Since much of my reading last year pertained to the Victorians, this year I've decided to dive into the 20th century. My focus will be on [mostly British] women's writing from the period prior to the Great War through the 1950s.

With that in mind, I've compiled the following reading list for myself, picking and choosing whatever looked interesting, and likely missing some gems along the way. I don't expect to read every book here, because I'm sure I won't manage, and there will undoubtedly be numerous rabbit-trails to lead me astray. Nevertheless, it should be an enjoyable reading year!

World War I

• [Pre-WWI] The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West.
• The Virago Book of Women and the Great War edited by Joyce Marlow
• High Wages by Dorothy Whipple: Another novel by Persephone's bestselling writer about a girl setting up a dress shop just before the First World War.
• Round About a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves: A study of working-class life in Lambeth before WWI that is witty, readable, poignant and fascinating - and relevant nowadays. (Public Domain)
• Home Fires in France by Dorothy Canfield Fisher: A collection of 11 short stories based on the author's war work in France. (Public Domain)
• Christine (1917) by Elizabeth von Arnim (published under the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley). Info. (Public Domain)
• This is the End (1917) by Stella Benson: A novel set in London during the First World War, written while the war was still going on. It features a lady novelist, a woman bus conductor and a variety of indecisive men. (Public Domain)
• A Diary Without Dates (1918) by Enid Bagnold: An intimate, informal diary of the writer's personal experiences in a hospital for the war victims, vividly done and extremely good reading. (Public Domain).
• The War Workers by EM Delafield - Published in 1918, the story centers around the characters that live and work at an army support institution during WWI. (Public Domain)
• Missing (1917) by Mrs. Humphrey Ward. (Public Domain)
• The War and Elizabeth (1918) by Mrs. Humphrey Ward (Public Domain)
• Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain: One of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded and how she emerged into an altered world.
• William - an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton: Prize-winning 1919 novel about the effect of WWI on a socialist clerk and a suffragette. (Public Domain)

A list of outstanding work by WWI Women Writers on WWI can be found at FirstWorldWar.com.

Between the Wars

• Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh: Satiric novel published in 1930 examining the frenetic but empty lives of the 'Bright Young Things.'
• Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930) by EM Delafield.
• Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton: An excellent 1932 novel by a very popular pre- and post-war writer, chronicling the life of a hard-working kindly Londy architect and his wife over thirty-five years. Review here.
• Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyn. A young woman's life in 1930s Bohemian London. Review here.
• The New House by Lettice Cooper: A 1936 portrayal of the day a family moves into a new house, and the resulting adjustments and tensions. Review here.
• Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary by Ruby Ferguson: A 1937 novel about Lady Rose, who inherits a great house, marries well - and then meets the love of her life on a park bench. A greate favorite of the Queen Mother. Review here.
• One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens: A 1939 book which recounts the authors pre-WWII time working as a cook-general in various homes around London
• Manja: The Story of Five Children by Anna Gmeyner: A 1938 German novel about five children conceived on the same night in 1920, and their lives until the Nazi takeover in 1933. Review here.
• The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. (Public Domain)
• The Proper Place by O. Douglas. Review here.
• Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. Essays on life in pre-WWII London; originally appeared as a column in The Times.

