Now, I'm reading a biography of Eva Peron. (strange juxtaposition!)

And still ploughing my way through the Jeremy Paxman book On Royalty... Not *quite* as interesting as I had hoped for right now...

I also have several by Beverley Nichols that I know I'll love.

The heat and humidity force me to settle down and books always bring such pleasure.

Just finished up Connie Willis's ...To Say Nothing of the Dog which was right up my alley. Her research does show too much, but her subjects are favorites of mine. The book seems to be a riff on J.K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (a novel I love), Agatha Christie's Perot mysteries, and Tennyson's poems. I am, however, furious that she totally spoiled Wilkie Collin's The Moonstone which I'd downloaded after Lemonhead's thread about epistolary novels. (Lady in White ===> The Moonstone)

I'm also reading G. K. Chesterton's collection of short stories published as The Man Who Knew Too Much. I confess that Chesterton's anti-semitism and disdain for Arabs was such a shock "The Bottomless Well" confused me. I so intensely dislike purging the past of its prejudices that I surprised myself with my reaction. I'll have to think more about this.

Wild is Cheryl Strayed's account of hiking the Pacific Coast Trail in an attempt to resolve many emotional issues in her life. I chose this book to read (not knowing Oprah had recommended it, which may have changed my mind) because I so much enjoyed Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about his hike on the Appalachian Trail. Wild is not funny like Bryson's book but is very well done. She carried a backpack that weighed more than one-half her body weight, wore boots that were a size too small for much of the hike and then lost them and wore sandals mostly consisting of duct tape for a while until new boots were delivered to one of her stopping points. She suffered but stuck it out. While I got a little tired of her dealing with her mother's death, it is an extremely readable book.

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton I chose because of my newly found interest in cooking and chefs and restaurants and everything associated with them. Hamilton also had demons in her past but she started working very early in restaurants and, even though she received a master's degree in fiction writing, she ended up starting a small restaurant in New York City and is an award-winning chef. Much of the angst in this book has to do with her strange and overall unhappy marriage but she writes so well that the book is difficult to put down.

On audiobook I'm listening to The 500 by Matthew Quirk. It takes place in a consulting firm in Washington, DC and is moving along well but not as good as I had hoped since I had seen it compared to John Grisham's The Firm and Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, two of my favorite books of that type ever. I do enjoy the Washington references (since I live in the suburbs) and the author gets them right so far. I'm only halfway through so it has time to improve.

Yesterday I finished Taken by Robert Crais in his Elvis Cole & Joe Pike series.

Pat

I love the 'Pleasures of Walking' and just as soon as I get done, I'm going walking!!!

nola anne

I am not sure what to read next, though I should finish The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor. This mystery has a fascinating historical setting which I was enjoying. For some inexplicable reason, I seem to have developed the very had habit of getting half-way through a book, setting it down, and not picking it up again for months. Obviously I am having some attention problems this year.

I have been working on emptying my TBR shelves a bit, and in doing have picked up some interesting titles. One thing I wanted to read a bit more were short stories, so I have been reading an anthology of American short stories collected together by the folks at Barnes and Noble. A good selection, mostly late 18th and early 19th century so far, with authors like Ambrose Pierce, Henry James, Poe and others. It's been a far better experience than I had expected so that's been nice. However, I still have to work at enjoying short stories on the whole.

At the same time, been reading a Victorian sensation novel (a la Wilkie Collins) by a female author called M. E. Braddon, the book titled Lady Audley's Secret and enjoying this a lot. Thanks to Project Gutenberg for typing it all up and making it available on line.

And then, reading The Country Diaries, Alan Taylor's collection of diary entries about a year in the British (or perhaps English?) countryside. I am *loving* this (as I loved the Assassin's Cloak anthology). It's often quite funny (albeit accidentally in some cases). One entry is from a bloke called Thomas Turner living in 1756 in Sussex on a farm. He is writing his list of new year's resolutions (as it's a January diary entry) and one of his vows is about drinking....

If only beer is available, he will limit himself to "never drink more than four beers" (to allow for toasts to the Queen, the royal family, the country and his loyalty to all). If, on the other hand, wine is only available, then he will only allow himself to drink up to eight glasses of wine in one evening. Holy. Cow. I would be under the table way before I reached that limit.

