Virago Author of the Month: Voting for Jul, Aug, Sep

The following authors have been both nominated and seconded on the previous thread. If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

You now have the chance to vote for up to two authors you'd most like to see selected for three more monthly reads.

The authors are:

Christina Stead
Margaret Kennedy
Rumer Godden
Margaret Atwood
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Daphne du Maurier
Nina Bawden
Kate O'Brien
Angela Carter
Mary Hocking
Molly Keane

The deadline will be midnight UK time on Friday 9th June and I'll post the final results soon after.

I can't decide who to vote for yet so will be back later!

Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter for me please! :)

I hereby cast my votes for Margaret Atwood and Nina Bawden!

Thank you so much for organizing this for us, Dee. The monthly authors have been a great way to guide my Virago reading this year.

I will vote for Nina Bawden and Rumer Godden

I'll go with anyone BUT Keane, Stead and Carter :)))))

I cast my votes for Christina Stead & Nina Bawden.

I must agree with Laura in that between our Virago Group Reads & our Author of the Month reads, my reading of the Virago books on my shelves has jumped immensely.
Kudos!

I also vote for Nina Bawden and Rumer Godden and thank you very much for this incentive. My reading of VMCs and other works by those authors has increased immensely.

I vote for Christina Stead and Mary Hocking.

I agree the monthly author reads has also caused me to read some of my VMCs which have been neglected for far too long.

You're all very welcome!

>5 romain: I'll bear that in mind if there's a tie 😀

Thank you Dee, but don't give too much credence to me :) because I am notoriously out of step when it comes to VMC authors. I also have enjoyed knocking a few off my reading list because of this thread. Thank you to whoever started it. You, Dee?

I vote for Christina Stead and Kate O'Brien.

I'm going with Angela Carter and Rumer Godden.

>8 mrspenny: I agree with you about having a focus for each month's reading.

Christina Stead, Rumer Godden, Daphne du Maurier

>10 romain: Not my idea originally but I suggested using this way of voting when we were wondering how to decide on our authors. It's the same as sweetiegherkin uses on the Monthly Author Reads forum.

>13 CurrerBell: Mike, would you be able to whittle down your choices to two?

>14 Soupdragon: Sure. Rumer Godden and Daphne du Maurier.

ETA: Should learn to read directions. I don't know why I thought I was supposed to vote for three!

>15 CurrerBell: I always have to remind myself there are only two nominations too. It must be the three month segments that confuse.

Rumer Godden and Christina Stead

I'm voting for Rumer Godden and Christina Stead.

>15 CurrerBell:, >16 SassyLassy: Maybe it's my talking about three authors soon after the two choices. I'll try to avoid that next time!

After various recounts (a good job I wasn't a teller at Thursday's election) I can confirm that our winners are:

Rumer Godden - 6 votes
Christina Stead- 5 votes
Nina Bawden - 4 votes

So we'll be reading Godden in July, Stead in August (well some of us will be 😉) and Bawden in September.

Looking forward to all three, (even though I'm very behind and haven't finished my Willa Cather yet)!

Thank you Dee. I appreciate your diligent counting and active prevention of voter fraud, LOL. And you meant Bawden in September, correct?

>19 Soupdragon: I'm very happy with that, though the support for Christina Stead is a bit of a surprise. No problem though as I have several of her books unread. I had already tracked down all my unread Rumer Godden books in anticipation of her "winning". I'd also been accumulating Nina Bawden books in anticipation of a binge-read at some point too. However, I'm still on Willa Cather too!

>20 lauralkeet: Ah yes, I will go and amend!

>21 europhile: I have never read any Christina Stead and I know some people aren't fans. But mrspenny spoke in her favour at the beginning of the year and a group read should be interesting. And I've accumulated quite a few of her books in Virago so would like to give her a try at some point!

Thanks Dee. I have read every Godden ever published but may re-read. Bawden I have a few left to read. Stead. Hmmnnn. I have done two books by her and I always do two in case I get their worst book first and because she was one of Carmen Callil's favorites. I am not sure what to say about her. I really struggled with both. More Stravinsky than Mozart perhaps?

I gave Stead a vote simply because although I own 11 of her Virago, I have yet to read one. Each time I pick one up something within screams: PUT IT BACK! But I thought that if she was one of our monthly authors I would definitely read her. Pathetic reason, eh?

>24 rainpebble: I think that's a very good reason!

So do I. I also have 11 of her books, all unread. Part of the reason may be that they are dauntingly long.

I confess that having just read a massive Stead volume for Shiny New Books I'm unlikely to pick up another one for August. It was goodut flawed and just too long.

I might start with my Virago edition of The Puzzle-headed Girl which seems to be made up of four novellas or long short stories. That feels less intimidating.

My biggest priority these past couple of years has been ROOTing, which dictated my votes for Godden and Stead. On Godden, I've got three unread that I can lay my hands on instantly – Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy, Kingfishers Catch Fire, and (not a Virago, it seems) The Peacock Spring. I've never read anything by Stead, but I've got The Beauties and the Furies and (not a Virago, it seems) The Little Hotel. There's also a used book store in Doylestown that has some Stead, including a nice looking hardcover of Letty Fox that I might pick up, though I've been trying to avoid too much buying {erm, HA!}.

Question for all those seemingly zillions of Stead fans out there. I had the impression that Letty Fox is a later novel in a series. Is that so? And if so, should I be reading something else first? I'm definitely not going to buy another book unless it's a stand-alone read.

Mike - Kingfishers is one of her absolute best! IMO at least. :)

The massive Stead I just read was Letty Fox. It certainly stands alone as far as I can see, but I would hesitate to recommend it. If I hadn't been reading it as a review copy I doubt I would have kept reading it. Stead's writing is marvellous, but the book is far too long and could have done with a good editor. The repetition of certain elements became annoying and I was frustrated because I wanted to love the book and I couldn't. That's my thoughts anyway - if anyone else has had a better experience than me with it I'd be fascinated to hear!

>29 CurrerBell:, >31 kaggsy: I liked Letty Fox the best of the Steads I've read so far. I agree with Karen that it is repetitive, but I liked Letty's narrative voice - it's like having a garrulous friend telling you her life story. Repetition does seem to be a problem with Stead though, as I had the same issue with A little tea a little chat (which had the additional problem of unlikeable characters).

I had hoped to read some of my unread novels by Stead, but I'll be travelling in August so won't be able to take any with me! I've disliked everything I've read by Bawden though, and don't own anything by her, so maybe I will move Stead to September for myself.