World War II

• Wave Me Goodbye/Hearts Undefeated Omnibus, Women's Writing of the Second World War (Virago) edited by Anne Boston and Jenny Hartley
• The Provincial Lady in Wartime (1940) by EM Delafield.
• Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys. Review here and here.
• Henrietta Sees it Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-45  by Joyce Dennys. Review here.
• Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49 by Nella Last.
• An Interrupted Life: Etty Hillesum, The Diaries 1941-1943 by Etty Hillesum. Review here.
• Saplings by Noel Streatfield: A novel by the well-known author of Ballet Shoes, about the destruction of a family during WW2. Review here.
• House-Bound by Winifred Peck: This 1942 novel describes an Edinburgh woman deciding, radically, to run her house without help and do her own cooking; the war is in the background and foreground. Review here and here.
• Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson: A 600-page diary, written from 1940-45 in Notting Hill Gate, full of acute observation, wit and humanity. Review here.
• On the Other Side: Letters to My Children from Germany 1940-46 by Mathilde Wolff-Monckeberg: Written in Hamburg but never sent, these letters provide a crucial counterpoint to Few Eggs and No Oranges. Review here.
• Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes: Superbly written short stories, first published in The New Yorker from 1938-44. Review here and here.
• There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult: A touching and funny novel, written in 1944, about an elderly woman with memory loss living in Kensington during the blitz. Review here.
• A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair: An unusual and very interesting 1944 novel about a group of people living in the country during WW2. Review here.
• The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen:  A brilliant recreation of the tense and dangerous atmosphere of London during the bombing raids of World War II. Review here.
• Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski: Novel about a father's search for his son in France in late 1945. One of Persephone's best sellers! Review here.
• Doreen by Barbara Noble: A 1946 novel about a child who is evacuated to the country during the war. Her mother regrets it; the family that takes her in wants to keep her.
• Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd: An unsparing, wry 1946 novel: Miss Ranskill is shipwrecked and returns to a completely changed wartime England. Review here.

Post-War

• The Bread and Butter Stories by Mary Norton: These 15 recently discovered short stories by the author of The Borrowers are wonderful period pieces about being an upper-middle class woman in the 1940s and early 50s.
• Tell It to a Stranger by Elizabeth Berridge: Funny, observant and bleak 1947 short stories, twice in the Evening Standard bestseller list. Review here.
• Minnie's Room: The Peacetime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes 1947-1965: Second volume of short stories first published in The New Yorker. Review here.
• Nella Last's Peace: The Post-War Diaries of a Housewife, 49 by Nella Last.
• Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49 by Nella Last.
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: A ghostly tale about the collapse of the British class system after WWII. Review here. 
• Provinicial Daughter by RM Dashwood: A novel written by EM Delafield's daughter about the trials of a 1950s housewife in an English village.  
• The Village by Marghanita Laski: This 1952 comedy of manners describes post-war readjustments in village life when love ignores the class barrier.
• Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer: This 1958 novel is about the 'captive wives' of the pre-women's liberation era, bored and lonely in the suburbs. Review here.

Other

• The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 1920s to 1950s: Class, Domesticity, and Bohemianism by Nicola Humble
• A Very Great Profession: The Womans' Novel 1914 -39 by Nicola Beauman: A mixture of literary criticism and historical evocation, first published 25 years ago, about women writers of the inter-war period. Review here.
• Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper by Alexandra Harris
• The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson
• The Wartime House: Home Life in Wartime Britain 1939-1945 by Mike Brown and Carol Harris
• A Woman's Place by Ruth Adam: A survey of women's lives from 1900-75, very readably written by a novelist-historian: an overview full of insights. Review here.

DVDs

• Enemy at the Door: Series 1, Series 2
• Wish Me Luck: Series 1, Series 2
• Wartime Britain: Boxed set including "The Heat of the Day" (based on the Elizabeth Bowen novel), "Housewife, 49" (based on the journals of Lancashire housewife Nella Last) and "Island at War."

Cicely Mary Hamilton was born Cicely Hammill in Paddington, London on June 15, 1872. Her father was an army captain serving abroad, and her mother disappeared from her life when she was ten (it is thought she was committed to an asylum). Raised by foster parents, she was educated at a private boarding school in Malvern and at Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, a small spa town in Germany.

After school, she had a brief stint as a student teacher, which she disliked immensely. In 1897, she found work as an actress with a touring company led by Edmund Tearle, and in 1906 wrote her first play, The Traveller Returns. Also at this time, she  became involved with Emma Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union, the leading women's suffrage organization in Britain, and in 1907, Charlotte Despard's Women's Freedom League.

