engishliterature

Here is our “master list” of what we‘ve read together as a group (to help out those of you who will be nominating our 2026 reads). Sorry for the small print; I threw it together quickly! 😆

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

rubyslippersreads, quietjenn, Kimzey, catebutler, Cuilin, CarolynM, LeahBergen, Gissy, Tamra, bookandbedandtea, kwmg40, Ruthiella, willaful

catebutler @LeahBergen You are amazing!! Thank you! 4h

Tamra You are quick as a 🦊 4h

LeahBergen @catebutler No problem! It needed to be done. 😆 3h

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LeahBergen @Tamra Haha! Oh, and you are now bumped up to March. 😀 3h

Tamra @LeahBergen ok, I‘m ready! Just let me know when it‘s time to launch. 3h

CarolynM What a lot of great books we've read together! Such a pleasure to be part of this group 🥰 3h

Cuilin This is fantastic. 2h

Amiable That‘s impressive! 16m

26 likes1 stack add8 comments

LeahBergen

The Woods in Winter | Stella Gibbons

Hello, #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub !

We‘ve trimmed down our member list after @Ruthiella ‘s roll call and are now ready to begin voting. Our next six people to nominate our 2026 reads are: @willaful , @kwmg40 , @Tamra , @catebutler , @bookandbedandtea , and @Cuilin .

Please reply to let us know if you want to be excused from nominating two books for us to vote on and I will adjust the list accordingly. You may still vote on our reads, of course!

LeahBergen @rubyslippersreads @quietjenn @LeahBergen @CarolynM @Ruthiella @Gissy 5h

catebutler Is there a master list of what we‘ve read? I want to make sure to choose books we haven‘t read yet! 5h

LeahBergen @catebutler I don‘t have a master list (although I can try to make one 😆). Perhaps the easiest thing would be to just look up the book that you‘re interested in here on Litsy. There will be lots of posts for the ones we‘ve read. 5h

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willaful Oh fun! 5h

LeahBergen @catebutler Okay, hold on … I‘m in the process of making that list! 😆 5h

catebutler @LeahBergen That‘s a good idea! I should have been keeping a master list myself! 😅😊 5h

Tamra 😄 Are we listed in month order or does that not matter? 5h

LeahBergen @willaful Yay! I can‘t wait to see your choices. I‘ll let everyone know what their month is and when they should post their choices when I‘ve heard back from you all. 😀 5h

LeahBergen @Tamra So far! @willaful already replied so she will be January. You will be May unless the person before you bows out (and then you‘ll be March). See my above ⬆️ comment to @willaful . (edited) 5h

catebutler @LeahBergen Okay, I think I found two that haven‘t been read, so I will await our month and then post my choices! 5h

LeahBergen @catebutler Great! 👏 5h

Tamra @LeahBergen I‘ll wait to hear! 😁 5h

Cuilin How does this work exactly? I pick two books in this genre to nominate for November and when would you like those nominations? Apologies if I seem a bit clueless. 😬 5h

kwmg40 @LeahBergen May I be excused from nominating? I love this group and look forward to reading along with all of you again, but I'd rather leave the selection of the books to someone more familiar with the authors and genre. 4h

LeahBergen @Cuilin I will assign you a month and you suggest two books for us to vote on and one will “win”. The two suggestions must be Furrowed Middlebrow books published by Dean Street Press. Here‘s their catalogue: https://www.deanstreetpress.co.uk/pages/books_page/4 . I am just about to make a post showing all the books we‘ve read together in this club. I‘ll tag you in it. 😀 4h

LeahBergen @kwmg40 No problem at all! Do come back and vote on our 2026 reads. I‘ll tag you! 4h

kwmg40 @LeahBergen Thank you, I will definitely participate in the vote! 4h

LeahBergen @Cuilin Oh, and don‘t forget to use our hashtag when you post and tag all our members. Use the list of members in my “master list” post as we‘ve added one. I will get the January and March people to post their suggestions first so you will see how it‘s done. Let me know if you have any other questions! 3h

CarolynM Can't wait to see everyone's choices! 3h

quietjenn Thanks for all your organizing! Looking forward to the nominations and voting 2h

Cuilin @LeahBergen Fabulous. Thank you. 2h

LeahBergen @CarolynM @quietjenn Me, too! 2h

LeahBergen @Cuilin 👍 2h

LeahBergen @Gissy We‘ve had one person pass on nominating for their month so are you ( the next one in line) okay to pick for November? 😀 2h

bookandbedandtea I'm down for nominating some books. I'll look at the catalog and the already- read list tomorrow. 😊 now

