Does this sound like someone you’d want to spend some time with?:
The daughter of a struggling greengrocer, Maisie Dobbs was only thirteen when she was sent to work as a maid for wealthy London aristocrats. But being bright and thoughtful beyond her years – and through the patronage of her benevolent employers, Maisie studies her way to Cambridge, then serves as a nurse on the Front during the Great War. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive.
Now, it’s the spring of 1929, nearly ten years after the Armistice and Maisie has just opened up her own detective agency. Her first assignment, a seemingly open-and-shut case, will reveal a much deeper, darker mystery, forcing Maisie to revisit the horrors of the war and the love she left behind
I have yet to read any of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs novels, but I’m eager to make her acquaintance via Book Club Girl’s read-along. I plan to start with the first, Maisie Dobbs (that’s my freshly-purchased copy in the photo to the right), and work my way up to the latest book, A Lesson in Secrets, which goes on sale March 22. That’s nine books; I may not review them all here, but I hope to read them all so I can keep up with Maisie’s life and adventures. My understanding is that they can be read out of order (or can skip a volume), but that I’ll be so pulled into her world that I’ll want to know all the details!
Book Club Girl will be posting questions for discussion of each book, on the following schedule:
- January 14th - Maisie Dobbs
- January 31st - Birds of a Feather
- February 14th - Pardonable Lies
- February 22nd – Paperback edition of The Mapping of Love and Death goes on sale
- February 28th - Messenger of Truth
- March 14th - An Incomplete Revenge
- March 22nd – Hardcover of A Lesson in Secrets goes on sale
- March 28th- Among the Mad
- April 11th- The Mapping of Love and Death
- April 25th - A Lesson in Secrets
And, she’ll have a Book Club Girl on Air live interview with author Jacqueline Winspear in late April. If you want to join the read-along, sign up at this post on her site, follow along on twitter with the hashtag #maisiedobbs, and/or follow the Facebook fan page. And if you have a blog, grab the button at the top of this post … stepping into my time machine now, see you in 1930s London!
I’m so happy to your doing this too. I just love Maisie so much. I’ll finish my reread of the first book today and will start Birds of a Feather tomorrow. See you at Book Club Girl for discussion.
I really should do this, because I want to give Maisie a try, but I don’t know if I’m coming or going these days. Maybe I’ll pick this up before the year is out.
Martha – I think my sister will like them, too. I should send copies up to her as I read them. Yes, see you on the discussion site (I have to find out when the interview with Jacqueline Winspear is, so I can mark my calendar).
Kathy – I’m doing very few challenges this year. We’ll see how far I get with Maisie … catching up on nine books might be too much of a push.
I picked up a few books by this author and never read them so I donated them for the last library booksale. Sorry a bit now
I’ve not read any of these books … but I do find the cover quite attractive.
Diane – you’re a stronger woman than I — I have such a hard time giving away book I may read “some day”
Jenners – I love those hats (and I understand that, while it’s not overdone, you do get a good sense of the fashions of the day thru the books)
I am jealous! I wish I had not read them all already so I could justify joining the read-a-long!!! I own them all (in hard back!) and am anxiously awaiting April 25th! Even my husband who listened to them on audio liked them…I sure hope you do also.
*smiles*
I really, really wish I could do this. But the read-a-long falls right in my busy season and I know I would fail to meet the deadlines.
Kim – I’ve just started the first book this morning … I can already see why so many people are taken by this character and Winspear’s writing. I wonder if our library has any of the audiobooks…
Beth F – have you read any of them? I’m hooked on the first book alone!
I just finished the first one in this series before the new year and am really looking forward to the readalong. Glad you’ll be joining in the fun!