May Day 2013

Today I finished the book I started yesterday. And I read another one yesterday. I was having a physical slump and found it necessary to be idle, and what is better for that than reading a fascinating book or two?

Today's book: The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber

It was our Book Club choice for April, but I didn't get around to reading it before the meeting. Book Club people were divided. Some thought it confusing and inaccessible; others liked it a lot; some only got halfway through, so discussion had to stop because of *spoilers* for thse who hadn't finished it. There was a copy available (thanks Heather) and I took up the challenge.
I thought it was really good. Old manuscripts; Russian mobsters; academics; mystery women; colourful families. Well written and with lots and lots of plot twists.
The basic plot of someone discovering or hunting for an old manuscript that may or may not exist, or may or may not be a forgery, was also used in Victoria Abbott's The Christie Curse  (see April blog).




Yesterday's book was The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger


This was a very sad book. It made me frustrated with 19th-century England and its mean class and gender structure. It was a romance, but not a happy one. The setting and some of the characters reminded me of the whimsical detective novels by   Elizabeth Peters (the Amelia Peabody series http://www.ameliapeabody.com/ ), but they were much more entertaining.