LeahBergen @bookandbedandtea That‘s great! 👍 now

26 likes26 comments

swynn

Joseph Andrews | Henry Fielding

It is a trite but true Observation, that Examples work more forcibly on the Mind than Precepts: And if this be just in what is odious and blameable, it is more strongly so in what is amiable and praise-worthy.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

21 likes

LeahBergen

The Woods in Winter | Stella Gibbons

pick

Well, I ended up enjoying this rather more than I thought I would (which is probably due to the quirkiness of Gibbons‘ characters). “Wise woman- ish” Ivy Gover and her menagerie of creatures were just so charming!

I read the introduction after I finished the novel and was fascinated by the links to Stella Gibbons‘ own life. A biographer said the character of Helen Green was the closest thing she had written to a portrait of her young self.

LeahBergen #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub 6d

Ruthiella I‘m glad you liked it. I enjoyed it, I just wish the plot had been a little plottier. 😁 6d

LeahBergen @Ruthiella That‘s the perfect way of putting it 😆 6d

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CarolynM Great review, and so interesting about the autobiographical aspect. I‘ll be getting started on this one in the next day or two🙂 2d

LeahBergen @CarolynM I hope you like it! It‘s very “non-taxing”. 😆 2d

Kimzey Thanks for the review! I just finished reading it and will post soon. 5h

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willaful

Woods in Winter | Stella Gibbons

I started this with a “four chapters a day“ plan and then read it straight through so I was definitely engaged. Set in the 30s, it started out with two interesting characters: Ivy, a thrice-widowed charwoman with an incredibly strong sense of self, and poet Helen, who's kind of lost herself in an affair with a man who won't marry her.

cont.

rubyslippersreads, quietjenn, Jess_Read_This, Kimzey, erzascarletbookgasm, catebutler, CarolynM, LeahBergen, Lizpixie, elkeOriginal, Aimeesue, batsy, Tamra, bookandbedandtea, Teresereading, kwmg40, Cathythoughts, Ruthiella, julieclair, MrsK

willaful When Ivy inherits a house (sort of? It's apparently a rental, yet willed to her?) she can finally live exactly the way she wants to, with animals and birds and even cockroaches freely sharing her space. And somehow a lot of other people in the neighborhood find themselves throwing off visions of what their lives should be and doing what they want instead. It's all kind of a muddle though, and I would rather have found out more about Helen's life. 1w

willaful #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

37x37 book 1 @MatchlessMarie (edited) 1w

Ruthiella Good review. A muddle is accurate. There wasn‘t any focus. Not unpleasant but not great either, IMO. 1w

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willaful @Ruthiella yeah, I definitely enjoyed it more than some but it was lacking. 1w

LeahBergen @Ruthiella @willaful I‘m approaching the middle point (and the muddle, I think 😆). 1w

Faranae @willaful If it's set in the UK, there is in fact a legal thing where someone can have the right to live on a property while the actual ownership is held by someone else, and they can't be evicted. It used to be a way that rich people pensioned off favourite servants, or discharged responsibility for favourite/hated relations. I don't remember the legal term though! 1w

willaful @Faranae It's mentioned in the book that it's not a “freehold“ and though he could leave it to her, she couldn't leave it to anyone. Which is so confusing! Those British are crazy. 😂 1w

Faranae @willaful But they didn't give what it actually is? Eg, copyhold (abolished in 1925), life estate, leasehold (you could do a leasehold where the rent is 0)... I think a lot of people also don't know that “freehold“ is often shorthand for “perpetual freehold“, and there are other types of freehold... 1w

willaful @Faranae I think it did say leasehold, and presumably rent free. 1w

39 likes9 comments

Ruthiella

The Woods in Winter | Stella Gibbons

pick

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
#37by37

A very soft pick. It was a bit of a meandering hodgepodge. Taciturn, middle aged, and slightly witchy charwoman, Ivy Gover, inherits her uncle cottage outside the village of Nethersham in 1930 or so. There are a few village romances, a poignant foster son situation, a mean girl, class consciousness and class clashes. And then there‘s an epilogue 40 years later. It felt a little unfinished.

rubyslippersreads, quietjenn, Jess_Read_This, Kimzey, erzascarletbookgasm, catebutler, Cuilin, CarolynM, LeahBergen, JenlovesJT47, Lizpixie, elkeOriginal, Gissy, Aimeesue, batsy, Tamra, MatchlessMarie, bookandbedandtea, Teresereading, Sace, kwmg40, Sparklemn, willaful, MrsK

