Lazy blogger
The sun finally shone through this morning, although it was still a pretty chilly one where, bundled up in a thick bathrobe, I hastened to put on the electric kettle for a very welcome hot cup of Milo. It was a weekend of “brrrs” and drip-drops of rain and grey grey grey, and that means, no tennis and a little of slouching around at home. The lights have had to be turned on early in order for me to continue my reading. And reading I have been doing – just not blogging!
So yeah, the laziness is still lingering and I’ve decided that rather than let these book thoughts languish, I’ll pop them in this blog post as mini reviews!
Book of a Thousand Days
A bit of a cheerless read in the beginning – Dashti is Lady Saren’s maid and is locked up with her in a tower for seven years as Lady Saren has refused to marry this brute of a man her father has picked for her. It does pick up as it progresses and Dashti’s spunk and Lady Saren’s oddness make for an interesting read, although at times I longed for a bit more insight into Saren’s diminishing saneness (it is however told in the form of Dashti’s journal so we can only speculate). I especially liked that it was set in central Asia. A refreshing change of setting.
Fall On Your Knees 
That Oprah Book Club stamp on the cover made me hesitate but I’m glad I put aside my prejudices and pick up this book. It is quite a read. Words like ‘epic’ and ‘saga’ and ‘sweeping’ came to mind as I began it, but I never realised that this wasn’t your typical Cape Breton family, but one that had Lebanese roots – definitely wasn’t expecting that. Fascinating and somewhat disturbing, MacDonald’s work has intrigued me and I look forward to reading more from her.
Fruit of the Lemon
I was very much looking forward to this one. And it started out pretty promisingly. Faith Jackson knows little about her parents’ life back in Jamaica. Her own life is muddling along just fine, with her new job at the BBC costume department, sharing a house with her friends. About halfway through the book, Faith visits Jamaica for the first time and meets her relatives. The book took a bit of a downturn here – while I enjoyed reading about her culture shock and meeting the family, the stories told to her about her relatives didn’t quite capture my interest as fully (and there were many of them). However, I love Levy’s writing style and the characters she creates (in this case, Faith and especially her parents and their fondness for boxes – plus her mother names her daughter Columbine after her beloved goat in Jamaica!), so I’ll still be on the lookout for more of her work.
Dancing on Ice: A 1930s Arctic Adventure
A fascinating story that begins, well, fascinatingly. A man stuck under ice and snow, somewhere in the Arctic (he’s in a tent that has a ventilation pipe providing air from the surface) and running out of food and fuel. He’s been alone for months and in the past few weeks, unable to leave his tent (which also means unable to remove his bodily wastes!). Will he be saved? True story? Yep. A fine example of the hardiness of Brits of that generation? Indeed. Check out the picture of a young gentleman skiing in tweed and a tie if you don’t believe me. Scott did a commendable job tracing the lives and loves of these young men (their leader was in his early 20s), one of whom was his father, the other his uncle (yeah it involved some pledge for one of them to look after the other’s sister etc). Unlike the other Pole adventures I’ve been reading, this one is perhaps a bit less isolated (the Arctic does have Inuits, whereas Antarctica, which I’ve mostly been reading about this year, is quite a desert in terms of flora, fauna and humankind). The writing is at times iffy, there were one too many times where I stopped and had to reread a sentence as I didn’t quite catch its meaning. But what an adventure!
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
I finally understand why some bloggers say that this collection is better than Bechdel’s Fun Home. I would read a few pages (each page is one day’s comic strip) and think to myself, ok, have to put it down now and go do something else. Then next thing I know, I’ll have read another ten pages. And still going. Bechdel’s created great characters that you just can’t help but adore. So much fun to read as you follow along the lives of Mo and gang, which is accompanied by a rather biting critique of US politics of that time (this collection spans 25 years).
Still reading: Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire – Amanda Foreman
Oh the movie did not in any way do justice to the colourful life of Georgiana. Her involvement in politics (at a time when women weren’t even allowed to vote), her friendship with Marie Antoinette, her rather tumultuous relationship with both her mother and her husband and her friend/husband’s mistress Elizabeth Foster is merely skimmed over in the movie. What a truly fascinating woman, and a very apt, readable biography. While I’ve been reading a lot more non-fiction this year, I’ve been a bit hesitant to hit the biographies section. This one has proved me wrong. I’m hoping to read about the Mitford sisters next!
Lots of good books there. I like doing quick mini-reviews.
Quick and …. well not easy since I still had to formulate my thoughts, but definitely quick(er)!
You could drop any one of these in my reading lap just now and I’d be content; they all sound good, and the only one I’ve read is Fall on Your Knees, which I’ve already re-read once, but would happily read again. (If you ever have the opportunity to hear her read from her work, it’s wholly worthwhile: she is a true performer.)
Fall On Your Knees was a rather fascinating, sweeping book. I’m pretty glad I checked it out! My library only seems to have that and The Way The Crow Flies, which I’ll put on hold soon enough (once I get through my next lot of loot!).