Skip to main content

The Sunday Salon


“Neither of us knew the rate for bribing a gaoler at the Old Bailey.”

That’s the first line of the book I’m reading right now, A Dangerous Affair, by Caro Peacock, and so far (50 pages in), the book is living up to its promise. In it, a dancer is murdered after having a catfight with another, and Liberty steps in to take the case. A Dangerous Affair is the second in the Liberty Lane series (the first is A Foreign Affair), and I’m enjoying myself in 1837 London immensely. Thanks to Gwen at Literary License for the trade.

This week I’ve posted reviews of:
Mistress of the Monarchy, by Alison Weir
The Founding, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The Glassblower of Murano, by Marina Fiorato

And I’ve also read, but not reviewed:
Darling Jim, by Christian Moerk
The Lady Chapel, by Candace Robb

So it’s been a busy reading week.

If you’re in the US, happy Super Bowl Sunday! I’m not watching, because football just isn’t my thing, but the rest of my family are nuts about the Steelers.

Comments

Literary Feline said…
A Dangerous Affair sounds like an intriguing book. I am glad you are enjoying it so far.

No Super Bowl here either. Neither my husband and I care for football and so we'll be catching up on some reading and recorded TV shows today in between household chores. The usual Sunday. :-)

Have a great week!
Meghan said…
I didn't even realize it was Super Bowl Sunday until yesterday! I'm in the UK, so no one cares here, but it's still weird not to have anything going on. My family has never been too into it, but I've been at college for the past 4 years, I got used to the fuss.

- Meghan @ Medieval Bookworm
Luanne said…
ohh this sounds really good - I love this time period!
Danielle said…
I've just started Caro Peacock's first book and am really enjoying it. I have this one coming in the mail, so glad to hear it's good as well!

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...

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...