Furrowed Middlebrow Collection! 🤩🌟📚💚

Happy Friday! ☺️💓

For #FurrowedMiddlebrowFriday this week, I'm sharing my current Dean Street Press Furrowed Middlebrow collection of 34 printed books (32 books on my Kindle)—yipppee!

I'm cheating with this photo because I usually double stack my Dean Street Press Books so that I can use the other shelf for other books. But, in my ideal library world, this is what they look like: 

And, here are my collections by author, along with ratings. Also, here's my link to my Instagram Furrowed Middlebrow Collection post!😍❤️

Molly Clavering:

Because of Sam 5🌟

Dear Hugo 4.5🌟

Love Comes Home (TBR)

Mrs. Lorimer's Quiet Summer 4🌟

Near Neighbors 5🌟

Susan Settles Down 5🌟

Touch Not the Nettle 4🌟

Yoked with a Lamb (TBR)

Elizabeth Eliot:

Mrs. Martell 4.5🌟

 

Elizabeth Fair:

(all on my Kindle) 

A Winter Away 4🌟

Bramton Wick 4🌟

Landscape in Sunlight 4🌟

Seaview House 4🌟

The Marble Staircase 3.5🌟

The Mingham Air 4🌟

The Native Heath 4🌟

 

Eleanor Farjeon:

Miss Granby's Secret (or the Bastard of Pinsk) 4🌟

 

Ruby Ferguson: 

Apricot Sky 5🌟

 

E. Nesbit:

The Lark 4🌟

 

Carola Oman:

Nothing to Report 3🌟

 

Ursula Orange:

Begin Again 4🌟

 

Susan Scarlett: 

Babbacombe's 4.25🌟

Clothes-Pegs 4🌟

Peter and Paul (TBR)

Sally-Ann 4.5🌟

Summer Pudding (TBR) 

Ten Way Street (TBR)

The Man in the Dark (TBR)

 

Margery Sharp:

Four Gardens 4🌟

Rhododendron Pie 3.5🌟

The Foolish Gentlewoman (TBR)

Dorothy Evelyn Smith:

Miss Plum and Miss Penny 5🌟

 

D.E. Stevenson:

Green Money 5🌟

Mrs. Tim Carries On 4🌟

Mrs. Tim Flies Home 4.5🌟

Mrs. Tim Gets a Job 4🌟

Music in the Hills 3🌟

Spring Magic 3🌟

The Fair Miss Fortune 5🌟

Vittoria Cottage 5🌟

Winter and Rough Weather 4🌟

TBR:

A House in the Country by Ruth Adam

Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck

The House Opposite by Barbara Noble

 

BONUS! DSP Golden Age Crime Fiction by Moray Dalton: 

One by One They Disappeared 4🌟

The Night of Fear 4.5🌟 

The Belgrave Manor Crime 4🌟 

The Murder of Eve 4🌟

Note: I love Moray Dalton's books so much! I'm dying to get the rest of them! 🥰

FAQS about Dean Street Press Books
 

Do you wish you owned ALL the Furrowed Middlebrow books? Heck, yes! 

Who is your favorite DSP Furrowed Middlebrow author? Molly Clavering or D.E. Stevenson (TIE!)

Which author do you wish had more books in the Furrowed Middlebrow series? Omg, Ruby Ferugson for sure!

Do you have an all-time favorite Dean Street Press book? The hardest question everrrr! But, after lots of thought, it might be Apricot Sky. Or...Susan Settles Down. Too many 5🌟 books!

What do you wish you could change about the Furrowed Middlebrow books? Although I think they're pretty perfect, I would change these three little things:

1. Make the printed books easier to hold open while reading and have a larger gutter so that I don't have to crack the spine to read it.
2. Figure out a way to make all of the DSP logos line up so that the look prettier displayed on bookshelves. (Perhaps make a different color symbol for each author?)
3. Discover an ingenious way to display this beautiful collection so that the covers are facing out to admire all of the time. Or, better yet, sell a set of postcards or small prints of the covers so that readers can have a wall of lovely artwork in their libraries. (Please, please, please!)
   

Well, I guess that's all for now, book friends! I'm sure I'll do an update in the future with more (and more!) books that I collect from the amazing Dean Street Press Ltd.!

I'd love to know in the comments below what YOUR favorite DSP Furrowed Middlebrow book is at the moment! Let's share the love!! Sending tons of love and hugs to youuuuuuu! 💕🌸🤗🌸💕

Hope you enjoyed seeing my collection! 🥳💜🌟

 

Mrs. Martell by Elizabeth Eliot 👱🏻‍♀️🧔🏻💄👛🎀🏰

Happy #FurrowedMiddlebrowFriday, Friends! 

This is my second post for this hashtag (woo!) and, because I'm so excited about it, I think my next post will be sharing my entire Furrowed Middlebrow Collection. Let me know in the comments if this is something you'd like to see ☺️📚💚

Before I share my review of Mrs. Martell by Elizabeth Eliot, I wanted to tell you about this lovely little vintage makeup table that I thrifted in my neighborhood. 

I love all things vintage beauty, clothes and makeup (though I don't use a lot of makeup myself), but especially makeup items. I adore the little golden purse that Ian bought for me, gloves, compacts, lipstick tubes, handkerchiefs, etc. This vanity table was such an amazing and inexpensive purchase—plus, it came with the little bench, too! (Someday, I will swap out the fabric for a rosy pink color.)

