-- But you will be ready to say, what was your hope in doing this? -- What did you look forward to? -- To any thing, every thing -- to time, chance, circumstances, slow effects, sudden bursts, perserverance and weariness ... Every possibility of good was before me, and the first of blessings secured ... {Jane Austen, Emma}


Reading List


Biographies and Non-Fiction
  • Louis Auchincloss, A voice from old New York : a memoir of my youth
  • Sylvia Beach, The Letters of Sylvia Beach
  • Nicola Beauman, The Other Elizabeth Taylor
  • Joelle Bielle, ed., Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker : the complete correspondence
  • Bill Bryson, At Hme:  A Short History of Private Life
  • Michael Capuzzo, The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases
  • Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, In Tearing Haste:  letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
  • Susan Hill, Howards End is on the Landing
  • Adam Gopnik, Paris to the Moon
  • Daisy Hay, The Young Romantics
  • Katie Hickman, Daughters of Britannia : the lives and times of diplomatic wives
  • Sam Irvin, Kay Thompson: from Funny face to Eloise
  • Jennifer Kloester, Georgette Heyer's Regency World
  • Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf's Nose:  essays on biography and Body Parts:  Essays on Life-writing
  • Marc Levinson, The great A&P and the struggle for small business in America
  • Suzanne Loebl, America's Medicis:  The Rockefellers and their astonishing cultural legacy
  • Mary S. Lovell, Churchills:  in love and war
  • Margaret MacMillan, Women of the Raj:  the mothers, wives and daughters of the British Empure in India
  • Hilary Macaskill, Agatha Christie at Home
  • Clara Emily Milburn, Mrs. Milburn's diaries : an Englishwoman's day-to-day reflections, 1939-45, edited by Peter Donnell {recommended by Claire}
  • Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village {or is this fiction? not quite sure}
  • Wendy Moffat, A great unrecorded history : a new life of E.M. Forster
  • Wendy Moore, Wedlock : the true story of the disastrous marriage and remarkable divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore
  • Ethan Mordden, The Guest List:  how Manhattan defined American sophistication from the Algonquin Round Table to Truman Capote's ball
  • Venetia Murray, An elegant madness: high society in Regency England
  • Beverly Nichols, Merry Hall, Laughter on the Stairs, and Sunlight on the Stairs, and his Garden Trilogy {recommended by Claire}
  • Virginia Nicholson, Singled out : how two million British women survived without men after the First World War
  • Patricia O'Toole, The Five of Hearts:  An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, 1880-1918
  • Stephen Puleo, A city so grand : the rise of an American metropolis, Boston 1850-1900
  • Helen Rappaport, A Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy
  • Carol Eron Rizzoli, The House at Royal Oak
  • Margaret Roach, And I shall have some peace there : trading in the fast lane for my own dirt road
  • Scott Simon, Baby, we were meant for each other : in praise of adoption
  • Michael Sims, The story of Charlotte's Web : E.B. White's eccentric life in nature and the birth of an American classic
  • Paul Spicer, The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice de Janze and the Mysterious Death of Lord Erroll
  • Kate Summerscale, Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady {noticed on Cornflower Books}
  • Barbara Strauch, The secret life of the grown-up brain : the surprising talents of the middle-aged mind
  • Amanda Vickery, Behind closed doors : at home in Georgian England
  • Frances Wilson, The ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth : a life
  • Ilyon Woo, The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times
  • Lucy Worsley, If walls could talk : an intimate history of the home
  • Jean Zimmerman, Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance

Fiction

  • Elizabeth Anton, Writing Jane Austen
  • Tiffany Baker, The Gilly Salt Sisters
  • C.A. Belmond, A Rather Curious Engagement, A Rather Charming Invitation and A Rather Remarkable Homecoming
  • Elizabeth Bowen, To the north
  • Ann Bridge, Julia Probyn novels (recommended by Fleur
  • Marika Cobbold, Guppies for Tea and Drowning Rose
  • Jill Dawson, The great lover
  • Louise Dean, The Old Romantic
  • Kim Edwards, The lake of dreams
  • Jennie Fields, The Age of Desire (August)
  • Stella Gibbons, Westwood (recommended by Darlene)
  • Sally Gunning, Bound, The Widow's War, and The Rebellion of Jane Clarke
  • Jane Harris, Gillespie and I
  • Sheila Heti, Ticknor
  • Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract
  • Katherine Howe, The house of velvet and glass
  • Sadie Jones, The Uninvited Guests
  • Harriet Lane, Alys, Always {recommended on Cornflower Books}(June)
  • Elinor Lipman, The family man
  • Penelope Lively, Family album and How it all began
  • Jael McHenry, The Kitchen Daughter
  • Evan Mandery, Q:  a Novel {recommended on Cornflower Books}
  • Anna Maxted, Rich again
  • Diane Meier, The Season of Second Chances
  • Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours
  • Alexandra Potter, The two lives of Miss Charlotte Merryweather
  • Francesca Segal, The Innocents
  • Natasha Solomons, Mr. Rosenblum dreams in English and The House at Tyneford
  • M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans (recommended by Fleur}
  • Elizabeth Taylor, At Mrs Lippincote's {reommended by Claire}
  • Colm Toibin, The Master
  • Rose Tremain, Trespass {recommended by JoAnn}
  • Katharine Weber, True confections
  • Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows and This Real Night {recommended by Nicola}
  • Madeleine Wickham, A Desirable Residence

