Some library, one classic I’ve owned for decades (but bought a new copy of because I forgot), a generously gifted ARC and another *mystery* book I read on my Kobo.
12 A Room With a View by E.M Forster (City of Sydney Library)
I was reviewing my reading history and realised I had a real gap in the first 20 years of the 20th century. This was my first Forster in an attempt to start remedying this. I found the first half - the Italian half - a little fuzzy. Like I couldn’t see the characters through thin layer of gauze. Everything sharpened up once the action moved back to England and i thoroughly enjoyed Forsters often surprisingly acerbic take on human nature. Will be exploring more of his books this year.
13 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (On my shelf for 20 years, this copy bought at Kinokuniya though)
I have been trying to read this book since I was 14 years old. I found my eyes would slide over the beautiful sentences like they were slipping off glass. I could never crack it and get in. Something shifted this time (the patience of middle age? The fact I’m drastically cutting back my phone screen time?) and I finally got past the first two pages. Loved it, wanted to live in it, felt like I was swimming through it.
14 The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien (City of Sydney Library)
I only read the first of the trilogy before I had to send the book back to the library. A scandalous book when it first came out in Ireland, it seems almost quaint now. Reminded me a little of Margaret Drabble, a little of Circle of Friends (Edna O’Brien walked so Maeve Binchy could run etc) and a little of Colm Tobin (though that might just be the Irishness).
15 Sea Green by Barbara Hanrahan (Gifted by Pink Shorts Press)
God mid century Australia seems like it was so grim. This follows a young South Australian woman - an art student - on the long sea crossing to London and over the first months at the beginning of her life there. Her memories of home - dusty, conservative, suburban and bland - interspersed with high seas fumbling romance, new friendships, deathly loneliness, and finally love. My memories of this feel slightly swirling and psychedelic.
16 Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell (Inner West Library)
Only got a few chapters in before I had to return this. It was gripping but very grim. I always find stories about domestic violence/coercive control nightmarishly claustrophobic to read. Will probably borrow it again to finish it in the next few months.
17 The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (Not pictured - read on my Kobo)
Read this in Japan. Very easy read. Historical fiction/vague thrillerish story, set in a women’s boarding house in DC in the 1950s. Really had to strain to remember what happened in this so make of that what you will.