In 1908, the success of her play, Diana of Dobson's (subsequently adapted as a novel), brought her fame, making her an ideal candidate for public speaking. Thus, she became active on the lecture circuits as a popular and well-respected representative of  the women's suffrage movement. That same year, she co-founded the Women Writers' Suffrage League and was instrumental in organizing the Actresses' Franchise League.


At the outbreak of the Great War, she joined the Scottish Women's Hospital Unit, and in 1917 joined the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. It was from an army tent, within the sound of guns and shells, where she wrote William, an Englishman: "written in a rage in 1918; this extraordinary novel... is a passionate assertion of the futility of war" (Persephone Books). The novel was an immediate success and earned her the Femina-Vie Heureuse prize for 1919.

After the war Cicely Hamilton became a freelance journalist working for newspapers such as the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express. She was also a regular contributor to the feminist journal, Time and Tide where she campaigned for free birth control advice for women and the legalization of abortion. In 1922, she published her final novel, Theodore Savage, though she continued to write plays and non-fiction. She was a friend of EM Delafield and was portrayed in The Provincial Lady Goes Further (1932) as "Emma Hay." She died from heart failure in her London home, following a prolonged illness, on December 5, 1952.

William, an Englishman is the story of William Tully, a "mild-mannered, pale-faced, and under-sized" young insurance clerk turned Social Reformer with "an honest and fiery passion for Justice, Right and Progress." He meets and, on July 23, 1914, marries Griselda Watkins, "his exact counterpart in petticoats; a piece of blank-minded, suburban young-woman-hood caught into the militant suffrage movement and enjoying herself therein."

"Their standard of conduct was rigid and their views were pronounced; those who did not share their views and act in conformity with their standards were outside the pale of their liking. And this not because they were abnormally or essentially uncharitable, but because they had lived for so long less as individuals than as members of organizations - a form of existence which will end by sucking charity out of the sweetest heart alive.

It was well for them, therefore, that their creed, like their code of manners and morals was identical or practically identical. It was a simple creed and they held to it loyally and faithfully. They believed in a large, vague and beautifully undefined identity, called by William the People, and by Griselda, Woman; who in the time to come was to accomplish much beautiful and undefined good; and in whose service they were prepared meanwhile to suffer any amount of obloquy and talk any amount of nonsense. They believed that Society could be straightened and set right by the well-meaning efforts of well-meaning souls like themselves - aided by the Ballot, the Voice of the People, and Woman. They believed, in defiance of the teachings of history, that Democracy is another word for peace and goodwill towards men."

"With regard to what used to be called culture (before August, 1914), the attainments of William and Griselda were very much on a level. They read newspapers written by persons who wholly agreed with their views; they read pamphlets issued, and books recommended, by societies of which they were members. From these they quoted, in public and imposingly, with absolute faith in their statements. Of history and science, of literature and art, they knew nothing, or next to nothing; and, their ignorance being mutual, neither bored the other by straying away from the subjects in which both were interested."

To be perfectly honest, I was ready to toss this book after the first two chapters because William and Griselda annoyed me to no end. However, I decided that since Persephone had declared it "one of the greatest novels about war ever written," I should persevere.


William and Griselda choose an isolated location for their three week honeymoon: a tiny cabin deep in the Belgium Ardennes, entirely shut off from the outside world.  Ironically, the would-be internationalists do not know that war has just been declared.

For a time, all is perfectly blissful, but then they decide that perhaps life is "too peaceful," and that the Cause is calling them back home. They agree on a speedy departure, resolving to leave on the following day. As they set off the next morning, they find the farmhouse of Madame Peys (who had been cooking their meals) abandoned. Slightly disturbed by this, they eventually decide to walk to the nearest village, only to find it occupied by German soldiers. It is then that an English-speaking soldier informs them of the war and they are taken prisoner:

"Neither William nor Griselda had ever entertained the idea of a European War; it was not entertained by any of their friends or their pamplets. Rumors of war they had always regarded as foolish and malicious inventions set afloat in the interests of Capitalism and Conservatism with the object of diverting attention from Social Reform or the settlement of the Woman Question; and to their ears, still filled with the hum of other days, the announcement of Heinz was even such a foolish invention. Nor, even had they given him credence, would they in these first inexperienced moments have been greatly perturbed or alarmed; their historical ignorance was so profound, they had talked so long and so often in terms of war, that they had come to look on the strife of nations as a glorified scuffle on the lines of a Pankhurst demonstration."

