I was going to make this a "thursday thirteen" post, but I wonder if you are getting terribly bored with my incessant list making? I have decided I need to try and get away from that in the future. I am an inveterate list maker, however, and I fear it is going to be hard to not fall back on my lists, but I will try. Instead I will mention my books...but not in list format. Perhaps that is cheating, but it will look good anyway.
I recently received an email from author, John Barlow, promoting his new book (new in paper!) Intoxicated. It sounds like a fun read--"a potent Victorian cocktail"--about the invention of soda pop, set in rural England (you can watch a preview here--yes, watch!*). I love Victorian literature, and I love Victorian-like (those novels written now but with a Victorian setting) literature, too. This set me to thinking (once again) that I really need to read some more Victorian literature, or Victorian-like. Of course I already plan to read (and plan and plan and plan....will get to it eventually) Sarah Waters's novels (especially Fingersmith). I think I am going to have to read Dickens's David Copperfield (I was going to read Great Expectations, but how can I resist reviews like this and this!). I want to read Wilkie Collins's Armadale--have wanted to for a while now). I recently got a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's St. Ives (the movie was a fun romp--I hope the book is too). Of course I know I can read something by George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, and Elizabeth Gaskell. In my wanderings I have come across Charles Palliser's Quincunx and Susan Barrett's Fixing the Shadows--both new to me.
So my inevitable question. What do you recommend? I want something really good, and maybe something I am not already familiar with. Surely there must be a plethora of god Victorian novels out there I have yet to discover! Suggestions?
*By the way--that was my first experience with YouTube--I am so behind the times....