I'm nearly finished reading Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, which has turned out to be really good (will write about it soon), so my post may be brief as I've reached the point of no return and must get back to it and see how things end. You know how that goes!
There are some other really good books that I've been working on lately, that I thought I would mention as well. Since I read a few books at once and am usually flipping back and forth between them I tend to finish several close together, which makes writing about them a challenge. I'd prefer not to bunch them all together, but that's how it goes sometimes.
The thing I like about reading groups is the exposure to books I might not otherwise have picked up. I've read some great books for my postal reading group, but this one would surely have remained unknown to me had it not been chosen by one of the members. The cover illustration is a little misleading, as it makes it look like a romance novel when it's much more a satirical look at contemporary society and how different cultures interact with each other. It's a long-ish book, so I need to step things up as it will need to be dropped in the mail at the end of the month.
I've finally started reading Molly Keane's The Knight of Cheerful Countenance, the first step in this project. It was her first novel, which was published in 1926. I'm not far into it yet, but it's set in a Great House in Ireland called Ballinrath, where "hearts--and reputations--threaten to be broken in the elusive pursuit of happiness."
If you've never read Edith Wharton, her prose is so elegant and sophisticated it's a pleasure to "hear" it in your head, and if you have read her, you'll know exactly what I mean. I'm rereading The Age of Innocence, which is even better the second time around. No one writes about New York high society quite like Wharton does.
I'm also working on two mysteries at the moment. I had started reading P.D. James's first Adam Dalgliesh novel, Cover Her Face, when Mari Jungstedt's Unseen arrived, which I had requested from interlibrary loan. The James book is going to be a nice traditional (well written and well plotted, too) detective novel. So far the murder has yet to occur, Dalgliesh to arrive, but the cast of potential suspects is oozing with dislike and jealousy for the victim, which should make for an entertaining read. I was suitably impressed with Jungsedt's The Inner Circle to want to read the rest of her Inspector Knutas mysteries. I had to ILL her first book, Unseen, so I have to let it jump the reading queue (I can't renew this one). While I liked The Inner Circle, I'm really enjoying Unseen. It's nice to be formally introduced the the people and place.
One last note. I've been lucky with Library Things Early Reviewer Program, getting one of my choices for the last three draws. Unfortunately I never received Andrew Taylor's Bleeding Heart Square, which I have really been looking forward to reading. It just never appeared and from the way it sounds, no one else received a copy either, so I'm not sure what happened. I did get Elaine Dundy's The Old Man and Me, which came in today's mail.
"Set in an early sixties London just beginning to swing, The Old Man and Me is populated by hipsters, pill-poppers, literary upstarts, would-be bohemians, and titled divorcées matching wits in smoky nightclubs and Mayfair flats. By the time Honey gets what she thinks she's after, she may find that the world she was hell bent on conquering has gotten the better of her."
It sounds like a good follow-up to the Eva Rice book. I may have to start it this weekend!