Month: July 2008

Recent Additions

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

I haven’t written much on the blog recently as we’ve been out and about in various parts of the country. I’ve still been reading but am behind with writing about the books I’ve read. We’ve been visiting several places (Suffolk, the Cotswolds and the Chilterns) and gathering books along the way!

On our trip to Suffolk I bought booklets on the castles at Orford and Framlingham and Medieval Women: a Short History of Women in England 450 – 1500 by Henrietta Leyser from the bookshop in Framlingham Castle. This looks comprehensive, covering medieval views on sex, motherhood, work and the intellectual and spiritual worlds of women.

There is also a second-hand bookshop in Framlingham but I was very restrained and only bought one book – Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton. This was her first novel and the blurb on the back says that it is “Part tragedy, part romance, passionate with anger, yet touched by humour.”

When I returned home from Suffolk I found a copy of The Death of King Arthur  had been delivered. This was from Penguin Books and I’d forgotten I’d put my name in Blog a Penguin Classic. This is a translation of the 13th century version of the Camelot legend – the Round Table, King Arthur distressed at rumours of Queen Guinevere’s infidelity with Sir Lancelot and at the mercy of the treacherous Sir Mordred. It looks very different from anything else I’ve read recently.

I had to buy Sarah Bower’s Book of Love, despite the fact that I must be one of the few people who still hasn’t read Needle In the Blood. I also bought The Thirteenth Apostle by Michel Benoit. On the back cover it says this is a “captivating and thoroughly researched religious thriller comparable to Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.” Anything to do with ancient sects, papyrus sheaves discovered at Qumran, the Knights Templar, and the supposed existence of a thirteenth apostle always catches my eye.

On another trip out – this time to College Lake Nature Reserve in the Chilterns – I found not just beautiful scenery, and bird watchers’ haven, but also a bookshop in a shed. I bought three books:

  • The Snow Geese by William Fiennes – this is a book on natural history and a personal memoir/meditation on leaving and homing.
  • The Forsyte Saga volume two by John Galsworthy – I have volume one, still waiting to be read!
  • Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith – I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by Patricia Highsmith. On the back cover it is described as follows: “As haunting and harrowing a study of a schizophrenic murderer as paper will bear.” I don’t know if I dare to read it!

Finally, there are these two books, one borrowed and the other a gift from a friend:

  • An Equal Music by Vikram Seth. My friend thinks this is a really good book. It is described as a “hauntingly beautiful story about loss and love, and the power of music to transform human experience.” This sounds less frightening than the Highsmith book.
  • The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates. Maybe this will be another harrowing book to read – “a bleak, gothic, powerhouse of a book”.

I’m never going to be short of anything to read!

But just in case I do, I popped into the library today and was really pleased to find:

  • Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy
  • A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
  • Milton In America by Peter Ackroyd
  • The Evangelist by Claire George

Now I just wish I could read all these books at once …

Booking Through Thursday – Holiday Reading

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

btt button

Today’s BTT question is: It’s a holiday weekend in the U.S., so let’s keep today’s question simple – What are you reading? Anything special? Any particularly juicy summer reading?

It’s not a holiday here in the UK, but July 4 is a memorable day for me as it was my father’s birthday.

fall-of-troyI have several books listed on the side bar as current reading. Actually I’ve just finished reading Peter Ackroyd’s The Fall of Troy, which is a fascinating book – a love story, set in the late 19th century during the excavations of Ancient Troy. It’s about obsession and deception. I know next to nothing about archaeology, but this book has made me keen to find out about how Troy really was excavated and also to read Homer. The main characters are Heinrich Obermann, a dislikable character and his beautiful young wife, Sophia. Strange things start happening when a young American archaeologist, who questions Obermann’s methods, dies of a mysterious fever and then the arrival of a British archaeologist who falls in love with Sophia brings the story to a dramatic climax.

Reading Summary 1 January – 30 June 2008

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

It’s hard to believe that it’s now July – half the year has gone by in the blink of an eye – or in the time it has taken to read 44 books. The full list is here. This time last year I had read 52 books, so either I’m not reading as much, or as quickly, or the books are longer/more detailed. Anyway, of these 44 books, 36 are fiction and 8 are non-fiction. Month by month totals are:

  • Jan: 7
  • Feb: 9
  • March: 5
  • April: 7
  • May: 7
  • June: 9

Best reads are:

Clicking on the titles takes you to my thoughts on each book.

Overall, so far, the best book has to be Our Longest Days with Half of a Yellow Sun a close second.

I’ve participated in several reading challenges:

Celebrate the Author. The challenge is to read a book each month by an author who celebrates a birthday in that month. From January to May I succeeded and read books by

  • Virginia Woolf –The Death of the Moth and Other Essays – see here
  • Paul Auster – The Book of Illusions – see here
  • Robert Frost – see here
  • Ian Rankin – A Good Hanging – see here
  • Margaret Forster – Keeping the World Away – see here

June’s author was to have been Orhan Pamuk or Thomas Hardy but I didn’t read anything by either of these authors – maybe I’ll catch up in July. July’s author is either Alexander Dumas or Joanne Harris. I have a feeling it will be Joanne Harris as I have both Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes, which I have been meaning to read for ages.

The Chunkster Challenge. This challenge is to read at least 4 books of over 450 pages. So far I’ve read three:

  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (584 pages) See here.
  • Winter In Madrid, C J Sansom (530 pages) See here.
  • Revelation by C J Sansom (546 pages). See here.

I’m also aiming to read:

  • The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox (598 pages)
  • The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower (575 pages)
  • Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (529 pages) 

Heart of a Child Challenge. The challenge is to read 3 to 6 books by July 14, 2008 that you discovered, loved or adored as a child. So far I’ve read two – Mr Blossom’s Shop by Barbara Euphan Todd, see here and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, see here. I’ll be reading one of these in the next two weeks to complete the challenge.

  • What Katy Did and What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge
  • Heidi by Johanna Spyri and Heidi Grows Up and Heidi’s Children by Charles Tritten
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
  • The Gloriet Tower by Eileen Meyler 

What’s In a Name Challenge. This challenge ends in December and is to read one book in each of the categories. So far I’ve read three out of the six as follows:

  • A book with a colour in the title: Half a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – see here
  • A book with an animal in its title: The Tenderness of Wolves, Stef Penney
  • A book with a first name in its title: Daniel Isn’t Talking, Marti Leimbach – see here
  • A book with a place in its title: Winter in Madrid, C J Sansom – see here
  • A book with a weather event in its title: Snow, Orhan Pamuk
  • A book with a plant in its title: Gem Squash Tokoloshe, Rachel Zadok

Soup’s On Challenge. Challenge is to select six cookbooks to read (enough to give an overview of the book) and make at least one of the recipes. See here. So far I’ve read After Work – see here and Toast by Nigel Slater – see here.

Once Upon a Time Challenge. This challenge ended in June. I didn’t manage to complete it and only read John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids – see here.

The Pulitzer Project. This is an open ended project. The goal is to read all 81 books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This year I’ve read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, the winner in 1994 – see here.