Karen and I both realised that it’s not long until the 1951 Club starts – 10-16 April – and we have leapt into action! I’ve made another one of the badges (please feel free to use at any point), and I’m going to busy myself looking among my books for some 1951 titles. I’ve loved these ‘clubs’ so much, especially the sense of community across the blogging world that it brings about – and building up an impression of a particular year in publishing, from many different voices.
For those who are new to this – we ask everybody to review books published in a particular year, in the same week. You can read it before, but most of us also try to do some reading that week. We welcome novels, plays, poetry, non-fiction or anything – and in any language – so long as it was originally published in 1951. Between us, we can construct an overview of a year that would take an individual reader years to put together.
We especially love it when people look beyond the obvious, but do feel free to start thinking with the Wikipedia page for 1951 in literature. I’m mostly excited that I’ll finally be able to read Ivy Compton-Burnett for one of these clubs!
Lovely – can’t wait!! I’ve started to gather piles of books already!!
My head is spinning! The Blessing, The Daughter of Time, Catcher in the Rye, A Game of Hide and Seek, Darkness and Day, The Grass Harp, The End of the Affair, on and on. This will be great fun.
Thanks for the reminder! Definitely time to get my reading list in order and this seems like a year with lots of options.
I have School for Love by Olivia Manning on the TBR shelves so it’s a no-brainer for me. If I finish it early I’ll probably read They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie or Night at the Vulcan by Ngaio Marsh.
I can massively recommend Tempest-Tost and A Game of Hide and Seek. Nothing on that list shrieks at me but I’ll see what comes up. Have fun!
Amazingly, I seem to have read quite a few from that year – it must have been a good one for literature! I can really recommend the Japanese book Fires on the Plain. I read it for my BA thesis about the war reflected in Japanese literature, and it was immensely moving (and disturbing).
This is such a fab idea! I’m in!
Great year. I have Tempest Tost and They Came to Baghdad so will try to squeeze in both. I may have a copy of The End of the Affair too – need to do an examination of the bookcase.
I notice A Game of Hide and Seek and The Grass Harper on that list – both books I really loved.
The 1951 club will be superb.
Count me in. I love literature from this era, so I’m sure to find something that fits in with my own reading plans.
By the way, if you’re planning to collect links to previous posts, I’ve already reviewed The End of The Affair, A Game of Hide and Seek and Ross Macdonald’s The Way Some People Die. Just let me know if you’d like the links. :)
Excellent to see you’re doing 1951 in literature. My website is dedicated to all things 1951 so it will be really interesting for me.
Now following you. All the best. Chris.
Great list. In a burst of serendipity, I have a review of My Cousin Rachel scheduled already. I hope some people will read Tempest-Tost, the first novel by one of my favorite authors!
Looking forward to this, Simon. Thanks so much to you & Karen for organising it. Great badge, as always!
I’ve lined up a list of TBR 1951 books for that week. I’ve also got some previous reviews if you’d like to have them as well (Duplicate Death by Georgette Heyer; The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham; Lament for the Bride by Helen Reilly; The Green Plaid Pants by Margaret Scherf; The Metropolitan Opera Murders by Helen Traubel; Foundation by Isaac Asimov; The Paper Thunderbolt by Michael Innes; Cocktails and the Killer by Peter Cheyney, and–just finished recently–Trixie Belden & the Gatehouse Mystery by Julie Campbell).
Yes yes! I went to my books catalogue and found a number of juicy possibilities, including…The Gatehouse Mystery. (I’m such a Trixiphile) and Duplicate Death, my all-time favourite of GH’s mysteries.
This is my first ever ‘club’ read and I’m all excited. Being Australian I intend to hold up that side of the world with Come In Spinner – looks ace.
Will try to finish Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. I would love to read Jones’ From Here to Eternity but its Huge and I dont think i could finish it in a week. I am so looking forward to seeing all the choices and reviews! 1951 was an amazing year!
I began ‘Appointment with Venus’ a little while ago and am quite excited to realise that it was published in 1951. But I think I’m being dense – how and where do we submit reviews, please?
This looks like a good time to finally start doing some book reviews on my blog. And 1951. Got some good ones in mind. We’ll see how this goes.
The Grass Harp for me and possibly My Cousin Rachel if I have time. Thanks for hosting!
1951 was such a good year for books! The Caine Mutiny is one of my all-time favorites and I’m delighted to be reminded to re-read it, along with The Daughter of Time. Since I’ve had the audio versions of Tempest-Tost and The Cruel Sea on my TBR list for a very long time, the 1951 Club has moved them to the top of my list. I’ve been listening to The End of the Affair, as it happens, and am enjoying Colin Firth’s reading of it. Additionally, I recently borrowed a library book called Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels, edited by George A. Walker, that contains Laurence Hyde’s Southern Cross – which is astounding; I highly recommend it. While I don’t have a book-blog (indeed, I haven’t blogged about anything for a very long time), I am looking forward to the book reviews.
I’m going to try and participate too. I have ordered Nancy Mitford’s Blessing as a Talking Book and I have Elizabeth Taylor’s A Game of Hide and Seek. Looking forward to it.
I also have Taylor’s A Game of Hide & Seek and DuMaurier’s My Cousin Rachel on the reading list – what serendipitous timing!
Brilliant. I’ve wanted to read Anita Loos for a long time and now I have no excuse not to.