The novel continues with their subsequent confrontation of the brutal realities of war, but I won't go into further detail for fear of spoiling the story. I must say that, in the end, I loved this book, and actually found myself feeling enormously sympathetic for William and Griselda. It has remained with me in a way that very few books do, and given me much to think about.

The book is available from Persephone Books, or in the public domain via Google Books. More information about the Battle of the Ardennes, which was fought between August 21-23, 1914 can be found here.


It was quite interesting to me that the book seemed to criticize or polk fun at many aspects of a cause which formerly was a central part of Cicely Hamilton's life. However, on closer examination, I realized how deeply she identified with the plight of William and Griselda and how this book, "written in a rage," reflected her own anger and disullionment. That involvement in the war caused her significant distress is apparent in much of her writing.

"Those who struggled hardest against the acceptance of the War-Fact of 1914 were, naturally enough, those who had fiery little battles of their own to fight, and whose own warfare was suddenly rendered null and incompetent by a sudden diversion of energy and interest in the face of the national danger. The war was the successful rival of their own, sectional strife, overshadowing its importance and sucking the life from its veins." (William, an Englishman)

She responded to the 1918 Representation of the People Act (allowing British women the right to vote) with a sense of disinterested fatigue. In Life Errant, her 1935 autobiography, she wrote:

"What use was the vote as a weapon against German guns, submarines and Gothas? The problem of the moment was to keep ourselves alive, and while a people engaged in a life-and-death struggle, it is apt to lose interest in matters which yesterday were of sufficient importance to raise it to a fury of dispute...I remember - how well I remember - receiving official intimation that my name had been placed on the register of the Chelsea electorate. I was in Abbeville at the time, and, as the post arrived, a battery of Archies began to thud; an enemy aeroplane was over taking photographs. I remember thinking, as I read the notice, of all that suffrage had meant for us, a year or two before! ...and that now, at this moment of achieved enfranchisement, what really interested me was not the thought of voting at the next election, but the puffs of smoke that the Archies sent after the escaping planes."  (Suffrage Discourse in Britain During the First World War by Angela K. Smith)

Despite the fact that I'm currently reading a whopping five books at present, I recently felt the need to find some good new fiction, since all of my current reads are non-fiction. First, I browsed the catalogs at both Persephone Books and Virago Press for inspiration (this Virago Collection Tracker spreadsheet from LibraryThing members was also enormously helpful). Then, because I primarily wanted eBooks for my Kindle and Nook, I searched the Web to find out which books were also available in the public domain.

Unfortunately, I also ended up ordering a stack of books from both Amazon (At Mrs. Lippincote's, Consequences, Gone to Earth, The Edwardians, Mariana, and Nella Last's three WWII diaries) and Amazon UK (Miss Buncle's Book, Few Eggs and No Oranges, The Carlyles at Home, Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary)! My husband will not be pleased.

Any of the Google Books/ePub files below can be converted to Kindle-compatible .Mobi files using the quick, easy and free eBook management software from Calibre.

Persephone Books

• William, an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton (Persephone - Google Books)
• Fidelity by Susan Glaspell (Persephone - Google Books)
• Consequences by E.M. Delafield (Persephone - Google Books)
• Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy (Persephone - Google Books)
• The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Persephone - Google Books)
• The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens (Persephone - Internet Archive)
• The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Persephone - Google Books)
• Round about a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves (Persephone - Internet Archive)
• A New System of Domestic Cookery by Mrs. Rundell (Persephone - Google Books)

