July has been a rough month for someone who is as weather wimpy as I am, so I am not sorry to see it end. As the saying goes don't let the door hit you on the way out. Bring on August and hopefully more bearable temperatures. In happy anticipation I thought I'd contemplate the books I have lined up to read and write about (that writing about them part sort of went down the tubes this month so will try and do a little catching up and will try to stay on top of things a little better next month).
I have all sorts of exciting things to read. In order (sort of anyway) of my own self-imposed due dates:
Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer. Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle helped take my mind off being so hot and generally cranky (I'll be writing about it this week). Heyer is always good for a little escapism, and I enjoyed Sylvester a lot--it was my gym book last week, so now I must decide on which book will take its place. Hopefully Bath Tangle will be an equally enjoyable read. Both came courtesy of Sourcebooks.
Library books always nose their way into my piles. The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is due back in less than three weeks and as there is a nice long line of readers waiting for it, I will try and finish on time (I've become very good at racking up fines). The story is set in New York in the late 1930s--perfect setting and so far both the characters and writing are very engaging. And not that I ever judge a book by its cover--I love its cover.
History: A Novel by Elsa Morante is for Caroline's Literature and War Readalong. This is quite a chunky book that I had hoped to get a good start on in July, but am still only at the beginning. I believe this was Morante's best known work about an average woman living in Rome during the war. I get the feeling it caused a little controversy in Italy when it came out. I'm not sure yet what I think of the writing style, but it seems to have received good reviews otherwise.
Linda Gillard will be dropping by later this month with a guest post--more details about that soon. I'm looking forward to finally reading her most recent novel, House of Silence, which has been published in eBook format at a very economical price. I enjoyed both Emotional Geology and Stargazing, the latter was shortlisted for one award and won another. House of Silence sounds like a perfect sort of read to get into the mood for fall--a ramshackle Tudor manor, mysterious letters sewn into an old quilt and a young woman who's taken not only with the man whose family lives in the house, but the house itself. (Yes, I'm ready for fall).
Along with a crime novel I'm reading at the moment and the Morante novel, I seem to be drawn to Italian authors these days. The Break by Pietro Grossi recently came my way from Pushkin Press. The story is about an average man whose only passion is billiards. His life is about to be shaken up when his wife falls pregnant--the first of a series of events in his otherwise orderly life. Isn't this a great cover, too?
Let's see. I've still got a few hang overs to finish, too, like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and Stella Gibbons's Westwood. (By the way Westwood just got a write up in the Guardian). I'm still enjoying Nicolas Le Floch's company and will be meeting up again with Annika Bengtzon soon, too. Okay there might be a few other books, too, but I'll save those to talk about another day.
And if this isn't enough to keep busy with, there is a new list of books to vote on at the Slaves of Golconda blog. As always everyone is welcome to join in.