Where are you?

 

    I enjoyed the earlier 'Where are you?' posts that we did (here and here - though as I put in those links I wonder whether the widget will make them redundant!), so let's do another one today.

    In real life I'm in a very grey and rainy Edinburgh, but book-wise I'm in 1960s London through the pages of Louise Levene's A Vision of Loveliness. I've only just begun this first novel by a writer who is, among other things, the Sunday Telegraph's ballet critic, but from the off it is enormously promising and engaging.

    Jane James works as a junior sales girl in a cashmere shop in Piccadilly though she aspires to greater things, but a chance encounter leads her to Suzy St. John, "a girl-about-town with the glamour and irresistible allure that Jane has rehearsed for so long. Taken under Suzy's wing, Jane becomes Janey ... and enters a world of  modelling and man-trapping...".

    Virginia Ironside comments, "this immensely readable book is so full of period atmosphere that reality actually pales when you put it down", and so far I'd agree with that wholeheartedly. It's very sharp, very slick and accomplished and I can't wait to read on - "biting social satire," says another reviewer, "drenched in extravagant shoes, jewellery and clothes"!

    That's where I am, where are you?

Comments

[Claire]

I, too, am in a VERY wet Scotland. But also in WW1 with the poet Edward Thomas. Enjoying "Now All Roads Lead To France" by Mathew Hollis.

[Dark Puss]

I'm in London, which is quieter now thank goodness, and about to go to Oxford University for a meeting this afternoon. Book-wise I've just returned from a 2001 Radiohead gig at South Park (Oxfordshire). This is described in the last part of one of the chapters in Alex Ross' Listen to This the superb follow up to The Rest is Noise. If you have any interest in music at all then buy or borrow this book right now, you won't be disappointed.

[B R Wombat]

I do enjoy these posts. I'm also in an absolutely miserably wet Scotland and very glad to escape into the near future in Jane Rogers's The Testament of Jessie Lamb. Even although it's a dystopian place, it's a very gripping read so far and I can understand the book getting onto the Booker long list.

[Susan in TX]

Oh, I always enjoy these posts! Glad to see that Dark Puss is in a "quieter" London. We've been closely watching the news from over there in amazement. But, back to topic at hand. I would love to be anywhere "miserably wet," but alas, physically I am in the middle of the worst drought in Texas history just having come through one of the hottest, if not the hottest July on record, with no break in sight from our 100+ degree heat. So, book-wise, I am especially enjoying traveling the ocean through occasional 3-day "blows" with Capt. Aubrey and Dr. Marturin in Patrick O'Brian's The Wine-Dark Sea (#16 in the Master and Commander series).

[Georgina]

I'm in breezy South Wales and also in immediately post-war Berlin with Joseph Kanon's 'The good German'. On my iPad I'm finding out how to understand my dogs better with 'In defence of dogs' by John Bradshaw. What a relief not to have to be Pack Leader any more. That position can now be occupied by Siamese Simon, who has always been convinced of his superior status.

[Margaret Powling]

I'm in gloriously sunny South Devon, but blustery wind and rain forecast. But for now a sunny day with scudding clouds which are moving too fast to dump rain upon us ...
I'm also in Venice with Venetian policeman Brunetti, in Donna Leon's Death at La Fenice - only just arrived though, not even had a trip on the Grand Canal yet, but heard the dying chords (appropriately!) of La Traviata in the first chapter.

[Mary Ronan Drew]

I'm excited to hear about Listen to This. I think The Rest is Noise may be one of my top ten favorite books of the last decade.

[Mary Ronan Drew]

I'm in sunny and warm (but not too hot) Spokane, WA. In my reading I'm in 1898 Middlesboro, Kentucky, in the middle of a smallpox epidemic in Pox: An American History by Michael Willrich. They are innoculating people at gunpoint.

[Barbara]

I'm in gloriously sunny but very breezy Dorset, listening to Test Match Special.
In book life I'm at Great Dixter in Sussex, courtesy of Stephen Anderton's biography of Christopher Lloyd. Enjoying it very much.

[Julie Fredericksen]

In reality, I'm in Bismarck, ND, which is gloriously much cooler this month than last. Book-wise, I don't know where I am. All I know is that it is a mystical place but seems to be based on a country somewhat like Spain. (I'm reading "Of Bees and Mist" by Erick Setiawan. Usually I don't care much for magical realism but this one is growing on me.)

[Barbara M.]

Literally I am in rainy New Jersey, while literarily I just returned from Red Hook Road, in Maine via Ayelet Waldman's novel "Red Hook Road."

