Skip to main content

The Sunday Salon


I can’t believe it’s already March—so much has been going on and I’ve been so busy lately! I’m still taking two courses on top of work, so I’ve been spending my evenings and weekends doing coursework—my classes “meet” online on Tuesdays and Wednesday and then I usually have several hours of work on top of that.

Although I’ve been so busy, I’ve still been reading a lot—I’m currently reading another Virago Modern Classic, The Weather in the Streets (Rosamond Lehmann), which is a sequel of sorts to Invitation to the Waltz. February was a busy reading month; in 29 days I finished ten books. I haven’t had that much time for blogging, but I’ve been writing and posting reviews, which should appear here over the next few weeks. In April I’ll be participating in Muriel Spark Reading Week and I’ve got three choices: Aiding and Abetting, Loitering With Intent, and a lesser-known one: Territorial Rights, set in Venice, which might just be perfect.

Like I imagine a lot of you, since the end of season 2 of Downton Abbey, I’ve been in Downton Abbey withdrawal. In lieu of it, I’ve been watching Lark Rise to Candleford, a series based on a novel/memoir about a young girl who goes to work in the post office of a small (to us) English village in the late 19th century. One of the stars of the miniseries is Brendan Coyle, who played Mr Bates in Downton Abbey, so if you’re looking for a temporary fix to Downton, Lark rise to Candleford might just be the perfect fix. Also on my Netflix instant queue is, of course, the first season of Upstairs, Downstairs (why oh why don’t they have every season on instant?), so I’ve been rewatching that as well.

How has your year been going so far?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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.
194 comments
Read more

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...
115 comments
Read more

Review: Mariana, by Monica Dickens

Mariana is the story of one young girl’s growth towards adulthood during the 1920s and ‘30s. The book begins when Mary Shannon is eight, and traveling with her somewhat flighty mother to Charbury, her grandparents’ house; and continues up through the time that Mary is twenty-four and waiting to hear news of her husband from the war. Monica Dickens (a great-granddaughter of Charles) depicts Mary’s maturation to adulthood with perfection. The reader sympathizes with Mary as she experiences the ups and downs of relationships and careers—experimenting with both seems to be pretty characteristic of Mary, as she grapples a bit with identity and independence. And yet, there isn’t the usual amount of teenage angst that one usually finds in a novel about growing up, which I found to be very refreshing. Mary is a sweet and sometimes naïve girl, but at the same time, she’s also wonderfully sarcastic towards her peers. She’s hard to like at times, but in an odd way, I found myself sympathizing wi...
2 comments
Read more