Okay, #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub … here are my picks for May 2025.

Vote away!

Okay, #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub , with our November book we come to the end of our year of reading!

Are we in for another round? Here‘s our next group of selectors (according to our records):

January: @rubyslippersreads
March: @quietjenn
May: @LeahBergen
July: @CarolynM
September: @Cathythoughts
November: @Ruthiella

If we‘re all in, let‘s start with our January and March “pickers” posting their two choices for us to vote on. 😃

Well, this was a charming little romp! It somehow reminded me of Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day but, in this case, it‘s more of a “Mr Partridge Lives For Six Months”. 😆 Look at him on the cover and spine of my edition!

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

I‘ve been dipping in and out of this book lately and it‘s marvellous!

@CarolynM What a lovely surprise! I‘m having the birthday that keeps on giving. 😆

I‘m so excited to finally try a Dornford Yates as I know you‘re a fan and I‘ve had The Tea Ladies stacked since your review (it‘s not published here until next year).

The card (titled “Looking for Bookworms” 😆) is the best! Thank you so much, my friend, I love it all! 😘😘😘

@BookishMadHatter !! Thank you so much for this wonderful #AllHallowsReadSwap !

I‘m so excited for both books (they‘re perfect!) and the candies are awesome (yes, I‘m a Smarties pig). How did you manage to colour coordinate this so well? 😆 I love it all!

Thanks again to @MaleficentBookDragon for hosting another great swap! 🎃

#AHRS

@AshRob22 !! Thank you so much for this AMAZING #HauntedHollowSwap package! The “reading ghost” cross-stitch is absolutely stunning. I adore it!

You chose some perfect reads for me and I love everything else: the hair scrunchies, pumpkin mug, earrings, bookmark, skeletal servers 😆, and candies! Perfection! Happy Halloween, friend! 🎃🎃🎃

Thank you once again, @wanderinglynn , for organizing this great swap! 🎃🎃🎃

#HHS #HHS24

My current pre-Halloween spooky read. I‘ve had this one sitting on my shelves for ages!

Thank you, @TrishB (my fellow Scorpio 😆), for this lovely birthday book! It sounds so good and the cover art is fabulous. And it was longlisted for this year‘s Giller Prize, too!

I hope your birthday was as good as mine is shaping up to be! 😘😘

@Cathythoughts ! Thank you for this wonderful birthday package!

The books both sound amazing and I‘m thrilled to get a copy of your husband‘s folk opera (signed, to me, too… Thanks, John!). And what a sweet little bookmark and card. I love it all, my dear friend! 😘😘

Thank you so much for these lovely birthday gifts, @rubyslippersreads ! 💙🩵

I‘ve already been flipping through The Blue Castle manuscript and it‘s so cool! The Mischief Makers (Daphne Du Maurier!) sounds absolutely intriguing. Yes, let‘s do a buddy read (but I shan‘t share my chocs). 😆

You‘re a dear friend. 😘

I‘ve been having a lot of fun working my way through this anthology of ghost stories (all with ghostly children 😱).

@Bookwomble Care to take a guess at the MR James story included in this collection? Or the ubiquitous Elizabeth Gaskell? 😆

My #AllHallowsReadSwap arrived today! Thank you, @BookishMadHatter ! I‘m very excited! 😘😘

*and*

A lovely birthday card from @rubyslippersreads . Thank you so much! 😘😘

#AHRS #AllHallowsRead
@MaleficentBookDragon

I enjoyed this story of Teresa, swept away to India by her father when her mother (who abandoned her) threatens to come back into her life. Her father is cold and self absorbed but the boat journey (which I loved reading about) and her time in India opens her eyes to an entirely new world.

#PersephoneClub

My #HauntedHollowSwap has arrived!! Thank you so much, @AshRob22 ! 👻 🖤 👻

#HHS #HHS24
@wanderinglynn

@merelybookish !!! What an absolutely beautiful surprise! 😮

Thank you SO much for thinking of me (and my DE Stevenson collection). These are gorgeous! And I loved your card and the 1920s art attached to the puff envelope, too. 😆 You know me well!

You‘ve brightened my day, my friend. 😘😘

And away they go with Canada Post! 🎃🎃🎃

#AllHallowsReadSwap #AHRS @MaleficentBookDragon
#HauntedHollowSwap #HHS24 #HHS @wanderinglynn

My current “Royal Biography Buddy Read” with @shawnmooney !

👑👑👑👑👑

This read like a disturbing ‘80s version of Are You There, God? It‘s Me, Margaret and I couldn‘t put it down. 😆

It‘s now October so that means it‘s time for one of our #PersephoneClub reads!

@Aimeesue ‘s pick for us this month is The Far Cry by Emma Smith. This is a casual buddy read; read and comment on each other‘s posts and reviews as you see them. We usually aim to finish by the middle of the month but that‘s not written in stone. 😉 And anyone is welcome to read along with us, of course!

I‘ve been MIA from our reading groups for a while as we‘re still travelling around in our trailer (it‘s time to head home now though as the leaves are falling!) I‘ve managed to read all three and heartily enjoyed them.

The Native Heath : a fun and frothy slice of village life
The Children Who Lived in a Barn: nice try, Mr and Mrs ‘We Forgot to Come Home to Our Children‘ 😆
Spam Tomorrow: a witty and heartfelt exploration of life on the Homefront

I‘m nearing the end of my reread of the Little House series.

Much of my enjoyment has been discovering that I somehow seem to empathize with the adults now (and that I can‘t stop questioning the lifestyle choices they were happy to live with). 😆

Today‘s book mail! I‘ve been looking forward to this one.

I‘ve been shamefully avoiding all book club reads since I got back from my summer travels and reading all the little books I picked up in various Laura Ingalls Wilder museums instead.