[Side Note: I'm on the hunt for a vintage pedestal, swivel mirror (my Grandma Catherine had one and I loved it!) and a pink depression glass perfume bottle. Wish me luck!]

Anyway, I thought that my newest addition of vintage furniture would make a lovely background for both the Mrs. Martell book and this 1947 edition of Love Book Magazine. Don't you think the covers are really similar? 

I know, I know...back to the book!😂

 

Rating: 4.5🌟 

I was completely swept away by this Furrowed Middlebrow book!

Usually, I try to stay clear of books with unlikable main characters, but this one is the exception to the rule. It was SO good!

Mrs. Martell (Cathie) is vain, self-centered, selfish and generally horrible. But, it was extremely enjoyable reading about her devious plans and seeing the world through her one-track, malicious mind. The entire story centers on Cathie's primary goal in life—to be Mrs. West, wife to Edward...who is currently the husband of her cousin, Laura.

Not only is this the best cover of the Dean Street Press Furrowed Middlebrow series (at least, it's mine...especially being pink and all), the story was unexpectedly amazing. I loved it from the beginning to the end.

Elizabeth's Eliot's novel is definitely a great choice for a book club read. There's just so much to discuss! I plan on reading this book again very soon and I'm now intrigued by this author. This is my first Elizabeth Eliot book, but I believe there are three more in the FM series: Alice, Henry and Cecil.  I'm hoping the others are just as good (or better!)

This is the perfect, light book to read to amuse, entertain or get a "soap opera" fix. I would have given it 5🌟, but I need a little bit of hope or joy at the end of a story for a full star rating. Otherwise, I loved it!

Let me know in the comments if you've read this book or anything by Elizabeth Eliot. Dying to know your thoughts! 

Have a fantastic Friday and wonderful weekend!! Many loving hugs to you! 💕🌸🤗🌸💕 

Here are some photos of the illustrations inside of this charming magazine: 

 

Miss Granby's Secret by Eleanor Farjeon

Hello again, friends! It's been so long since I posted anything. I've been busy reading, finding and collecting vintage books (too many, as usual...lol!) and feeling overwhelmed by life. Does this happen to you, too?

The roller coaster weather here in New Hampshire (one day so hot and humid and the next day brisk and chilly...or both in one day!) has been getting me down and I hope that the steady beauty of autumn (my favorite season!) will be here soon. I'm looking forward to it so much! How about you?

Anyway, down to business—and, by that, I mean NEW book review! Woo!

I was recently sent a review copy of Miss Granby's Secret (or the Bastard of Pinsk) by Eleanor Farjeon by the wonderful and amazing Dean Street Press Ltd. team (Victoria, you're the best! 😍) 

I so, so incredibly happy that Dean Street Press is going to continue publishing books for the Furrowed Middlebrow series. Isn't that the best news you've heard in a long time?? It was for me! 

[Side note: If I had to choose one future career dream, it would be to work on the Dean Street Press team. Since my degree is in Mathematics and my amazing current job have nothing at all to do with the book publishing world, I guess I will have to live this lovely thought only in my mind. But, if for some reason anyone on the team is reading this and you need someone in the U.S. to help with any step of the process, please keep me in mind! 😁💓📕]

Sorry for going on a crazy tangent...back to the book review!

Rating: 4🌟

A crazy and compelling ride!

This was my first experience reading Eleanor Farjeon's writing and I have to say that, at first, I was a little doubtful that I'd like it. I thought the pace of the story fluctuated between slightly frantic to pretty slow, with some confusion in between.

I wish I'd had a hard copy version of Miss Granby's Secret because there were some sections I wanted to go back and refer to a few times, such as Adelaide's own definition of terms. (I'll be buying a hard copy very soon to add to my collection)

But, in spite of my slightly rocky transition at the beginning of the book (in which I was adjusting my mind to the way it was written), there came a point where the story completely caught hold of me and I was all in!

Both the main story with Miss Granby's niece, Pamela, and the story-within-the-story of The Bastard of Pinsk became entirely addictive. At one point, near the end, I forgot that this book wasn't entirely The Bastard of Pinsk by Miss Granby! 😂😂 It was so amusing and I was dying to know what would happen for the finale.

The very end of the story became confusing again and I'm not sure if I really liked the way the author brought the novel to a close. I was a little disappointed at the end, but this could be due to my not being used to Eleanor Farjeon's writing style. I think that means I need to read more of her books!

Overall, I enjoyed the book so much more than I imagined I would! I highly recommend you give it a try!

Make sure to check in tomorrow (or, better yet, SUBSCRIBE to my blog by typing your email into the blue box at the top right and pressing the pink button! If you do, you'll make my day, sweet friend!) for another #furrowedmiddlebrowfriday (a hashtag I created on 8/16/24) post here and on Instagram!

Note: I own a pretty little book of Ms. Farjeon's poetry for children (pictured above), so I'm excited to dip into that book very soon and see if I like it. The illustrations look very sweet!

Please check out my dear friend, Caro's review of this book on her new website! Her reviews are incredibly thoughtful, intelligent, amusing and filled with gorgeous photos. You'll love them 🤩 Make sure to follow her on Instagram @carosbookcase!

Much love and many hugs!!! Would love to hear from you in the comments below! 💕🌸🤗🌸💕