A Work in Progress

The Solitude of Thomas Cave

While not without its imperfections, Georgina Harding's The Solitude of Thomas Cave is a beautifully rendered story of one man's survival in a most inhospitable environment.  It's a story of his internal struggles and eventual transformation.  And it's a story of faith and redemption in a time of religious supersition.  There's a grandeur to Harding's imagery both in it's beauty of the natural world and in the wretched manner in which man exploits and despoils it. 

"I shall not forget the sight of him as we left, that picture stays strong with me: his figure still and straight on the wide shore, the land huge and bare about him, the snowy dip of the valley at his back, the mountains on either side, twin peaks they were of seeming identical height, rising steep and smooth and streaked with grey as if in some strange reversal the rock were ashes that had been poured down on to the snow from heaven; the sea darkened pewter and having that sluggishness to its movement that comes when it is heavy with the beginnings of ice.  In all God's Earth, from the tip of Africa to the Indies or the wide Pacific, a man might never see a sight so lonely."

What would prompt a man of middle years and good intelligence to remain alone during the fearsome winter months in the Arctic?  It's August 1616 and the whaling ship Heartsease is anchored in the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.  As a result of a bet between crewmembers Thomas Cave agrees to remain behind as the ice closes in after the retreating ship.  Reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe Thomas spends his first days planning and preparing, counting his stores and supplies and making ready for the dark days to come.    

As the days shorten until there is no perceptible daylight, it becomes clear that this was no rash decision of Thomas's, rather he sought out this extreme solitude.  Brought low by a fever Thomas becomes delusional and believes his wife and child are with him in the cabin and follow him about.  Real or not Thomas Cave is grappling with his own ghosts of the past and inner demons.

Written in both the first and third persons, the story moves backward and forward in time painting a picture of grief and culpability that Thomas feels.  His story is told in third person by an omniscient narrator, which I thought seemed representative of Thomas's character.  Austere in feeling and calm in action, Thomas remains aloof from his fellow sailors.  However sympathetic I might have felt for Thomas, I always also felt a distance from him.  His story is bookended by the narrative of Thomas Goodlard, which is related to the reader some 24 years after the events occurred.  Young Thomas Goodlard is a fellow countryman befriended by the elder Thomas Cave and he tells in his own voice what he knows of this strange man.  There's an immediacy to Thomas Goodlard's narrative, which is juxtaposed with Thomas Cave's more ethereal and dream like experiences.

The novel was at times painful to read.  Some of the actions of the characters were shocking, and I had to remind myself that I was viewing this 17th century world with my 21st century sensibilities.  What's sad is that in some ways things haven't changed much. There's a lot to think about in Harding's novel.  On the surface this is a simple adventure story, but underneath Harding seems to have several different motives for telling this story--some more successful than others.  What Harding excels at is creating a world at times so achingly beautiful that you almost want to enter it's icy coldness.  What I do know is this is a story that will linger for a long time in my mind.

Georgette Heyer: Read, Unread and Favorites?

 

When I posted a few days ago about my most recent Georgette Heyer read, there was a little discussion about which books I had read and which were favorites.  I generally don't like to read an author's work back to back, but lately I've been reading a lot of Georgette Heyer's books.  When it comes to entertaining comfort reads, Georgette Heyer's books rank amongst my favorites.  I fear my Heyer binge has not altogether come to an end.  While I don't plan on starting another novel right away, I suspect I might be tempted to do so at some point later this summer.  This is my pile of Heyer novels that I've already read, A Civil Contract and The Corinthian being my favorites so far (the two books standing up on the left).  I've enjoyed the other novels as well, but those two stand out.

 

These are my unread Heyer novels--what I'll be choosing from eventually.  The four on the left are mysteries and the rest are novels.  At least a few of these have come up as favorites of other readers, which I am happy to hear.  I've been trying to buy them as they are reissued here in the US, though I know I'm missing quite a few still.  I believe she wrote something like fifty books.  I wonder how long it will take me to get through them all.  I like how the cover designs are all similar and the spines match.  They'd look pretty snappy all lined up together on my bookshelves if only I had enough room for them... 

So, which is your favorite Georgette Heyer book?  Which should I make sure I read? 

Forthcoming Books (More for My Wishlist)

It's sort of hard browsing for new books online.  I haven't quite found the one place to see all the new books that are going to be released in the next few upcoming months, but I did spend some time looking on Amazon over the weekend.  It's a bit hit or miss, but I still have a nice list of reads to look forward to and I'm sure I'll be adding to it later.

