Angela Thirkell's High Rising is a light, enjoyable sort of read. It's the kind of book that you look for when you don't want anything too challenging, that you just want to pass a rainy afternoon with. This is my most recent finish. It is the first in the Barsetshire novels, of which there are about 30. They begin in the 1930s and run through the 50s. High Rising is a little village, where most of the action takes place. The story revolves around the inhabitants of the village--primarily Laura Morland who is a widow. She has one son left at home, Tony, who is a model train fanatic and talks non-stop. Laura writes mystery novels--what she calls good bad novels. Amongst the other denizens of High and Low Rising (another close village) are a variety of people--doctors, spinsters, another writer (of scholarly history books), as well as Laura's publisher in London. The story takes place over the holidays, and there are little romances to work through, and even an "Incubus" in the form of a secretary. It's all great fun. I'd like to work my way through the whole set of novels over time. The next book is The Demon in the House, which I plan on ordering from the bookstore--this is one series I think I'd like to own.
The next Slaves discussion is fast approaching, so it is time to pull out Andrei Makine's The Woman Who Waited. I have several of his other novels. I have always wanted to read him, so this gives me the perfect excuse to finally start one of his books. The Woman Who Waited is his latest novel and is very slim, so I hope I can manage it in the week or so that I have.
I hate to say I am slogging, but I guess that's what I feel like at this point. I was really enjoying Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Shuttle, but all of a sudden I just lost interest. I just want to finish the book, and I have about 130 pages left to go. I like the characters, but I feel like it has just been going along at a quiet pace with nothing really grabbing my attention and forcing me to keep turning those pages. I don't mind slow books at all, but maybe I have just read too many of the same kind lately. And this one has the bad fortune of being more than 500 pages long. I feel bad as others who have read this have really enjoyed it. I'm afraid to set it aside for fear of not picking it back up again. Besides it is a library book that I have checked out, returned, and checked out again. I feel compelled to finish it at this point! I suspect I will be juggling the Makine and this book this weekend. I may be in for a pleasant surprise though--surely the story has been working up to some sort of climax. Perhaps something exciting will happen soon and I won't want to put the book down.