I’ve never participated in a reading week with other book bloggers before although I’ve been very tempted. So I was delighted when Jacqui who writes so wonderfully about books at her blog JacquiWine’s Journal invited me to co-host a week of reading centred around Jean Rhys. I read much of Rhys’ writing when I was at university, but I’ve not read much since then and, to be honest, her early novels somewhat blur all together in my mind. I’ve been wanting to go back to read through them all again and this week will be the perfect excuse.

If you’ve ever wanted to read or reread Jean Rhys then pick out some books you’d like to read and discuss with us during the week starting September 12th. Jacqui and I will be posting about Rhys' books and fielding discussions on our blogs, twitter, goodreads, etc. We’d love to know your thoughts about Rhys’ writing, life and the significant contribution she made to literature. If you want to blog about her you can use the Jean Rhys banner in the upper left corner of this post and if you want to tweet your thoughts about your reading use the hashtag #ReadingRhys.

Jean Rhys was born in the Caribbean island of Dominica and first came to prominence publishing books amidst the Parisian literary groups in Paris during the 1920s-30s. She then dropped off the map for over 35 years before emerging again with her masterwork “Wide Sargasso Sea” which is a prequel to “Jane Eyre.” She also published many short stories and an unfinished autobiography. She’s certainly a distinctive author with a unique writing style. There’s much to discuss and explore so we hope you’ll join us.

Do any of the above books tempt you? What have you read by Rhys and what are you interested in reading/rereading? We're planning lots of exciting and special things for this week in September. If you’d like to make any more substantial contribution do get in touch with me or Jacqui while we continue to plan for the reading week!