Betty Smith, Dorothy Evelyn Smith, and a review of our reading years…
In the first half, we look back over a very unusual year and ask – was it a good reading year or a bad reading year? We’ve not talked much about the pandemic this year, because we want this to be one of the places people can escape from all that, but in this episode we’ve talked about how it affects our reading.
In the second half, in a slight change to the advertised pairing, we compare O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Both are coming-of-age novels set in the 1910s and published in the 1940s, though in very different environments.
We’ll see you in the new year – in the meantime, you can listen to this podcast on Spotify, via your podcast app, or at Apple podcasts. You can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com and/or support the podcast at Patreon.
Thanks to Arpita of Bag Full of Books for her wonderful contribution to our Dorothy Evelyn Smith conversation!
Have a lovely Christmas and a happy new year – here’s hoping 2021 is better than 2020.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Three Kings by Stephen Beresford
Present Laughter by Noel Coward
Have His Carcass by Dorothy L Sayers
The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Willa Cather
Emily Eden
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
Ali Smith
Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
Virginia Woolf
Business As Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford
John Buchan
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
A Woman’s Place by Ruth Adam
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey
Alva and Irva by Edward Carey
Little by Edward Carey
The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
Leila Slimani
Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse
The Girl on the Boat by P.G. Wodehouse
Miss Plum and Miss Penny by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Beyond the Gates by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Proud Citadel by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
The Lovely Day by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Miss Read
Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith
Expiation by Elizabeth von Arnim
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
I’ve not been in a bookshop since March either, and I particularly miss those random finds in charity shops I used to have. But there *has* been a lot of online book buying – since I couldn’t browse shops in person it did seem like I had to have treats somewhere!
Thoroughly agree about Square Haunting – marvellous!
Really must get Square Haunting in the new year – or maybe it’ll be in my Virago Secret Santa, who knows!
Like Simon, I thought Miss Plum and Miss Penny was okay, but OH! O, the Brave Music!!! I adored it. I borrowed the ebook and have sent for a hard copy. It was wonderful! I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as a child and remember enjoying it. I put the ebook on hold at the library, so I may reread it. I know it was a favorite of my sister’s. 2020 has been a mixed reading year for me. When the virus began, like many, I was too distracted to concentrate on reading. As abnormal became “normal,” my reading returned pretty much to normal, although I read more non-fiction than normal because of our horrendous political issues here in the US. The combo of pandemic and terrible leadership has (I hope) made us stronger if it hasn’t killed us. Literally. 😢
I love this, Laura! So glad you enjoyed OTBM so much!
I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, so I’m glad you finally read and enjoyed it. Strangely enough I never heard of it while growing up, I can’t believe neither our town library nor the school libraries had it — and I was a library aide in middle and high school, so I’m sure I would have seen it while shelving! I finally read it when I was about 40 and have loved it ever since. I’ve reread it with book groups and it has been universally loved.
And I’m very much looking forward to your discussion of Father vs. Expiation — I read Father this year and loved it, and ordered Expiation from Persephone shortly after the beginning of lockdown. I’ve been saving it for a rainy day so now I have a good excuse to read it in anticipation of your next podcast. Happy reading and happy new year — it has to get better!
It would be very hard not to warm to A Tree, especially as a bookish person!
I love Father, as you know, but have yet to read Expiation – hopefully something fun over Christmas.
This was a great episode! You both did a great job of discussing O, the Brave Music even though you had such different opinions of it. I look forward to reading it in the future. Thanks for bringing Arpita in, too! Her Instagram account is a delight. I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn several years ago for the first time and loved it. I agree that it has an incredible atmosphere.
This has been one of my best reading years. I’m close to 150 books for the year. I have read a lot less nonfiction, though, because I need fiction as a way to cope with reality. I always read a lot more fiction than nonfiction, but I am hoping that I’ll be able to pick up more nonfiction next year. I’m going to have a hard time choosing 10 favorites for 2020, too. I bought about a million books in 2020 too–also a way to cope (and support my local indie)!
I adore P.G. Wodehouse. I think a good place to start with Jeeves and Wooster would be the Inimitable Jeeves. I think it was the first J&W story, but it’s also one of my favorites, all interconnected short stories with Bertie’s pal Bingo Little and they’re hilarious! I’ll definitely be looking up Square Haunting. It sounds great!
Thanks so much, Elizabeth! I was pleased that the conversation on OTBM wasn’t as painful as I’d worried when Rachel first messaged me that she wasn’t enjoying it!
Would love to hear your top choices when you’ve chosen them :)