Although A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book is not due out in the US until October, I splurged and ordered a copy from the UK's The Book Depository.  It came on Friday and I've just barely had a chance to start it.  The opening is promising and I can't wait to read more.  The story "spans the Victorian era through the World War I years, and centers around a famous children’s book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves."

Bloomsbury is releasing the first two Bloomsbury Group titles July 7.  I've already ordered Rachel Ferguson's The Bronte's Went to Woolworths and Joyce Dennys' Henrietta's War (which I hear is very similar to E.M. Delafield's The Diary of a Provincial Lady). 

I've read very good things about The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys by Lilian Pizzichini from a number of readers I respect, so I'm already in line for a copy at the library.

Tasha Alexander's Tears of Pearl, the fourth of the Lady Emily Ashton mysteries is due out in September.  I've really enjoyed these mysteries and can't wait to read the new one, which is set in Constantinople, Turkey during the Victorian era.

Both Gil Adamson's The Outlander and Karen Maitland's The Company of Liars are due out in paperback this summer.  If I really like Karen Maitland's book, I'll be able to read her new one, The Owl Killers late this fall.       

Both Kazuo Ishiguro and Alice Munro have short story collections coming out soon.  I sort wish it had been a novel for Kazuo Ishiguro, but I'm sure I'll still give Nocturnes:Five Stories of Music and Nightfall a try.  Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness will  be out in time for the holidays.      

I've yet to read Orhan Pamuk, though I have a couple of his books on hand.  I should really read them before giving, The Museum of Innocence (isn't that a great title?) a try.

An author who I have been following from the beginning is Carol Goodman, though I've slacked off a bit on her last book or two (hopefully will read this summer).  She has Arcadia Falls coming out after the holidays.  Doesn't that sound really far away?  In any case, that should give me time to catch up on my unread books by her.

I started listening to Emilio Calderon's The Creator's Map a while ago.  While the story caught my interest, the reader didn't click with me (I'm very picky about audio books), so I'll be happy to give the paperback a try.  It's set in Rome during WWII.

I have Sadie Jones' The Outcast on my pile to read and just found out she has a new book coming out as well, Small Wars.  As it is another book due out after the holidays, perhaps I can squeeze in The Outcast before then.   

And one more.  I thought this one sounded interesting.  A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen, edited by Susannah Carson with an introduction by Harold Bloom!  I already know why I read Jane Austen, but it could be a fun read nonetheless. 

Icy Images for a Hot Summer Day

I think I mentioned before that Georgina Harding's The Solitude of Thomas Cave concerns a group of whalers who have traveled to Arctic waters in search of their quarry.  At the end of the season a bet results in one of the men remaining there alone with enough provisions to see him through until the next season.  That's his expectation, at least.  No man is known to have survived alone in such extreme conditions.  

Somehow this description sounded sort of nice on a hot day like today.    

"The changes in the weather here come as sudden and total transformations.  At once, a blizzard, swirling, obscuring every single thing, and then as suddenly it abates and there is a stillness and clarity as if all before one's eyes is made from glass.  The change of the season however has followed a steady doom-laden progression despite tempests and the fluctuations of wind and temperature.  Those creatures with whom I have shared the island appeared to understand this.  All through the past six and more weeks I have observed the departure of the birds that in the first days of my solitude flocked so densely in the sky along the strand and about the cliffs.  Gulls, auks, petrels, guillemots, kittiwakes, others whose names are unknown to me, have grouped and taken off for the south, one species after another until not a screech nor a wing can be heard overhead and the silence begins to deafen.  Day by day the appearance of the sun has been limited to a noticeably briefer time until days came when its orb, big, coloured and strangely flattened in form, hovered scarcely a few minutes over the southern horizon through the red glow from it might persist for a long period across a wide band at the foot of the sky.  Ice filled the bay with similar inevitability, appearing first prettily as distant ships with sails, sometimes white, sometimes blue, sometimes tinged with pink and lilac as touched by the vanishing light, receding, returning, then becoming permanent as the water about them first steamed then congealed and froze into a hard crust."

"It has become my habit to climb each day to a lookout on the mountain behind the beach to catch what best view I can have of the retreating sun--so often that itis possible now in the twilight to pick out the clear path that my feet have trodden in the snow.  The last few days the sight of it was so slight that I did not know how much of it existed only in a trick of the eye or the delusion of my imagination, but on this day, the fifteenth of October, not even the finest slip of it did appear.  I know that for this year I have now seen the last of the sun.  The great cold is coming."       

