Latest reading

The Psychic Tourist by William Little - the author buys his sister and her daughter astrological chart analyses for Christmas. Unfortunately they both say that his sister and niece need to be careful about being near water. This stops his sister travelling by boat or even being anywhere near water. Feeling responsible for restricting her life, William Little sets out to discover whether the future really can be predicted. He consults psychic, mediums, astrologers, gypsies, palm reader, Tarot readers and physicists. The verdict? Perhaps it is possible to predict the future but no one really knows. Fortunately he is able to eradicate his sister's fear of drowning and takes her out in a rowing boat to show her she is quite safe. This is an interesting read with some thought provoking findings especially in the field of science.

Mansfield Revisited by Joan Aiken - it is a credit to this book that I have been carrying it around in my bag for months and only reading it when I'm waiting for things to happen such as in doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms and yet I still managed to retain my interest in the story. I actually took it out of my bag and read the last 30 pages because I wanted to find out the ending. The books starts a few years after the end of Mansfield Park. Sir Thomas Bertram is dead. Fanny and Edmund have two children and are about to leave on a trip to the West Indies to oversee family business interests there. Susan - Fanny's sister - has grown into a sensible young woman with more sparkle than her older sister. Mary Crawford - a much subdued Mary Crawford - returns with mixed results. There is a marvellous failed trip out to discover Roman ruins which is worthy of Jane Austen herself. This is worth reading in its own right as well as a continuation of Mansfield Park.

The Plague Maiden and A Cursed Inheritance by Kate Ellis - Further episodes in the Wesley Peterson series which mixes modern crime with archaeological discovers with conspicuous success. I found both of these compulsive reading. There is little on the page violence or bad language and they are dark stories with many ramifications between past and present. Human nature is both good and bad. Tensions are growing between Wesley and his wife Pam and the constant conflict between work and home life is well done.

When Last I Died by Gladys Mitchell - the inimitable Mrs Bradley is drawn into a cold case when she rents a house which formerly belonged to a lady who may or may not have been murdered. There is a marvellous haunted house featured in this absorbing and psychologically well crafted story. I read nearly all of it one evening and found it totally absorbing.

Books and matters medical

I have been rather busy over the last few days because my OH has just had an operation - a Nissen Fundoplication. Do not Google it if you are squeamish! It's a cure for acid reflux basically but the after effects are probably more than most of us would care to experience. He has to be on a virtually completely liquid diet for the next couple of months though he can manage things like rice pudding if he eats small amounts - and I mean small - less than a dessert spoonful at a time.

Eventually he will be able to eat a more normal diet but may never be able to eat bread again. He has done well so far as he had the operation last Saturday and came out on Monday. He was expected to stay in about 5 days because of his serious lung problems and his diabetes but is recovering much better than was expected.

Books

Trollope by Victoria Glendinning - a comprehensive biography of the author which makes many references to his books and really brought the man to life for me.

Here Come the Girls by Milly Johnson - an enjoyable romp of a book which was a very welcome read at the weekend. Four friends go on a cruise. It changes all their lives - for the better.

Gently Through the Mill by Alan Hunter - the fifth book in the Gently series. 1950s crime in a flour mill with Gently involved because the body is that of a petty London villain.

Ellie Andrews has Second Thoughts by Ruth Sabberton - Again an enjoyable light read with Ellie reminiscing on her wedding day. The reader does not know exactly who she is marrying or whether the marriage will go ahead until the last few pages.

Current Reading

Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - the classic novel about Richard III. Still good even when you know some of the text off by heart!

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy - I'm still reading this in small chunks which you might think would cause a problem trying to remember what has gone on. I must have read the books many times back in the 1970s because I'm finding I have no problem recalling the story line.

The Perfect Hero by Victoria Connelly - Kay moves to Lyme Regis and opens a B&B. Her first guests are some of the actors involved in a new film production of Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Doesn't time fly . . . .

Reading in the last week:

Coffin, Scarcely used by Colin Watson - 1950s crime in seaside town in Lincolnshire - paperback

Our Lady of Pain by M C Beaton - Edwardian Crime featuring Lady Rose Summer and Captain Harry Cathcart - private investigator - e-book

Pursued by Love by Georgia Hill - love story set against the filming of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - e-book.

