books

I've finally been able to sit down and read this week, something I haven't really been able to do for quite some time. My editing job finished and the next one fell through, so I've got some space in which to think. It seems sometimes that I have the attention span for catalogue copy and brief perusal of magazine articles only. Does this have something to do with age, I wonder? Sustainability of focus is something that has eluded me of late . . .

However, this week I read Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach and Valerie Martin's Trespass. I don't really agree with the Times's review of On Chesil Beach; I found it devastatingly heartbreaking. The review for Trespass I do, to a certain extent; I wish the reviewer had brought up the theme of the book Wuthering Heights, for which one of the characters is doing a series of engravings, however. Valerie Martin is a great writer, and I'm going to search out her other books. One is Mary Reilly, which I guess was made into a not-too-good movie.

Next on my stack is School's Out, by Christophe Dufosse, which I hadn't heard of, but seems to be an international best-seller.

cookbook stack

I'm using these recently; have you used any of these?

It's a dangerous thing, having access to Amazon.co.uk, let me tell you . . .

Reading

I just finished Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. A mystery set in Cambridge in 1171, wherein a woman doctor has been summoned to solve the disappearances and subsequent murder of several children. I would say I've never read a book so able to make that period come alive for me. And the author has a great ability to describe very real and realized characters. That being said, there is quite a bit of 21st century sensibility in here. I'm not sure the characters would be thinking along some of the lines that the author sets for them.

Someone gave me In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant, set in Venice in 1527. So that is awaiting me, as is

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Suskind, set in 18th century Paris. This was made into a movie recently, and I see it was published some time ago, but it is new to me. I've read a few pages, and I know I won't be able to put it down once I really start.

I'm still reading Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt; there is quite a bit of detail to take in here.

Finally I have Lost City Radio, by Daniel Alarcon, to start, which is set in a nameless South American country after a civil war and about which I've hear good things.

Reading things as I do for a living, it's getting harder to sit down to read for pleasure!

What are you reading?