It rather struck me as kind of funny that he was setting himself such a large limit... :-)

The memoir Mango and Mimosa by Suzanne St Albans was a delightful read. The writer describes her upbringing spent in both Malaya, where her French father owned a rubber plantation and in the S of France, where the children, with almost no formal education ran wild. She is suddenly forced to grow up with the outbreak of War and last minute escape to England. Her brother joins the SOE and she joins a group that produces information for the troops first in Algiers, then Italy and finally as a translator during 'War Crimes' trials in Venice.
When one considers that English was not her first language this is a most enjoyable book and I would highly recommend it.

I just started The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach for my book group, and so far, so good.

Other than that, not reading anything in particular, other than my standard half an hour before bed. I've been madly sewing to prepare for the Jane Austen event; I got drafted all unwilling into some committee work for an organization I belong to; and most important of all, one of my daughters is getting married this September! None of this will last very long. I'm nearly ready for the event; the wedding is coming up soon; and when my year is up for the committee, I'm going to run like mad away from any and all committee work! Seriously, my co-members are very nice people, and I like them very much, but I loathe this kind of work.

I'd much rather read a book.

Rosefolly

With this heat, I'm thinking it's time I picked up Lansing's The Endurance and spend some time frozen in the Antarctic.

Rosefolly

Not having had a lot of positive experiences in the past with short stories, I was curious how this book would pan out. Suffice it to say that this was a better reading experience than before - perhaps I had just chosen annoying writers before. (I am looking at you, John Cheever and John Irving.)

So - bought this book earlier in the year and thought it was a pretty good selection of American "classic" short stories. In the past, the short stories that I have read have always ended too early - as though the story wasn't finished in some way.

In the intro to this anthology, editor Corinne Demas describes the short story referencing Poe in that a good short story should be able to be read in one sitting, and so the majority of the stories here can be done like that (depending, of course, on how fast you read). I would also add that the end of a short story (for me) should not leave you hanging too much. I am all for post-modern endings, but not endings that end just because...

This anthology is pretty inclusive, although based as it is on nineteenth century authors, it's automatically heavier on white males although, to be fair, I don't think this is a fault of the editor. I think that that is really what has been considered the Western Canon in the past, and although I don't particularly agree with the homogeneity of it, you get what you get from what's available. There is an entry from Charles Chesnutt (one of the first Af-Am fiction writers to be published by The Atlantic monthly) and a couple of (white) female writers.

However, moving on to the stories themselves, I enjoyed it overall. There were a few I skipped over (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Melville). Hemingway and Fitzgerald are authors that I don't particularly enjoy, and I had already read Melville's story. Some of the stand-out stories for me included Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" and that Cask story, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (new author to me), Sherwood Anderson, and Ambrose Pierce. I hadn't read any of these writers' short stories before (and some were completely new to me as writers) and I enjoyed their work. Poe is especially good, I thought.

I found that the best way for me to enjoy this book was to pick it up, read a few stories, and then put it down for something else. I don't really like to plough my way through story after story, just because I like continuity between stories, and with these being complete short stories in and of themselves meant a change in strategy. I am quite surprised at how much I enjoyed these stories actually - I think that I had been so burned by the crap put out by Irving and Cheever that I had sort of lumped all short stories into the same pile. How wrong I was.

Now I am wondering if there is a twentieth century equivalent of this collection (or even a twenty-first century). (Dates are when the authors are born, not necessarily when the story was written.) I am sure there are loads of good anthologies out there for more modern authors - any recommendations? Or is there a good book of short stories by one writer out there that you would recommend? Just no Cheever and Irving (in case you couldn't pick up on that). :-)

I've been thinking of Poe recently. I think it is time for me to read all the stories, and reread the ones I have already read. When I was in university, I had a professor who loathed Poe, usually dismissing him as a "hack". Any Poe admirers kept their opinions to themselves.

I keep a "mental list" of authors I would like to read whenever I go to secondhand book stores or charity book sales. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman is one of the names on that list. I believe she was a contemporary of Sarah Orne Jewett, and that Freeman wrote some great American ghost stories. That's all about all I know about her.

Here is a link for you about Wilkins Freeman... Quite prolific, but I don't seem to hear or read much about her...

Just FYI.

Friends who work with austistic students were eager to read this dispiction.

And then finished up a book called The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasure of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson, a slyly funny writer who has been immersed in the world of obits for years. Reminiscent of Mary Roach in some ways, but not *quite* as funny. Still very interesting though.

FWIW, she recommends the obits of the Daily Telegraph (UK newspaper) as being the best. They are funny.