Virago Modern Classics

• Marriage (1818) by Susan Ferrier (About - Internet Archive)
• Deerbrook (1839) by Harriet Martineau (About - Internet Archive)
• The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner (About - Google Books)
• The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (About - Google Books)
• The Persimmon Tree and Other Stories by Marjorie Barnard (About - Internet Archive)
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Virago - Internet Archive - Google Books)
• South Riding: A Novel (1936) by Winifred Holtby* (About)
• The Little Ottleys (Omibus): Love's Shadow, Tenterhooks, Love at Second Sight by Ada Leverson (About)
• A Diary Without Dates (1918) by Enid Bagnold (Virago Nonfiction; About - Many Books)
• The Happy Foreigner (1920) by Enid Bagnold (About - Many Books)
• The Squire* (1938) by Enid Bagnold (About - Internet Archive)
• The Three Miss Kings by Ada Cambridge (About - Google Books)
• Joanna Godden by Sheila Kaye-Smith (About - Google Books)
• Susan Spray* by Sheila Kaye-Smith (About - Internet Archive)
• The Reef by Edith Wharton (About - Internet Archive)
• The Clever Woman of the Family by Charlotte M. Yonge (About - Google Books)
• Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (Virago - Google Books)
• The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim (Virago - Kindle Edition)
• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (Virago - Kindle Edition)
• The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim (About - Internet Archive)
• My Antonia by Willa Cather (About - Internet Archive)
• The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (About - Internet Archive)
• The Robber Bridegroom (1942) by Eudora Welty (About - Internet Archive)
• The Third Miss Symons (Virago - Kindle Edition)
• Mary Olivier: A Life by May Sinclair (Virago - Google Books)
• The Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair (About - Google Books)
• The Three Sisters by May Sinclair (About - Internet Archive)
• Red Pottage (1900) by Mary Cholmondeley (About)
• Gone to Earth by Mary Webb (Virago - Google Books)
• The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (Virago)
• The Judge by Rebecca West (About) 
• Open the Door! by Catherine Carswell (About - Internet Archive)
• An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw (About - Internet Archive)
• Ann Veronica: A Modern Love Story by H.G. Wells (About - Internet Archive)
• Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith (About - Google Books)
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (About - Internet Archive)
• The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (About - Google Books)
• Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson (About - Google Books)
• The Odd Women: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3 by George Gissing (About)
• Virginia by Ellen Glasgow (About - Google Books)
• The Semi-Attached Couple, and The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden (About)
• Pilgrimage 1, Pointed Roofs by Dorothy M. Richardson (About - Google Books)
• Pilgrimage 2,Backwater by Dorothy M. Richardson (About - Google Books)
• Pilgrimage 3, Honeycomb by Dorothy M. Richardson (About - Internet Archive)
• Pilgrimage 4, The Tunnel by Dorothy M. Richardson (About - Google Books)
• The Beth Book (1897) by Sarah Grand (About - Google Books)

