Skip to main content

The Sunday Salon


When are Sundays ever anything but quiet? I always use them to regroup before the work week begins on Monday, and it’s not to do it in peace and quiet. My weekends usually consist of a lot of reading and watching TV. So, nothing truly interesting. It’s getting chilly here, and right now I’m curled up in bed (!) with my computer, writing this post. Amazing to think that it’s October already, you know?

As far as reading goes, though, this week I finished three books: The Nebuly Coat, by John Meade Falner (which I started reading last Sunday), Consolation, by James Wilson (underwhelming novel I bought in the UK on vacation last month about a man in 1910 England who sets out to disciver the secret of one woman’s background), and The Garden of Persephone, by Cesar Rotondi (out of print novel about 12th century Sicily), which I finished reading this morning over coffee. I’ve written reviews for all but the Rotondi, which I’ve scheduled to post for this week and next—pretty much all of my blog posts are scheduled, except for Sunday Salons and Teaser Tuesdays. Don’t know why I schedule reviews for so far out, except that maybe I don’t like to feel the pressure of constantly having to read and review to keep my readers interested. I also like knowing that I have a few reviews in my back pocket to post when there’s nothing else to write about.

More recently, I started reading Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle, by Manda Scott, a rather long novel about the famous pre-Roman queen of the Eceni. I needed something thick and satisfying, and this novel seems to be perfect for that. I’m thirty pages in, and so far so good.

Comments

I'd love to read something about Boudica so I'll be eagerly awaiting your review.
Hey, your Sundays sound like mine! And I am lovin' the weather getting colder, Autumn is my favorite time of year!

Have a great week Katherine!
I do the same thing with my reviews. Otherwise, I'd feel pressured to rush my reading in order to be able to write another review really quick. Who needs that? I want to enjoy my reading!
Gwendolyn B. said…
Oh, I've been waiting for a good novel on Boudica. Looking forward to your review.
Anonymous said…
good post on a nice blog.. good sunday activities.. for free dating services http://tringuladating.com/ a free dating services web site for singles

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs