As a Christmas book it only works so-so (there's a Christmas party somewhere in the middle, but quite a bit of stuff before and after it, which is actually much more the focus of the book than said Christmas party), but it features one world class heavyweight dragon of a matriarch, so it works perfectly as my book for International Human Rights Day.

(Task: Read a book featuring a strong female character (or characters), by an author from any minority group, a story about a minority overcoming their oppressors, or revolving around the rights of others either being defended or abused, a book set in New York City, or a book originally written in a language other than English and / or your mother tongue or by anyone not Anglo-Saxon.)

Bookshelves: Classics, Women Writers, International (resp. various country / language shelves), Mysteries, Historical Fiction

I'm not a romance reader at all, but I've found ladies holding flowers (actually more than I could attach to this post) in unexpected places ...

I don't want to go back to work!

I read 33 books in January.  It's always by far my biggest reading month.  I work in schools, which means I get the summer holidays off.  December is crazy with holidays and MT being off work, but January I'm on my own all day and can read and read and read.

Of the 33 books, only 1 wasn't on my TBR pile when the month started.  I had 2 five-star reads, and 7 four-and-a-half star reads, so on average an excellent month.  My least favourite was a 2 star read; a collection of essays about libraries that I found repetitive.

Since the woman-author reading challenge is taking place this year, here are my "gender" stats:

Women authors:  15

Male authors: 17

Mixed: 1

A whopping 23 were non-fiction, compared to 10 fiction.

As for my TBR Challenge of only allowing myself to buy half as many books as I've read, I actually did o.k.  I did have a small cheat, because on New Year's Day, my neighbour came over and offered me 6 boxes of books she was getting rid of.  Karma was rigging the system for failure!!  After going through the boxes I chose 6, but didn't count them against my book budget; I categorised them as 'gifts' and I'd said from the start gifts didn't count.

So:

January's book buying budget: 12 books.

Bought:  9

Balance: 3 

Total TBR: 322

For February, my book budget is 16 books (January's 33 rounded down and divided by 2).

Go me!  ;)

My first Nancy Mitford read was Love in a Cold Climate and while I could recognise the talent in the writing, and enjoy the humor, I failed to see anything significant or profound in the story.  That means this, my only other Mitford book, languished on the TBR for years.  I finally picked it up a couple of days ago.  It is a significantly better book, in my opinion.

Told in third person by a narrator that is the niece/cousin of the Radlett family, it chronicles the life of one of the Radlett daughters, second-oldest of 7 (I think), Linda.  Linda is a delicate natured, highly emotional child who loves animals, in a family that is hilariously savage, headed by a father that is the very stereotype of landed gentry.  As a teen she becomes highly romantic and impatient for her Grand True Love.  Most importantly to her future, she is undereducated and naive, but kind, charming and pleasant.

Of the two books, this one is the most realistic; Linda is just as likely a character today as she was almost 100 years ago.  I didn't read reviews of it before beginning it, but when searching for a synopsis I glanced over several that read of the tragic undercurrent of this book.  On the face of it, I see why people claim this, but really, I can't see it.  Linda herself would not see her life as tragic, and I"m not at all sure Fanny (the narrator) sees it either.  Linda's life was not blameless, but Linda herself never thought it was, and undereducated or not, she owned her mistakes and would repeat them all given a choice, in the end.  I admired her for that.

I could talk forever about this book, but I'll just wrap up with a note about the introduction to my edition, written by Hugo Vickers.  In it he states that it is widely believed that this book is largely autobiographical, with Fanny, the narrator, being Mitford.  I know nothing about Nancy Mitford save what he himself wrote in a quick biographical sketch, but based on this, I don't see it; she appears  to have lived much more of Linda's life than the solid, quiet life of Fanny.  Perhaps Mitford, as Fanny, was playing the omniscient observer of her own history, adding the ending she'd have preferred, over the one she ultimately got.  I suppose that's what Vickers meant, but if it was, he didn't make that clear.

By far my favorite of the two books, this is engaging writing, amusing reading, and offers readers a depth of insight that will stay with them without weighing them down.

MT took me on a belated weekend away for my birthday, to the Alpine National Park in northern Victoria.  It's my first time in Victoria's proper mountains and it was absolutely beautiful (pictures may be forthcoming).  

A stop in Bright for lunch out last day (at a brewery MT was keen to try) was ever-so-conveniently just a few shops down from a bookstore - a small, but well-curated bookstore and I finally caved and picked up The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham.  I haven't seen the movie yet but I want to, so I'm going to read the book first so I can yell at the screen about how they've gotten it all wrong.

As I was buying The Dressmaker, I asked about used bookshops in the area and I was directed to one right around the corner.  I almost missed it - I think my bathroom might be in a bigger space.  But she had a fabulous collection of books; again, really well curated to focus on fiction (Bright is ski-resort territory).  I picked up two Folio Society editions of Nancy Mitford's works: Love In A Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love.  She had quite a selection of Georgette Heyers too but I can never remember which titles are good and which are... less good, so I settled on the only hardcover one she had: Pistols For Two.  I figured short stories gave me better odds that there would be a few good ones.

The last four are from the weekly post.  Two of them: Undeniably Yours: A Lucy Valentine Novel and Lethal Black Dress are the last books in series I've loved, each independently published by the author after their contracts with mainstream pubs weren't renewed.  The last two are Henery Press offerings - Henery Press hasn't given me a bad read yet, so I was willing to give these a go.

New books: 8

Read books: 3 (not counting re-reads)

Physical TBR pile: 207