I just dug Ghostwalk out of my sagging bookshelf to read again. Thanks for the reminder, I live in Montana, in the United States, and have only been to Cambridge once. It was a long time ago, on a high school exchange, but somehow my family is related to Isaac Newton through his niece Hannah. I find him fascinating
Loving Sylvia Plath will be my next read! I've been looking forward to its release. Just found out about Rhine Journey today and feel like I have to get it now. My summer reading includes Deborah Levy's The Cost Of Living and Real Estate, Parable of the Sower, Giovanni's Room, a biography of Katherine Mansfield, After Sappho, some Laurie Colwin and Anita Brookner, and various poetry books.
Thank you Caitlin, for your great comment and very interesting list! I must say that I am completely hooked by Rhine Journey and now that I'm getting towards the end (trying hard not to guess what's going to happen) I feel I will have to read it again. It's very immersive, like the best of Anita Brookner. Loving Sylvia Plath will be sad in many ways but just glad Van Duyne has been so determined to tell the truth about Plath's life.
The Deborah Levy memoirs are great! The are three in all: these two, and a first, originally standalone I think, called ”Things I do Not Want to Know” (or something like that.)
It's more an extended essay than a book, and is framed as a specifically woman's version of Orwell's ”Why I Write.”
Thanks for these recommendations! I like a circadian novel, so will look out for the Nicholls. At the moment I’m enjoying Alice B. Toklas is Missing by Robert Archambeau: a delightfully light and witty mystery story set in Gertrude Stein’s Paris, which is very well informed about the circle around her famous salon, and features T.S. Eliot as a main character (this sealed the deal for me…)
The Archambeau sounds fun, Jeremy - are there other novels that feature TS Eliot...? You might find Nicholls underwhelming by comparison, but I wanted to highlight the novels that seem to work well while walking, while others don't. Ulysses as read by Jim Norton is perfect for several months' worth of walks.
Sorry, forgot to reply to your question! As it happens, there's a new book on Eliot coming out next month, which has a chapter on fictional TSEs... I'll be reading with interest! https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/eliot-now-9781350173934/. He's certainly reputed to be the inspiration for the character of Louis in Woolf's The Waves.
Ah, how interesting, thanks Jeremy, & congrats on your own chapter. Just about to dive into The Waves again (oops) so that's a good thing to bear in mind about Louis.
Emily V. D. is so wonderful on Plath and its #1 on my summer list. I was lucky to take a short course from her on her life and poems and she speaks from impressive knowledge of the poets life and work, but adds so much of her own insight humor and passion. I think she's right about Ted in many ways and she backs it up.
I'm trying to write a play about Plaths impact on poetry and mental health advances, etc. It is hard to find the right voice, being a man. I think she has a great positive vision for all who suffer from depression though but don't want it to represent their whole life and life's work. Warm wishes from Niagara to Cambridge!
Your play about Plath sounds very interesting, John. I do think Plath was underrated in her lifetime, and it's very sad that she didn't get the help she needed - both when she was well, and when she had serious depression. The fact that so many young women identify with her means it's important that her story is properly told, and I think Hughes and his supporters did a lot to prevent that. But things are improving now, in many ways.
Thanks John! Lucky you - Emily must be a great teacher, and as you say, she has examined all the evidence closely and says what needs to be said about Hughes controlling Plath's posthumous narrative.
Rhine Journey sounds like a book that I should read, and I would be interested to hear what you think of the Ginzburg. Like one of your other commenters, my planned summer reading seems to change every few days, as I come across something new and the summer quickly slips past. But I will definitely be reading Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos. I'm also hoping to get to Selva Almada's short Not a River. Perhaps Yuval Levin's American Covenant or Anne Applebaum's Autocracy, Inc.
Thank you Peter, those sound fascinating. I did enjoy Erpenbeck's The End of Days, and I know what you mean about the list changing. When I do eventually get away, I will decide on two or three books the evening before, and make sure I find time to sit and read them.
Nice list! I hope you enjoy them. I’ve read the Dunne and the Nicholls, the second of which I found a very quick read. Maybe it was me, but it seemed like there wasn’t much there. I took my time over the Dunne; his old man would be pleased, I think.
Gosh! You are an enviably fast reader, Marina. I did adjust my expectations about Nicholls - in the past I have found his novels a bit too light, so it was nice to encounter his latest via audiobook. And now I am listening to Mrs Dalloway while walking, which also brings a new understanding of the novel's rhythm. Looking forward to diving into the Dunne (and having a rest) soon.
I love the idea of walking with a book, Ann. Funnily enough, my first encounter with Woolf was audio and so for some reason, that’s my default with her. A coworker has recently started listening to fluffy fiction for an hour before sleep (like a bedtime story), and she said it has improved her sleep.
