Books and Reading

Still reading. Although I don't have a bed yet, my futon is a perfectly comfortable reading in bed bed. I trust that my new bed, when it appears, will be as good. 

I finished Frances Fitzgerald's Fire in the Lake. The book was about 82% over, when it suddenly ended. The rest of it was footnotes. I'm afraid I missed a lot not reading the footnotes. I didn't know if they were merely citations, which can be skipped, or expansions on and explanations of the text, and they were the latter. It would be worth going back to read them. There was an afterward, which was very helpful, to bring me up to date about the country. Frances' knowledge of and writing about the country, politics, people, times is deep and broad and it was a privilege to read the book.

Then I read JK Rowling's new book, written, I gather, for grownups - not that the Harry Potter was beneath us. This book, Casual Vacancy, is very odd. There is not one character in it that I wanted to root for. There were a few that showed promise, but that was soon dashed by some dastardly deed or vicious verbal attack. As an exercise in writing or reading a book people exclusively with characters I hate, it was a rousing success. It still gripped me, but I wouldn't recommend it without a warning. I must read the reviews.

Now I am reading a 13th Century mystery in a monastary - or nastiness in a nunnery - Wine of Violence by Priscilla Royal. I can't help but compare it to the Brother Cadfael and the Sister Frevisse series. I liked them both, and think I'll like this too. Who would have guessed that the medieval era would be a rich mine for characters and plots. Well, come to think of it, there is Chaucer. This is a book I got free through bookbub.com. It is tempting to get many more than I can imagine reading, so I do let days go by without adding to my electronic hoard.