Greetings!
Been doing a lot of reading lately and very little writing... lemme see...
Read:
The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer - this was a bit more romance-y than the other Heyer books I've devoured (any book with the sentence 'He kissed her ruthlessly.' will set my teeth on edge a little; fortunately kissing is as far as it goes!), but still amusing. More than a teensy bit implausible - the 'masqueraders' of the title are a brother and sister who swap clothes for almost the entire novel, and only one man figures it out! Very fun, silly sort of book. Think
The Scarlet Pimpernel, just a little less brilliant.
Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding. If reading Jane Austen is like eating a delicious five course dinner then reading
Bridget Jones is like eating a packet of chips. A guilty pleasure that doesn't do you any good, (My inner monologue always takes on the style of whatever I'm reading until I finish it... can get 'v.' annoying with some books) but you can't put it down. The storyline is much more closely based on Jane Austen's
Persuasion than the previous book was based on
Pride and Prejudice.
In my impatience for the next series of
Sherlock I've started re-reading Arthur Conan Doyle's original classics. Awesome stuff. Definitely recommend it. Finished
A Study in Scarlet - I'm moving on to
The Sign of the Four now.
Leave it to Psmith and
Ukridge by P. G. Wodehouse... how can I express the affection I feel for Wodehouse's characters and stories? I can't. Not a bit. I adored Ukridge with his dodgy money-making schemes and mustard yellow macintosh almost as much as I loved Psmith with his suavity, wit and monocle. I can only say, go! Get your mitts on a Wodehouse! Revel in the golden goodness of his magical prose and delicious, delightful plotting!
Bought:
Yesterday I purchased these two books, neither of which I have read.
The Iron Man I acquired because I recently saw
The Iron Giant, which is based on the above novelette. (
The Iron Giant is a gorgeous little movie, by the way - very much recommended!) I have never heard of or read any of the four books that make up
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (which, according to the cover and introduction, is about the ups and downs of being a housewife in the 1930s): it seems like my kind of book and I bought it on a hunch. Hope it's good!
This is the first of Chesterton's fictional works that I have really been able to get into - and it's pretty unputdownable! Chesterton's prose is as unexpected and strangely lyrical as his philosophical work. Not finished it yet, but enjoying very much.
Murder on a Midsummer Night by Kerry Greenwood
This book... was OK. I mean, not badly written, nice imagery, cool 192o's setting, pretty usual murder mystery plotline (although the plot really isn't the point of the book, one realises) and the protagonist was perfect. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I liked her. Phryne Fisher (catchy name, much?) is the self sufficient daughter of a baronet; she's a private detective, stunningly gorgeous and graceful, socially adept, art critic, gourmet, owns a lovely big house in Melbourne with two adopted daughters. Her problem? She has no problems. I found Phryne incredibly annoying in this respect - and her habit of walking all over the other characters really got to me by the end of the book. And the fact that she has a casual sexual relationships (not to mention her continually blase attitude towards debauchery in general - I mean, one passage had me wondering if she had experimented with bestiality. Ew.) just seemed implausible, considering the setting.
The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine
This book is rather different to those above... in that it isn't a novel, let alone a mysterious thriller. It's a book about how women's brains are different from men's.I found it very interesting and informative - plenty of stuff that I'd already figured out for myself, but it's nice to have scientific writing backing you up, isn't it? I was annoyed by all the 'when we were cavemen' imagery - particularly considering that I have read other (secular, if it matters to you) scientists decry the use of such outdated anthropological suppositions as 'neanderthal man' and his animalistic behaviour. Oh, and Louann Brizendine is a big advocate for hormone therapy, which I'm not entirely cool with. But certainly a fascinating read.