Other

• Belinda (1801) by Maria Edgeworth (About)
• Evelina (1778) by Fanny Burney (About)
• Camilla (1796) by Fanny Burney (About)
• Emily Fox-Seton by Frances Hodgson Burnett (This includes The Making of a Marchioness, above, and its sequel)
• The Minor Pleasures of Life (1934) by Rose Macaulay
• False Goddesses (1923) by Rachel Ferguson
• The Glory of the Conquered (The Story of a Great Love) (1909) by Susan Glaspell
• The Visioning (1911) by Susan Glaspell
• High Rising (1951) by Angela Thirkell (About)
• Fletchers End (1962) by D.E. Stevenson*
• The Happy Highways (1920) by Storm Jameson
• In the Second Year: Radical Fictions (1936) by Storm Jameson (About)
• Christine (1917) by Elizabeth von Arnim
• Vera (1921) by Elizabeth von Arnim
• The Nightingales Are Singing (1953) by Monica Dickens
• The Rosary (1909) by Florence Barclay
• The White Ladies of Worcester: A Romance of the 12th Century (1917) by Florence Barclay
• Miss Marjoribanks (1866) by Mrs. Oliphant (About)
• The War Workers (1918) by E.M. Delafield
• Mary Olivier: A Life (1919) by May Sinclair (About)
• Tension (1920) by E.M. Delafield
• The Heel of Achilles (1920) by E.M. Delafield
• Humbug (1921) by E.M. Delafield
• Messalina of the Suburbs (1928) by E.M. Delafield
• Road Through the Woods (1961) by Pamela Frankau
• Collision (1913) by Mary Borden
• The Romantic Woman (1916) by Mary Borden
• The Tortoise (1921) by Mary Borden
• Jane - Our Stranger (1923) by Mary Borden
• The Amazing Interlude (1918) by Mary Roberts Rinehart
• The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922) by Katherine Mansfield
• Gigolo (1922): Short stories by Edna Ferber
• Lady Rose's Daughter by Mrs. Humphrey Ward: "The best-selling novel of 1903."
• The Milky Way (1914) by F. Tennyson Jesse 
• The Happy Bride (1920) by F. Tennyson Jesse 
• The Long Day (The Story of a New York Working Girl, As Told by Herself) (1905) by Dorothy M. Richardson (About)
• Pilgrimage 5, Interim (1920) by Dorothy M. Richardson
• Pilgrimage 6, Deadlock (1921) by Dorothy M. Richardson

*To borrow only, from Open Library

A Colonial Christmas: This week we started a mini-unit on Christmas in colonial times. I am using bits and pieces of this unit study: Celebrate Christmas in Colonial America (though it's not very well organized, nor is it overly helpful), as well as my own material.

• We read Alice Morse Earle's description of Colonial Christmases from Christmas: Its Origin, Celebration and Significance As Related In Prose and Verse by Robert Haven Schauffler.
• We also began working our way through "The History of Christmas" by Rumer Godden, from The Reader's Digest Book of Christmas.
• The kids filled out a Graphic Organizer: Christmas Then and Now from Colonial Williamsburg's website.
• We reviewed George Washington’s Christmas list for his stepchildren in 1759: “A bird on Bellows, A Cuckoo, A turnabout parrot, A Grocers Shop, An Aviary, A Prussian Dragoon, A Man Smoakg, , A Tunbridge Tea Sett, 3 Neat Tunbridge Toys, A Neat Book fash Tea Chest, A box best Household Stuff, A straw Patch box w. a Glass, A neat dress'd Wax Baby."
• We tried our hand at colonial-style Christmas decorations, using greenery, pine cones, and fresh fruit accents. However, I got frustrated with this pretty quickly, so we gave up (and now have LOTS of fresh fruit and greenery laying around!). We also learned about the significance of the pineapple in colonial times.
• We started a new read aloud, The Christmas Surprise by Ruth Nulton Moore. The book is set in the Moravian community of Bethlehem, PA during the French and Indian War (in 1755). While this is jumping ahead a bit in history, I chose the book for its Christmasy theme.
  
  Bethlehem was founded in 1457 by a small group of Moravians. They represented what is now recognized as the oldest organized Protestant denomination in the world, the Unitas Fratrum, or Unity of the Brethren, founded in 1457 by followers of John Hus, a Roman Catholic priest who had tried to reform the Catholic Church. Hus was burned at the stake for his beliefs a full 100 years before Martin Luther's Reformation. His followers called themselves Moravians because many of the original founders came from the provinces of Moravia and Bohemia in central Europe, in what is now the Czech Republic. (Source)
• Other projects included: Dried Apple Ring Garlands (we burnt them!), Dried Fruit Ornaments (um, also burnt) and Scented Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments. These largely have nothing to do with colonial times, they were just fun to make.
• I made Wassail and Moravian Christmas Cookies.
• If I'm feeling ambitious enough this weekend, we'll be making Moravian Stars (a not-so-simple paper craft) and Moravian Love Feast Buns.
• Music: Lost Music of Early America: Music of the Moravians, A Colonial Christmas by Early Music New York and Wassail! Wassail! Early American Christmas Music by the Revel Players. 

