2019 Virago Salon

Welcome, Virago readers! I've put more logs on the fire and plumped the pillows. Make yourself at home.

This thread is the group message board, for general discussion and announcements. If you're new to the group, you might want to start with the "Which Virago are you Reading" and "What Else are you Reading" threads. In 2019 we are also "Reading the 1940s," with monthly topic threads (January's topic is "Family). Other group reads and events tend to pop up over the course of the year, so watch this space.

If you're looking for information about Virago Modern Classics, works by a specific author, or any of our group reads from past years, please visit our group wiki, here.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

Happy new year Laura - the Salon looks most welcoming! 😁

Hi Laura, Karen and fellow Viragoites,
Happy New Year to everyone.
The salon does look very welcoming meanwhile we are having a heatwave in this part of the world.
I haven’t posted here for a very long time but I am happy to close the door on 2018 as it has been a year of multiple health issues through which I and my family have had to negotiate our paths.
Hope 2019 will be very productive reading year for all.
I am starting the new year by joining the 1940s theme read-along.

Happy new year everyone! I hope it brings good health, strong friendships and wonderful books to us all!

>3 mrspenny: Welcome back, Patricia. We've missed you. I hope 2019 is a better year for you.

Hello, I'll just squeeze in beside the fire if that's okay? How lovely to see Trish here again!

I was all set for surgery today but have a chest infection and cannot be operated on! So that is that for another six weeks or so. I'll probably just curl up in here with a (1940s) book until I'm feeling better 😊

Thanks Laura and Dee - it is lovely to be back and reading.
Dee, curling up with a good book is definitely the best prescription for feeling better and lifting the spirits. Hope you are soon over your chest infection.

>6 Soupdragon: wait, what?! Is that a disappointment or a blessing in disguise? I hope you feel better soon, Dee. Curling up with a book sounds like just the ticket.

>7 mrspenny: >8 lauralkeet: Thank you!

>8 lauralkeet: Good question, a bit of both I think!

>6 Soupdragon: Ugh re surgery delays. I hope you feel better soon.

>10 souloftherose: Thanks Heather. I'm following mrspenny's reading prescription which seems to be helping 😊 Hope you had a good Christmas break.

Cozy library -- look forward to rejoining the group.

Hello Jane! It's nice to see you here.

So perfectly cosy and what a gorgeous, inviting fire. Well done, Laura! Comfy clothes donned, my basket filled with books, journal & such in hand, fluffing pillows and well...hello all and Happy New Year! Shall I put the kettle on?

What a lovely room and fire! I'm in my cosy bosies with a pile o'books!

Indeed a lovely and inviting room, Laura. Thank you for once again welcoming us to the new year.
After a couple of very challenging years in so many ways, it is good to be back. Lovely to see you all again. It has been so long since I have posted here. I am looking forward to the 1940s Challenge. Should be fun.

Belva!!!!!!

Oh, Belva! Welcome back!!!!!

I meant to post that my absence has been due mainly to debilitating health problems. My liver disease caused such fatigue that I was spending 14 hours a day in bed! No travel, only comfort reads etc. BUT!!!!! My liver doctor in October said that for my disease progression I was too fatigued so he suggested getting a sleep analysis. Well, I have sleep apnea and was having 60 incidents an hour (why am I not dead!) I got my CPAP machine which I named George. George has done the trick. I have a normal sleep pattern now and wake up full of energy which lasts all day.
My incidents are down to under 3 an hour. The only drawback is that I do look like ALF in bed but since I am not expecting a visit from George Clooney any time soon, I can live with this.

So, I am reading Chatterton Square and planning an April trip to London, Stratford and maybe Leicester to visit Richard III.

I missed posting here....

Elaine

Elaine, it's so nice to hear from you. I'm sorry to hear about your health woes but really happy that you've found some solutions that make them manageable. Especially if the result has been your return to this group and your beloved trips to the UK.

Lovely to hear from you Elaine, I have missed your messages. So sorry you have had such a difficult time. Thank goodness a solution has been found and things have improved. It would be lovely to see you come back to the UK. Happy reading. xx

It's great to hear from you, Elaine! Your name has been mentioned and your prescence missed at our Virago meetups. I'm glad your health woes are improving and I hope we'll be able to have a group outing when you're over in April.

