This & That

This & That

Nightstand March 29, 2009

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was wonderful, I went to two bookstores (yay) but believe it or not, I didn’t buy anything. I wish I could say the same for the husband. heh.

I did spend quite a bit of time reading but I didn’t get to most of the books in my previous picture post, aside from When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I’m loving that book. I did start a very good mystery, The Last Kashmiri Rose by Beverly Cleverly. This is one of those books that I’d been meaning to get to for a long time and so far I can say it was well-worth the wait but more on it later.

Most of the weekend I spent it reading The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig. It’s a wonderful character study about a woman who has been living a dreary life after the war and once she gets a chance at a week full of pleasure, riches and so on she “awakens”. Of course she has to go back to her real life of work and pinching pennies and well, you can only imagine how that must make her feel. I’m hoping to finish this book just in time for The Slaves of Golconda discussion on Tuesday so feel free to drop in on the conversation and hear more about the book or if you’ve read it then share your thoughts.

So that’s about it on the reading front for me but I had to leave you with some very cool links I’ve recently found.

  • Did you know that only about 3% of all books published in the U.S. are works in translation? Well, boost your knowledge of foreign literature by checking out Three Percent.
  • Want to know what the 25 most influential books of the past 25 years are? Check out the March/April issue of Mental Floss magazine. I see some Atwood, Morrison and Murakami.
  • Remember covering your schoolbooks with kraft paper? Well, thanks to Book City Jackets you can do that again but with a bit more style. Right now they only have Fiction, Favorite and Non-Fiction. I think Poetry should be next given that National Poetry Month is just around the corner don’t you think?
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Weekly Geeks – History Tour

Weekly Geeks – History Tour

Nightstand March 25, 2009

wg.jpg I haven’t had a chance to participate in Weekly Geeks in a while but I loved this week’s topic so here it goes:

Let’s take a magical history tour this week, with a focus on Historical Fiction. That is, contemporary novels with a historical setting. I like to give choices, so here they are, pick the question(s) that appeal to you:

Is there a particular era that you love reading about? Tell us about it–give us a book list, if you’d like. Include pictures or some fun facts from that time period, maybe link to a website that focuses on that time. Educate us.

I think you guys know that I’m a big fan of historical novels, especially those set in the Victorian Era. Something about the customs, the dresses, the gaslights, it all appeals to me. Here’s a short list of some of my favorite books set in this time frame.

And, there are a bunch of mystery series I follow which are set in Victorian times too. I know I recently listed some of these but here are even more:

You should see just how many more books I have that are also set in this period which are waiting for me. Of course, if you have any recommendations let me know. I’m always adding to the list.

For those of you who enjoy historical fiction check out this web site. Your wish list will go overboard.

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