A new book in the mail. A bedside pile of books from which I have a hard time choosing (and from which I am pretty much contented to spend long chunks of reading time with--any and all of them) and a holiday next week ( which means a day off from work--yay).
Life is good! And books make it even better as you can see.
I really love books. Honestly, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy sometimes (pretty much all the time when I'm thinking about them). What else can transport you away from life's daily drudgeries so completely? Sometimes stories are simply comforting, other times a little silly but entertaining, occasionally a little scary, and once and a while so amazing that they take my breath away. What would I do without books? I still sometimes wonder what people who don't read do with all their time (okay, I'm sure they probably have plenty to keep them busy, but still...), and feel a little sorry for them as they are surely missing out on really good stuff. I'm digressing, however--I have lots of bookish meanderings to cover.
See what came in the mail for me yesterday from the Book Depository (not sure why this new title wasn't embargoed like so many other new books I want seem to be from them)? The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Taylor with an introduction by her daughter Joanna Kingham. Thank you Virago Modern Classics--not only for reissuing her work, but having the forethought to put all her stories into one volume--including some previously uncollected stories. I can't wait to crack open this book. I've been thinking a lot about short stories lately as I seem to be accumulating interesting-looking collections and anthologies, but so far haven't been able to do much about it. I think I need to devote some serious reading time to them, though I'm not yet sure when or in what form that's going to take.
This week I need to concentrate on a few books as they have deadlines (of sorts) attached to them. I have finally started reading Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone in earnest. It was in line behind another library book that just went back (I'm falling behind in writing the recent books I've finished, but I hope to catch up soon). Although I've been looking forward to reading it since I first added my name to the library list, I was a little apprehensive as it seems to be much talked about at the moment. I was afraid to get my hopes up only to have my expectations dashed, but I shouldn't have worried. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I was reading it at the gym yesterday and had become so engrossed in the story that the time felt like it passed in just minutes. I love stories you can get so wrapped up in that you lose track of time.
I am also hoping to make a good dent in Len Deighton's Bomber, which has gotten almost universally good reviews on Amazon. It'll be discussed this Friday for Caroline's Literature and War Readalong, but I have a feeling I won't have finished it in time. It's a chunky book that has for me started off a little slowly--the story is centered around one bombing raid in Germany. There's lots of details about the weather and the sorts of planes and everything leading up to the actual raid. I know Deighton is a well-known writer of thrillers/spy novels, but this has a very different feel to it. I'm hoping that once I get properly into the story I won't want to set this book down either.
Of course I'm continuing on with John Steinbeck's East of Eden. Have I mentioned lately how impressed I am with it? (I do regularly to my coworkers). I am and want to make sure I read at least a few chapters every day even though a few other books should really take precedence. These three books are going to be my main companions this week, though I'm sure I'll be dipping into a few others as well--whichever happens to catch my fancy at the moment.
Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings came home with me from work yesterday (it really was a good book day). I think I'm going to like it--I've already started reading.
"I learned from the age of two or three that any room in our house, at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to. My other read to me. She'd read to me in the big bedroom in the mornings, when we were in her rocker together, which ticked in rhythm as we rocked, as though we had a cricket accompanying the story. She'd read to me in the dining room on winter afternoons in front of the coal fire, with our cuckoo clock ending the story with 'Cuckoo,' and at night when I'd got in my own bed. I must have given her no peace. Sometimes she read to me in the kitchen while she sat churning, and the churning sobbed along with any story. It was my ambition to have her read to me while I churned; once she granted my wish, but she read off my story before I had brought her butter. She was an expressive reader. When she was reading 'Puss in Boots,' for instance, it was impossible not to know that she distrusted all cats."
I love reading about other people's reading experiences--especially famous authors.
The Slaves of Golconda have chosen A.S. Byatt's Ragnarok for their next book to discuss (and I do plan on reading along this time--I've even already checked the book out from the library). It is one of the books in the Canongate Myths series. It's a retelling of a Norse Myth so only peripherally related to my own reading of the Greek Myths, but it will make a good companion read. Anyone who is interested is, of course, welcome to join in. The discussion is set to begin July 31.
My latest Postal Reading Group book came earlier in the month, so I'll need to pull it out in July and start reading before it needs to travel on to its next destination. This is what I'll be reading. I've read a couple of the author's other books and liked them (with a few small hesitations). Each book arrives with a little journal where everyone writes their thoughts on the book when they finish reading. This one seems to have gotten mixed reviews, but I'm going to keep an open mind as I read.
The mystery I am reaching for most often is Lucretia Grindle's The Faces of Angels. I'm not entirely sure what I think of it so far. I'm enjoying it but it hasn't quite caught my full attention, if that makes sense. But it's set in Florence, so what's not to like about that? It is a contemporary crime/mystery story. I was thinking today how much a cozy (Golden Age or mystery with a Golden Age feel to it) mystery would be at the moment. I could pick up the next Miss Marple book, The Moving Finger (I was told this was a really good read, too!), or Nicola Upson's Angel with Two Faces (Upson has created a fiction Josephine Tey sleuth based on the real woman--another series which has gotten mixed reactions, but that hasn't put me off), or maybe a historical mystery would do the trick. And preferably one with a much earlier setting than is my norm of late. I was thinking maybe Susanna Gregory's A Plague on Both Your Houses, which has a 14th century Cambridge setting. That might be going back just far enough, I think . . .
Then again maybe I won't cave into my bookish desires to start a new book and be happy with the books I'm reading. I'm too fickle sometimes with books, so it could go either way!