Science

We had no time for science this week, but I did hear something very cool on NPR today that I plan to try in the (near) future. Here is a video that shows you how to grow your own snow crystals and here is a video on the "secrets of snowflakes." These would be perfect to go along with the book Snowflake Bentley, which is based on the life of William Bentley (his official website is here).

Personal Notes

This past week, I became the proud owner of both a NookColor and a Kindle (Christmas presents from DH, who despairs that books have taken over our house!). On my Nook, I've read Life and Death in a Venetian Convent: The Chronicle and Necrology of Corpus Domini, 1395-1436, which was interesting, though not all I'd hoped for. Also, the 1890 classic How the Other Half Lives (Studies Among the Tenements of New York) by Jacob Riis (very good!). I am currently reading Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots by Scott Hahn.

On my Kindle, I am nearly finished with the utterly fascinating, The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play (the chapters on the Victorian obsession with Scheele's Green were especially interesting!). Next, I hope to start on The Library at Night.   

Cookies

• Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
• Sante's Hermit Cookies
• Triple Ginger Cookies (OR, Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies)
• Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies (OR, Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps)
• Coconut Kisses
• Kahlúa Truffle Triangles
• Pain d'Épice Cookies
• Toffee Cookies with Dark Chocolate Glaze
• Under Her Thumb(print) Cookies
• Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints
• Chocolate Thumbprints (Martha Stewart)
• Shira's Cranberry Thumbprints
• Brandied Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Pfeffernussen
• Iced Hermits
• Rum Balls (OR, Spiced Rum Balls)
• Cranberry Noels (very good!)
• Almond-Orange Shortbread
• Butterscotch Cookies
• Double-Chocolate Snowball Cookies

Candy

• Candy Cane Marshmallows
• Peppermint Icicles (OR, Peppermint Sticks)
• Marbled Almond Roca
• Foolproof Holiday Fudge
• Irish Cream Truffle Fudge (OR, Ina Garten's Irish Cream Truffles)
• Chocolate-Orange Hazlenut Bark
• Gingerbread Caramels
• Grand Marnier Truffles
• Easy Chocolate Truffles
• Chocolate-Mint Truffle Cups (SO good!)
• Dark Chocolate Mint Rockie Road Squares
• Raspberry-Chocolate Toffee Bites
• Kentucky Bourbon Balls

This is our first weekly report in awhile because for the past two months the kids have been doing much of their work independently. I got very busy with my job, but also needed to take some time away from our more teacher-intensive work to rest, reevaluate and recharge. Happily, the kids did really well during this time, though they missed the hands-on activities and read-alouds. Now, we're back to "school as usual," or at least, doing as much as is possible during this oh-so-busy time of year. 

Religion

• We continued reading daily from Saints for Young Readers, Vol. 2.
• This week, we resumed memory work from the St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism and are still on the first part of Lesson 2.
• The kids are also now taking religious education classes at the parish school twice a week in preparation for the sacraments of First Reconciliation (Confession) and First Eucharist (Communion).

History

• In our textbook, From Sea to Shining Sea, we read pages 99-105 about the founding of Jamestown, Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.
• The kids had fun studying a reproduction of Captain John Smith's Map of Virginia. This led to an impromptu discussion and examination of other 16th-17th century maps in The Atlas of Atlases: The Map Maker's Vision of the World.
• The kids read the first chapter of both Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland and Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners.
• I read aloud 20 pages per day from Stories of the Pilgrims (available for free here).
• The kids read 20 pages per day from Blood on the River: Jamestown, 1607.
• We watched the following DVDs: NOVA: Pocahontas Revealed, The New World and Beyond the Movie: The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown. 
• The kids learned a little about their 11th Great Grandfather, William Dawson, who arrived at Jamestown as an indentured servant via the Discovery in 1621.
• From History Pockets: Colonial America, the kids completed a notebooking page on Pocahontas, a John Smith mini-book and a map of Jamestown mini-book.
• From Time Travelers: American Revolution, the kids completed a 3-D replica of Jamestown.   
• From Colonial America: Cooperative Learning Activities, the kids did a cut, color and paste model of a ship and created a "shopping list for the New World." After creating their shopping list, they selected a Wilderness Condition Card to compare to their list, to see if they brought everything needed.
• On Tuesday, we watched a webcast from Plimoth Plantation (which we'll be studying next week), though we mysteriously lost our live feed about halfway through. 
• We sampled a number of recipes from my new favorite cookbook, Holiday Fare: Favorite Williamsburg Recipes. One of my favorites was a creamy peanut soup (recipe here), garnished with lardoons (thin strips of Virginia ham, fried in butter) and whole berry cranberry sauce. Apparently peanut soup was quite popular in colonial times. According to this, colonists planted peanuts as fodder for pigs, and their slaves used the peanut to make peanut pie and peanut soup. This is an interesting article on colonial cuisine.
  