A Few Random Book Notes

I've just started reading Emma Smith's The Great Western Beach: A Memoir of a Cornish Childhood Between the Wars.  It always amazes me when someone writes a memoir about their childhood and can remember so much and in such detail.  I recall bits and pieces of my own and then wonder just how much is accurate and how much has been embellished over the years inadvertantly.  Smith's authorial voice is very charming despite writing about an unhappy father (who wouldn't allow either pets or dolls in the house).  It seems to have gotten rave reviews and I'm looking forward to working my way through the book.  She presents her story in a series of vignettes, each more interesting than the last.  I hope to write more about this as I progress.

I don't usually write about the books I read for my postal reading group.  There are about a dozen or so of us and each has chosen a book for the rest of the group to read.  The books steadily make their way around the circle until we each get a chance to read them all.  The books are meant to be a surprise (hence my desire to keep mum about them here)--I love watching the mail every other month for the next unknown book.  Anyway, I do at least want to mention the book I'm reading now, so if you happen to be in the group and don't want to spoil the surprise, please skip the next paragraph.   

My current postal book read is really good and extremely thought provoking and it might be of interest to readers here so please check it out.  Set in colonial Rhodesia in the late 1960s, Tambu is a young girl living in a rural village who dreams of an education.  When her brother dies suddenly she's chosen (by default really) by her uncle to take his place in the mission school outside her village.  Tambu's uncle is headmaster and believes it the duty of at least one child from each unit of his extended family to study and help his respective family better themselves.  Her uncle had lived and studied in England along with his wife and children.  When they returned Tambu finds her cousin Nyasha utterly changed--anglicized really, not even able to speak her native tongue, Shona, anymore.  Although the novel purports to be about "the colonization of one culture by another", it's really about so much more than that.  It's about family dynamics and a woman's place in a patriarchical society, about what an education does and how it makes one question one's surroundings.  This would be a perfect book group book--I'm sure it would elicit an excellent discussion.  Tambu is a great narrator--her education opens her eyes to the ways of the world--the ways of her world and those in it yet she's caught between two different cultures.  Not entirely buying into everything that Nyasha embraces (or struggles against), she also can't go back to her rural village either once she's been exposed to the broader world.  She's a wonderful observer and thinker.  I suspect I'll be pondering this one long after I've turned the last page.

I hope to finish my postal book sometime today and then will move on to Georgina Harding's The Solitude of Thomas Cave, which I had meant to read for Cornflower's book group, but am now very tardy for the discussion.  I began reading it a while back but then got distracted so I may start from the beginning again (it's a fairly slender novel).  I will, however, skip one rather harrowing passage (this is in part a whaling novel) that turned my stomach.  Although entirely fitting with the period of the story, it was ugly nonetheless.  Have I intrigued you?  More later on that one, too.  

Once I finish the Harding book I've given myself leave to read at whim.  I'm waiting for A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book to arrive in the mail.  As it's not due to be published in the US for a while yet, I was trying to ignore the virtual chatter about it that I've been coming across.  When I discovered it's set in the Edwardian period I changed my mind and am now waiting for my copy with eager anticipation.  I've read four or five books by (or about) Georgette Heyer so far this year, so I was ready to end my binge and save my unread books for later, but now I find I'm now eyeing them again after enjoying The Corinthian so much.  And I'm also finding that I'm in the mood for some good historical fiction (maybe a little further back in time than my usual early twentieth-century choices).  I was thinking of Shakespeare (to get back in the mood for reading a play later on) and had Faye Kellerman's The Quality of Mercy in mind.  

It's nice to have so many good choices.  I'm not sure which ones I'll end up actually picking up to read (my night table pile also beckons), but I'm sure I'll let you know! 

Georgette Heyer's The Corinthian

Now this is more like it.  My faith in Georgette Heyer has been restored (truthfully I never really lost it).  As much as Cousin Kate just wasn't a good fit for me, I loved The Corinthian.  It is quite literally the perfect summer read, a page turning romp through Regency England with all the right elements pulled off perfectly.  This will easily rival my favorite, A Civil Contract, though the two novels are very different.  While A Civil Contract is more serious with a more subdued and mature love story, The Corinthian is a light-hearted comedy of manners.  It's quite similar to The Talisman Ring (though better in my opinion) in that it is very much an adventure story with all sorts of twists and turns and misunderstandings--not surprising since the heroine spends the entire novel dressed as a boy! 

