Where's your reading taking you?

 

    Where's your reading taking you at the moment?

    I'm currently in Malaya in 1941 where the privileged life of rubber plantation owners is about to be disrupted by war, and I'm there via the pages of The White Pearl by Kate Furnivall. I've still a long way to go, but it's one of those stories which sweep the reader along, and as danger approaches I'm keen to find out what will happen to the heroine Connie Hadley and her family.

   

    When I leave war-torn Malaya I shall be off to Victorian London with Little Bones by Janette Jenkins: "a young girl is abandoned by her feckless family and finds lodging and work assisting a doctor. But Jane Stretch is no ordinary girl, and Mr. Swift is no ordinary doctor ..." I'm looking forward to that one!

 

    

    After that I'll be in the north of England in the 1930s with Susan Hill's A Kind Man - a "tidy volume", and a moving story by the look of it, and Susan Hill is always a pleasure.

 

    That's my varied lot for the moment; how about you? To what time and place is your reading taking you?

Comments

[adele geras]

Present day Missouri...Carthage, Missouri to be precise. The brilliant Gillian Flynn's new thriller coming out in May. GONE GIRL...half way through that. Then I'm going to be in Future London with Charlie Higson's THE DEAD one of the shortlisted books on the Lancashire Book of the Year. Then possibly a gulag in Soviet Union. Never a dull moment, eh?

[Ed]

19th Century Russia. I am reading "The Coronation" by Boris Akunin, a whodunnit set during the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. I am enjoying it, and trying to avoid sneaking a look at the last page.

[Pam - Travellin' Penguin]

I am in the middle of a race riot as a young black girl is one of the 9 children to integrate a school in the USA. She is stuck in the middle of a mob and afraid she might not live... The Street Sweeper is the name of the book. Will be spending time in New York as well as Auschwitz, friendship b/w an African American janitor working in a hospital and an old Jewish man who is a patient. Only just started.

[Claire]

A very scarey place. Margaret Attwood's dystopian novel set in an America of the future, The Handmaid's Tale. What a great writer that woman is!

[Dark Puss]

C20 and C21 Japan. I'm about half way through 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and enjoying it greatly, although I'm not sure it is as good as Kafka on the Shore.

[B R Wombat]

I'm in the middle of two murder investigations with Harry Hole in Oslo. The book is Jo Nesbo's Nemesis. A friend has introduced me to this guilty pleasure. I wouldn't really recommend getting hooked on Nesbo as, although the books are gripping at times, they are ultimately unsatisfying.

[m]

Into a Paris cemetery in 1785- Andrew Miller's Pure, wonderfully atmospheric but not for the squeamish.

[Belle]

Am in lovely Cortona, Tuscany with Frances Mayes in Bella Tuscany. I finished Under the Tuscan Sun and immediately started reading its sequel. Once in Tuscany it is best to stay there, don't you think.

Schizophenic reader that I am, though, I am in another part of Italy as well with the wonderful ladies in The Enchanted April. Seems I can't get enough of the soft breezes and tasty food of that country.

[LizF]

I have just finished reading The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish which took me a bit of time as I only dared read it at lunchtime in the office! The most seriously scary ghost story that I have read in ages!

I have just started The Somnambulist by Essie Fox and am part way through Helen Rappaport's brilliant Magnificent Obsession but I am so busy that it is slow going although that is no reflection on the books!

[MzTallulah]

Bognor with the Stevens family, as I'm reading A Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff. I also have a trip to early 20th century Iowa planned (Susan Glaspell's Fidelity), and have been visiting post-was Britain in Mollie Panter-Downes Minnie's Room. I guess I'm on a Persephone binge...

[Barbara MacLeod]

In Paris with Renée, the concierge at Number 7, Rue de Grenelle of The Elegance of the Hedgehog .

[Deirdre]

I'm with Geri in '90's London in the world of investment banking courtesy of Aifric Campbell's On The Floor (an Orange Prize long-list book). There may be a move to Hong Kong but I'll have to wait and see. I don't know where I'll go next but there are a couple of places I need to visit like Antwerp in On Black Sisters' Street by Chika Unigwe and Ann Patchett's State of Wonder in South America.

[Mr Cornflower]

Blandings Castle, Shropshire, with the Earl of Emsworth and others, notably his prize pig the Empress of Blandings, in PG Wodehouse's Summer Lightning, set atmosperically in the mid 1930s.

[Cornflower]

I never have to ask you what you're reading because I can tell from all the laughter that it's Wodehouse. Wonderful that he still gives so much pleasure after countless re-reads.

[Cornflower]

Oh, the marvellous State of Wonder! A treat in store.

[Cornflower]

I still haven't read that one though it's here on the pile.

