Where's your reading taking you?

     

    This week I've 'been' on the Matterhorn with a group of adventurous Edwardian ladies in Susanna Jones' excellent and chilling When Nights Were Cold (of which more soon), and then I went to Cornwall in the 1990s via a re-read of Tim Smit's The Lost Gardens Of Heligan, his beautifully enthusiastic and succinct account of the discovery and restoration of the gardens of this now world famous Cornish estate. Now I'm off to 1660s Oxford to make a start on our February book group book, Iain Pears' An Instance Of The Fingerpost.

    Where's your reading taking you?

Comments

[Dark Puss]

Just completing An Instance of the Fingerpost. I could say quite a lot about this, but of course I will keep completely silent until you make your post in February. Will then start on next week's CBG book.

[Cornflower]

Unlike the Iain Pears, next week's book is very short!

[Liz]

Currently solving a murder (with Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache)in a delightful setting in Quebec. I have an idea whodunnit.

[craftygreenpoet]

to Infinity and Beyond - i'm reading the history of Infinity

[Jo]

In Victorian London with The Yard, in a shop with Cupcake at Carringtons. And off with some Diplomatic Baggage. Vast variety.

[Cornflower]

I very much want to read Louise Penny - her books sound appealing.

[Cornflower]

Wow!

[Cornflower]

That looks like a good mixture, Jo.

[Deirdre]

I was in Canada with Alice Munro's short stories in Dear Life. I am off to a city on the Caribbean Sea as I'm about to begin Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. Quite a shift, I think!

[Belle]

I am at Chatsworth with The Duchess of Devonshire, in New York City with Donald Westlake's comic adventure "Why Me?" starring the ever-jinxed John Dortmunder and gang, and in London with Caitlin Moran's "Moranthology". Quite a wild ride!

[Cornflower]

You get around, Deirdre!

[Cornflower]

I believe Chatsworth is very snowy just now, so an ideal time to be there with the duchess. As for Caitlin Moran, I must be the only person in Britain (and beyond) who has never read her.

[Anne]

Not quite Karen - I have not read CM either and am just down the road from you!

[Agnieszka]

You are not alone. I haven't read Moran until last week when my copy of "How to be a woman" has arrived but I put it on hold after the first chapter (I don’t think it’s my cup of tea, maybe I’m not feminist enough). And right now I’m in a girls’ school in England with "More Women Than Men" by Ivy Compton – Burnett.

[Cornflower]

We're in a select group of two, then, Anne!

[Cornflower]

That's very interesting, Agnieszka, and maybe I won't rush to buy the CM book! I hope the Compton-Burnett is more to your taste.

[Dorothy]

I've just re-lived the early 70s through Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. it was interesting to see it from an adult perspective since i was only 10 in 1970. So that's what all the sitting in front of the fire reading by candlelight was all about!

[Mary]

I remember, such a good excuse for not doing one's homework.

[Mary]

I'm in 1939 Berlin with some black jazz musicians. Half Blood Blues (Esi Edugyan), highly recommended so far.

[Susan in TX]

India - A Passage to India by Forster to be exact. :) Busy getting reaquainted with "real life" after vacationing for several weeks, I'm finding I'm so tired at the end of the day that I'm falling asleep after a couple of pages. I don't think it's the book - I think it's sheer exhaustion, but at this rate, it may be a long "passage." :)

[Cornflower]

Ian McEwan: still on my "I've never read ..." list.

[Cornflower]

Great starting point for a book!

[Cornflower]

Forster's another on my "I've never read ..." list, I'm sorry to say.

[Geraldine]

Have been in Northants, courtesy of The Quiet Fields by B B. Then moved on to Charlecote in Warwickshire, by reading Mistress of Charlecote, the journals of Mary Elizabeth Lucy, found in a drawer by Alice Fairfax Lucy.

Also in Tudor England - Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

[Freda]

I'm in Yorkshire in 1806 with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and also in Yorkshire in 1952 with A S Byatt's The Virgin In The Garden - so far I much prefer Yorkshire in 1952 (don't think fantasy is my thing...but I'm only at page 93....)

[Ann]

Today I'm 'Walking Home' on the Pennine Way with Simon Armitage at Knarsdale (p.98) and thoroughly enjoying it! It has to be a quick walk as it's a short library read due to high demand!

[Alison P]

I am currently in the Cairngorms with Robert Macfarlane (The Old Ways) via audiobook and have just left Prague in 1942 courtesty of HHhH by Laurent Binet. A supberb read.

[Cornflower]

Lovely BB!

[Dark Puss]

I'd be very interested to hear what you think of it.

[Dark Puss]

Oh no you're not!

[Dark Puss]

Three

[Cornflower]

I have had the Byatt on my shelves - unread - for a very long time, and I pick it up occasionally and glance at it and something always makes me put it down again. Glad to hear it's going well for you, Freda.

[Cornflower]

I've heard good things about that one.

[Cornflower]

I very much enjoyed The Old Ways, and I've seen nothing but enthusiastic reports of HHhH.

[B R Wombat]

Whisper it - you're not missing much!

[Cornflower]

I'll bear that firmly in mind! Thankyou, BR.

[Julie Fredericksen]

St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1949, via Finding Laura Buggs: "Those memorable days of push lawn mowers, corner grocery stores, big band music, burning leaves and filling stations that check the oil and wash the windshield. On this nostalgic canvas Stanley West has set his riveting and heartwarming novel, the devastating story of young Sandy Myers."

Having made a number of trips from North Dakota to the Twin Cities, I am recognizing a lot of landmarks, which always makes for a fun read.

[Julie Fredericksen]

Don't bother with "Sweet Tooth". What a waste of a Christmas gift.

[Cornflower]

I love to read about places I know - it does add another dimension to the experience, I think.

[Barbara MacLeod]

All over the place... with Brick, No. 90, Winter 2013. It is a biannual literary journal based in North America which caught my eye in Chapters bookstore in Vancouver. It’s formatted like a magazine but is basically a collection of essays of literary and creative non-fiction. Impressive. Good for long-haul flights.

[Vivienne]

Reading Dickens, Bleak House, (my choice for our local book group). Hadn't expected to chuckle from time to time and not far into it at the moment. Also, dipping into Nigel Slaters Kitchen Diaries, expecting to be inspired.

[Danielle]

I'm hoping to join you in Oxford and have my copy sitting on my nightstand, but this weekend I'm spending time in contemporary Iraq (The Yellow Birds) and early 20th century Sweden (Doctor Glas). As much as I am enjoying the books I'm reading (and I *am* enjoying them--I must admit to being a little tempted to pick up something else as well...).

[Cornflower]

That sounds very interesting.

[Cornflower]

NS is always worth reading, I think.

[Cornflower]

Glad to hear The Yellow Birds is good, Danielle, as I have it waiting.

[Julie Fredericksen]

A. S. Byatt: Meh. I've never been able to get more than a few pages into Possession.

[Cornflower]

I loved Possession!

[Karoline]

I'm currently at Willoughby Chase for next weeks CBC and in London with Mary in Monica Dicken's Mariana.

It makes a change from the gay scene of 30's/40's America which was where the book I last finished, Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar took me

[Cornflower]

Willoughby Chase is nice and snowy (at least for part of the book), and Mariana is good. Haven't read any Gore Vidal.

[Nancy]

I need to get back to The Grand Tour, Around the World with the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie. I put this aside after Christmas and forgot all about it!