Still here -- in case you were wondering

Almost two weeks have wizzed by and I've not posted any book reviews. Alas, dear readers, I am still here -- and still reading -- but have fallen behind a little on the putting-my-thoughts-into-coherent-order front.

I've just spent a week's annual leave holed up in a cottage on the north Cornwall coast, where I enjoyed a little time with my nose stuck in a book. Typically, the novels I took away with me -- Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves and Jocelyn Playfair's A House in the Country -- were not the kind that grabbed me from the onset, and so what reading I did do felt more like duty than pleasure.

Fortunately, I managed to buy a book while I was away that did hook me from the start. I began reading Tim Smit's Eden, a true account of how the Eden Project was put together, following our day trip to the world's largest conservatories. I'm not sure I would have read this book had I not seen the project with my own eyes. Now, having read it, I'm more in awe of Eden than I was when I took my first tentative steps inside the biomes! I'll post a review shortly.

In the meantime, it was lovely to come home and find four packages awaiting me. I'd forgotten I'd mooched so many books in February -- and they all seem to have arrived at once. My ever-increasing To Be Read pile now includes Magnus Mills' The Scheme for Full Employment, Amos Oz's Don't Call it Night, Per Petterson's In the Wake and Donna Leon's Blood from a Stone. Pity I can't take another week's leave to read them all!

>> Please note, I've spent an afternoon setting up new categories for my reviews -- a job I wish I hadn't have started, to be honest, because it turned out to be much more labour-intensive than I realised. So you will now be able to find reviews categorised according to setting -- for example, Ireland or New York --  and, in some cases, genre -- for example, crime or historical fiction. Authors whose books I have read more than one of also get their own entries, for example John McGahern, Salley  Vickers and Ian McEwan. You can find the full list of categories in the menu bar, down there on the right somewhere. Enjoy!

Comments

[Isabel]

I read Mill's Restraint of Beasts last year and almost fell out of my seat in the train. He's a great writer.

It's nice to have new categories. It's hard to keep everything organized. I have reviewed some books but haven't added the links to my review section.

Could you check my blog for a One Book suggestion?

[Wendy Smith]

I was wondering where you'd got to. Hope you had a good time. Sorry that you didn't like The Tenderness of Wolves, I loved it!

[kimbofo]

Isabel, "Restraint of Beasts" is hilarious. My favourite is "All Quiet on the Orient Express" -- deliciously funny in the most understated way imaginable.

Hi Wendy, thanks for your comment. Yes, I had a lovely relaxing time (check my kimbofo blog for more info). Unfortunately, Tenderness of Wolves didn't grab me as I thought it would -- too many divergent voices, I think -- but I still enjoyed it.