LeahBergen I‘m still reading and almost at the halfway point. I‘m wondering if the “unfinishedness” is a product of this being her last book? I‘ve saved the introduction to read until after I‘m done! 1w

Ruthiella @LeahBergen I think that might have played into it. 1w

LeahBergen I‘m going to make our post in the next day or two, calling for next year‘s voting. Is that okay with you, my fellow host? 😆 1w

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Ruthiella @LeahBergen Yes. Perfect. Should we also do a roll call of sorts? I think the core participants have changed and some are no longer active on the platform. 🤔 1w

Tamra I‘m only a third in and enjoying it, but based on reviews so far I should lower my expectations. Starts out strong! 1w

Cuilin @Tamra yes I thought it started strong, now I may need to adjust my expectations too. 1w

Ruthiella @Tamra @Cuilin It was overall enjoyable but no one storyline felt entirely fleshed out, IMO. 1w

LeahBergen @Ruthiella We should! I was going to drop a couple of names from the list that haven‘t been on Litsy for a year or two (they‘ll find us if they come back 😄). Do you want to do the roll call and then I‘ll check our picking order and organize that bit? 1w

Ruthiella @LeahBergen Yes, will do! 1w

72 likes9 comments

willaful

Woods in Winter | Stella Gibbons

I was really enjoying this, but halfway though it suddenly started focusing on all these extraneous characters. I'm baffled.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

LeahBergen Oh no. I haven‘t got to that point yet! 😆 1w

Ruthiella Agree! I‘m at 80% and there‘s still no plot to speak of! 😆 1w

26 likes2 comments

LitsyEvents

The Woods in Winter | Stella Gibbons

Happy Halloween 🎃
via @Ruthiella
#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub readers!
Reminding y'all that our last title in 2025 is the tagged in November. I've started it and I will say, if you are a dog lover, you will appreciate it.
#JusticeforMrJones&JimJams (!)
Read at your own pace and make sure to tag us in your review and any related posts.
This buddy read is open to anyone. If you would like to be added to or removed from the tag list, say the word.

Ruthiella Thank you! 🙏 3w

Tamra Oh, how fun! Thanks for the reminder! @Ruthiella (edited) 3w

24 likes2 comments

Ruthiella

The Woods in Winter | Stella Gibbons

Happy Halloween 🎃 #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub readers! Reminding y‘all that our last title in 2025 is the tagged in November. I‘ve started it and I will say, if you are a dog lover, you will appreciate it. #JusticeforMrJones&JimJams 🐶!

Read at your own pace and make sure to tag us in your review and any related posts.

This buddy read is open to anyone. If you would like to be added to or removed from the tag list, say the word.

@LitsyEvents

rubyslippersreads, quietjenn, Jess_Read_This, Kimzey, erzascarletbookgasm, catebutler, Cuilin, CarolynM, LeahBergen, JenlovesJT47, Lizpixie, elkeOriginal, Gissy, Aimeesue, batsy, Tamra, bookandbedandtea, Teresereading, Sace, kwmg40, Sparklemn, julieclair, willaful, MrsK

Kimzey Yay! I‘ve started it also. 🐕 3w

Ruthiella @Kimzey Awesome! 🤩 3w

LeahBergen Dog lover here! 🙌 3w

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Ruthiella @LeahBergen We‘re in luck this time. Though, I will say Tara the dog in Susan Settles Down was well cared for. 🐶 3w

julieclair I think I need to be removed from the tag list, please. I have overcommitted myself to buddy reads. But I will still follow the hash tag and may pop in from time to time. Thanks! 2w

Ruthiella @julieclair No problem. 😉 Thanks for letting me know. 2w

CarolynM I‘ve got a few books in the queue ahead of this one, but I will get there eventually - hopefully before the end of the month😬🙂 2w

Ruthiella @CarolynM No worries! I‘m about 1/2 ways through and I have no idea where it‘s going plot-wise, which is interesting.🤔 2w

54 likes8 comments

The_Penniless_Author

Stone Door | Leonora Carrington

so-so

A kaleidoscopic narrative larded with symbols and references to just about every religion, philosophy, and mystical practice known to man. It felt sort of like a William Burroughs remastering of fables and fairy tales from around the world. I love Carrington, and I appreciate formal inventiveness when it's well-done, but I'm still on the fence whether this added up to anything or was so much performative vagueness (albeit beautifully rendered).

33 likes

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