The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh which is a new Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane story set in 1951 and featuring a case which is mentioned in other Peter Wimsey books. It is very good and I could imagine Sayers herself writing this one - paperback.

What's Up Doc? by Hilary Jones - the doctor who appears regularly on TV - good but not as good as some - e-book.

Cranford by Mrs Gaskell - Victorian life from a female perspective, e-book.

A Medal for Murder: a Kate Shackleton Mystery by Frances Brody - Yorkshire crime set in the 1920s - very good it was as well - I can thoroughly recommend this series. Paperback

A predominance of crime set in other eras.

Currently reading:

The Hedge Fund Wives by Tatiana Boncompagni - chick lit with bling and shopping but seems pretty well written - paperback

Wives and Daughters by Mrs Gaskell - 19th century literature - e-book

What would Jane Austen do? by Laurie Brown - time travel and ghosts - e-book

59 seconds by Richard Wiseman - sort of self help/popular psychology - e-book - I will be writing a post shortly about this type of book - which I've always enjoyed reading.

More reading . . .

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler turned out to be pretty good - more like an historical novel with Jane Austen related asides. Not great literature but still entertaining reading.


I have also read Holday SOS by Brian McFarlane about a doctor who was involved in repatriating people who had been injured or taken ill when abroad. It was interesting reading and showed how complex the situation becomes if you need to be repatriated while abroad. It is also a reminder to make sure you have adequate travel insurance cover!

I finished Merchants of Culture by John B Thompson and thought it was interesting and well written even if it did take some getting through because it was packed full of information.

Then I've read another in M C Beaton's Edwardian mystery series featuring Lady Rose Summer and Captain Harry Cathcart. This was the third one in the series - Sick of Shadows. It is entertaining reading and I am currently part way through the fourth one - Our Lady of Pain.

I'm currently reading Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey - which is a bit of an acquired taste. As light relief I'm also reading Pursued by Love by Georgia Hill - romantic comedy set against the filming of a new version of Pride and Prejudice. There are just so many Pride and Prejudice spin offs - whether set in the present day or the past. Some better than others of course.

Also reading: Frances Brody - A Medal for Murder

Latest reading

Blue Lights and Long Nights by Les Pringle which is about his experiences in the ambulance service in the 1970s. Poignant, funny and thought provoking as are most books like this.

I'm still ploughing through Merchants of Culture by John B Thompson - which is fascinating - but heavy to hold. I've always been interested in the way publishers work and this provides a lot of information. I could have done without so much information about American publishing but it's still worth reading. When you consider how big the US is it publishes - relatively speaking - fewer new books each year that the UK does - 194,000 new titles a year in 2008 compared with the UK's 120,000. What is interesting is that those figures only relate to trade publishers and the books reckons you can double the number of new titles if you include self publishing, print on demand etc. Books are alive and well and living everywhere.

I've currently just started a Jane Austen spin off which I've been debating reading for a while - Laura Viera Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. All American girl wakes up one morning to find herself in Austen's England inhabiting someone else's body - that of Jane Mansfield. Light reading but interesting and amusing for all that.

I have downloaded e-book versions of the whole of Anthony Trollope and the whole of Charles Dickens not to speak of the whole of Mrs Gaskell - plenty of reading there for cold winter evenings! They are such ridiculously cheap prices - or completely free that I couldn't resist.

Still reading Phil Rickman . . . .

I'm part way through The Lamp of the Wicked - which is the 5th in the Merrily Watkins series. It's good when books you haven't read for years are just as good - if not better when you read them again. I've read nearly five in a week and have stayed up later than normal on several evenings because I couldn't put the book down.

I'm also listening to an audio book of Jane Austen's The Watsons and Sanditon - her two unfinished novels. I really wish she'd lived long enough to finish Sanditon as I'm sure it would have been one of her best books.

I also have an audio book - all 14 discs of it - of Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life which looks like being good. I got that through the Amazon Vine programme - free - which can't be bad.

Minor works

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Jane Austen's minor works - Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon. Lady Susan is a novella and complete in itself. The Watsons is about 50 pages of a novel as is Sanditon.

Lady Susan is written in the epistolary form and presents a picture of one the nastiest most manipulative fashionable ladies in fiction I think. She descends on friends and relatives at a moment's notice and stays too long. She delights in enticing men away from their wives or girl friends - for the hell of it. Her own interpretation of her conduct is of course completely different. She has no qualms about adultery or about treating her teenage daughter something like a parcel - moving her between friends and schools and trying to marry her off to someone rich and gullible.