I wasn't sure at first just what a Corinthian was, though it's easy to infer the meaning over the course of the novel.  The dictionary defines it as:

a man about town, esp. one who lives luxuriously or, sometimes, dissolutely.

In this case, Sir Richard Wyndham is the Corinthian.  And a wealthy one at that.  Very much a dandy he is known as the "Man of Fashion".  He cares for nothing but "the set of his cravat, polish on his boots, and the blending of his snuff".  Always elegantly attired from his perfectly windswept hair to the toes of his gleaming Hessian boots, he's generally unutterably bored.  He's not lacking in encouragement to do his duty to find a wife and beget an heir, but he really couldn't be bothered.  Nearing thirty his mother and sister are urging him to marry a woman he grew up knowing, who it's been assumed he would marry all along.  Only it would be a marriage of convenience as the lady is rather cold and disinterested.  She will prevail upon him to accept his suit only because her family's financial situation is dire, not because she loves him.  Despite being the most eligible catch in the Marriage Mart, he has no other prospects (at least the sort who want him for himself rather than his bank account) and has resigned himself to his fate.

But fate has a way of tricking you up sometimes.  After a particularly long and indulgent evening at Almacks he leaves in a state of serious inebriation.  Being "devilish drunk" he decides to walk and happens upon a most unusual sight.  Out of an upper storey of a prim house a mysterious fugitive comes scampering down a rope made up of knotted sheets only to discover it isn't long enough.  The fugitive is a slight youth who begs Sir Richard's assistance.  

"Sir Richard was not precisely sober, but although the brandy fumes had produced in his brain a not unpleasant sense of irresponsibility, they had by no means fuddled his intellect.  Sir Richard, his chin tickled by curls, his arms full of fugitive, made a surprising discovery.  He set the fugitive down, saying in a matter-of-fact voice: 'Yes, but I don't think you are a youth, after all'."

"'No, I am a girl,' replied the fugitive apparently undismayed by his discovery.  'But, please, will you come away before they wake up?'"     

Penelope Creed is no simpering miss.  She's an impish character, ready for adventure, but not the sort that includes becoming betrothed to her fish-faced cousin.  An orphaned heiress she lives with her aunt who has distinct ideas of just what's proper--a stifling atmosphere for one just out of the schoolroom.  Richard is ready to send her packing back to her aunt, though she begs him to allow her to set off for Somerset, to her family's estates and a friend she's not seen for five years.

"There was a pause.  Sir Richard unfobbed his snuff-box with a flick of one practised finger, and took a pinch.  Miss Creed swallowed and said: 'If you had ever seen my cousin, you would understand'."

"He glanced down at her, but said nothing."

"'He has a wet mouth,' said Miss Creed despairingly."

"'That settles it,' said Sir Richard, shutting his snuff-box.'I will escort you to your childhood friend'."

Sir Richard agrees to accompany Pen from London to Somerset--a journey filled with comedy and misadventure.  Their stagecoach over turns in a ditch, they cross paths with a thief, they find themselves in possession of stolen goods, discover a body and a murderer, and assist in an elopement.  It's truly a rollicking good read and I might happily have went back to the beginning and started reading the story all over again (and still might).  Heyer creates a wonderful atmosphere with just the right tension and perfect chemistry between Richard and Pen.  Unlike many of Heyer's heroes, Richard is not dour or condescending.  He has a wry sense of humor that clicks with Pen's youthful enthusiasm.  They are both so likeable you can't but help root for them.  This is one Heyer I'll be revisiting soon.    

Miscellanea

 

I swear to you I am not going to spend the entire summer complaining about the weather.  Can I just take a few sentences to whine, though?  It's really hot here right now--yesterday's air temperature was 97, but if you calculate in the humidity it felt more like 105 and it's going to be this way all week.  Despite that clear blue sky and bright sun, it wasn't pretty.  It was even less amusing when we turned on our air conditioning unit only to discover there's something wrong with it.  I spent the afternoon sweating (no need to even move--the humidity does all the work for you!) as I was waiting for the technician to come and take a look at our AC.  He never came, but at about 4:45 someone called to apologize and reschedule (after I took half a day off work--I might add half a day away a very nicely air conditioned building!).  Oh, I might mention that for a second time in a week the power went off in my neighborhood.  What to do when the lights go out?  Luckily since it was daytime I read for a while and then stitched.  Just as I was starting to nod off (intense heat has that sort of soporific effect on me), the power came on and the fan started rotating again.  Yay.  So, please cross your fingers that the AC can be fixed today (another afternoon off work).  