This has now lead me to rereading the entire series in order, which I don‘t think I‘ve done since my tween years. 😆😆

It‘s now August so that means it‘s time for one of our #PersephoneClub reads!

@rubyslippersreads ‘ pick for us this month is The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham. This is a casual buddy read; read and comment on each other‘s posts and reviews as you see them. We usually aim to finish by the middle of the month but that‘s not written in stone. 😉 And anyone is welcome to read along with us, of course!

I‘m across the bridge and in the UP (Upper Michigan) and reading a book set in the UP.

I‘m even drinking American beer. 😁

And #JohnnyBergen made it to Betsy‘s House in Mankato, MN!

He sat on “the bench”, too. 😆

We‘re road tripping and #JohnnyBergen has made it to The Banks of Plum Creek. 😆

A new addition to my LM Montgomery shelves!

This is the diary of Montgomery‘s cousin, Myrtle Webb, who owned Green Gables and embraced its popularity as a literary landmark.

This was today‘s read and “we” absolutely loved it!

#JohnnyBergen

Here‘s my current read, in preparation for meeting my best friend in Michigan‘s Upper Peninsula (the book‘s setting) next month!

I‘m very much enjoying it and plan on watching the Jimmy Stewart film when I‘m done.

A couple of oldies that I found at the bookshop this weekend (and that I‘ve somehow never read 🤷🏻‍♀️).

I just finished reading Carney‘s House Party (with the guidebook to the real people and places close at hand!) and immediately dove into the tagged book. 😆

This was a charming and wryly witty story of a couple‘s first year of marriage and their first home. The author drew from memories of his own idyllic first year of marriage on “Greenery Street” (Walpole Street in London) and it made me so nostalgic for my first house after marriage. And just like the Greenery Street houses, we bought our old house from owners who were expecting their second child and needed to size up. 😆

#PersephoneClub

Wow, @TheLudicReader ! I thought you were sending me a few teabags to try and I ended up with this lovely New Brunswick care package!

My husband was here when I opened it and he immediately said, “Ooo, Chicken Bones! Gimme one!” 😆 We haven‘t had them since we were kids. And Bay of Fundy salt! 👏

Your daughter‘s artwork on the postcard is amazing. Thank you so much, my friend! 😘😘

Garden reading while the husband gardens. 😆

This is a memoir of a man who reconnects with his childhood best friend from boarding school after said friend is released from prison for the shocking murder of a family member. The story opens with the author meeting the friend at a train station and then goes back over their school years together and the times they spent at each other‘s houses.

#SlightlyFoxed
#SlightlyFoxedEditions

It‘s now June so that means it‘s time for one of our #PersephoneClub reads!

@quietjenn ‘s pick for us this month is Greenery Street by Denis Mackail. This is a casual buddy read; read and comment on each other‘s posts and reviews as you see them. We usually aim to finish by the middle of the month but that‘s not written in stone. 😉 And anyone is welcome to read along with us, of course!

A Sunday beer with Miss Read.

It should really be a sherry, but … 😆

I‘m generally pretty hit-or-miss with Emma Donoghue‘s novels but I‘m enjoying this one!

(I‘ve liked Slammerkin, The Wonder, and Room but bailed on a few others).

Omg, everyone! THEY‘RE BACK! 🙀

http://furrowedmiddlebrow.blogspot.com/

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

It‘s Victoria Day today in Canada (National Patriots‘ Day in Quebec) so I picked up this children‘s story written by Queen Victoria when she was ten years old. It‘s illustrated with the paper dolls she and her governess made and painted, which are then added into scenes by a modern artist.

The story itself is sweet and funny; one of the students at the boarding school is a French orphan with an eyepatch who lost an eye due to smallpox. 🫢

I haven‘t read an Elizabeth Taylor (not the movie star 😆) novel in ages and I forgot how much I love sinking into her writing. The forward mentions the Updike quote about giving “the mundane its beautiful due” and that‘s a perfect description of what she does so well.

It‘s a rainy day here today and I‘ve read half of this book in one gulp. 😆

I felt like switching up my reading a bit as I don‘t think I‘ve read any nonfiction for a while. It must be “true crime time”. 😉

It was a good ‘book mail‘ day!

This third book of short stories is #PersephoneBooks ‘ 150th publication and celebrates their 25 years of publishing.

#PersephoneClub

I‘m currently reading (and absolutely loving) this witty Regency-era romp by Georgette Heyer.

Fun fact: It was her personal favourite of all her novels!

This book reminded me so much of the ‘70s era, “woman fleeing a house” covered Gothics that I loved as an early teen.

It had it all: a spooky manor on the moors, an eye-wateringly dim heroine, a dishy hero who catches her every faint, and even a parrot squawking out clues to the “mystery”. We as readers can see how this mystery is going to pan out from a mile away but the journey is campy and fun. A great “flu read”! 😆

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

I‘ve had some sort of flu bug (not Covid) for the past few days and this book is the extent of what my brain can handle.

It‘s like watching a season of The Great British Bake Off with the foreknowledge that all the contestants have a secret and are unreliable narrators. Hmm, let‘s call them “unreliable bakers”. 😆

My current read and I‘m really enjoying it!

I had read quite a few “meh” reviews about this one but I received it as a Christmas gift from a dear friend (so I had to give it a try, of course!).

Many of the talks from the recent Persephone Festival are available to listen to for free (for the next month). I‘m currently enjoying “Wild for Whipple”. 😄 (See link in comments).

#PersephoneClub
@LeahBergen @Cathythoughts @rubyslippersreads @quietjenn @Tamra @CarolynM @sisilia @Caryl @daena @elkeOriginal @Gissy @Aimeesue @Bookbuyingaddict @julieclair @willaful @andrew61