Me too Elaine. You and Belva have been sorely missed.

Lovely to see both Elaine and Belva here again! 😁😁😁 So sorry to hear about the health issues, Elaine, but great that you’ll be travelling here this year!

>22 romain: oh dear, I'm sorry I missed saying hello to Belva. I'm very happy to see you back with us as well.

I have a question for all you avid readers out there. Can anyone identify a book I read as a teenager in the 60s. It was set in an English country village and the first chapter began with two women standing in the high street discussing the death of George 6th. It's been driving me bananas for years now :). Also - which Victorian/Edwardian novel ends with the attractive heroine turning down all proposals of marriage because she prefers to remain single?

The heroine of My Brilliant Career turns down a marriage proposal preferring to try her luck as an author. The novel is set in outback Australia in the 1900s.

Thanks errata! My Brilliant Career does end that way, but this book is definitely British.

>25 romain: Neither ring a bell for me. If you don't get an answer in this group it might be worth trying the Name That Book group which is dedicated to these sort of questions. They have tips for posting on the group page (link below) and have helped me track down books before.

https://www.librarything.com/groups/namethatbook

>25 romain: Turning down marriage proposals - The Misses Mallett?

Heather - I'll definitely go there if I get no luck here. Thank you!

Sassy - too modern I think although I haven't read it. Clothes on the cover show WW1 era and this book was set much earlier.

Hello everyone@

It is 25 below zero with a wind chill factor of 65 below zero right outside my window on Lake Michigan. That's -31 degrees celcius for my UK friends. An interesting scene is the rail tracks being set on fire to keep the rails from cracking. And the forecast is for 50 degrees on Sunday. Chicago weather. If you don't like it, just wait a day or two

On a happier note I just booked my flight to the UK for Easter Sunday! Four days in London and eight in Stratford to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday.

Back to Twinnings lemon and ginger tea and a good book...

Elaine

>31 Liz1564: Liz - I have just heard a news report about your weather conditions and the necessary fire lighting - complete contrast here -Port Augusta in South Australia reached 50 degrees Celsius last week and most of inland NSW has averaged low to mid 40s his week.

Hello all! I've been a bit quiet on here lately - mainly as life is manic for me at work this time of the year (budgets and financial year ends - yuk!) and I'm struggling to get to any of the challenges or indeed my Viragos/Persephones - which is frustrating, but I don't have enough time or often energy to read much at the moment. :(

However, I though I would mention an unusual Virago I stumbled on in the charity shop today - An Anthology of writings by Simone Weil. I seem to be drawn to non-fiction, philosophy, history and the like at the moment - maybe I'm trying to make sense of the world we're in right now... Anyway, this is that most unusual of things, a Virago hardback with a green spine dustjacket and in lovely condition - comes from 1986. When I get round to dipping in is another matter, but I'm certainly intrigued. Patti Smith rates her quite highly, which is recommendation in my eyes! :D

>33 kaggsy: Our city art galley displayed an art work based around some of Simone Weil's writings a year or so back, and a lot of the quotations seemed very apposite to our times.

I'm now tempted by that anthology!

Edited to add: I've just had a quick look and the Virago edition is now elusive but there is a Penguin anthology still in print.

>34 Soupdragon: Oooh, interesting Dee! I hesitated before picking it up, because it's not as if I *need* any more books at the moment. Glad I did. The exhibition sounds fascinating!

I'm hardly ever here, but that's because I'm pretty much braindead by the time I get to the computer at night.
It's LOVELY to see Belva and Elaine posting again! Feels like the right place!!!!!!!

I read Simone Weil in the 80s as part of my religion degree. Mysticism - which she embraced in the late 1930s. Highly recommended if you're that way inclined.

I just finished an ER offering with snippits of S. Weil's writing. The other reviewers zipped through it and recommended it as a good intro. for younger readers. It took me forever, so either I'm backward or they were (ahem) geniuses or less than thoughtful or lying.............

Daphne Du Maurier fans, I decided to have a little reading week in May. Please join in if you want to.

Blog post about it below.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2019/03/23/daphne-du-maurier-reading-week-anyone...