Okay, whining over.  I promise to stop talking about the weather--I know many people live in far hotter places than I do and never say boo about it.  I have a low threshhold when it comes to dealing with extreme heat.  I never would have made it as a pioneer--I'll be the first to admit that.  Just imagine living before electricity and having to wear long skirts.  Eeek.  

Sorry, now I really am finished talking about the weather.  I did manage to add a few stitches to my needlework project.  I'm being optimistic that I will stick with it and finish it before the end of the year--I stitched in the date.  Usually I wait until the end to do that.  My initials will go on the other side.   

Over the weekend reference to D.H. Larwrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover came up in a book I was reading and in a movie I watched, which reminded me how much I want to read him, but never get around to it.  I know he is not a favorite with many readers, but I still would like to give him a try and see what all the fuss is about.  I pulled my copy from my bookshelves in contemplation of starting to read the book.  I wonder if it would raise a stir on the bus.  Probably not.  No one else ever seems to read. 

I was going to write more about what I'm reading at the moment, but frankly it's just too hot and I feel like I'm melting.  Maybe I'll go water my flowers.  I can attest to how cold the water from the outside faucet is right now--and you're never too old to play with the hose.  Happy reading everyone.

Georgette Heyer's Cousin Kate

I recently had the opportunity to read Georgette Heyer's Cousin Kate.  The idea of a Gothic Romance presented by the famous Ms. Heyer sounded intriguing indeed.  Then I read what Jane Aiken Hodge had to say about the book in her biography The Private World of Georgette Heyer and I began to wonder just what I had gotten myself into.  I won't go into what Hodge has to say about the book, though she does call it "that odd book".  Apparently Heyer was ill at the time she wrote it and not particularly enthusiastic about how it turned out.  At the time she had been writing her Medieval novel (the historical novel left unfinished at her death that she considered to be her masterpiece), though I should say she wished she could be writing that other novel.  Instead she was writing the sorts of books that paid the bills and earned her a devoted following.

I was a little apprehensive to read it.  It was a slow starter for me, and it has a decidedly darker feel to it than any of her other books I've read.  There is a thread of romance running through the story, though there is a more restrained and hushed feel to it--not the sparkly wit that's so in evidence in her other works.  Heyer deals with far more serious themes this time around, which she wasn't quite so successful at compared to her more lighthearted Regencies. 

Cousin Kate is Kate Malvern who is essentially an orphan at the ripe old age of 24.  Her mother died when she was young, and Kate "followed the drum" as the saying goes.  Her father was an officer and fought in the Peninsular War where she travelled where he did.  Though of good stock, at his death Kate's father left her with nothing but debts, so she finds herself impoverished and must find her own way in the world.  Perhaps that's nothing for us, but for a young woman in Regency England of good parentage and no family or money, she has few options.  She's ill-suited for work as a governess, not having quite the right sort of genteel background and education useful for teaching her young charges, though she's a smart and industrious young woman.  With nowhere to turn she goes back to her old nursemaid who's now married with a family of her own.  

Mrs. Nidd isn't about to allow her Kate to try and find work as an abigail (read lady's maid) or worse as a seamstress.  Surely a lady such as Kate, even in straitened circumstances, deserves a more respectable situation.  So she writes to an aunt of Kate's without her knowledge.  Minerva Broome is Kate's father's half sister.  It's a bit complicated but surely family is family even if there was a falling out years ago.  And Aunt Minerva Broome comes to her rescue takes her back to the majestic family estate, Staplewood.       

Staplewood.  This is where things get a little strange, but when it comes to Gothic novels, strange is usually par for the course.  Kate is expecting to stay the summer and to serve as a companion for her younger cousin, Minerva's only child, Torquil.  Torquil's a beautiful but odd boy.  Her junior by five years, Kate seems to get on well with him--able to soothe his excitable nature.  He suffers from a delicate constitution and often is laid low by terrible migraines.  Due to his infirmities he's never been away from home to study or is allowed in greater Society to mingle.  It seems to suit the family just fine as Torquil's father is also of a sickly nature.  Many years prior Minerva and Sir Timothy removed to the countryside permanently to lead the quiet life.  Staplewood became Minerva's obsession and she turned it into a showcase--a grand country manor that can rival all of the best of them. 

