This is the wonderful Barbara Trapido's first book. It is glorious - both a light-hearted easy-to-read romp and a detailed study of family, relationships, class, nationality and personal growth. Trapido's writing is witty and understated. She makes each of her sentences do a lot of work: this book is a slim 224pp yet covers half a life. Her characters are three dimensional and very appealing, despite their faults. I've read this book - and Trapido's other novels - over and over, and it's marvellous every time!

The plot is simple and in many ways uneventful. The main character, Katherine, is drawn to the Goldman family while still a student. She then travels and lives her life, before returning to England, the Goldmans, and a measure of adulthood and tranquillity. The TLS described it as "A sort of bohemian Brideshead Revisited", which is a pretty good description of the plot if not the atmosphere. Trapido's magic is to take these simple elements and make an enthralling pageturner out of them.

I'm going to organise a bookray. PM me with your shipping preferences if you'd like to join at any point and I'll add you to the list.


Book ray
Mochagirl, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK - arrived 25 January 2006
Zenita, Copenhagen, Denmark - arrived 08 February 2006
Catwoman, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada - arrived 07 March 2006
LyekkaMarengo, Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania, USA - arrived 23 March 2006
Satnam, Wilton, New Hampshire, USA - arrived 09 May 2006
DianaCoats, Albany, Oregon, USA - arrived 19 July 2006
hshah, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India (India only) - arrived 01 September 2006
Book ray complete!

Packaged up and ready to go to the Post Office this afternoon. Happy reading, Mochagirl!

I'm very sorry - I received this on Wednesday but didn't journal it at the time. This week has been a bit insane... Anyway, I've read it now so I'm doing both journal entries in one :)

I have to admit, the narrative voice annoyed me a bit at first. But then I got into it, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Nell-Lu (and for the chocolate as well - yum)!

I've sent a PM to Zenita, so hopefully this will be on its way within a few days :)

RELEASE NOTES:

Finally posted off to Zenita this morning. Apologies for the delay!

Arrived this morning.
Looking forward to reading it.
And thank you for the postcard...havn't been there
....yet :)

A good book.

Have PM'd Catwoman for her address.

Update: Posted 27/2-06

Received in the mail today. Will start today.

RELEASE NOTES:

One of the greatest things about bookrings, is that I am exposed to books and authors that I would probably not have discovered on my own. Thank you so much for sharing this book. I mailed it to LyekkaMarengo this evening.

Arrived safe and sound in Central PA. It goes on the stack.

I enjoyed this book but it took me a little while to get comfortable with her writing style. I can't pin it down but something about it confused me at first. But I did get drawn into this wonderful family and would love to have dinner with them. Katherine is very familar character to me since I think we had a lot in common. At least the lessons learned seem to have been worth it in the end.

Mailing on to Satnam in Amherst, NH today.

Arrived yesterday. I will try to get to it soon.

Update 6/14/06 - I am about 1/2 through this book, but on the 4th, I forgot it at my sister's house. I thought I would get it back quicker, but I will have it by Sunday. I will try to get it on it's way as quickly as possible.

Received this book from Satnam today. Thank you for the lovely postcard you enclosed. I have never heard of the author but was drawn in my the title...my reasons for liking the title have nothing to do with the book itself but more because I am just old enough to remember we called JFK "Jack" and I still swoon when thinking of Camelot. That said, I am thrilled to have this opportunity to experience an author that I was otherwise unfamiliar with. Thank you Nell-lu for including me in the ring. I am taking a road trip and I leave the day after tomorrow so I'm thrilled the book arrived when it did. I am going with another bookcrosser so you can be assured a fair amount of reading will get done! I will return on August 1st and mail the book on then. I am pming hshah now so that I will have her address.

I enjoyed the book and I'm happy to find a new author. I found the characters very believable and enjoyable the author's writing. Style. This book is off to India tomorrow. Thanks again for including me in the ring.

Thank you so much! Received this late last evening! Quite a few books came in this time around. I think the post man waits for a few days and collects all that needs to come to my house and comes in only once a week with a huge bag full.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Since i have loads of books just lying arund in the house, and i need room for more books ...............so a few go to charity.

Bookmooched today...looking forward to reading it.