1937 Club
It may seem a bit random to focus on this year, but bear with me. Twice-yearly Reading Clubs are co-hosted by two bloggers: https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/club-pages/ and https://www.stuckinabook.com/. In the words of the former ‘We choose a particular year, usually between 1920 and 1980, and encourage fellow bloggers (and anyone online!) to read, discover, explore and share the love of books written in the particular year’. There is no requirement to post your own thoughts, and you can just enjoy reading other people’s comments.
The 1937 Reading Club’s dates are April 15 – 21 2024, and I am delighted by them choosing this year as there are plenty of good books to consider. Please note that I have tried to be accurate, but it is possible that I have inadvertently included a book which was not actually published in 1937.
If you are interested in a humorous and light-hearted novel, then there is Angela Thirkell’s highly entertaining Summer Half. A more serious read is provided by John Steinbeck’s brilliant Of Mice and Men, while Virginia Woolf offers the story of a family from the 1880s to the 1930s in The Years (not my favourite of hers but still a classic). There is also the very impressive Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston which Zadie Smith describes as ‘one of the very greatest American novels of the 20th century’.
Turning to crime, there is one of my favourite books by Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile, and the always interesting Margery Allingham has the Campion story Dancers in Mourning. I love Dorothy L. Sayers, and while I would not start with Busman’s Honeymoon, it is certainly well worth reading. Enjoyable British Library Crime Classics include John Bude’s The Cheltenham Square Murder and E.C.R. Lorac’s Bats in the Belfry. There are also good whodunnits by Nicholas Blake, Christopher Bush, Brian Flynn, and Basil Thompson. The list goes on!
How about children’s books? Well, there is Tolkien’s classic The Hobbit which needs no introduction from me, though I would say that it is a much ‘easier’ and quicker read than The Lord of the Rings. Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series is always popular, and the exciting We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea seems to be a particular favourite with those who love sailing. Noel Streatfeild is most famous for Ballet Shoes but she wrote some other excellent children’s books, and I would definitely recommend 1937’s Tennis Shoes which is an enjoyable read even if you aren’t that interested in tennis. I also love Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery who is better known for her Anne of Green Gables series. Both Streatfeild and Montgomery are especially good at depicting family tensions, and the development of characters and relationships.
Finally, there is a classic feminist science fiction novel: Swastika Night by Murray Constantine. This is a short fascinating dystopian novel which is set in a distant future in which Nazism took over much of the world, and Hitler is worshipped as a god.
These are only some of the many books published in 1937 and I am sure you can find other good ones. I, for example, am hoping to read A.J. Cronin’s Citadel; its blurb says it is a ‘book which inspired the creation of the NHS’.
Happy reading,
Frances
(If you are interested in any of the books in this recommendations list, just give us an email and we’ll order them in for you!)