Where's your reading taking you?

   

    Via the pages of Elanor Dymott's novel Every Contact Leaves A Trace I am in Oxford in December 2007, in Worcester College in the snow, where lawyer and old member Alex Petersen is trying to make sense of the strange events leading up to the murder of his wife Rachel in the college grounds some months earlier.

    I'm finding this book completely engrossing, and I'll say no more about it than that for now as although I have a hunch as to 'whodunnit', there are so many secrets hinted at and questions left thus far unanswered, that two thirds in the mysteries are deepening.

    Helpfully, the book includes a map of the college (shown in part here), and it would appear that it is there not just so that the reader can grasp the layout of the setting, but because it has some significance to the plot itself. We shall see ....

    While I cross the Quad, hunched against the cold, or look up at the figure watching from the window on the spiral staircase to the Old Library, his features obscured by a flurry of snow, where's your reading taking you just now?

Comments

[Alex]

I certainly felt as if I was in Oxford when I read this, but I wasn't certain in the end how well it worked. I'll be interested in what you think when you've finished it.

[Adele Geras]

This sounds good to me. I've just finished SISTERLAND by Curtis Sittenfeld in proof and loved it. So I 'be been in St Louis USA. Next up Elly Griffiths' Dying Fall?....

[Mary (over the Pond)]

In Paris...the end-of-life story of David Servan-Schreiber. Next up, Nicholson's Motherland.

[Mary]

Revisiting Lewis for the third book in Peter May's trilogy. Whilst tinkering about on Googlemaps admiring the scenery.

[Ed]

USA in the 1930s. I am reading the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. This includes a difficult trip from Oklahoma to California along route 66. This road is a major tourist destination these days, but in those days it was a hard slog for people with little money.

[Sarah]

In 1940s Scotland, in the outer isles of the Hebrides. To be exact on the isle of Little Todday or perhaps Great Todday. I am just finishing up Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie.

[Sue]

I have just left Tudor London, specifically Austin Friars, York Place and the Tower. I am having a little breather before rejoining it for the sequel which I believe will take me to Wolf Hall itself. (To be completely honest I am listening and not reading to the unabridged audio recordings of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies)

[Chris]

Italy with the Mrs Wilkins, Arbuthnot et al, and like Sue Wolf Hall.

[Dorothy]

I am in Lafferton with Simon Serrailler. This is 'The Pure in Heart' by Susan Hill. It's the second in this 'tec series. A good fast read. No plans for what's up next; it will be whatever takes my fancy!

[Cornflower]

Still gripped, and hoping there are no weak areas in the plot ...

[Cornflower]

I must read Elly Griffiths - I have The House at Sea's End sitting here.

[Cornflower]

Ah, the wonderful Motherland! I hope you'll enjoy it, Mary.

[Cornflower]

Have you see the Lewis Trilogy app, Mary? Maps, pictures, video and Gaelic pronunciation! http://www.ur-web.net/PeterMayMain/lewisapp.html

[Cornflower]

Yes, how times have changed. Coincidentally, The Grapes of Wrath features in Peggy Riley's excellent Amity & Sorrow, including in a very funny scene in a public library.

[Cornflower]

I'd like to read that (haven't even seen the film).

[Cornflower]

A treat for the ears, Sue.

[Cornflower]

That sounds like a very balanced reading diet, Chris.

[Cornflower]

I've read the first three of the SS books and enjoyed them greatly and certainly want to read the rest. Lafferton feels very real, I think.

[Belle]

I have been visiting Kenya with Isak Dinesen (Out of Africa) and Beryl Markham (West With the Night). I am leaving darkest Africa and heading to London with the latest in the Baker Street Letters mystery series by Michael Robertson.

Your Oxford mystery sounds delicious. Unfortunately my library does not have a copy. I will add it to my TBR list and keep an eye open for it.

[Cornflower]

In the absence of this Oxford crime novel, there are a lot more here, Belle: http://www.cornflowerbooks.co.uk/2012/07/dominus-illuminatio-mea.html

[Juliet]

I've been visiting the Night Market in Nick Harkaway's wonderfully imaginative Angelmaker.

[Cornflower]

I've just looked it up and it does sound good.

[Geraldine]

For my bedtime reading, I'm where Game of Thrones is situated, some fantasy land or other. Don't think I'll bother with the sequels, as this first title is okay, but not living up to my expectations.

Next book on the sitting room pile is Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel so France at the eve of the Revolution is my next port of call.

The DESsies are still discussing Young Mrs Savage so I'm also in North Berwick. This is in the room where our computer lives, there are 14 chapters left to discuss.

[Cornflower]

I haven't read (or seen) Game of Thrones, though everyone seems to be talking about it, but I have read A Place of Greater Safety, and can see there the stylistic seeds which grew into Wolf Hall, etc.

[Alex]

Don't start there, do get hold of the first one, 'The Crossing Place'. This is one series you really do need to red in order.

[Cornflower]

Noted! Many thanks for that tip, Alex.

[Ann]

I'm in Italy for an Enchanted April!

[Cornflower]

Perfect!

[Geraldine]

I haven't watched Game of Thrones either.

Picked it up because I was buying one book in W________ bookshop, it had a buy one get one half price sticker, and decided on reading the blurb to buy Game of Thrones to make it two purchases.

[LizF]

Just left the Sussex of Jane Rusbridge's Rook (loved it) and now on the other side of the Atlantic in 1920's Long Island with The Great Gatsby (my first Fitzgerald!)and Italy for Enchanted April as my copy has finally been unearthed!

[Cornflower]

So glad to hear you loved Rook!

[Belle]

Oh Cornflower. Thanks so much. What fine suggestions!

[Cornflower]

You're most welcome.

[Damsonlily]

Joining this geographical/historical tour somewhat late but I'm in good company, I see. Just emerged from a prolonged spell in Tudor England with C J Sansom and Hilary Mantel and am now on the island of Whalsay, part of the Shetland Islands and recently featured in the BBC drama 'Shetland'. The book is Red Bones by Ann Cleeves.

And while I'm there, could I draw attention to Kate Davies, whose amazing knitting featured in the Shetland drama and who does so much to promote the knitting traditions of Scotland? (Sorry, I know this is the 'wrong side' of Cornflower!)

Off to New Zealand shortly...... Katherine Mansfield - The Garden Party.

[Cornflower]

C.J. Sansom is another on my "must read" list, and yes, Kate Davies's work is very interesting indeed, and there is a link to her site over on Cornflower.
Enjoy New Zealand - and no jet lag!