I am determined to finish William Boyd's Sweet Caress this weekend. It is last month's prompt--a book I absolutely Had to have when it was first published but didn't quite get around to as promptly as I should have. (One of my bad reading habits). I am happy to be reading it now, but I am finding that I have very mixed feelings about it. I love the premise, which is what drew me to it so thoroughly--an independent woman's life, a photographer, whose life spans some of the major and tumultuous events of the twentieth century. I like his writing and the way he tells his story--a mixture of prose and diary entries complete with B&W photos which Amory herself has taken.
I was all set out to love it, but I find I only 'like' it. I'm not quite sure what to put my lukewarm feelings down to--her choice of men maybe? A slight disappointment in the way her life has played out? It's a bit unfair of me. I think it comes down to my expectations just not matching the reality of the story, which is not Boyd's fault. I will read more by him, and who knows, maybe these last hundred pages will end up being breathtaking.
I have had a hard time choosing which science fiction to read this month. I like Ray Bradbury so much I have started reading The Martian Chronicles which are really just a series of short stories. I read There Will Come Soft Rains several years ago and it is one of my all-time favorite short stories. It is included in this 'collection', but I am not sure if it is somewhat different really than the rest. It's early days, so we'll see how it goes.
I also picked up and dipped into Emma Newman's Before Mars, which has caught my attention so I think I will keep on with it. I think what I like about it is a decidedly thrillerish tone to the story. Anna Kubrin has been selected to go to Mars as a geologist/artist in residence. She has left her daughter and husband behind and traveled six months to get to the red planet. She is very wary when she arrives second-guessing why she has come and if it is really worth it. And when she arrives and is settling into he quarters she finds a paper with her very distinct handwriting warning her against trusting the psychologist who is part of the staff. I am finding it really engaging and so far to be a page turner. I am still eyeing the other books in the stack--maybe I will add another one to my pile if this one goes as quickly as it seems to be going.
I have a couple of other mentions as well--books I have recently (and maybe a little unexpectedly--but then that is how much of my reading goes--unplanned) picked up. Somewhere in my meanderings I spotted a couple of books/authors who seemed (and it has turned out to be the case) right up my alley. Celia Dale wrote crime novels in the 1940s. I am finding Sheeps' Clothing (a VMC) totally riveting. It is superlative storytelling a la Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine. (Why isn't she mentioned more?). Two women are frauding old ladies out of their money and few nice household treasures. The setting is 1970s-80s London. They pose as workers from social services giving the good news that money is owed to the old dears and then rob them of all their riches (what little riches they have). It is more psychological than standard crime storytelling--just like I like it.
The other book is coming out soon from Dean Street Press. Originally published in 1949 Alice by Elizabeth Eliot was hailed by Kirkus Review just after it was published as a book with "onsiderable charm, an insouciant brightness, and a definite knowledge of the rather worldly world from which it derives- the indolent, elegant upper classes in England between the wars." Your basic but well done middlebrow domestic fiction. I couldn't wait and had to get a copy via interlibrary loan. I have quite a pile of library books to keep me busy, so it will be a welcome thing when I have that break over the holidays--I am looking forward more to the days off from work than Christmas. (That's not a bad thing, is it?).