My reading this weekend is taking me back in time and off to foreign shores in the shape of Alice Hoffman's Magic Lessons, (chronologically) the first in her Practical Magic series.
It begins in the county of Essex in the UK in 1664 and follows Maria Owens, a foundling child with a crow for a familiar, whose gifts - or powers, as we might more accurately term them - cause her to tread a dangerous line between herbalism and healing and the influencing of events in a more fundamental way.
I'm almost a third of the way through the book having begun it yesterday; it's 1680 and Maria has now crossed the Atlantic and travelled to Essex County Massachusetts, and I'm finding it a real page-turner, such are the author's storytelling gifts. I'm reading on with great enthusiasm!
What are you reading at the moment? Anything you'd particularly recommend? If you have a moment, do tell us in the comments.
I am reading Molly and the Captain by Anthony Quinn. The story takes place over three centuries and about three families. The title is of a painting which becomes famous in the 18 th century. I am half way through the book and am really enjoying it.
Posted by: Anne | 17 February 2023 at 10:26 PM
I am reading ‘In Love with George Eliot’ by Kathy O’Shaughnessy
Picked up at random when I had to do a stint on the till in our local Oxfam bookshop.
I’m enjoying this fictionalised account of the novelist’s life closely based on events as they happened. It has encouraged me to read more of her novels.
Posted by: Jane from Dorset | 18 February 2023 at 06:48 AM
I'm reading Lucy Worsley's biography of Agatha Christie, which is excellent. I'm not a great Christie fan but she had such an interesting life.
Posted by: callmemadam | 18 February 2023 at 10:05 AM
Thank you, Anne, Jane and Barbara (the new comments system - which I had to adopt as I could barely access the old one - means threads are no more and replies have to be indirect, and in cases like this, combined).
'Molly and the Captain' sounds good, Anne; what I've read of Anthony Quinn's has been good.
I shall look up 'In Love with George Eliot', Jane, and that reminds me that I have Jenny Uglow's biography of GE waiting to be read.
Barbara, I too very much enjoyed Lucy Worsley on AC.
Posted by: Cornflower | 18 February 2023 at 11:59 AM
Funny: a friend to whom I'd recommended Practical Magic many years ago just started reading it recently and is enjoying it. I hadn't heard of the prequel: perhaps something to ease me through February in Maine!
Posted by: Rebecca | 18 February 2023 at 12:08 PM
Yes indeed, Rebecca!
Posted by: Cornflower | 18 February 2023 at 12:19 PM
I am reading, with Victoria Best, Calvino's Invisible Cities which I certainly recommend.
Posted by: Dark Puss | 18 February 2023 at 04:13 PM
Thank you, DP, there happens to be a copy of that on our shelves so I'll bear in mind your recommendation.
Posted by: Cornflower | 18 February 2023 at 05:40 PM
I’ve just finished an audio book read by Eleanor Bron “The Parasites” by Daphne Du Maurer and I was reminded how much the audio narrator determines various things when you listen to a book. Would I have read each character in that way, was the tone as I imagined? All food for thought which means I will definitely read it for myself one day. I found it beguiling as sometimes I really did not like the Delaneys at all and yet I wanted to follow their extraordinary lives.
Posted by: Teresa | 01 March 2023 at 01:57 PM
You've given me food for thought, Teresa: I never listen to audiobooks, and I wonder why that is. Is it to do with voice - the 'wrong' narrator possibly spoiling it - or is it just a habit I happen not to have adopted? I can certainly see how people enjoy listening when doing a task such as the ironing, or when out for a walk, but when I walk I like to have my wits about me and take in my surroundings, but perhaps I should give it a try!
Posted by: Cornflower | 01 March 2023 at 02:19 PM