Friday reads

   

    Back in May I found three O. Douglas novels* in the secondhand books shop down the road; it has taken me until now to begin the first of them, but so far Priorsford (1932) - set in a small Scottish Borders town - is a comfy, cosy, couthy read, and just the thing for a day of snow flurries and bitter cold.

    What's everyone else reading this weekend?

*See also this postscript.

Comments

[Mary]

I started Burial Rites (Hannah Kent) last night and was immediately gripped. Not sure I'd describe it as couthy, though! What a wonderful word.

[diana]

Have always been grateful that lyn over at I prefer reading introduced O Douglas into my life! I re read all of them periodically....with Pink Sugar being my favourite I think

[Cornflower]

I have that one waiting (still)!

[Cornflower]

I'll have to get Pink Sugar; I love the reference to 'Cranford-on-Tweed' in the Greyladies' introduction to it: http://greyladiesbooks.co.uk/pages/p_ps.html

[Dark Puss]

Just the opposite sort of book, as you might expect. One of my random library picks is the large collection of short reportage "stories" Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell. A splended collection of drunks, pimps, down-and-outs, manic (street) preachers and other assorted humanity in "old" New York is described with clarity, honesty, simplicity and directness (in terms of language and dark humour. I am just about to start the piece "Lady Olga" which is about a bearded lady in a sideshow and was written in 1940. As you have been to NY (and I haven't) I recommend it to you both on account of the excellent writing and also because you might just have come across some faint echoes on your visit.

[Cornflower]

That sounds like a very DP type of book!
Thanks for the recommendation - I do enjoy a bit of "all life is here" when I'm in the mood.
I don't recall seeing any such colourful NY characters when I was there, but doubtless they were and are to be found.

[Mary]

I think you'd enjoy it, Cornflower. It's one of the books where you feel as if you were there - in this case, in very bleak Iceland in 1829. I did visit Iceland once and thought it would literally drive me mad to live there and that's now!

[Cornflower]

I heard Hannah Kent talk about it at the Edinburgh Book Festival a couple of years ago and it sounded very much my cup of tea.
I'd love to visit Iceland, though I did turn down a three day salmon fishing trip out in the wilds there - I'd rather feel a little closer to civilization!

[Dark Puss]

You probably hung out in the wrong sort of bars :-) ! P xx

[Cornflower]

Can't think when I was last in a bar of any kind, anywhere!

[Mary]

I went for the northern lights but they didn't perform and it was dark all day with absolutely nothing else to do. Even the local cafe was a shelf with a flask at the back of the tiny Spar supermarket. Three days of standing in a river would not be my idea of fun either!

[Dorothy]

Currently reading Alex Marwood's 'The Killer Next Door". I would highly recommend her writing.

[Cornflower]

I don't Alex Marwood at all, so many thanks for the recommendation, Dorothy.

[Dark Puss]

!

[cathy]

Just finished The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley...reminiscent of Mary Stewart. Takes place in Scotland, which is why I picked it up. Moving on to The Brontes Went To Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson. It was written in 1931...such eclectic reading!

[Cornflower]

I've read only one Susanna Kearsley so far but I enjoyed it greatly. The Brontes Went ... was mad but fun, I recall.

[Dark Puss]

I am also reading and you may need your sal volatile here since I bought my copy, American Smoke by Ian Sinclair. He is travelling, perhaps on an Odyssey would be a better way to describe it, in the USA in the footsteps of the Beat Poets. Extraordinary journey and extraordinary writing. Highly recommended as something distinctively "different". You may find on occasion that his sharp insights drift away somewhat under the influence of the "Smoke" of the title, but surely that is as it should be :-)

[Cornflower]

Bought? Bought?
Fit of the vapours ongoing as we speak!