Can you believe that tomorrow is October 1? Not too long ago I was complaining about the heat (and for the record we've had some really lovely weather here lately, which is why I've been so quiet on the subject), and in the near future I will probably be complaining about the cold. Best not to think about these things until absolutely necessary. I only ask Mother Nature to take it easy on us this year, as last year was hell! Sadly I need to go shopping for snow boots soon. Sigh.
On a happier note, the Slaves of Golconda will be discussing May Sarton's The Small Room at the end of October. So mark you calendar for Oct. 31 and please consider joining in. The story is set on the campus of a New England college, where Lucy Winter has taken a position as a professor and finds herself immediately in the middle of a crisis. It seems a perfect fall read. If you would like to join in and post on the blog, please send me your email address and I can send out an invite. Actual discussion takes place at our forum, where anyone can register and join in.
I'm going to take part in the Eco-Libris 2nd Annual Green Books Campaign this year, which will take place on November 10. My book arrived in the mail recently--I'll be reading Margaret Sweatman's The Players, which is published by Goose Lane Editions. The story is set in Restoration England and Canada's northern wilds. More about all this later.
I'm in the midst of several really good books including William Nicholson's The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life that I've already mentioned, as well as an Agatha Christie novel written in the 1960s that is one of her few (only?) forays into Gothic storytelling. Of course I am reading Wilkie Collins's No Name, which is moving along at a nice clip (Norah and Magdalen have been orphaned and are now on their own and must plan on some sort of way to earn their living, but Magdalen has run off to try her hand at acting in the theatre). Mysteries (The Crime at the Black Dudley and Bad Penny Blues) seem to be what I reach for mostly, but have the Nicholson to balance it all out. And for something completely different I've just started Through Charley's Door by Emily Kimbrough, which I think is going to fit nicely in the 'charming read' category. It was written in the 1950s but is about the author's job at Chicago's Marshall Fields in the 1920s--I love her humorous writing style.
Once again library books have taken a slight precedence over my other books as those due dates are creeping up on me, but I've actually not accumulated a single library book this week, so progress is being made even if it doesn't feel like it!