Oh, how I loved this bookish book.

Some of you might remember me mentioning recently how much I loved Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire. I am also a huge fan of Arthurian legend. I love books about books and bibliophiles. And I love mysteries centered around historical objects, especially books. This book fulfilled every single one of these loves.

I doubt that it will be for everyone. It is rather slow moving, to be sure, and the main character, Arthur Prescott is so very, very stiff upper lip British male. But for me, it was the bookish equivalent of cat nip, namechecking characters from Trollope's beloved series, set in the Barchester cathedral that he created out of whole cloth, all about a mystery related to a lost medieval manuscript. I sunk into the book, emerging at the end, blinking and wondering where I was and how I got here.

I read this for Relics and Curiosities.

I am absolutely loving this book. I didn't realize when I checked it out, but it's set in the fiction Barchester of Anthony Trollope, and the author has done several call-outs to Trollope's creation. The main character lives in a converted cottaged created from two of the rooms in the almshouse that was at the center of The Warden, and Septimus Harding has been mentioned by name! It's just delicious!

Combining the Arthurian legendarium with the Chronicles of Barchester? The Grail at Barchester Cathedral? OMG, sign me up.

Lovett continues his theme of literary mysteries in The Lost Book of the Grail. Previous books have dealt with lost Shakespeare and Jane Austen. This time, Lovett explores new metafictional heights in the most literary grail quest I’ve ever encountered. The Lost Book of the Grail tells the story of Arthur Prescott’s meticulous progress through the library of Barchester Cathedral’s library to find any clues that would prove his grandfather correct: that the holy grail is somewhere in Barchester. Along the way, he has help from a talkative American digitizer and his fellow bibliophiles...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss and NetGalley for review consideration.

First Impressions

Charlie Lovett

Hardcover, 308 pages

Published October 16th 2014 by Viking (first published January 1st 2014)                   

ISBN 0525427244 (ISBN13: 9780525427247)                 

I'll admit I like Jane Austen fan fiction. First Impressions is part mystery, a small part romance, and an interesting take on how Jane Austen wrote and edited First Impressions into Pride and Prejudice. Sophie Collingwood, an Oxford graduate and Jane Austen fan, loves her books and has her Uncle Bertram to thank for it. Over the years of growing up with a library full of books that her father doesn't let anyone read, Sophie becomes close to her uncle, the true lover of books. When her uncle dies, Sophie gets wrapped up in a mystery of how he died. The story does go back and forth between Sophie's story and Jane Austen's story, but Lovett handled that well. I did find the book slightly predictable as far as the love interest/romance part of the book, but that was probably the biggest issue I had with the book.