I am glad to hear you also enjoy Woolf on audio. It simply hadn't occurred to me before. I think it's because her fiction resembles someone confiding in you one-to-one, like a memoir. Fluffy fiction is a great term!
I love reading about other people's seasonal selections. My summer books (as well as Wolf Hall trilogy and War and Peace as slow reads on here) almost always consist of a Paige Toon book, Taylor Jenkins Reid book, a re-read of a Sally Rooney and an Agatha Christie amongst others. I love books that can help me relax, take me into other people's lives and to other places.
Thanks Claire, me too - and I'm impressed by all the reading you're doing. There'll be a new Sally Rooney novel out soon, can't wait - and reading Laura Thompson's latest post 'When in Devon' really made me want to revisit Agatha Christie too!
I have the new Sally Rooney pre-ordered! Looking forward to it. Must go and read that post. This year I have slowed down my reading and really getting in the books I am reading. Not long finished In A Thousand Different Ways by Cecilia Ahern and loved it.
Thank you... some fabulous sounding recommendations. Our village has a telephone box sharing library so often my next read comes from there but I'm always on the look out for recommendations.
Thank you Gina! I love a sharing library, and a phone box is the perfect place. That reminds me of a phone box mini-conservatory I spotted recently in London - I'll share my snap via Notes!
I agree. much more of the truth has been uncovered. mental health was in the dark ages then as well, and her treatments at Maclean were destructive. we are still learning so much about the mind. thanks so very much. will let you know if this play gets off the ground. John
Oh Ann, this has MADE MY DAY. Thank you so much. I am also delighted that our summer reading lists intersect as you are a woman of impeccable taste: I have Simon Kuper's Paris on my list. I so enjoy his weekly FT column - brains and good sense. And I snapped a picture of Rhine Journey when I was in Daunt Books the other week. (I was en route to the till with three other books so had a stern word with myself re picking up another.)
Thanks Natasha! That's so kind. it does seem a bit presumptuous to suggest to anyone 'oh, you must read this' and I very much take your point about only one paperback permitted in your hand luggage. I will be agog to find out which one you'll take away with you...
There are some good recommendations here, thank you. I think I might take a look at Yellowface this summer, warmly recommended to me by someone yesterday as 'funny', which I hadn't realised? I hope it's true.
Thanks Sarah, yes I had heard Yellowface is very good but might be too melodramatic for me... I can't resist a quiet-waters-run-deep novel, and Rhine Journey just gets better and better. But I am still looking for something funny myself, so let me know what you find! The last book that made me laugh was A Far Cry from Kensington (but of course), & there's always Pym.
Sounds like you have a great summer of reading ahead of you, Ann. As soon as I finish the last few pages of The Fraud by Zadie Smith I'm ready to embark on A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor, a recent find which seems extremely up my literary street.
What did you think of The Fraud? I listened to it as an audiobook read by Smith herslef, with a lot of accents - sometimes it worked, sometimes not...amd overall I thought it was a little too long? but lots to enjoy about it
I have just finished it and have to say that I quite enjoyed it. I read a review mentioning that historical fiction suits Zadie Smith and I must agree. It fizzles out a bit in the last 50 pages mostly as the main event-the Tichborne trial- comes to an end, but it is nonetheless a solid novel that weaves fact and fiction (as well as several interconnected stories) very effectively and with great writing.
Exactly, it would have ended on a higher note if after the trial there would have been a couple of chapters to wrap things up nicely as she does a great job of building anticipation for the reader to find out whether the claimant is an impostor or not and then the story loses momentum after the trial.
I love book lists! Thank you! I made my own for the summer, which I'm hoping to stick to, but every time I see a list, I can't help but add a book or two onto mine. I'll be adding You Are Here from this one.
Ann, please make a list of books about Cambridge and walking please.
Thanks Tuhina! What a good idea...
...meanwhile here's my post about Cambridge novels (including the aptly named Ghostwalk).
https://akennedysmith.substack.com/p/novels-about-cambridge
Ghostwalk is one of my all time favorite books.
That's great to hear, KellyAnne. I do love her first book, Darwin and the Barnacle too. Also her memoir In The Days of Rain!
I just dug Ghostwalk out of my sagging bookshelf to read again. Thanks for the reminder, I live in Montana, in the United States, and have only been to Cambridge once. It was a long time ago, on a high school exchange, but somehow my family is related to Isaac Newton through his niece Hannah. I find him fascinating
Loving Sylvia Plath will be my next read! I've been looking forward to its release. Just found out about Rhine Journey today and feel like I have to get it now. My summer reading includes Deborah Levy's The Cost Of Living and Real Estate, Parable of the Sower, Giovanni's Room, a biography of Katherine Mansfield, After Sappho, some Laurie Colwin and Anita Brookner, and various poetry books.