The Watsons is about a family living in a small village on very little money. Emma Watson has just returned from several years living with an aunt. The Aunt has re-married and Emma has lost any hope she might have of being left any money. The story centres on the intereaction between a group of country families. By the end of the fragment it is unclear whether Emma will end up with Mr Howard - the local clergyman - or Lord Osbourne - who seems to have a passing resemblance to Mr Darcy.

Sanditon is about a seaside village which two local landowners - Mr Parker and Lady Denham - are hoping to turn into a fashionable seaside resort. Mr Parker has Charlotte Heywood staying with him and his family in return for being looked after following a carriage accident. There are many hypochondriacs of all ages who are brought vividly to life and the village is described in some detail. If the book had been finished I can't help feeling it would have been as good as anything else Jane Austen wrote. Unfortunately it was left unfinished when she died.

Currently reading

Jane Austen's Persuasion - I'm also listening to an Audio book version as well. I've just got past the bit where Louisa Musgrove knocks herself out at Lyme Regis. I think the book is probably the least humorous of the six novels - possibly because it was written when the author was ill. I am enjoying it though and the portrait of Anne's hypochondriac sister is brilliant. A few minutes conversation with Anne and she is suddenly so much better that she can go out and pay a visit to her in-laws! Everyone uses Anne as a go-between so she inevitably gets both sides of any argument which is going on.

I'm also reading Dan Waddell's Blood Atonement - the sequel to Blood Detective which I read last week.

I just read Kirsty Robinson's Grass Stains about Louisa, a journalist, who is teetering on the brink of a breakdown and really doing nothing to stop herself falling over the edge. If you like the sort of book which depicts the excesses of the drink and drugs culture as though it is a really great lifestyle - then maybe this is the book for you. I'm afraid it brought out the prude in me and I just wanted to shake both Louisa and Dan - her alcoholic and junkie husband - and tell them there is more to life than getting wasted.

I've just started Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog - which I'm really not sure about yet. It is set in Leeds - a city I know quite well - which drew me to read it. I'll see how it develops - it may improve.

I'm also reading Mike Pannett's Not on my Patch, Lad about his experiences of policing in North Yorkshire. I enjoy books about people's jobs and have read the previous two by this author.

Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey is probably the least well regarded novel of the 6. I really like it. She manages to steer a middle path between parodying the trend for Gothic novels but at the same time supporting the novel writer's art. Catherine Morland visits Bath in the company of her friends Mr and Mrs Allen. How she makes friends with the Thorpes - Isabella and John - and the Tilneys - Eleanor and Henry and learns the difference between friends who have her best interests at heart and those who don't makes an amusing story.

Isabella must be one of the most manipulative, simpering and silly women in Austen's books. Yes she has to make a reasonably wealthy marriage - having no fortune of her own - but to behave how she does is not the best way to achieve that aim. The misunderstandings about everyone's relative wealth and status are the sub text for the love story of Henry and Catherine. Ultimately it does not matter to Henry how much Catherine's fortune is because he has enough money of his own, but others in the story such as his father, have other opinions.

Catherine is not typical heroine material, as her creator acknowledges, but I found myself warming to her as she tries to make sense of her world. Her journey home on her own shows she is made of sterner stuff than the average heroine. Her civil manners and generous tipping provide her with good care and treatment as she has to sort out hiring her own post horses - a frightening prospect for a young girl of 17 in the early 19th century.

I have Persuasion, the Juvenilia, Sanditon, The Watsons and Lady Susan left to read. I have read Persuasion before - though not for many years - the rest I have not read, so that is a treat in store.

Problems of choosing a book for a train journey

I am off to Norwich by train tomorrow and I was pondering what book to take with me. It has to fit in my bag and not be too heavy to carry around. Should it be an old favourite or something previously unread? If an old favourite it might not quite fit my mood. If unread I might decide I don't like it after page 1. So should I take two books with me? An average size one and a thin one perhaps?

You see even the most trivial decision is fraught with difficulty if you want it to be. I was debating whether to take Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey with me but I like to appreciate Austen in peace and quiet - so maybe not her. But there is Joan Aiken's Mansfield Revisited (thank you, Noreen, for the information about this) which may need less savouring but is fewer than 200 pages long. My journey is about 2.5 hours each way and I therefore need something longer than 200 pages.