Mysteries
  • Tasha Alexander, Dangerous to Know and A Crimson Warning
  • Nancy Atherton, Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch
  • C.C. Benison, Eleven Pipers Piping (October)
  • Kenneth Cameron, The Bohemian Girl
  • Jayne Casey, The Burning
  • Camilla Ceder, Frozen Moment {recommended on Crimepieces}
  • Joanna Challis, The Villa of Death:  a Daphne du Maurier mystery
  • Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage
  • Barbara Clevely, Joe Sandilands series
  • Edmund Crispin, The moving toyshop and The gilded fly
  • Deborah Crombie, Necessary as blood and No Mark Upon Her
  • Judith Cutler, The food detective, The keeper of secrets, and Guilty Pleasures
  • Anna Dean, A Place of Confinement {August}
  • Patricia Duncker, The strange case of the composer and his judge
  • Carola Dunn, Gone West
  • Marjorie Eccles, The Shape of Sand and Broken Music
  • Martin Edwards, Take my breath away
  • Kate Ellis, A Painted Doom (and later books)
  • Lyndsay Faye, The Gods of Gotham
  • Charles Finch, A Burial at Sea
  • Elly Griffiths, A Room Full of Bones
  • Martha Grimes, The Winds of Change, Dust and The black cat
  • Georgette Heyer, The Unfinished Clue
  • Susan Hill, A Question of Identity (November)
  • Suzette Hill, Reverend Oughterard mysteries
  • Hazel Holt, Mrs. Malory and death in practice, Mrs. Malory and the silent killer, Mrs. Malory and no cure for death, Mrs. Malory and a death in the family, and Mrs. Malory and a time to die {I missed these!}
  • Claude Izner, The Assassin in the Marais
  • P.D. James, Death comes to Pemberley
  • Faye Kellerman, Gun Games
  • Erin Kelly, The Dark Rose {recommended on Cornflower Book}
  • Christobel Kent, The Drowning River and A Murder in Tuscany
  • Mary Kowal, Shades of Milk and Honey {recommended by Claire}
  • Camilla Lackberg, The Ice Princess
  • Donna Leon, Beastly Things
  • M.L. Wentworth, Murder in the Rue Dumas (September)
  • Val McDermid, Trick of the Dark (recommended by Harriet Devine}
  • G.M. Malliet, St. Just series
  • Peter May, The Enzo Files
  • Jane McLaughlin, A nice place to die
  • Katharine McMahon, The Crimson Rooms
  • Denise Mina, The end of the wasp season
  • Chris Pavone, The Expats
  • Louise Penny, The Cruelest Month, A Rule Against Murder and The Beautiful Mystery (August)
  • Anne Perry, A Sunless Sea (August)
  • Peter Robinson, Watching the Dark (September)
  • Lynn Shepherd, The Solitary House {recommended by Fleur Fisher}
  • Charles Todd, A Bitter Truth and An Unmarked Grave {July}
  • L.C. Tyler, The herring-seller's apprentice
  • Nicola Upson, Fear in the Sunlight
  • Fred Vargas, An Uncertain Place

Bloomsbury Group books
  • Frank Baker, Miss Hargreaves
  • E.F. Benson, Mrs. Ames
  • Joyce Dennys, Henrietta's War and Henrietta Sees it Through
  • Rachel Ferguson, The Brontes Went to Woolworths
  • Paul Gallico, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
  • Ada Leverson, Love's shadow
  • D.E.Stevenson, Mrs. Tim of the Regiment

Persephone books
  • D.E. Stevenson, Miss Buncle's Book

5.14.12