My Persephone Biannually and the most recent catalog have arrived. I've not yet had a chance to have a proper look through them, but I can't wait to finally settle down for a good browse. There's a short story by Dorothy Whipple in the Biannually, which I'm looking forward to reading. I've yet to read any of her books, but I think I need to pick one up very soon. I'm also contemplating a holiday splurge of three new Persephones. The trick is to just buy the three and then get right back to my no book buying mode. It's funny--no matter how many times I look through that catalog I keep finding new books I want to read. And all the new ones are included to make choosing even harder. Oh, to have the whole set. The fantasy of a book lover...
I am enjoying a Persephone title right now by the way. I've been reading a short story every night from Mollie Panter-Downes's short story collection, Minnie's Room, which is made up of ten "peacetime" stories. Although the stories are set in peacetime, MPD writes about the effects the war had on English society. As always the stories are very illuminating. I'll write about the collection of the whole later.
Despite complaining about meandering from book to book last month I managed to finish a nice, small stack. Granted most were either more than half read already or they needed to be read by a certain date for book clubs, I found once I had a rhythm going I just finished one after the other (there is a lot to be said really for working on just one or two books at a time). At the moment I'm mostly concentrating on Thad Carhart's Across the Endless River, which is a historical novel set in 1820s America and Europe. The descriptions are quite lush in many ways and it sometimes feels like an overload to my senses comparing a wild, untamed America to an elegant, old world Europe. I like it though.
I'm trying to decide which library book to read (I have even more to share, but will save them until tomorrow). I've got quite a selection at the moment, so it's not an easy decision. I had thought to read Rebecca Stott's The Coral Thief, but as it is also set in Paris in the early 1800s, I wondered if it would be too similar to the Carhart novel (though the stories are very different it seems). I don't mind taking my time deciding as sometimes that's half the fun.
I've been taking Fred Vargas to the gym and dipping into Elizabeth Gaskell as often as I can. I only feel a little bad I didn't finish Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry before the end of October. I'll be a little late, but I will still have read the four books I set out to for Carl's RIP Challenge. Audrey was temporarily bumped as I read the last one hundred pages of Across the Endless River. If a book really grabs my attention I usually can't set the book aside for those last hundred pages!
I have pulled a new book out, however. Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety is Cornflower's next book group read. I'll probably finish it about three weeks after everyone else has, but that's okay. I've heard many good things about Wallace Stegner and have wanted to read him for eons. Why do I never hesitate to pick up a "want to read this soon" book for a book club at a moment's notice, but I will otherwise just look at it longingly for ages and ages. It's not as though I have any scruples when it comes to reading too many books at once, but I guess there really does have to be some sort of limit. Any kind of excuse to read a book I've wanted to read for so long is always welcome, however.