In the end I've plumped for Dan Waddell's The Blood Detective and Joan Aiken's Mansfield Revisited - neither of them heavy books in the physical sense; and I'm taking my trusty Kangol messenger bag so there's plenty of room. I had considered a heavy weight tome about feminism - Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex but as I've tried to read that before and found it difficult a train journey is not the place to get to grips with it.

Reading Emma

I am re-reading Jane Austen's novels in order of publication and having read Mansfield Park I have recently started on Emma. I studied the book for A level in the late 1960s and apart from listening to an Audio version of it I haven't re-read it since. The book has a lighter feel to it that Mansfield Park but it is still a very moral book in some ways. Emma is frequently reproved by Mr Knightley for not treating people how she should do - most notably being rude to Miss Bates in the famous Box Hill incident. Emma does learn throughout the book and becomes a better person in the long run.

Many people like Frank Churchill as a character but I find him too smarmy and insincere. He does not treat Jane Fairfax well at all especially when you consider his clandestine relationship with her. It is a book which repays several readings as do all Jane Austen's novels.

Reading . . . .

I finished reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park last night and I do like Fanny Price. So many people think she is a little boring. But anyone who can ignore the unpleasant Mrs Norris, stand up to Sir Thomas Bertram and refuse the attentions of the smarmy Henry Crawford must have more going for her than many readers seem to think. I suspect many people who don't like her forget that what is acceptable behaviour now definitely wasn't then. Henry's flirtations with Maria and Julia Bertram would be considered unimportant now but then - when marriage was as much a business transaction as an emotional relationship - it was a different matter.

I started reading Leigh Russell's Road Closed last night and found it engrossing reading - to the extent that I read all of part 1 - about 8o pages- even though I had the latest Barbara Erskine tugging at my sleeve and clamouring for my attention! I did start reading Time's Legacy as well before I fell asleep. I'm lucky enough to have received a proof copy of Time's Legacy through Amazon Vine - which allows its members to pick from a list of free books - usually advance copies - every month. I was surprised to see Barbara Erskine on there because she has a large readership anyway. Lady of Hay sold 2 million copies! But I'm more than glad to receive a copy at least 6 weeks before publication.

How time flies . . .

I really don't know where this week has gone to and now it's the weekend already! I've just had the front garden done with blue slate chippings - as I got really fed up with the lawn which never really looked right in any case and didn't grow very well in patches where it got too dry and where it got no sun. We've still got the hedge and the Rowan tree so it's not completely barren. Next door one side had their pocket handkerchief done as well. At the moment it looks very bright but it will look all right once it's been rained on.

I'm currently still indulging in an orgy of Jane Austen; reading Mansfield Park and listening to Sense and Sensibility. I'm also reading The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas which is about a man at a friend's BBQ who slaps a child - not his own. The book is about the repercussions from that one single act has amongst the friends who were at the BBQ when the parents of the child go to the police.

What a good idea for a novel you might think as it provides lot of opportunities for showing characters in their ordinary lives and the effect of one ill thought out action on them and their relationships. But it is set in Melbourne and the culture there must be completely different from the UK. There is much use of heavy duty swear words, casual racism and a fascination with violent imagery. At least two of the main characters - male - are having affairs.

It is clear the men are the boss at home. They walk into a room and change the music their wives are listening to and insist on their choices. Wives get bawled out if they talk about their lives to anyone and the husbands are always thinking about smashing their faces in even if they regard themselves as happily married. Not pleasant. The writing is good and it would be even more powerful if the bad language, violence, misogyny and racism weren't there. It is perfectly possible to indicate that a character swears without using the words.

For light entertainment I'm also reading Victoria Clayton's Dance with Me.

I have received today - from Amazon - my copy of Leigh Russell's Road Closed - the month before official publication so I will probably be able to post my interview with Leigh AND a review of the book at the same time. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Northanger Abbey

I've been listening to an audio book of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey read by Juliet Stevenson and really enjoyed it. It pokes fun at the craze for Gothic novels such as Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho in the early 19th century. Catherine Morland visits Bath with her friends Mr and Mrs Allen. She makes friends with Isabella and John Thorpe - a brother and sister who it is clear are definitely not quite her sort of people even though they are friends with her brother. Then she meets Henry and Eleanor Tilney - another brother and sister who are in Bath with their father - General Tilney. An invitation to stay at their home Northanger Abbey soon follows - which delights Catherine not least because of the prospect of staying in an abbey.

