A few weeks back I was lamenting the fact that I had finished watching Upstairs/Downstairsand was wondering just what I would find to keep me entertained on weekends when I have a little time to watch a movie or two. Many thanks to all the wonderful suggestions, which are all now in my Netflix queue. I somehow missed the release of season nine of MI-5, so guess what went to the top of the queue and kept me glued to the TV this past weekend? I finished watching all available episodes of it earlier in the year when there was no release date set for the DVD. I know this sounds silly, but I was a little apprehensive when I popped in the first disc as the shelf life for MI-5 agents isn't terribly long. I keep waiting for something awful to happen as they have really spectacularly horrific deaths when their numbers come up. I guess retirement or a job change isn't an option? You don't want to get too attached to the characters in this show, though sadly I do. And now I hear that the very last season is now airing in the UK. Say it isn't so? Even if MI-5 is something of a nail-biter of a show I will completely inhale the episodes. Sometimes it is all a little over the top, and London hangs precariously on the edge of some catastrophic disaster most episodes, but it is so high-adrenaline I can't help myself for being addicted to it.
I'm ready to start reading Deborah Lawrenson's The Lantern for Carl's RIP Readalong. This will be my first time reading along that has a schedule, so we'll see how well I do. This week we'll be reading the first two parts with questions to answer next Monday. Surely 130 pages in a week is manageable? The setting is Provence and it has been compared (favorably) to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, so I'm have a feeling it's something I'll enjoy.
Also this month I'll be reading The Lotus Eatersby Tatjana Soli for Caroline's readalong. It seems to have gotten very good reviews, which is always promising. Once again the story is set during the Vietnam War, though I believe it's about the end of the war and the fall of Saigon. This time around one of the main characters is a woman, a photographer, who is involved with two very different men.
By and large I've given up taking reader's copies of books with a few exceptions (or the occasional Library Thing win for their Early Readers Program), but I couldn't pass up accepting a new book by an author whose works I've really come to enjoy. I don't tend to read stories that have a time slip element to them. Or rather I think it can be hard to pull off so I am wary of that sort of story, but Susanna Kearsley often writes stories very successfully with this element in them. Later this month I'll be starting The Rose Garden, which is set in an old house on the Cornish coast. The story moves back in time to the eighteenth century. I've been looking forward to this one.
Let's see....I've also decided it is time to finish reading Cynthia Harrod-Eagles's The Long Shadow, book six of the Morland Dynasty. I think I've said this at least twice this year but then the book has just been shuffled back into the pile time after time. I'm not sure if it is Restoration England that I'm just not all that interested in or the annoying main character in the book, but this has been something of a slog. I normally enjoy her books and I know I could easily skip this book and just move on to the next, but that would be cheating. Actually I don't mind cheating, but for some reason I just feel compelled to get through this. I'm exactly at the half way mark. I know I can do it...
After trying a number of library books I think I've finally settled on one. Usually library book choices are dictated by due dates, so a couple that I thought I was going to read I had to give up on as I knew I wouldn't be able to finish them in time to get them back to the library. Over the weekend I started reading Ron Hansen's newest novel, A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion. Hansen was born here in Nebraska but now lives in California, so I feel like I really should have read him ages ago. I seem to be drawn to crime fiction even when the book is actually a literary novel. Hansen takes as his subject a scandalous murder that occurred in 1927 in New York City. I like his writing style which reminds me of a hardboiled detective story--very plain, succinct language that suits the story he's telling.
One last new book to add to my pile--I'm finally planning on reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History. I think I have owned this book since it first was published! Cornflower has chosen it for her book group in November. Why is it that I sometimes need a good excuse to pick up a book? I've wanted to read it for ages, so now I will. Since it is longish I plan on starting this month...if I can find my copy, that is.
I have lots on my reading plate to keep me busy this month, but thought I'd mention (as it will be in the back of my mind) that Caroline and Lizzy are hosting a German Literature reading month in November. I'm hoping that I can cross another book off my 2011 reading list (which I have failed pretty miserably at reading from this year), as Effi Briestby Theodor Fontane is one of their readalong titles. The story has been compared to Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary (I read/reread both last year), so I have wanted to read it to see how it stacks up against the other two. I'll be thinking about what else I want to read and will hopefully squeeze in one or two more. A while back I was looking for recommendations, so they'll come in handy now.
Happy reading everyone.