[Barbara MacLeod]

I am literally in very wet ... driech is the word ... Glasgow and literarily I am sailing on the West Coast of Scotland in the 1920s. I had been reading another book Leaves From Rowan's Log by Dr R B Carslaw about a family sailing up the West Coast in the 1930s when in it the author mentioned how his wife was reading aloud to the children from 2 particular books. One I knew: Para Handy by Neil Munro (still much loved today) but the other book Skeletta I did not know. After some digging around I tracked down a copy to purchase on the internet. The book's full title is Skeletta and the White Knight by Isobel Jamieson, published by Wm Blackwood & Son, 1925. I have just finished it - very enjoyable! Some things never change!

[Anji]

I am in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and it is dry and warm here. Finally those lake sized puddles next to my car have dried up and conditions in my basement have improved too. I no longer have to wear waders to get to the washing machine! July was very soggy here. Our four year long drought is officially over!!

Thankfully the weather is starting to co-operate as I am about to move house for the third time this year and it looks as if we are going to be able to stay dry as we move our furniture and boxes into our new house-whew!

Book wise I am reading a local author Todd Babiak. His book " The Book of Stanley' is set in Banff which is in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.

[Jo]

I am in a sunny but breezy Portsmouth and have started my 3 week holiday today!

I am also indulging in France with Catherine in The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton and I am loving it.

I do love these posts and and enjoy such a world wide readership and the books you are all reading.

[Dark Puss]

Mary, I think you are right to be excited! When I have read a little more I'll see if I can convey a bit more about what this books is about over on Morgana's Cat Speaks.

[Sandy]

I love these posts too. I am sharing the wet summer in Scotland and am using this as an excuse to spend more time than usual reading.

Just now I am in the Seven Kingdoms, reading the 'Game of Thrones' by George RR Martin - the 1st volume of his 'Song of Ice & Fire' series. He is a good storyteller and weaves many threads together very well. As you might guess from the title, the characters are mosly drawn from the ruling classes, and I would prefer some more involvement with the others of this world - maybe that will come as the series progresses.

At least the weather in this imaginary world seems better than western Scotland!

[Marcia]

I'm just north of Boston, Massachusetts, and enjoying a perfect summer afternoon (sunny with low humidity), but awaiting the rain promised for later on today. My reading self is in Cape Neddick, Maine, with the Kelleher family and their story as told by J. Courtney Sullivan in her novel Maine.

[Sandy]

Thanks for this post Barbara - I think I knew Dr RB Carslaw if he was in Helensburgh Sailing Club in the sixties. I did not know of this book and will look it up.

[Nancy]

I'm a couple of hours west of Boston MA :-) and enjoying a sunny warm day (Low Humidity) - and, with a couple of others above, coming near the end of the "Road to France"

[Suzanne]

I'm in the Netherlands reading Miklos Banfy's beautifully written book 'They Were Counted'. It's cold, rainy and there is a fierce wind blowing, no summer at all here in Holland. But luckily there are new books smiling at me, calling me, waiting for me to pick them up.

[LizF]

My bit of North Yorkshire is rather drier than it was yesterday but still rather grey and cool for the time of year. In reading terms I am on north-west coast of Spain with Domingo Villar's Death on a Galician Shore (although the autumnal weather there is much the same as ours!) and in 14th century London courtesy of Vanora Bennett's The People's Queen and loving the portrayal of Chaucer in it.
After that I plan to start the Louise Levene which I collected from the library yesterday - that's if the reminder of Forever Amber from the widget-thingy doesn't make me go in search of my mum's copy which I recall held me enthralled when I was a teenager! Maybe I should say 'copies' because I think her version was published in two volumes.

[Sandy]

I bought Leaves from Rowan's Logs, via a seller in Amazon and am enjoying every page and illustration. I cruised this area with my parents and then with my wife for many years, so it's been enjoyable to have the memories recalled. It's a bonus that the writers's style is so pleasant to read. Clearly from the dates of the voyages, it was a later generation of the Carslaws that I met at Helensburgh!

[litlove]

I read Louise Levine's novel last year. I really loved the beginning, but a little while after I'd passed the midway point, the voice became so acidic, so bitchy, that I admit I struggled towards the end. It may not strike you that way at all, of course, and indeed I hope it doesn't! There was so much else that was right about the set-up, I felt it was a bit of a missed opportunity, but hey. Lots to enjoy all the same.

[Rhys]

I am south of Bordeaux and have been to the Feria at Dax this morning. But reading-wise I am in Somerset I think at Kellynch Hall with Margaret Drabble.

[Lyn]

I'm in Melbourne on a sunny winter Sunday afternoon. Earlier in the week I was in the Hebrides with Mary Stewart's Stormy Petrel but yesterday I was at Cold Comfort Farm with Robert Poste's child in the new Vintage reprint of Conference at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. No idea where I'm going next!

[Dark Puss]

http://morganas-cat.tumblr.com/post/8950139108/i-hate-classical-music

Don't expect too much insight from me!