Skip to main content

The Sunday Salon: 4th of July Weekend


It’s been a very long, very relaxing weekend. Having had work off on Friday, I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a few books using a gift card I’d received for Christmas: The Jewel Box, by Anna Davis; The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte, by Syrie James; and Shield of Three Lions, by Pamela Kaufman. The first two had been on my TBR list for a while; the third was a complete impulse buy. I’m saving the rest of the gift card to buy Sophie Kinsella’s newest book, coming out later this month.

As for what I’ve actually been reading this weekend: Twilight of a Queen, by Susan Carroll, the fifth book in the Dark Queen series, which is coming out on the 21st. The series features Catherine de Medici, the “Dark Queen,” a reputed witch who is pitted up against Ariane Cheney, a “daughter of the earth” who has healing powers. I haven’t read the first four books in the series, but I’m not confused at all by this one. It’s a very quick read; in the space of two days, I’ve read 250 pages. I’m enjoying it; I might just go back and start the series from the beginning at some point. Also finished this week: The Time of Singing, by Elizabeth Chadwick; The Maiden, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles; The Canterbury Papers, by Judith Koll Healey (a re-read from 2005, actually); and The Counterfeit Guest, by Rose Melikan.

Since the first half of the year is over (already?), I thought I’d also do a little recap of what I’ve read in the past six months. I’ve finished 66 books, which is less than I’d finished by this time last year; I have a job this year, so I’ve had less time to read (though I do try to make time in my day for reading). I’ve read some good books this year, and I’ve read some stinkers, but in all it’s been an enjoyable reading experience thus far. How was your weekend?

Comments

Eva said…
Bookstore gift cards are the best! Good for your saving some for later; I don't have that kind of self control, lol.
Marg said…
I really need to hurry up and read the fourth book in this series. I loved the first three and I have an ARC coming of this one!
I received Twilight of a Queen too...I can't wait to dive in!

You must read the other 4 - they are AWESOME!!!

I look forward to your review on Kaufman's book, I'm interested in her.

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...