Sometimes it takes very little to make me happy. A coworker went to London on vacation (am very envious) and she was kind enough to think of me and bring a few little things back. So my day was made with a few postcards, a very cool bookmark and my favorite--dark chocolate! The chocolate is from Sir Hans Sloane, and since its so warm out and I wouldn't want it to melt I think I may have to indulge later--the perfect accompaniment to a good book.
I've finished reading Dorothy Whipple's Someone at a Distance, which was excellent. I've started writing about it, but as I am low on energy (the heat tends to zap my ability to think), I will aim for next week to share my thoughts. Now that I've at least one Whipple novel under my belt I no longer feel so left out as I know she is quite popular amongst Persephone readers. And this won't be the last book I read by her either.
I like to switch back and forth between Persephone books and Viragos, though this year I've not read many of either. So next up is a Virago and after much consideration I've chosen Margaret Kennedy's The Constant Nymph. It was written in 1924, and while I want to read all the Viragos on my shelves the clincher was when I was reading the introduction to one of Rumer Godden's books and I saw it was compared to Godden's The Greengage Summer and Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, two books I love. Coming in a close second was Elizabeth Von Arnim's The Solitary Summer. It's a companion to her Elizabeth and Her German Garden that I read a few years ago. Seeing as I am totally shameless when it comes to books, I might just start reading it anyway.
I really hate setting aside books, especially when I am more than 70 pages in, but I've set aside a book I was enjoying to begin with but the more I read the more it was just not clicking with me. So I've had another look at my 'beach reads' stack and am trying to decide between Joanne Harris's Coastliners and Rumer Godden's Coromandel Sea Change. I'm thinking that chocolate bar will help in my decision making.
One last thing--I've discovered there is an official Agatha Christie website complete with lists of her books and the best order to read them in. Although I don't do this all the time, I like to read mysteries in the order they were written as the characters and storylines tend to develop with each new title. I have a feeling that Agatha Christie's books are going to turn into my latest little reading project.