As ever Jane Austen creates some lovable characters and some thoroughly objectionable ones - such as John Thorpe who does his best to break up Catherine's friendship with the Tilneys. I laughed over some of it and even cried towards the end. What is it about audio books which brings stories to life? I wonder whether it is that it reminds me of being read to as a child? Who knows? I know I find it relaxing to listen to them - especially Jane Austen - and now have 5 of her 6 novels in unabridged format. I am also re-reading the text as well and have read Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and have just started Mansfield Park. I have yet to but an unabridged edition of Persuasion - that is next on my list.

Books read and reading

Lucy Kellaway's In Office Hours should be read by anyone who works, or has worked in an office. It is about two women at opposite ends of the office hierarchy at Atlantic Energy. Both for reasons, which are not always clear even to them, embark on affairs with colleagues. The reader knows at the start of the book that both affairs are over and both women no longer work for Atlantic Energy. The story is about how the affairs themselves and how they ended. Office life is well described and the intensity an affair gives to life in general. Stella - high flying economist - muses at one point that she has paid far less attention to her work than she has ever done and yet that is the time she is promoted. I chuckled over that because I could remember feeling exactly the same when I got promoted!

Mavis Cheek's Truth to Tell is a little different from some of her previous work. I've read all of her novels but did not enjoy Patrick Parker's Progress or Yesterday's Houses but this latest one is a return to her earlier form I thought. I read it in two evenings and really enjoyed. Nina decides to tell the truth at all times and as a result her husband Robert goes on a team building event on his own in Florida where she would normally go with him. Nina soon finds that always telling the truth turns everything in her life upside down. The story that follows, narrated by Nina, is amusing and well written with many literary allusions. I enjoyed it especially as the heroine was middle aged rather than in her twenties and her children are almost grown up.

I'm currently listening to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey read by Juliet Stevenson which is really good as she brings all the characters to life. I'm really into complete novels as audio books and have just replaced by abridged version of Sense and Sensibility with a complete version. I am also reading Mansfield Park.

I'm just about to start reading Christobel Kent's A Fine and Private Place which is her latest book featuring her PI - Sandro Cellini - and set in Florence.

More reading . . . .

I spent yesterday painting doors and door frames and the previous day sanding them down so my time has been otherwise occupied this week. I have now painted the doors in the hall and the door frames and the skirting board. Doesn't sound much when you put it like that but I wanted to do it properly rather than make a mess. One more door and frame to do downstairs and then I'll start on the upstairs doors. Decorating is not my favourite occupation but as I can't afford to pay someone to do it - needs must.

But in the evenings I have been reading. I finished Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and have almost finished listening to Mansfield Park. The listening has given me new insight into Fanny Price. I had remembered her as weak and wishy washy but in fact she isn't at all. She is quiet and shy but won't be pushed into doing what she knows is not right for her - and she has very definite ideas of right and wrong. Mrs Norris must be one of the most dislikeable women in fiction and Frances Barber - who is reading the book - really gives her an absolutely perfect voice.

I started A Summer Fling by Milly Johnson. It's about a group of five women working at the head office of a small supermarket chain. They all have secrets that they don't talk about at work - in fact they don't really talk about anything. Their new boss Christie, must try and get to know them and hopefully help them with their problems. So far so good and I've read about 100 pages. Nice light read with some serious issues.

I am also reading and have nearly finished The Selfish Society: How we all Forgot to Love one Another and Made Money Instead by Sue Gerhardt. It's about how the upbringing of small children affects the sort of society we live in. If babies don't get their needs met they turn into monsters of one sort or another. It's an interesting book and I will post my thoughts on it when I've finished it.

Currently reading . . .

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - and just reached the point at which Elizabeth is struggling to come to terms with Charlotte's engagement to Mr Collins. Elizabeth wants to marry for love but Charlotte is content to settle for her own home. Both have a similar amount of money behind them - i.e. not much - but Elizabeth is pretty. Have things changed? Looks are still - apparently - just as important but does money matter as much? There is a different attitude to it now I think. Women looking to marry a fortune were as common as men looking to do the same thing at the beginning of the 19th century - and gold digging was not a concept which would have meant very much as marrying money was considered no more than common sense, whether you were male or female. Interesting times.

