What do you do when you have a most compelling stack of in-progress books, almost any of which you could pick up and happily lose yourself in? I mean, how do you determine which to read when they are all really good? In my case it is a massive reading dilemma choosing which goes into my bookbag each morning. I find myself starting with just a few that I know I can rotate and dip into over the course of the day, but then I start second guessing myself and what I will be in the mood for and end up tucking in just one (okay sometimes two) more books.
I curse myself at the end of the work day as I lug that bookbag home. I know I should just pick the two books that I am closest to finishing and work on them and simply work my way through the pile until I am finished. Of course on the horizon are the books I have been thinking about--the books I plan on starting as soon as I finish X. I have been meaning to catch up on my reading here, so here goes. (with an occasional musing over which book might come next).
Let me start with the mysteries/thrillers that seem to be sprouting. I am nearly finished with the second Ruth Galloway mystery, The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths. I like Ruth. I like how she doesn't fret over her looks and enjoys good food and hanging with her cat yet still has a number of men who flock to her side when she ends up in the hospital. One is a former lover, one a friend and the other a potential love interest. Spoiler here--the cliffhanger in the first novel is that at the end of the story she discovers a one night stand has ended up with her in a rather sensitive condition. She has been pulled into another murder investigation when a skeleton--that of a child whose head is missing--turns up on a construction site. Since she is a head forensic archaeologist the police turn to her for help. I love the setting, which is on the northern English saltmarshes, which she loves, too. It seems quiet and a little lonely but beautiful and perfect for a little murder investigation.
I wanted something a little thrillerish and a booklist I recently came across noted Clare Mackintosh's twisty-turny I Let You Go as being particularly effective. A story with a surprise you don't see coming, which sounds just the ticket at the moment. A young mother and her son are walking home from school. Nearly there, she lets go of his hand for a blink of an eye and he is hit by a car, the driver not stopping, but worse speeding up to get away. She is devastated and filled with guilt. She, quite unexpectedly, packs a bag and leaves town. The story is told in parallel by the detective team investigating and Jenna, the mother. Questions I am asking myself--knowing there is going to be a twist--why did she run. All the way to the Welsh coast with practically nothing and she pitches her cell phone on the way. She has secrets. Did the driver mean to kill them both? Only her, or only the boy? What is she hiding--what did she see or do? Hmm.
I have one more mystery to share. I know--pure gluttony on my part and normally I have one lone mystery on the go at a time, but it's summer and anyway, who's counting? Somewhere or other I came across an article about the Japanese crime writer Seicho Matsumoto, who sounds an awful like Georges Simenon. Matsumoto was hugely popular in the 60s-70s and wrote literally hundred of books. Only a few seem to be available in print and translated into English,but one that appears to be a classic is Points and Lines written in the late 1950s. It involves two lovers who are found dead on a beach, apparently by a suicide pact. There are train journeys and women in kimonos. When I read about it, it sounded so perfect for my summer reading project I had to get it, so I requested it via interlibrary loan. Library books always get to jump the queue. Since it has to go back to a library (that is not my own) I had to start it as soon as I got it. So far, I like it very much and I especially like all the little details that give a hint of Japanese culture or geography.
As I already have an array of crime novels/thriller and mysteries in progress I really should not be thinking about what is next. Kinsey Millhone is next, but it's okay to have a few other ideas in mind. And summer, for me, means beach books--not really books to read at the beach but stories with a beach setting, so how convenient to come across this list! Or maybe it is time to return to the Marseille trilogy by Claude Izzo. I read a couple of his books years ago and should really get back to the next Marseille book. Or maybe the Philippe Georget novel that I keep picking up and putting down.
I'm having a mini foodie reading fest at the moment, too. I am thoroughly enjoying Ruth Reichl's memoir Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table. Complementing it is Ito Ogawa's magical The Restaurant of Love Regained. Another perfect book for my summer reading. It really does have a magical feel to it--it reminds me of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate. Food as a restorative--both for body and spirit after the break up of a boyfriend. Rinko returns home from Tokyo to the mountain village of her mother where she opens a special restaurant where only one meal is prepared each evening. The narrator also has lost her voice and must communicate through notes and cards she carries with her. I have a stack of other books by Japanese authors or set in Japan that I have been eyeing for my next reading choice, but I have not yet narrowed them down. Maybe Julie Otsuka or Yasunari Kawabata.
I'll mention just one more since this post is getting a little unwieldy. (I did say I have a Stack of books I am reading). I have been happily ensconced in the pages of Lettice Cooper's The New House. I know many of you may have read this and I ask myself why I waited so long to get around to it. The story takes place over the course of just one day as a family moves from a large middle class home to something much smaller. You get a sense of a changing England and the world getting smaller for one mother and daughter (though there are actually three siblings and spouses and fiances). The world, particular for that one daughter, feels as if it is closing in--now so wedged is she at home to take care of her mother as her brother and sister are part of the larger world and expect her to remain at home. Maddening but so very real. I think when I finish I will pick up another Persephone or Virago. Maybe a Daphne du Maurier. Or maybe something else entirely. Or maybe a WWI novel by Anna Hope, or maybe Jane Gardam or Mary Wesley--something British--you know the sort of book I mean, I think.
So, good reading in progress and more good reading on the horizon--anticipation of more to come. (And then there are library books that I have been neglecting--maybe I should share those as well?). What good book are you lost in at the moment?