Thank you Caitlin, for your great comment and very interesting list! I must say that I am completely hooked by Rhine Journey and now that I'm getting towards the end (trying hard not to guess what's going to happen) I feel I will have to read it again. It's very immersive, like the best of Anita Brookner. Loving Sylvia Plath will be sad in many ways but just glad Van Duyne has been so determined to tell the truth about Plath's life.
This sold me the rest of the way on Rhine Journey — have just started reading it.
I do hope you enjoy it! And thanks for the Levy recommendation too.
I did. Extraordinary; it took over my day. Can't believe I have never heard of it, or of Ann Schlee. Am so glad you recommended it — thank you.
Hurray- so pleased!
The Deborah Levy memoirs are great! The are three in all: these two, and a first, originally standalone I think, called ”Things I do Not Want to Know” (or something like that.)
It's more an extended essay than a book, and is framed as a specifically woman's version of Orwell's ”Why I Write.”
Love the Deborah Levy books. Marvelous writing. Enjoy.
Thanks for these recommendations! I like a circadian novel, so will look out for the Nicholls. At the moment I’m enjoying Alice B. Toklas is Missing by Robert Archambeau: a delightfully light and witty mystery story set in Gertrude Stein’s Paris, which is very well informed about the circle around her famous salon, and features T.S. Eliot as a main character (this sealed the deal for me…)
The Archambeau sounds fun, Jeremy - are there other novels that feature TS Eliot...? You might find Nicholls underwhelming by comparison, but I wanted to highlight the novels that seem to work well while walking, while others don't. Ulysses as read by Jim Norton is perfect for several months' worth of walks.
Sorry, forgot to reply to your question! As it happens, there's a new book on Eliot coming out next month, which has a chapter on fictional TSEs... I'll be reading with interest! https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/eliot-now-9781350173934/. He's certainly reputed to be the inspiration for the character of Louis in Woolf's The Waves.
Ah, how interesting, thanks Jeremy, & congrats on your own chapter. Just about to dive into The Waves again (oops) so that's a good thing to bear in mind about Louis.
Emily V. D. is so wonderful on Plath and its #1 on my summer list. I was lucky to take a short course from her on her life and poems and she speaks from impressive knowledge of the poets life and work, but adds so much of her own insight humor and passion. I think she's right about Ted in many ways and she backs it up.
I'm trying to write a play about Plaths impact on poetry and mental health advances, etc. It is hard to find the right voice, being a man. I think she has a great positive vision for all who suffer from depression though but don't want it to represent their whole life and life's work. Warm wishes from Niagara to Cambridge!
thanks for reading my posts. have a wonderful day.
Many thanks for all your great comments John, and I hope you have a good day too!
Your play about Plath sounds very interesting, John. I do think Plath was underrated in her lifetime, and it's very sad that she didn't get the help she needed - both when she was well, and when she had serious depression. The fact that so many young women identify with her means it's important that her story is properly told, and I think Hughes and his supporters did a lot to prevent that. But things are improving now, in many ways.
Thanks John! Lucky you - Emily must be a great teacher, and as you say, she has examined all the evidence closely and says what needs to be said about Hughes controlling Plath's posthumous narrative.
Rhine Journey sounds like a book that I should read, and I would be interested to hear what you think of the Ginzburg. Like one of your other commenters, my planned summer reading seems to change every few days, as I come across something new and the summer quickly slips past. But I will definitely be reading Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos. I'm also hoping to get to Selva Almada's short Not a River. Perhaps Yuval Levin's American Covenant or Anne Applebaum's Autocracy, Inc.
Thank you Peter, those sound fascinating. I did enjoy Erpenbeck's The End of Days, and I know what you mean about the list changing. When I do eventually get away, I will decide on two or three books the evening before, and make sure I find time to sit and read them.
Nice list! I hope you enjoy them. I’ve read the Dunne and the Nicholls, the second of which I found a very quick read. Maybe it was me, but it seemed like there wasn’t much there. I took my time over the Dunne; his old man would be pleased, I think.
Gosh! You are an enviably fast reader, Marina. I did adjust my expectations about Nicholls - in the past I have found his novels a bit too light, so it was nice to encounter his latest via audiobook. And now I am listening to Mrs Dalloway while walking, which also brings a new understanding of the novel's rhythm. Looking forward to diving into the Dunne (and having a rest) soon.
I love the idea of walking with a book, Ann. Funnily enough, my first encounter with Woolf was audio and so for some reason, that’s my default with her. A coworker has recently started listening to fluffy fiction for an hour before sleep (like a bedtime story), and she said it has improved her sleep.
