I do love it when I get mail other than bills and catalogs filled with clothes I can't afford. The best kind of mail next to a postcard or proper letter from a friend is book mail, of course! Many thanks to Linda for sending a few Gladys Tabor books my way. She came across a few extras at book sales and I am the happy recipient (along with the lovely Edith Wharton bookmark hiding there on the top of the pile). I think it might well have been through Linda that I discovered Gladys Tabor's books. I didn't realize she had penned so many of them. She lived in Stillmeadow, a 1690 farmhouse in Connecticut beginning in the 1930s. I have a couple of books by her on my shelves and now I need to start one of them, I think. (Perhaps that book on the top).
My Own Cape Cod (1971) -- In this book she looks beyond her home of Stillmeadow and shares what life is like on Cape Cod. "Here are the friends and neighbors, living in enviable closeness to each other and to the natural setting in which they have made their lives. Here are the tides and the fogs, the cranberry bogs, the beaches where visitors swim and Cape Codders dig for clams."
Stillmeadow Sampler (1959) -- I have dipped into this one. It is divided into the four seasons and she reflects on her home and the nature surrounding Stillmeadow. It is charming book and pure escapism--who wouldn't want to live in a 17th century farmhouse, right? (Well, as long as it has good heating maybe). "Full of the smell and beauty of the country, Stillmeadow Sampler pictures a life that most of us only dream about--and does so delightfully that we really share its richness and satisfactions."
Stillmeadow Calendar (1967) -- I had not been familiar with this one until I opened the parcel. The subtitle is "A Countrywoman's Journal" and it is divided by monthly installments which just call out to be read one chapter each month. So following in the footsteps of my friend Cath, who has done this in the past, it is my first 2019 "reading project". I think she will talk about her house and the seasons and I can't wait to start it.
So, since I am talking about book mail, this also arrived. I have been in the mood to choose a Virago to read, and recently I cam across the Celia Dale on Instagram. Another reader mentioned it and it sounded so good I had to have it. As I was looking for it online the used bookstore where I found a copy also had other VMCs so I thought I might as well make it a proper package and with free shipping it seemed a deal. Unfortunately one of the books I ordered was missing from the parcel (which arrived sealed so I think it did not get packed with the other books), and the book on top was described as a VMC but turned out to be a mass market book with teeny tiny print. Maybe I will find it somewhere else some time, but it might end up being donated away. The books that did arrive:
The Matriarch by G.B. Stern -- This sounds great, such a pity about the small type in my copy: "A wonderfully gossipy novel that whisks readers through the glamorous worlds of turn-of-the-century Vienna, Paris, and London. The Rakonitz family – rich, cosmopolitan, and Jewish – is ruled over by the indomitable will of the matriarch, Anastasia. From her exotically furnished house in west London, Anastasia holds court over her children, grandchildren, and vast extended family. For someone must resolve the quarrels, celebrate the births, deaths, engagements, bankruptcies, artistic triumphs, and explain the only way to prepare a delicious Crème Düten. With the dawning of the twentieth century, a series of scandals and financial catastrophes strike the Rakonitzes, threatening the family ties and calling into question the legacy that binds them together.
Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler by Trudi Kanter -- I have heard good things about this and it sounds very appealing to me. Anything set in or about Vienna is a must have for me! "Vienna, 1938: Trudi Kanter, stunning and charismatic, is a renowned hat designer for Europe’s most fashionable women when she falls in love with a handsome businessman. “We were young and the world was ours,” she writes. Then, in the blink of an eye, Hitler comes to power and Kanter’s world collapses. She and her family embark on an incredible journey across Europe, desperate to escape Nazi-occupied Austria."
Sheep's Clothing by Celia Dale -- Think I'll start with this one! Kirkus Review called it "diverting and delightful"! "A quietly compelling story set in London's seedier neighborhoods--where lowrent apartments and bed-sitters house the frail, single women-pensioners who are the prey of 50-ish Grace Bradby and her working partner, Janice. The pair met while serving prison sentences for larceny and shoplifting. Grace had conceived her scheme in jail, and Janice, almost 30 but complaisant and childlike, does her bidding. Using the cover of Social Services to gain entry to homes of the women carefully chosen by Grace, they lace the victim's inevitable cup of tea with sleeping pills, wait for her to pass out, and then walk off with anything of value, soon sold to one of Grace's shady dealers."
The Sheltered Life by Ellen Glasgow -- "It is a remarkably unsentimental look at the old South, a society that blindly holds to past values enforced by a strict code of conduct, being overtaken by the new age of industrialization."
Even with the small disappointment of wrong editions, I am excited (as always) about my new books! And happy news, I contacted the vendor and the 'missing' fifth book was packaged separately and should be on its way after all.