Nicola Barker's Burley Cross Postbox Theft is a revival of the epistolary form in novel writing. I do like the form but I'm not sure about this book. It is amusing but the letters are too long I think. 26 letters are stolen from a post box in the village and found in a bag in an alley. They are handed over to a local policeman whose job it is to try and find out who broke into the post box. The letters reveal the usual cross section of oddities and feuds which might be expected in a village and some are funny. There's a bit too much lavatorial humour for my taste; one 'letter' is a transcript of a tape made by someone sitting on a loo - complete with 'sound' effects; another is about dog poo - several pages - and the same subject appears in another letter. I'll reserve judgement until I've finished it but at the moment I'm having trouble keeping the characters straight in my mind.

Re-reading Jane Austen

I've been listening to audio books of Jane Austen's novels recently - Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and currently Pride and Prejudice. Apart from Sense and Sensibility all the versions I have are unabridged so they provide anywhere from 12 to 15 hours listening. Listening to them has prompted me to re-read the books. I started reading Sense and Sensibility yesterday and I'm about two thirds the way through it. If anyone had asked me before I would have said S & S was probably my least favourite but actually it is really good.

There is no violence, no sex - except by implication. Colonel Brandon's ward - later his sister-in-law - has an illegitimate child as does her child. But it is enthralling reading and all of human nature is here. The vulgar but very good hearted Mrs Jennings; the excitable Marianne; the sensible Elinor; the two Steele sisters - Lucy and Anne - Lucy sly and Anne not very clever; Willoughby - the arch villain - though even he has some redeeming features; Colonel Brandon - apparently dull but merely quiet and intelligent; the Middletons and the Ferrars.

The dialogue is well done though obviously more long winded than in the 21st century. The author's comments on the ways her characters behave and the morives for their actions are brilliant. Marianne simply says - rather rudely - she doesn't want to play cards - Elinor suggests to Lady Middleton she would be better employed helping Lucy with her filigree work as she is making a present for Lady Middleton's daughter - and thus achieves her aim (talking in private to Lucy) - and keeps everyone happy.

Jane Austen may have lived a restricted life but she had plenty of opportunities to study and analyse people and society in general and her observations are put to good use in her novels.

Jane Austen - Ancient and Modern

I've enjoyed all 6 of Elizabeth Aston's Pride and Prejudice sequels and I looked forward to her latest book with interest. Writing Jane Austen is set in the present day and features an American academic living in London. Georgina Jackson is commissioned against her better judgement to complete a Jane Austen fragment. What follows is an amusing story about Gina's writers' block and her resistance to even reading Jane Austen's novels.

Gina visits Bath and goes on a Jane Austen tour and she does finally read the novels - and it totally bowled over by them. But can she complete her commission in within the three months' time limit? The characters are fascinating - her landlord Henry and his sister Maud - a Janeite; her fearsome agent, Livia; and Henry's housekeeper Anna. Most (all?) characters have names taken form the novels as well which makes for interesting reading if you know your Jane Austen.

This is a good light hearted read and I definitely didn't see the twist ending coming at all!

Just about to start reading . . . .

I intend to start reading today: Georgette Heyer's Black Sheep; Katie Roiphe's Uncommon Arrangements; Julia Stuart's The Matchmaker of Perigord. I shall also continue reading Susan Faludi's The Terror Dream and listening to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. People always ask me how I can possibly keep the details in my head when I read so many books at the same time. I think the answer lies in making sure you read different genres. I'm not sure I could read 4 books of the same genre.

Of the four books which I shall be reading - 2 are fiction and 2 are non fiction. Black Sheep is set in a similar historical period to Pride and Prejudice but its location is Bath whereas P&P is set in Hertfordshire, Kent, London and Derbyshire. In any case listening is not the same as reading - well not to me it isn't. I know many other voracious readers who always have more than one book on the go. If I'm struggling with a book I will read it 30 pages or so at a time interspersed with another book which I am really enjoying. That way I persevere with books which I might otherwise give up on - and I'm frequently rewarded by finding books enjoyable which started off in an unpromising fashion.