I love long weekends. Since Monday's holiday is meant to be a salute to labor, I plan on laboring as little as possible this weekend. Instead I want to read my RIP books, and finally pull out my stitching, which has been sitting neglected for the last couple of months. We've actually got a beautiful forecast of very moderate days and cool evenings for the next week, which makes me want to pull out needle and thread. When it is hot and humid and I am sticky and sweaty the last thing I like is to have a piece of linen laying on my lap, but my fingers are crossed that the worst of the summer heat is over with.
I've got a number of books that I want to write about that I've finished but never got around to talking about here. I'm afraid too much time has passed for me to write really proper posts on them, but maybe I'll work on a few short wrap up posts as this blog is meant to be my record of what I've read. I love reading, but the writing about the book part of the process is more difficult for me. I spend lots of time staring at the wall or my piles of books that sit on a table next to my computer while I'm trying to think of what to say. I can waste an amazing amount of time composing posts and then not be quite happy with what I've written. But as this is supposed to be as much for me as anyone who stops by I am trying hard not to worry so much about it and remember this is a hobby and not a job. (This, alas, is not supposed to be labor.)
I've finished reading Georgette Heyer's Bath Tangle, which I will be writing about in the next day or so. I generally get on well with Georgette, but this book (very strangely) just didn't quite work for me, and I'll explain why in my post. It started well and just became something of a slog. I think part of the reason is I'm in the mood for a different sort of book and am happy to move on to some new stories now.
I am very much enjoying Jojo Moyes's The Last Letter from Your Lover. Isn't it weird how a readers' reaction can differ from book to book. I'm not entirely sure I like the main characters in this novel, but that has not stopped me from wanting to read about them. From the look of the cover design I was expecting something sort of sentimental but that has not been the case thus far. The book concerns a woman who is in an accident and loses her recent memory. She's something of a socialite in a marriage to a man who spends most of his time working and seems to think of Jennifer as a trophy wife. The reader is privy to her life before and after the accident when she was having an affair with a man quite unlike her husband. I'm very curious to see where the story is leading and like Moyes's storytelling style.
I'm happily working away on Nicci French's The Memory Game. From what I've seen on Amazon and heard from other readers this is perhaps not her best book, but certainly an entertaining and highly
readable sort of story, which is what I'm finding. My only quibble is that so many characters (an extended family) was introduced at the beginning that I am having a hard time keeping track of them and hope they become sorted out. This weekend I also plan on starting The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina White. I loved the Hitchcock film and will have to watch it again once I've read the book. And I've decided I do indeed need to read a book by Ruth Rendell. I had a nice look through my mystery bins at what I've got by her unread and have it narrowed down to two unread stories and one I would like to reread. At the moment I'm leaning more towards A Demon in My View, for which she won a Gold Dagger in 1976 from the CWA. A Sight for Sore Eyes also appeals and I wouldn't mind rereading The House of Stairs. These are all older novels, which I think are her best, but you can't really miss with Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine in my opinion. Even one of her so-so books is really a cut above the rest. She's such a remarkable writer--she was first published in 1964 and still is hard at work.
I've got two 'must-reads' this month: The Golden Mean by Annael Lyon for the Slaves and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien for Caroline's Literature and War Readalong. The Golden Mean is about Alexander the Great--someone and a period I've not ever read anything about, so I'm looking forward to it. And the O'Brien is a novel that is taught at the university where I work. I was hoping to get my hands on our copy, but it's been checked out and it would appear the patron doesn't want to bring it back as it is overdue. I'll be getting my hands on the pair of books and will start them both in the next week or so.
I just want to mention one more book that I've been quite engrossed in and am finding hard to put down--M.J. Hyland's This is How. The story is told in first person from the perspective of a troubled young man. It's a little weird and sometimes uncomfortable to be inside the head of someone who is so wholly unhappy and awkward yet I think I am more sympathetic towards him viewing his situation from the inside rather than the outside.
And now I think I'm going to kick back and do a little reading. The laundry can wait.
Happy reading everyone.