Behind the beautiful facade, however, there's something not quite right about Staplewood, or it's inhabitants.  Everything is quite proper and even elegant, but it's also lacking in warmth.  The more time Kate spends with this new family of hers, the more she realizes that things don't quite add up.  Underneath Minerva's friendly, poised exterior it becomes obvious that she's socially ambitious and manipulative.  She cares for her family, but she seems to care for Staplewood more.  And there's more to Torquil's illness than anyone is willing to share with her.  After a while Kate begins to wonder just why she was really brought to Staplewood.  Kate's one ally is her cousin Phillip who's not welcomed by everyone in the household, which makes for uncomfortable situations.  

As Gothic novels go Cousin Kate has all the right elements.  A menacing country house set on sweeping grounds, strange knocks in the night, locked doors, family secrets, and whispers of madness.  The creepiness is there, but somehow the story still lacked the right tension that I've come to expect in a good Gothic novel.  I hate to admit this, but  it just didn't feel entirely convincing.  There were aspects to the story I liked, but overall it felt a little uneven.  While not my favorite Heyer, it was still an entertaining if unusual read.  I'd recommend this one to Heyer fans who've read a variety of her work and want to try something a little different.  If you're new to Georgette Heyer, I think I'd start with one of her other novels.  My favorites so far being A Civil Contract, Faro's Daughter and Lady of Quality.  Given that Heyer wrote over fifty novels, one that doesn't work so well isn't so surprising.  And I still have lots to discover.  Next up is The Corinthian, which I expect to be a little more up my alley!        

The First Day of Summer!

 

In honor of the first official day of summer, I thought I'd share a photo of some of the books I've accumulated so far thanks to all the wonderful suggestions I received.  I found a number of them through Bookmooch and the others I've been picking up here and there.  I've already linked to most of them here, in case you're curious what they are about.  These are all 'beach' books--literally books with some sort of seaside setting (though I'm sure they could be read at the beach if you're lucky enough to live near one).  I've already read Jill McCorkle's Ferris Beach and am working on Sasha Troyan's The Forgotten Island, which I'm greatly enjoying.  I've gone from South Carolina to an island off the coast of Italy.  I'm not sure where I'll end up next, but I obviously have lots of good books to choose from.    

Aren't my petunias looking nice and vibrant?  I can't guarantee that they'll look this nice at the end of July.  When the humidity really hits, I tend to have a pest problem--worms that eat the buds--they'll plow through one pot after another despite anything I do to try and stop them!  But they look pretty now.

By the way, I've now read five of the seven books I set out to read in June.  I'll be writing about two more of them this week.  I think I might actually manage to get the last two read by the end of the month.  July should be easy going--no more blog book tours planned, no more review copies with review dates attached to them and no book club books to read.  I'm even contemplating posting here a little less than normal (though I'm not sure yet about that).  It might be nice to not post on the weekends perhaps or to take a couple of days off each week.  We'll see.  I'd like to just enjoy the summer and be as laid back about things as possible.  What are your summer reading plans? 

Library Loot and Other Miscellanea

 

This might be my last proper "library loot" post for a while.  I don't plan to forgo library books entirely, but I was inspired by Susan's post to take a long hard look at my library requests and remove my name from the queues of the ones I'm not dying to read right away.  Instead I've placed them on a virtual list and can look for them later.  I'm now in line for only three books, though I have a pretty big stack of books checked out from the library (am in the midst of reading four of them...), so I'll be taking a good long look at them as well and deciding which ones I really do want to try and read and send the rest back.  I've been accumulating so many good books of my own that I'd like to be able to read them, but lately I always seem to be tied up with other books.  I've put my own reading projects on the back burners lately, but I'd like to concentrate on them more this summer.  

My last pile of books:   

The Jewel Box by Anna Davis - This is about two sisters in 1920s London, which sounded like fun until I saw an Amazon reviewer call it a "super roaring twenties chick lit novel" and that sort of turned me off things...

Prelude by William Coles - An impulse choice...this is set in a boys school where one of the students falls for his lovely, young music teacher.

No Way of Telling by Emma Smith - This one has come recommeded.  It's by the author of The Great Western Beach (which I am contemplating starting).  I'm told it is a suspenseful thriller set in Wales.

Awakening by S.J. Bolton - I read and enjoyed her first novel last summer so was actively watching for her next book.  I've started this one already, too... (one of the four...).

Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn - I already have a nonfiction book on Bonnie and Clyde that I still must get to.  May have to browse this one and save it for later.

One more note.  If you're curious what the Slaves of Golconda are reading next, click here.  I'm sure you must get tired of hearing me say this, but please feel free to join in.  We won't be discussing this one until August, so there is plenty of time to get the book and read!