I've been flitting back and forth between a few books this past weekend. I know I should settle down with one and actually finish it, but they are all so good I can't quite help wanting to work on all of them. Mostly I've been reading Sarah Harrison's The Flowers of the Field, which is a wonderful comfort read and I keep wanting to "just finish this section" and move on to something else, but I haven't quite been able to. Germany has just declared war on France and Russia while two of the main characters have been in Austria visiting distant relatives. Anything set in Vienna usually catches my attention, which is why I have been so captivated by the story.
My only small complaint with the story so far...two of the three main characters are sisters. Thea the oldest and Dulcie the the younger sister are like night and day. Thea is practical, not entirely self assured but intelligent. Dulcie is a bit of a vamp. She's self-absorbed and cares for momentary pleasures. I don't think I'll give too much away by mentioning that Dulcie runs off with the tutor of the family they are staying with in Vienna. They travel to Paris, at the worst possible time of course, and with no thought to anyone but themselves. What I find a little surprising is that Thea's father asks her (won't go into all the details) to go after her. It's 1914. Europe is on the edge of war and Thea, a young woman, goes unescorted to Paris. I wonder if this really would have happened? Particularly since Thea and Dulcie are from a "good" (read uppercrust) family, even though they are somewhat unconventional. Still, that hasn't stopped me from turning the pages rapidly wanting to find out what's going to happen!
Clare Langley-Hawthorne's The Serpent and the Scorpion is better than her first Ursula Marlow mystery, Consequences of Sin, which I discovered last year at the library. I decided that I needed to own the first as well as the second and recently got a copy in the mail (which I plan on rereading soon). Ursula is another uppercrust woman. In this case she is a bluestocking and suffragette. The book is set in 1912, and I'll be curious to see how things develop in the storyline--there's lots on the social environment, plus a mystery and a dash of romance. At the moment she is ranking right up there with Maisie Dobbs for me, if that helps you gage how much I like the book.
I've also been spending a lot of time with A Fortnight in September, which initially I thought might be a little too sedate for the mood I am in, but the more I read the more I am enjoying the story. I'm guessing it is set in the 1930s. The story follows a family on their yearly vacation to Bognor. I won't say much about it as I am nearing the end and want to write a proper post on it, but I love the family. They are very flesh and blood and very likable.
As a side note, I think I've gotten all my blog reads moved onto Google Reader. I, of course, didn't manage to even begin to catch up on reading posts this weekend, but I already feel better by switching to Google. Hopefully it will help me manage things better. I've not closed out my Bloglines account as i will still use it (for now at least) to read the needlework blogs I keep up with. I'm a little afraid to go and look at the mess of posts that are there after having ignored it for several days. No matter, though, as those posts should be safely tucked away elsewhere.