Decisions, Decisions

amongothers.jpgI was supposed to start reading Among Others by Jo Walton this weekend because Kailana and I are doing a readalong, and this also happens to be one of our choices for the Once Upon A Time Challenge, but I have the latest Maisie Dobbs just out from the library and I thought, oh I’ll just sneak in a couple of pages.

Right. A couple of pages turned into chapters and now Among Others has to wait a bit more. I have promised I’ll have Among Others finished by end of May so hopefully I won’t be sidetracked by other shiny new books.

alessoninsecrets.jpgIn the meantime, A Lesson In Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear is proving to be another wonderful entry in the Maisie Dobbs series. For this 8th book, Maisie is going undercover as a philosophy professor to help the British Secret Service monitor any activities “not in the interest of His Majesty’s government.”

I love these books in part because of the character, but also because I always feel like I learn a bit more of what life must have been in like in England during that time frame. Jacqueline Winspear adds details about the cars, the dress, all sorts of bits that really help make you feel like you’ve stepped into another world.

I think with historical fiction it must be hard for authors to balance how much detail to add. You don’t want to go over the top and bore your readers but at the same time you do want to create the right atmosphere. These books come across as very genuine to me. If you’ve never tried them you should.

So how about you, have you been tempted by any new books even when you had others in the queue? What did you start?

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