Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Literary Potpourri to discuss unread books sitting in our to-be-read piles.
For today's Shelf Control, I'm featuring my matched set of six of Penelope Fitzgerald's novels. Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was a well-respected English novelist. She was nominated for the Booker Prize for The Bookshop, and later won for Offshore. She was also given the Golden PEN Award for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature" in 1999.
Many years ago, I read The Bookshop, and I remember thinking it to be an excellent, if somewhat sad, character study. When I saw these at our local used bookstore last year, I recognized her name and was struck by the beautiful copies, so I grabbed them. I've been planning on rereading The Bookshop first but have yet to do so.
Reviews of The Bookshop are somewhat mixed on Goodreads so I'm interested to see what I think of it now, some twenty years after my first reading. Have any of you read a novel by Fitzgerald? Would you recommend it?
I did start looking for The Bookshop some years ago when a book group picked it for a read, but never managed to find a copy in time. But the group really enjoyed the book, despite the melancholy threads. I'm glad you featured her, since this reminded me to look her up again! Hope you enjoy these--they do look lovely editions!
ReplyDeleteI think "melancholy threads" describes what I remember perfectly! Thanks for your visit!
DeleteI have not read this author but I agree, they are very pretty!
ReplyDeleteYes, pretty sets really catch my eye! (Thanks for the visit!)
DeleteI've heard about Penelope Fitzgerald, but not about The Bookshop. A Goodreads reviewer mentioned about a beautifully narrated audiobook, so I'll see if it interests me enough.
ReplyDeleteI love audiobooks, so I'll have to check that as well. (Thanks for the visit!)
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