[Dorothy]

I'm in Sweden wondering how all the mess of 'The Hypnotist' is going to end. Not well I would guess, given the mayhem that got us here. But I am really enjoying it!
(The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler, who is/are two people).

[Cornflower]

The only one of those I've read is the great Mollie P-D, but how lovely to immerse yourself in Persephones.

[Cornflower]

Yes, THG is very scary indeed!
I've read so many rave reviews about Magnificent Obsession that it must be a great read, and I must say I'm drawn to The Somnambulist, too.

[Cornflower]

I very much enjoyed the Frances Mayes books and the lovely Enchanted April. You're in good places, Belle!

[Cornflower]

Having loved the brilliant Ghastly Business (Louise Levene's novel about a famous pathologist and what goes on in his lab) I think I could class myself as not too squeamish so I'm keen to read Pure.

[Cornflower]

I haven't read Nesbo (I'm in a minority, I expect) but thanks for the 'ultimately unsatisfying' warning.

[Cornflower]

I still haven't read Murakami ...

[Cornflower]

I'll admit that 'dystopian' - on the face of it, at least - isn't 'me', but in MA's hands I might feel otherwise.

[Cornflower]

Much drama going on in your reading life, Pam!

[Cornflower]

We have a few of Boris Akunin's books here but I've yet to read them. He's entertaining in peson, though (I heard him in conversation with Ian Rankin a few years ago).

[Cornflower]

Indeed, Adele!

[Cornflower]

I love doing posts like this one because they generate such a lot of good book recommendations. Thanks, Dorothy.

[Freda]

I'm in Accrington with scary Mrs Winterson, but we're off to Oxford any minute...

[Cornflower]

Ooh, Oxford should be a breeze after life with Mrs. W (from what I've heard - haven't read it)!

[Desperate Reader]

I'm touring the Hebrides in excellent company, I've been shown around by Gavin Maxwell, Frank Fraser Darling, and currently am on Coll listening to corncrake's with Kathleen Jamie. I don't want to leave.

[Anji]

I have just finished The Complaints, Ian Rankin's latest set in Edinburgh. It's a good read and I certainly will be reading the next instalment. By my bed is Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman based in New York State.

It is rather nice to be tucked up indoors considering that here in Alberta we have greeted spring with a dumping of snow. It has snowed for the last two days.

[m]

Oh, I didn't like Ghastly Business at all. I know it was meant to be funny, but it all seemed rather sordid. Much preferred Andrew Miller but will be interested to see what you think.

[[email protected]]

I'm in Norfolk, England, in the greenhouses at Wharton Park, where you will find "The Orchid House". I am only a few pages into it but I know already I will love this book by Lucinda Riley. Perhaps it's because I started growing orchids last fall. I am having a terrible time keeping my phalaenopsis orchids alive, despite their being advertised as "easy to grow". If there are orchid growers out there, "Help!" Mine are rotting away!

[Pam]

I'm in America in 1880 about to witness the assassination of President Garfield courtesy of "Destiny of the Republic" by Candice Millard. Also visiting England in 1916 with Bess Crawford thanks to "A Duty to the Dead" by Charles Todd. Hmm... perhaps I need to add something a little lighter?

[Julie Fredericksen]

Wondering why I was identified as [email protected] (my e-mail address) instead of just plain Julie Fredericksen. Perhaps I mis-typed some info. Oh, well, that's fine, I'm both!)

[Pam]

I absolutely LOVED that story...won't comment on the end because you may not be there yet, but loved the whole thing. The film was also very good I thought.

[Barbara MacLeod]

Oh I absolutely agree!

I think it should be added to the list of books described in a pamphlet in our local library this week. The list is "Mood Boosting Books" complied by The Reading Agency and BBC Headroom, i.e. titles chosen by reading groups around the country.

[carole]

I was in Kashmir this morning putting the finishing touches to The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it at first, but then I couldn't put it down. This evening I am in Thatcham with The Unseen by Katherine Webb.

[Lyn]

I've been in a French coal mining village with Zola's Germinal & 19th century England with Martin Chuzzlewit (only 100pp to go). Also Bath with Jill Mansell's A Walk in the Park & the Shtlands with Simon King's Shetland Diaries (listening on audio). I'm not sure where I'm going next.

[Lyn]

Sorry, I was in the Shetlands with Simon King!

[Mystica]

I love the backgrounds to your three books. I have not thought about it till now but it is so true - foreign settings for me take me there literally. Right now in the Punjab with Khushwant Singh!

[Cornflower]

I've been to Coll and heard the corncrakes! You're in a lovely part of the world.

[Cornflower]

Maybe too much water? I'm no expert at all, but I believe they like a tiny amount, say once a week.

[Cornflower]

Yes, TKS is quite unputdownable!

[Cornflower]

I'm all in favour of mood boosting books - off to see if I can find the list.