I am glad to hear you also enjoy Woolf on audio. It simply hadn't occurred to me before. I think it's because her fiction resembles someone confiding in you one-to-one, like a memoir. Fluffy fiction is a great term!
I love reading about other people's seasonal selections. My summer books (as well as Wolf Hall trilogy and War and Peace as slow reads on here) almost always consist of a Paige Toon book, Taylor Jenkins Reid book, a re-read of a Sally Rooney and an Agatha Christie amongst others. I love books that can help me relax, take me into other people's lives and to other places.
Thanks Claire, me too - and I'm impressed by all the reading you're doing. There'll be a new Sally Rooney novel out soon, can't wait - and reading Laura Thompson's latest post 'When in Devon' really made me want to revisit Agatha Christie too!
I have the new Sally Rooney pre-ordered! Looking forward to it. Must go and read that post. This year I have slowed down my reading and really getting in the books I am reading. Not long finished In A Thousand Different Ways by Cecilia Ahern and loved it.
Aha, I might just have to pre-order the Rooney too - and thanks for the Celia Ahern recommendation!
Thank you... some fabulous sounding recommendations. Our village has a telephone box sharing library so often my next read comes from there but I'm always on the look out for recommendations.
Thank you Gina! I love a sharing library, and a phone box is the perfect place. That reminds me of a phone box mini-conservatory I spotted recently in London - I'll share my snap via Notes!
That sounds delightful. I have seen them used as mini art galleries too. There was one in Prickwillow near Ely
I've got the new David Nicholls to read, hoping to find a day with little to do to get cracking on with doing just that
That’s great Ruth, hope you enjoy it!
I agree. much more of the truth has been uncovered. mental health was in the dark ages then as well, and her treatments at Maclean were destructive. we are still learning so much about the mind. thanks so very much. will let you know if this play gets off the ground. John
Oh Ann, this has MADE MY DAY. Thank you so much. I am also delighted that our summer reading lists intersect as you are a woman of impeccable taste: I have Simon Kuper's Paris on my list. I so enjoy his weekly FT column - brains and good sense. And I snapped a picture of Rhine Journey when I was in Daunt Books the other week. (I was en route to the till with three other books so had a stern word with myself re picking up another.)
Thanks Natasha! That's so kind. it does seem a bit presumptuous to suggest to anyone 'oh, you must read this' and I very much take your point about only one paperback permitted in your hand luggage. I will be agog to find out which one you'll take away with you...
There are some good recommendations here, thank you. I think I might take a look at Yellowface this summer, warmly recommended to me by someone yesterday as 'funny', which I hadn't realised? I hope it's true.
Thanks Sarah, yes I had heard Yellowface is very good but might be too melodramatic for me... I can't resist a quiet-waters-run-deep novel, and Rhine Journey just gets better and better. But I am still looking for something funny myself, so let me know what you find! The last book that made me laugh was A Far Cry from Kensington (but of course), & there's always Pym.
Interesting list, Ann! I listened to the audio of The Friday Afternoon Club, and Griffin Dunne is a wonderful narrator!
Thank you Sarah - I will look out for the audio version… (I have heard him on the radio, and he has a great voice.)
He really does, and with his acting background, he does an amazing job with other voices, anecdotes, etc.
Sounds like you have a great summer of reading ahead of you, Ann. As soon as I finish the last few pages of The Fraud by Zadie Smith I'm ready to embark on A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor, a recent find which seems extremely up my literary street.
Ah, the Zadie Smith sounds good, Cristina! Will be interested to hear what you think of the Green Equinox.
What did you think of The Fraud? I listened to it as an audiobook read by Smith herslef, with a lot of accents - sometimes it worked, sometimes not...amd overall I thought it was a little too long? but lots to enjoy about it
I have just finished it and have to say that I quite enjoyed it. I read a review mentioning that historical fiction suits Zadie Smith and I must agree. It fizzles out a bit in the last 50 pages mostly as the main event-the Tichborne trial- comes to an end, but it is nonetheless a solid novel that weaves fact and fiction (as well as several interconnected stories) very effectively and with great writing.
agreed, I think ending it with the end of the trial would have worked better
Exactly, it would have ended on a higher note if after the trial there would have been a couple of chapters to wrap things up nicely as she does a great job of building anticipation for the reader to find out whether the claimant is an impostor or not and then the story loses momentum after the trial.
I am loving your list. I have been needing a current Paris book!
(Also Sylvia Plath, poor dear)
Thank you!
I love book lists! Thank you! I made my own for the summer, which I'm hoping to stick to, but every time I see a list, I can't help but add a book or two onto mine. I'll be adding You Are Here from this one.
That’s great Ingrid! Look forward to reading yours too.