  Links:

• Jamestown 1607: An interactive journey
• Jamestown Interactive from The History Channel
• Jamestown Teacher Guide from The History Channel
• Jamestown Settlement - the official website
• The Jamestown Chronicles: Video Biographies
• Jamestown: Why There?
• Jamestown Timeline (.PDF)
• Jamestown Rediscovery: Artifacts found at Jamestown

• This week we set aside our Seton readers and workbooks to try something different. M began reading I, Coriander and J began reading Brendon Chase; they will be doing a report upon completion of the books. M also began reading Little Women.
• For vocabulary, the kids completed one lesson per day (M-Th) from Vocabulary 5 for Young Catholics.
• In Voyages in English, the kids started a unit on adjectives and completed one lesson per day.
• Daily copywork from the Bible and George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation, part of the Time Travelers: Colonial Life unit.
• For composition, we studied sentence writing (primarily, ways of making sentences interesting) and the kids completed several exercises from Alhambra Denning's Methods and Material for Composition.  I also had them record examples of interesting sentences that they encountered in their reading and we discussed these.

The past couple of months have been unexpectedly busy, not affording me time for the usual fall/holiday planning and preparations. With things settling down and cooler weather forecasted for the next week (finally!), I've started searching for some new fall recipes to try. Here's what sounded good:

Sweet

• Spiced Apple Upside-Down Bundt Cake
• Sticky Spiked Double-Apple Cake with a Brown Sugar-Brandy Sauce
• Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
• Ricotta Apple Cake with Cider-Maple Glaze
• Nick Malgieri's Chocolate Hazelnut Pound Cake
• Miniature Pumpkin Spice Cakes
• Chai-Spiced Honey Bundt Cake
• Browned Butter Pumpkin Bundt Cake
• Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread
• Clementine-Vanilla Bean Quick Bread
• Salted Fudge Brownies
• Dorie Greenspan's Applesauce Spice Bars
• Pumpkin Spice Scones
• Hazelnut Cookies
• Caramel-Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies
• Maple-Butter Spiced Popcorn
• Vanilla Bean Sugared Cranberries

Savory

• Maple-Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter
• Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing
• Cranberry-Pecan Stuffing
• Apple and Cheddar Scones
• Spinach, Mushroom and Bacon Cheese Fondue
• Beef Chili + Sour Cream and Cheddar Biscuits
• Cider Brined Grilled Stuffed Pork Chops
• Dorie Greenspan's Cauliflower Bacon Gratin
• Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Bacon and Gorgonzola
• Irish Pumpkin-Cider Soup
• Bacon-Cheddar Biscuits

Beverages

• Pumpkin Spice Latte 
• Hot Rum Cow
• Apple Cider, Cranberry, and Ginger Punch 
• Warm Vanilla Cider

Also, from my newest cookbook, Holiday Fare: Favorite Williamsburg Recipes: Peanut Soup with Cranberry Sauce and Lardoons, Butternut Squash and Pear Pottage, Sugar and Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloins with Red Cabbage and Pear Compote, Gingered Pumpkin Muffins, and Applesauce Buttermilk Biscuits. Yum!