Can I say once again how much I am greatly enjoying reading Belinda Starling's The Journal of Dora Damage? It's a long book and I've been moving fairly slowly through it, though that's no reflection on the writing. I don't really want to fly through it in this particular case. Dora is such an interesting character, thrust into an impossible situation where things perhaps should be black and white, but they're not. A proper Victorian woman, not aristocratic but trying to survive and live respectably, trying to keep her family afloat; she must do things that lose the respect of both her neighbors and herself. But she's unapologetic about it all, and I can't say that I blame her a bit.
Into the Parisian Underworld (isn't that a great name for a blog?) is up and running. If you are reading Victor Hugo's Les Misérables please feel free to join us. I think I am already lagging behind everyone in my reading (not that it matters...we're reading at our own paces, right...).
Every Monday when I try and catch up on blog reading I'm envious of those Sunday Salon participants. It looks like so much fun, but weekends are usually pretty dismal for me and reading. I always have such high expectations and plans on Fridays after work, but by Sunday night I've generally accomplished very little. Sundays are also usually my short story day (about what I can handle on a weekend). Of course I could move my short story day to a different day...I'll have to think on it a bit more.
I did manage to go to the library yesterday. It was a quick visit, and I only dropped off books and didn't even browse or bring any new books home. I did, however, grab the latest BookPage. It's a vicious cycle, though, as I keep trying to keep my requests down and here I am confronted with new and interesting-looking books. These caught my eye:
- The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale - "Summerscale delivers a mesmerizing portrait of one of England's first detectives and the gruesome murder investigation that nearly destroyed him."
- The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende - This is a memoir. I went through a period some years back where all I seemed to read was books by Hispanic authors. I read nearly all of Allende's earlier work, but I guess I must have gorged myself a little too much as I've not read anything by her for ages. I may have to check this one out.
- Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks - I've read nearly everything Faulks has written as well. This is finally in paper, so I'll be keeping my eye open for it. It's a "chilling historical novel (which) examines the development of psychiatry during the late 1800s."
- The Disagreement by Nick Taylor - I don't tend to read much fiction (or NF for that matter) about the Civil War era, but the review said "Taylor's major achievement lies in the creation of a believable narrator whose personality and tone read true to both the time period and his youth", which makes me think this is worth a look.
- Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer - I think this is less about Shakespeare's wife, Ann Hathaway than women of the 16th-century, which would be very interesting (not to say it wouldn't be interesting if it was about Ann--that would be interesting as well). Last year I was reading Shakespeare. I'm not quite sure what happened to Project Shakespeare. I really do need to pull him out and dust him off.
- A Journey from the Other Side by Avi - And one YA novel. I think this sounds great: "The time is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen."
I haven't found quite so many good books in the recent issues of BookPages, so I was pleased (I think) when I leafed through this issue. Now I have to decide--buy, borrow or just add to the wishlist.