I've mostly been reading fluff lately. I did read and enjoy PB Ryan's Nell Sweeney historical mystery series (6 books, set in post Civil War Boston) when the first (Still Life with Murder) was offered as a freebie.

Also enjoyed Alan Furst's new one: Mission to Paris. Not as good as his early ones, but still the kind of atmospheric read I look forward to when picking up one of his books.

I read some pitiful losers on my trip as a result of downloading some freebies for my e-reader. Next time, I'll know better. I took a couple of paperbacks left at one of the hotels which were not great either, but I did have Jane Eyre and Window at the White Cat on the reader. It had been a long time since I had read Jane, and I had forgotten just how good it is.

I read Connie Willis's Lincoln's Dreams and enjoyed it, particularly after having read a couple of not so nicely crafted novels. I couldn't tell you what it is that makes Willis different, but I certainly recognized it.

I read A Red State of Mind: How a Catfish Queen Reject Became a Liberty Belle expecting hilarity and recognition. This is a memoir of a Tennessee girl who moved north to blue state territory, like myself, and it didn't make me laugh, it made me angry. I don't like being angry.

Siobhan I confess that the Hilary Mantel book is still sitting here untouched-not sure what I am saving it for!

I recently finished two English psychological thrillers. The Other Woman's House by Sophie Hannah which kept me guessing and with some bizarre twists. I also just finished Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes. I wasn't sure about finishing it at first as the chapters jumped around a lot back & forth in time, but I soon got into the swing of it. I found it quite thought provoking.

Time for a complete change of pace & country-I am now reading a kindle freebie called State of Rebellion by Gordon Ryan which takes place on my doorstep so to speak it is about California trying to secede from the USA...lots of corrupt politicians LOL!

Pat

Since then, I've been zipping through Nicole Peeler's "Jane True" urban fantasy books, Tempest Rising, Tracking the Tempest, Tempest's Legacy, Eye of the Tempest, and Tempest's Fury only to discover she's ended the fifth book with an utterly hideous cliff-hanger and there's no publication date available for the next one yet. I had been hoping I had them all, darn it!

I'm also reading another fantasy book set in an alternate reality American wild west (and cleverly dubbed "bustle-punk" rather than steampunk by its author, M.K. Hobson)The Native Star and The Hidden Goddess, both very enjoyable if you like that sort of thing.

The Shadows in the Streets by Susan Hill carries on her tale of dark deeds in an imaginary English cathedral city. I enjoy her very believable characters and am never too bothered by the whodunnit part of the story especially as many of her endings seem rather far-fetched and sudden.

A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore. Well written, but I found it rather unsettling/disturbing especially as it deals with brother/sister incest set in a large country house pre WWI. Madness is never far from the surface and at the end I felt like a long walk in the fresh air to clear the oppressive atmosphere it created.

Along with that, I am reading Dave Cullen's NF book about the Columbine shooting. I had ordered this weeks ago on ILL and it just arrived last Wed so it was a strange coincidence that I am reading this title when the awful shooting happened in Aurora (only 17 miles from Columbine).

Cullen is a seasoned reporter and has covered the Columbine incident since Day One. It's a compelling read and it mostly focuses on how facts get twisted through media repetition and word of mouth based on that inaccuracy. It's not slamming any one media outlet in particular - just an well-informed observation of how a story can evolve despite the facts being known. Quite curious and I would not be surprised if something similar happened with the Aurora shooting.

And then along these, I am also reading the original Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1906). What a twisted tale this is and very different from the sanitized Disney version! Tinker Bell is mean and spiteful, there are daily grisly murders in Neverland, and no one has enough food. Peter is also a bully, and don't mention the psychological issues of the Lost Boys with Wendy...!

Fascinating read though.

liz, you have made me want to dig out my old copy of "Peter Pan" from my bookcase! Did you see the film that came out a few years ago about the life and loves of James Barrie?

Haven't seen that movie, but will research it a bit. It's my choice for a movie tonight... :-)

Vee - you mentioned reading Daphne du Maurier... That title is a new one for me so will see if I can trace it down. Speaking of du Maurier, I happen to be reading Peter Pan which, apparently, was based on some boys (brothers) who Barrie met one day, befriended them and their parents, and then, when their parents died in middle age, became the boys' guardian.

These boys, called Llewelyn Davies boys, were the sons of the daughter of George du Maurier, who was the grandfather of Dame Daphne.

Fascinating how the world works sometimes...