I have exactly seven days to finish Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light. The University of Kansas library system (via my library's ILL) was kind enough to loan me the book, but they want it back. I don't blame them, as it's an excellent read. If you're looking for a straightforward biography of Virginia Woolf I wouldn't start here. And it's not any sort of criticism of her writing either. It's as much about her servants and their lives as it is about her. It's a totally fascinating snapshot, however, of life in service from the mid-Victorian through Edwardian periods, and service to the Woolf family. So far it concentrates on one particular servant, Sophie, who was cook to not only Virginia Woolf's mother, but she stayed with the family for most of her life.
It's always interesting when books criss cross. I've also been reading (and thoroughly enjoying) Belinda Starling's The Journal of Dora Damage. This is a Victorian pastiche and Starling obviously did her homework. There are all sorts of details and many of them groove with what I'm reading in Alison Light's book. Poor Dora Damage. She's trying hard to keep her family together and afloat while living in near poverty. Victorian novels are always so colorful. Actually the lives of the poor had to be pretty drab, but you know what I mean. I've not forgotten this list. I had planned to read from it all Winter, and now Spring is only weeks away and I've not read one book from it (though I have read a few other Victorian novels). So I'll keep working on it and see if I can read a few of them over the course of the year.
I think I've finally settled into Rosalind Belben's writing style. Our Horses in Egypt is such an unusual book. You pick it up and are just plopped down in the story and I found it hard to orient myself. It's not a book to read a few pages of and then set aside. I tried that and had to start from the beginning again. And she's not an author who'll spell it all out for you, but it seems that once you get into the story it's quite nicely done. Another ILL book (again from my kind friends in Kansas--their libraries obviously order more British lit then we do) that needs to be returned in just a couple of weeks.
I started reading Laurie King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice a while ago. I was really enjoying it when I started it--Mary Russell being such a likable character, but all of a sudden I've just fizzled with it. The beginning tells the background of Mary and how she apprentices with retired Sherlock Holmes. Now the book seems to be shorter mysteries they solve. It's just not keeping my interest and I keep thinking how I'd like to read another Adam Dalgliesh mystery perhaps, or maybe something by Ruth Rendell or Denise Mina. I've discovered a new character, Jade del Cameron who's an American sleuth and the first book is set in 1920s Africa. Or I could be reading The Tomb of Zeus by Barbara Cleverly--another 1920s setting with a female sleuth. I hate this feeling. I'm never sure whether to set the book aside (and I'm not always good at picking books back up once they've been abandoned), or to keep going and finish the book. It's well written, only I don't seem to want to pick it up and read like other books in my pile. Every reader's dilemma!
A couple of good notes, however. I received an email from Amazon.uk letting me know they've shipped Jo Nesbo's Nemesis. I should have it in about a week (fingers crossed that international mail won't be pokey). I don't think I'll have the problem of not wanting to pick that one up. And my library's quarterly book sale is this weekend, and I am hoping to go. I also plan on hitting the bookstore this week and using one of my gift cards. I have a list of new books I want to check out, so this may be a week of bookish purchases. I'll let you know how it goes.