AUGUST READING LIST

As usual, I skipped some of the books on my nightstand and read a few new ones.

I finished The Game of Kings or, more truthfully, skimmed it. It is very well-written but I just couldn't get into it. It is a historical fiction about Scotland in the mid-1500's fighting to keep its freedom. I understand why this series has a huge following but it didn't work for me.

Loved The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Quirky little novella about the current Queen of England stumbling into a library van and selecting a library book for the first time in her life. Her new-found love of reading wreaks havoc on the palace staff.

Bringing Home the Birkin was both educational and disappointing. As a handbag junkie, I enjoyed reading about the most coveted handbag in the world--the Hermes Birkin Bag. The mystique about the ridiculous two-year waiting lists is intriguing to me so it was great fun to read all the details but the writing is subpar and crude. Seriously, what is the role of a book editor??

Two books on tape, Jack in the Pulpit and The Cranefly Orchid Murders, were great fun. Cynthia Riggs is the author (in her mid-70's), lives on Martha's Vineyard which is also the setting for this murder series. The protagonist is 92-year old Victoria Trumbull, a sharp and all-knowing Vineyard maven. Good story lines, good character development, and lots of island tidbits. (Doesn't a little visit to Martha's Vineyard sound good right now?)

Cassandra loaned me the book The Help which I started this morning. Both Cassandra and her sister-in-law, Pat, loved it therefore I am reading it. It is rare that I read a current best-seller and I'm always surprised when it's on all the must-read lists and I like it as well (don't know why that is). But I am only on page 17 and am already sucked in.

Next up: The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield, a serial written for a British magazine in the 1930's that was later turned into a book. Looks delightful.

I continue to skip over The Brothers Karamazov and Middlemarch, although I am half-way through the latter. Maybe those are both winter reads.