I'm so happy to put August behind me. It has been a long hot, sticky summer and I welcome cooler weather (even though I know there are still warm days in store). I finished my August book in plenty of time and now it is time to choose a new book. September's prompt is "Dear Diary, Dear Friend" so a novel written in diary or letter format or a nonfiction book about either. I love epistolary novels and am really looking forward to this.
I only took a quick look around my shelves, so my pile is actually pretty small. Sometimes having too many choices only makes the decision harder, but I am hoping that I can read two books this month rather than one. My choices:
The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki Shikibu -- "Told in a series of vignettes, it offers revealing glimpses of the Japanese imperial palace - the auspicious birth of a prince, rivalries between the Emperor's consorts, with sharp criticism of Murasaki's fellow ladies-in-waiting and drunken courtiers, and telling remarks about the timid Empress and her powerful father, Michinaga."
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell -- "Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives. Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke. When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories."
Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach -- "Caite Dolan-Leach’s debut thriller is a literary scavenger hunt for secrets hidden everywhere from wine country to social media, and buried at the dysfunctional heart of one utterly unforgettable family."
Love Lessons by Joan Wyndham -- "August 1939. As a teenage Catholic virgin, Joan Wyndham spent her days trying to remain pure and unsullied and her nights trying to stay alive. Huddled in the air-raid shelter, she wrote secretly and obsessively about the strange yet exhilarating times she was living through, sure that this was ' the happiest time of my life'."
Frances Donaldson: A Woman's War by Rose Deakin -- "Female farming in "The War". A laughing, crying, gripping, writer-to-be's letters to her husband through five long years of separation. She, a famous playwright's daughter from high society turned farmer, responds with candour and can-do to male dominance in the cowshed and the realities of the woman's land army volunteers. A moving must-read of feminism two generations before its time coupled with the real smell of Britain before and after Dunkirk. The fear and the relief."-- Robert Boyd.
I am leaning heavily towards Rainbow Rowell's first novel as I like the idea of the story being told through emails. just out of curiosity, do you have a favorite epistolary novel?