Retro Reads discussion

This thread is a suggestion of Jackie's - & I'm hoping it will lead to all of us discovering still more retro authors!

I'm reading After the Funeral for the book pool. I got the audio off Spotify & was trying to follow along with a paperback copy from Open Library - but Open Library started playing up. I had taken the OL copy out twice already that day & returned it - are you not allowed a third time on the same day?

It didn't really matter though, because I already had the characters sorted out in my head - which is something I've struggled with in the past with audio/audible reads.

Currently listening to Ghosts: Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low, to ring in the 2025 Spooky Season!

I finally got Come, Tell Me How You Live from the library. I requested it awhile ago but it came from a library 30 miles away that is being remodeled, so it took awhile. Starting it tonight for the Book Pool.

After that I am re-reading Flowers for Algernon which is a big favorite and I love the movie.

OK, I'll copy from the other thread, thank you Carol.

I just finished Honey for Tea this morning and another by Elizabeth Cadell Out of the Rain very recently, and I'd love to know what others think of these.

Cadell has written so many books, but I think I've read all my library has, and when I look on Abebooks the ones I haven't read yet might not be worth paying the price. Out of the Rain, for example, was an OK book but if I'd paid more than $2 or $3 dollars for it, say, I'd have been disappointed. Honey for Tea was better, but all the ones yet to read the prices are more like $12 and up, plus shipping in some cases.

Barbara Willard is another author I want to read more of (I must have found her here, mustn't I?) but luckily my library still has 5 more I can order.

Jackie, how do you feel about reading online? Because the Internet Archive has a lot of Cadell's books https://archive.org/search?query=eliz...

It's nice they are available and thanks for the link, CindySR, but I refer IRL books followed by ebooks I can put on my Kindle. I am thinking about getting a new tablet, however, so that may change.

I hope you like Christie's nonfiction and look forward to hear what you think.

Jackie wrote: " I refer IRL books..."
Me too so I get it.
So far Agatha is descriptive and fun. I have been to a tell in Israel (over 40 years ago!) so I can see things in my minds eye.

I am just finishing my first Barbara Willard The Gardener's Grandchildren and really enjoyed it. I will write a review later today.

Reading my last pool book for this year, Spam Tomorrow - she’s a very engaging narrator, and seems to see the humor in the most absurd or awful wartime situations, a coping mechanism I totally relate to, so I’m enjoying it!

Jackie wrote: "It's nice they are available and thanks for the link, CindySR, but I refer IRL books followed by ebooks I can put on my Kindle. I am thinking about getting a new tablet, however, so that may change..."

Someone can correct me, but I believe Americans can put Open Library books on their kindle. I can't, so its a last resort for me.

Sadly I think the Pool is finished for me - I want to concentrate on reading the books I own or are on my kindle for the rest of the year.

The Poldark TV series is on TVNZ+ (free streaming service in NZ) atm, so I'm reading The Angry Tide This was the last book filmed.

I've just started series 4 & I'm getting notification that TVNZ+ will only have the series for another 28 days. Last night I was a bit disappointed with some of the changes the scriptwriter had made to the books.

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Sadly I think the Pool is finished for me - I want to concentrate on reading the books I own or are on my kindle for the rest of the year.

The Poldark TV series is on TVNZ+ (free streaming service..."

Eeek! I didn't know that!! So, looks like my reading could be shelved for TV watching for 28 days! :)

Lesley wrote: ".Eeek! I didn't know that!! So, looks like my reading could be shelved for TV watching for 28 days! :)"

& for me! Marty wants to watch series 5 again with me.

I can see why they stopped at Book 7 though. There is quite a time difference for Book 8 & Demelza & Ross will be middle aged. I'm still intending to read the 8th book though, but not till next year.

Edit; I should mention that Marty got the time warning weeks ago, I'm only just getting it now.

Carol wrote:

I believe Americans can put Open Library books on their kindle.

I don't know, really, but I don't think I can. My "new" Kindle died and I refuse to get a new one, since it didn't last very long. I'm limping along on my old Kindle Fire and I have all kinds of problems with it.

Jackie wrote: "
I believe Americans can put Open Library books on their kindle.

I don't know, really, but I don't think I can. My "new" Kindle died and I refuse to get a new one, since it didn't l..."

Our consumer protection laws are a bit more robust than yours I think. I wish I had known that when my Kobo died after 18 months. New goods have to last a reasonable length of time - which for a ereader would be 3 years. But I just accepted what the shop assistant told me & bought a new kindle - which has lasted 11 years. I only use it for travel or when I can't get a book any other way though.

I've been planning to get a Kobo.

I am currently reading On the Border with Crook

John G. Bourke

Which was published in 1892. I chose to read this because some time ago I had read the book Shavetails and Bell Sharps: The History of the U.S. Army Mule
Emmett M. Essin and this book was mentioned in there. So since George Crook was the man who took the best care of his mule trains I wanted to read this book. It's actually quite fascinating. It'll also be my first 500+ page book for this month. I plan a few more of those this month.

I have to admit that the Shavetails and Bellsharps is not the book for most people but if you are an equestrian well that is a different story.

I am going to start on Silver Canyon next and I actually own a copy of this. Haven't read it yet.

@Sarah,

I read that as part of the Retro challenge this year.

I'm partial to a good western.

I have just finished To All the Living by Monica Felton, based on the author's own experience working in a munitions factory during WW2. Fascinating on the details, and a really engaging story once I was able to work out who was who.

Oh, that sounds interesting-I’ve read different WWII viewpoints through women’s memoirs, but not a munitions factory worker.

I’m waiting on some library requests for upcoming group reads, so I’m passing the time with a lightweight holiday reread, I can just listen to the audio while I knit. Right now it’s The Convivial Codfish by Charlotte MacLeod. she wrote the Peter Shandy series, which some of us have read through the book pool, but this is her other series, set in Boston. It was published in 1984, so not sure if that counts, but I was in college then, and I feel pretty retro…😉😂

Cphe wrote: "@Sarah,

I read that as part of the Retro challenge this year.

I'm partial to a good western."

Yes that is why I just read it, for the book pool. I rated it 5 stars and really enjoyed the vivid descriptions. But poor Buck! 😢

I am now reading another one of the 2025 pool books. This one to be exact:

For Whom the Cloche Tolls: A Scrap-Book of the Twenties

Angus Wilson

This book is oddly fascinating to read.
But I see that Goodreads has this as fiction.
My library had this in the nonfiction area.
So does anyone know if this is fiction or nonfiction?
But I am enjoying the diary / memoir style of this.

Oh uh. It's started to thunder here now. Sounds like pouring rain outside too. I better go unplug my water purifier....

Have just started The Professor's House by Willa Cather.

I am going to start on another of the 2025 pool books:

Mama's Bank Account

Kathryn Forbes

Oh and I have decided that the Wilson book above was Fiction. My library was apparently tricked by it and thought it was nonfiction! 🤣

I have just finished a reread of The Priory by Dorothy Whipple, this was the second book by her that I had read years ago, I gave it 4*s back then, but have given it 5*s this time round. Her characterisation is just so good. Wonderful book by a wonderful writer.