It's Monday!

Another week has gone by in a blur of family, work and life stuff. With a little reading and blogging time squeezed into the sides.

I'm loving my (re)readalong of Gone With the Wind with Corinne. The first discussion post was a lively, loving chat about Scarlett, slavery and Mitchell's intentions.

However Wharton Review month has been hijacked by the arrival of a new book.

I had planned on rereading The Age of Innocence, but this turned up instead....

Shedding the constraints that existed for women in turn-of-the-century America, Edith Wharton set out in the newly invented "motor-car" to explore the cities and countryside of France.

Originally published in 1908, A Motor-Flight Through France is considered by many to be the very best of Wharton’s outstanding travel writings. 

While Wharton’s novels are darkly funny and deliciously catty, and her short stories are populated by adulterers, murderers, and artists, A Motor-Flight Through France captures all of the riches and charm of France during the Belle Époque in gorgeous, romantic prose. Like many Americans, Wharton was utterly beguiled by France at the dawn of the twentieth century, and in this volume her brilliant sketches of "l’Hexagone" provide an enchanting and indelible portrait of the land during this era.

But Wharton’s travelogue is as much about the thrill of travel as it is about place. With the automobile in its infancy, Wharton was experiencing the countryside as few people ever had, liberated from the ugliness of train yards and the constraints of passage by rail. “The motor-car has restored the romance of travel,” she wrote, and readers of this wonderful book will be grateful to experience it through her eyes

Only two chapters in, but so far it is an utter delight.

Last week I attended a work function at Allen and Unwin. I came home with a lovely bag of goodies, including the ARC's photographed below.

I'm very excited about the new Kundera due out next month and I can't wait to dip into Charlotte Wood's October new release.

Mr Books has already snaffled Patrick DeWitt's Under Major Domo Minor and is loving it.

This week is the beginning of the Sydney Writer's Festival. I've booked into four events so far and I'm starting to get excited.

But for now it's time for my Monday Shout-out!

This is my weekly chance to share with you some of my favourite reviews:

For one of the most succinct reviews ever, check out Books are my Favourite and Best's review of The Paris Wife.

Nancy @ipsofactodotme has made me want to reread What I Talk About When I Talk About Running with this review.

Melinda @West Metro Mommy has also inspired me to try Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist here.

This post is part of Sheila's It's Monday and Mailbox Monday.