Once again it has taken me very few months for my night table to begin groaning under the weight of too many books. I go through this every year, so I guess I should just consider it a tradition. Perhaps I should make this short today, so I can spend more weekend time reading? A few books I've been working on...
I've really enjoyed reading Les Misérables this week. Now that Cosette has been rescued from the horrible Thénardiers by Jean Valjean things are moving swiftly again. It's interesting how he balances out the faster paced sections with those more descriptive ones. I wonder if this was originally serialized?
I've procrastinated and waited until the last minute to start the Slaves next read, Christina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban. I read this quite a while ago, and when I started rereading it, it felt like an entirely new book to me. As I get a little further in it's feeling vaguely familiar. It's scary how much is so easily forgotten.
Sourcebooks has kindly sent me Georgette Heyer's Lady of Quality to read and review. I've just started it, but it looks to be a good read. The narrator is a wizened, old 29 year-old woman left on the shelf too long. Actually what I like most about her is it's her decision not to marry. So far anyway.
I also received a review copy of Bound by Sally Gunning from William Morrow/Harpercollins. I have Gunning's previous novel (as yet unread). This story is told from the perspective of a young girl who emigrates to America in the late 1700s with her family and ends up as an indentured servant. I tend to read a steady diet of novels set in Britain, so this is a nice change of pace.
The Dark Lantern is one of those books set in London. Victorian London. And it's really good so far. Contemporary authors love to capitalize on the darker, dreary, atmospheric side of Victorian London and this book is no different. It's an upstairs/downstairs story and everyone has secrets. It almost verges on being a mystery.
I'm hoping to finish reading Betsy Tobin's Ice Land this weekend. It's the second book I've read for Carl's Challenge. It's quite different than the other books I've read this year. It has a nice mixture of fictional narrative with lots of mythology thrown in. I'm not sure I'll finish all five books that I hoped to read for the challenge. I may choose just one more--perhaps a longer one.
I'm doing a terrible job (once again) reading my nonfiction books. Or maybe I should say I am doing a great job of not reading them. I can't seem to manage one, let alone two. And now I have several new ones that I want to read as well.
I recently discovered that Kate Morton is publishing a new book, which is due out this summer, The Forgotten Garden. Since her first book has only just been published here in the US, I'll have to order it from the UK I see, as I don't imagine I'll be able to wait.
If you happen to be in the UK The Book Depository of offering a free audible download of Rudyard Kipling's Kim. I'm envious as the offer is only open to UK residents. Actually I have about four audio books (and one book of poetry) lined to up for my listening pleasure. I have discovered, though, that I really can only listen to one book at a time!
Lastly, I think I'll be looking for a short story to read this weekend from The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories, which I mooched not too long ago. I really like thumbing through these anthologies looking for just the right story.