LeeRHarry

"'The thing about Polly is her beauty.'...
Cedric looked sulky, as he always did when I talked like this.
'More beautiful than One?' he said"

The picture is Stephen Tennant, the undisputed real life inspiration for the beautiful, flamboyant Cedric Hampton.

Oh dear! Lady Montdore would think me very common indeed🤣

The second in Mitford‘s well known series and written with the same witty style as the first, the novel tells the story of heiress Polly and how she marries her uncle by marriage after the death of her aunt, much to her parents dismay. I was torn reading this because the novel is so amusing and some of the characters really wonderful, but the pedophilia and grooming that occur are rather cringe worthy when read through a modern lens.

The second in the Radlett trilogy featuring narrator / Cousin Fanny. The first is The Pursuit of Love which focused on Linda Radlett & was fabulous. This second book focuses more on Fanny & Polly Hampton. I enjoyed it but wouldn‘t rush to re-read it. Witty, bitchy, & well-written, there were a few LOL moments. (Could have used more Davey!) I signed up for A Mitford Year subscription with Heywood Hill bookstore & this is my second book. 3.75/5

I have a copy on my tbr but sadly not this gorgeous Folio edition.
Image from Pinterest.

#wordsofoctober #cold

I needed a fun, funny, and frothy book, and once again, Ms. Mitford, you did not disappoint. I‘m so glad I discovered her this year!

This book appeared on two recent "what to read during a pandemic" lists AND it was my #bookspin selection. So perfect timing! It's a fun, frothy, comical look at early 20th-century English aristocracy. As an insider, Mitford is able to skewer the absurdity of the upper classes with wit and affection. So if you like Downtown Abbey and are looking for some light reading right now, this does fit the bill! @TheAromaofBooks

Time to start my #bookspin pick. @TheAromaofBooks

Not going to finish this by tonight‘s book club, but I‘m enjoying a few moments SUNSHINE so all is right with the world.

The companion book arrived today and it‘s also in fabulous condition. 🥰 #foliosociety #foliofreaks

A witty romantic comedy of aristocratic British life. Polly Hampton is bored of upper class society and the expectation of marriage thrust upon her by her overbearing mother, but a secret soon tears them apart as an elderly suitor pursues her. Meanwhile a flamboyant heir visits in preparation to take over the estate, but nothing works out quite as expected.

This feels like a companion novel to “The Pursuit of Love” since a lot of the events in this novel happens at the same time as TPoL. In TOoL Fanny, our storyteller, focuses on how her cousin Linda finds love and this focuses on her friend Polly‘s quest. Both focuses on how is never easy. LiaCC also shows the social life of a married woman.

I really like how Mitford looks at things, but I‘m glad I don‘t live 40s/50s.

Next up.

Bullitt, the butler, always frightened me into a fit. He was rather like Frankenstein‘s monster and one had to follow his jerky footsteps as through some huge museum before arriving at the little green room.

This book is hilarious, ridiculous and indeed intent. An old classic of course that I would definitely recommend. I‘d give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Here‘s an image I‘ve drawn with the book of CDs featured in it. Have a great Christmas 🎄🎄🎄

The ebook's on sale today, and who doesn't need a Mitford novel with them at all times? No one!
#kindledeal

This is our latest book club pick. It was ok. A bit boring in parts but did make me laugh in some others. I just didn‘t connect with the characters as much as I would have liked.

I joined my 2 local libraries today, and took out my new bookclub book. It felt good! I can‘t keep buying books like I am, it‘s not healthy!

Was in Chicago for a mini vacation. Managed to find a bookstore and pick up a few books 😊

That‘s all there is to it then, eh? 😅 #currentlyreading

#litsyclassics #litsyclassicsmatches

@merelybookish @rubyslippersreads

Not sure if the cold climate refers to England (as opposed to India or Sicily), or Polly's family or Fanny's broken parentage. A fairly interesting read, especially having read 'The Bolter' recently, but I wasn't smitten and more than once wondered why I should care about the characters. A rather rushed ending. Read for my library bookclub.

It's been a long week. My plans for the day.

For the climate change deniers...

#SeasonsReadings2016 #InTheMoodForLove

These books are all feeling the love 💞

... we started off in Spain, and you'll never believe this but they are two hours late for every meal - two hours.... So of course, by then, you've stopped feeling hungry and only feel sick, then when food comes it is all cooked in rancid oil... It's on everybody's hair too, and to make it more appetising there are pictures all round you of some dear old bull being tortured to death. They think literally of nothing all day but bulls and the Virgin

I am a huge fan of Australia's ABC Book Club: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/

I've also been enjoying podcasts - especially Books on the Nightstand: http://booksonthenightstand.com/
What Should I Read Next: http://modernmrsdarcy.com/what-should-i-read-next/ and a couple of podcasts from Book Riot.
Can anyone recommend any other Book Review television shows or podcasts?

I'm going to start this on the weekend - on the sunny Algarve coast of southern Portugal :) Mitford's novel comes highly recommended by the ABC's Book Club: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/s4503339.htm

Today's bookstore finds.