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Coming Home to Maple Lodge by Alison Sherlock #Review

  I am delighted to feature the first in Alison Sherlock's new series set in the Corswolds. Coming Home to Maple Tree Lodge was published by Boldwood Books on June 20th. A family and hotel in desperate need of help… Maple Tree Lodge has been the home of the Jackson family for over a century. But the hotel has never been a success and, following the sudden loss of his father, architect Ben Jackson soon discovers the hotel is close to financial ruin. Ben has to make some tough decisions if the hotel is to survive and his family are to keep a roof over their heads. With the hotel in urgent need of a renovation, Ben’s sister calls on the talents of her best friend, interior designer Lily Watson. Cash strapped Lily needs a successful project to prove to herself and her high-achieving parents that she can carve a successful career and Maple Tree Lodge sounds like just the place for Lily to showcase her talents. However, Lily’s vision for a cosy, country Cotswolds hotel is the com...

The Classics Club


Well now that I've discovered The Classics Club, I've just had to have a go. Basically you challenge yourself to read your way through a list of 50 classics over 5 years and review them. I'm hoping to read a classic every alternate book, so what better than to join in! I'm aiming to do this by the end of December 2020. The hardest part was pruning the list and I am sure that I will tweak it as I go along. 

Here it is:

  1. Atwood, Margaret: A Handmaid's Tale
  2. Austen, Jane: Emma
  3. Austen Jane: Lady Susan Review 17th June 2016
  4. Austen, Jane: Persuasion
  5. Austen, Jane: Sanditon
  6. Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility
  7. Austen, Jane: The Watsons
  8. Bennett, Alan: The Uncommon Reader
  9. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden
  10.  Bronte, Anne: Agnes Grey
  11. Bronte, Charlotte:Jane Eyre Review 21st April 2016
  12. Bronte Selected Poetry (all) Review 11th January 2016
  13.  Dostoevesky, Fyodor: The Brothers Karamazov
  14.  Dickens, Charles: Our Mutual Friend
  15.  Eliot George: Adam Bede
  16.  Eliot, George: Felix Holt, the Radical
  17.  Eliot, George: Romola
  18.   Fitzgerald, F. Scott: Tender is the Night
  19.    Forster, E.M.: Room With a View
  20.   Forster, E.M.: Where Angels Fear to Tread
  21.  Gaskell, Elizabeth: Mary Barton
  22.  Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South
  23.  Gaskell, Elizabeth: Ruth
  24.  Gaskell, Elizabeth: Sylvia’s Lovers
  25.  Gaskell, Elizabeth: The Life of Charlotte Bronte
  26.  Gaskell, Elizabeth: Wives and Daughters
  27.  Golding, William: Lord of the Flies
  28.  Hardy, Thomas: A Pair of Blue Eyes
  29.  Hardy, Thomas: Desperate Remedies
  30.  Hardy, Thomas: Return of the Native
  31.  Hardy, Thomas:Selected Poems Review 4th March 2016
  32.   Mansfield, Katherine: The Garden Party & Other Stories
  33.   Ishiguro, Kazuo: Remains of the Day
  34.  James, Henry: Daisy Miller
  35.  James, Henry: Roderick Hudson
  36.  James, Henry: The Ambassadors
  37.  James, Henry: The Aspern Papers
  38.   James, Henry: The Bostonians
  39.  James, Henry: The Portrait of a Lady
  40.   James, Henry: Washington Square
  41.   James, Henry: What Maisie Knew
  42.   Plath, Sylvia: The Bell Jar
  43.  Rhys, Jean: Wide Sargasso Sea 
  44.  Trollope, Anthony: Barchester Towers
  45.  Wilder, Thornton: Our Town
  46.  Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
  47.  Woolf, Virginia: The Year
  48.   Woolf, Virginia: A Room of One’s Own
  49.  Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway
  50.  50.  Woolf, Virginia: To the Lighthouse

Why did I choose these books? Well, some I wanted to re read like the Henry James ones. 
Others I've always fancied reading- such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Jean Rhys.
I'm hoping to link some to an event the Classics Club are running next year:The Women's Classic Literature Event. (more of that later)

Where shall I start? Any comments anybody?

Marianne






Comments

  1. So many Gaskells, Austens, Brontes and Woolfs!! I? Think you should start with Sense and Sensibility, for some holiday cheer (and because your name is Marianne, so it's a must), then A Room of One's Own, for some excellent literary foundation, then North and South for some wintry joy which is a little dark in places, then start your 2016 with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, because that is the best way to start any 2016. :)

    Lovely blog and lovely list. Best wishes, Marianne!!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! I love all your ideas plus I am eyeing up a readalong for Emma as it is its 200 year anniversary in December. (Emma in the Snow at sarahemsley.com). Thanks for your lovely comments, I am still new to blogging but so far, I love it. You are right that I have put quite a few Gaskells and I am hoping to visit her house in Manchester which has been reopened and looks great.

      Kind regards, Marianne

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