MarysLibrary

Stone's Fall

This new novel by Iain Pears, Stone's Fall, was keeping Cornflower awake nights because she couldn't put it down, so I requested it from the Spokane Library, thinking to look it over and send it back. I've been so dissatisfied with most of the books I've been reading lately (with the exception of D E Stevenson, whom I heard about from Book and Opera Lover) and Grace Livingston Hill (many of whose works I acquired years ago thinking I was going to write a paper about the values expressed in these intensely religious popular novels.)

Since I have recognized my mood, though not before giving up on or writing negatively about a few books that would probably please me at another time, I've been reading a lot of nonfiction and skimming literary fiction to make note of books to read later when I'm more intellectually fit to do so.

Then came Iain Pears and this marvelous novel, with a complicated plot and complicated characters, including the scintillating Mme Robillard (or Elizabeth, Lady Ravenscliff, as she once was.) The blurb and the reviews promise an examination of international high finance and politics, the "golden age" of pre-WW I intrigue, and the beginnings of the 20th century arms race. The novel stretches from 1953 back to 1867 - the chronology is backwards - and it moves from London and Paris to mid-19th century Venice.

I've only just started the book and so I have 500 more pages of this bounty to look forward to. Patricia Wentworth, Dorothy Eden, Mignon Eberhart, and Faith Baldwin are going to have to wait.

Mariette in Ecstasy

My friend Les in Virginia (soon to be in Santa Fe) recommended this book today. I ordered it immediately from Amazon.com.

Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen was published in 1991. It's about a nun in an upstate New York convent just after the turn of the last century.

Each of us has at least one friend whose book recommendations are always worth reading. For me that's Les. He's the one who ought to be writing a blog.

Guess What?

Those were the words with which Wilhelm greeted me this morning.

Answer: Our new, $15,000 heating system isn't working. It didn't come on when he turned up the thermostat.

I want to cry.

Sunnyside

Today's Review-a-Day from Powell's Bookstore is the new novel by the author of Carter Beats the Devil, Glen David Gold. Sunnyside is a riotous history of the early 20th century filtered through the life of Charlie Chaplin. The book title is taken from the title of a little-know Chaplin movie, Sunnyside.

The review, by Ron Charles of The Washington Post, is excellent, the kind of review that gives you the information you need to decide whether a book is for you or not. This one is definitely for me.

Here I Am

I haven't been posting lately. It's not that I've been really busy, exactly. More like preoccupied.

The new furnace ordeal is over now but for nearly two weeks we had no central heating. We chose to have the installation when we did because the weather forecast was for daytime highs of around 60 and lows in the 40s. A couple of space heaters would keep us warm enough during the three or four days it would take to remove the old boiler and install the new one.

That proved to be an overly optimistic forecast. Except for a couple of days we have had highs in the 40s or low 50s and overnight lows near freezing. It took rather longer to make the switch than I expected. And when the new furnace was in place, late last Friday afternoon, it was pumping steam out a vent on the side of the house rather than into the radiators. So we had another cold weekend.

All is now well with the new system, which has a thermostat on each radiator so that we can set the bedroom on low and Mary's Library, which has four windows, on high. The days of the thermostat duels between Wilhelm and me are over. The cats can snuggle blissfully on top of the warm radiators.

There have also been frequent visits to the physical therapist in recent weeks. More about that in another post.

I've been reading a lot but have felt too lazy to post about the books. However, I am now pulling myself together and will make a good faith effort to talk in the next few days about what I've read, including the titles I've picked up from one of my favorite blogs, A Book and Opera Lover. I've hauled my flu books out of storage and will report on them soon as well.

I sent most of those books I borrowed last month back to the library unread, and not because I wasn't eager to read them. I really did find most of them engaging. But time is limited and with the ongoing Central Heating Problem I needed to read some mysteries and other soothing books. There has been enough angst in our lives of late without reading about more of it.