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The Sunday Salon


Oh, my goodness, what an exciting week this has been for me! I mentioned last week that I was sprucing up my resume for an in-house job that had become available. On Monday I had the interview; and that afternoon the HR manager called me to offer me the job! I’m really excited about this opportunity, as in the long term it’ll give me opportunities for growth. I do like the job I currently have, but it involves a lot of repetition and I don’t see how it’ll ultimately help with my career goals. My new job, which I officially start on July 12th, will involve a longer commute, but in the end I think it’ll be worth it. I like the people I’m going to be working with and I believe I’m going to like my job.

This week the publicist at Sourcebooks who was running the Summer Book Club for the Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet wrote to say that she’s cancelling the book club. I have t say that for the most part I’m relieved; I haven’t loved the two parts of the Quartet I’ve read, and I really wasn’t looking forward to having the book hanging over my head all summer. I think that this summer will be a great chance to make a dent in my TBR pile (aka mountain) and read the books I really want to read. Summer should be about pleasure reading, and that’s what I plan to do this season.

I’ve done quite a lot of reading this week (what I’ve discovered is that my commute to my new job will involve a lot more travel time, hence the opportunity to do more reading). Here’s what I read this week:

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno. An ARC I received through Amazon Vine, which I didn’t unfortunately love.

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet Book II, by Edith Pargeter. I finished the book, although I didn’t have to. I’ll be posting a review of this sometime this week.

The King’s General, by Daphne Du Maurier. Everytime I read one of Du Maurier’s books, I just want to go out and buy all of her books that are in print that I haven’t read. This one, set during the English Civil War, has some trademark Du Maurier-isms and is quite good.

Good Evening Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes. A collection of 21 short stories that were published in The New Yorker during the war. I don’t usually read short stories, but this collection is superb.

I’m now reading Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, a novel told in diary format by DE Stevenson, the author of Miss Buncle’s Book. They say that fans of Stevenson’s are called DESsies, and I think I may be one of them now! Mrs. Tim is wonderful and it’s led me to track down a used copy of another of her novels, Amberwell, on ebay. Someone really needs to reprint more of her books, because used copies of some of them are going for some outrageous prices.

Comments

Daphne said…
I agree with you 100% about the summer reading club on Brothers of Gwynedd. I haven't decided yet if I will try and finish reading it at some point...
Marg said…
I had already read part II before Danielle cancelled the reading club. I thought the second book was much, much better than the first, so I think I am going to try and keep to the schedule. I hate leaving a book unread!
Bookfool said…
Congratulations on your new job! I was also relieved about the book club cancellation, but I do hope there will be another attempt in the fall. It just happened that I've been going through a bit of a health crisis that seems to have led to a horrible reading slump. I had such fun at that first chat that I really, really want to do that, again!
Clare said…
Congratulations on your new job!
Danielle said…
Congrats on the new job--it sounds exciting and a longer commute will give you more reading time? Unless you have to drive in which case there's always audio books? I was also relieved not to have to finish the Pargeter. Maybe someday I will pick up the other books to read but the timing for them for me is really off right now. This was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders! And I really need to read DE Stevenson!
Heidi said…
Hooray for your new job! If it is work you like and affords more reading time then it must be all good.

Looking forward to your review of The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno. I'm mid read on that one and it's going more slowly than I expected. I can't put my finger on the problem yet.
Melissa said…
Congratulations on the new job (and additional reading/listening to audiobooks time!)

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