Since giving up Facebook games, I've been reading again. It's so old-fashioned, it's such fun. I mean, I always read, but lately it's been just at bedtime, to make my brain stop whizzing and sleep. Now I'm reading in the morning, reading in the afternoon, reading in cafes. Outrageous!
Last Thursday and Friday I inhaled The Hare with Amber Eyes, which was gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. I wish I could see ALL the netsuke, but by the look of teh interwebs, so does everyone.
On Sunday I pretty much inhaled the whole of Wendy James' new novel The Mistake. It's a corker, a wonderful piece of suspense suspended in a very contemporary setting. It's a moral conundrum, and just as you think you've worked out what you think, it takes you right to the end and completely upends you. Highly recommended.
I also read Jane Austen's unpublished novel Lady Susan, which was completely not what I expected it to be.
In Melbourne I only had the braincells to read 3 books by Donna Leon, of whom I went through a phase many years ago, but it is either testament to my awful memory or the same-iness of her writing that I had already read two of the three and didn't realise it. I don't read or watch crime fiction by choice, but I can handle DL because her books are more about food, politics and Venice more than the actual crime, which often gets solved almost as an afterthought.
I read Alan Loney's short book, Anne of the Iron Door, which is about Gutenberg, and is very sad. His life was very sad generally, but Alan has made the story more about Anne, and her (imagined) life is awful. Beautifully written, though.
I'm now reading Autumn Laing, lent to me by my mother-in-law, and apparently based on Sunday Reed.
When I only have a moment, I dip into Hark! A Vagrant! the book, which just gets better and better with rereading. I think I've linked to these before, but I can't find where so I'm going to link again.
Dudewatching with the Brontes.
Young Ada Lovelace
Peasant comics
Wonder Woman
OMG, I have to stop, but I can't stop, Kate Beaton's comics are SO GOOD, and all about literature and history, so they are good for you.
Time to go to bed and read. My fingertips are aching from ukulele group tonight, and the keyboard is just making it worse. Good night!
3 comments:
Thanks for commenting on my review of The Mistake. I am glad you enjoyed it as well!
Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out
Co-incidence time. I recently bought 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes' as a totally unnecessary indulgence.
Blogger appears to have taken away the option to receive follow up comments. Humph. And the double WV makes for another humph.
Hey, let me know what you think of Autumn Laing. I read it and liked it, but I am a Heide-ophile, or whatever the appropriate twem is for someone strangely obsessed/bemused/interested in the saga tat was Heide and how it has become art folklore and a product in its own right. More about that on my blog (when I have time to do neext post!)
I have jotted down some of your other reads, to get next time I need some.
And I hope E, and the universe beyond, is gentle with Mr B too, he's such a lovely kid. X
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