Our water table flowed over again today. Yes, frankly a miserable cloudy rainy day. I have however come to accept that there is no point pining for a long walk with the dogs in the spring or for the gorse to have dried out sufficiently to burn. Nor that it’s always better outside.
You just have to get on with it indoors. So, time to finish that book, bake that cake for office morning tea tomorrow and to start the spring clean of the wardrobes in the hope for a new Spring/Summer collection.
I finished the fourth and final book from my book buying spree at the beginning of winter. Regular readers might recall my earlier bookblogging reports. The most recent book was The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon.
It’s set in the time of the Crimean War when Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole were pioneering a role for women nurses at war. It was partly because of this that I chose this book having worked for the Royal College of Nursing for a number of years. The backdrop is probably the best thing about this book. You get a strong sense of how bloody, how disease ridden the time and place were. The story itself was about two women who were cousins and best friends – Mariella Lingwood and Rosa Barr. Rosa set her sights on going to nurse in the war and the story chases her and Mariella’s fiance, Henry, a surgeon working in the Crimean war. Throw the relationships between these characters with other people linked with the family and you have a passable but not inspiring tale of love, faithfulness and strong will.
I like my books to grab my attention and this was another book that didn’t. To be honest I was put off almost from the beginning but carried on to see whether there would be twists in the plot. Here’s an extract from the publisher so you can see for yourself.    extract-from-the-rose-of-sebastopol
So what next with my reading?
Choosing these books from the famous Richard and Judy Bookclub (the UK version of Oprah’s) was an experiment. A lazy way of seeking out new books to read. It’s not been a huge success. Following the mainstream seems to have been a bit of a disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read a bestseller but what this exercise has shown is that I need some real substance to my books. A really gripping tale with strong characters to bond with. Or a real life story with lots of human interest.
Here’s my top 10 favourite books that are top of mind now. They are in no particular order, they are all great reads.
- Flambards by KM Peynton – a children’s book about cousins living at the start of the first world war. It was made into a TV series which I still love to watch.
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Paseel – a strangly wierd but engaging relationship between a teacher and her students.
- A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth – an epic book of mammoth proportions with several stories of family connections weaved together.
- All the novels of Jane Austen – These are brilliant for their irony, characters and wholesome stories of love and life.
- Small Woman by Alan Burgess – the stories of Gladys Aylwood who went to China to be a missionary. This is one of my all time favourite films even if it wasn’t entirely true to the story.
- Secret History by Donna Tartt – strange happenings in College. Totally gripping.
- Ripening in the Sun by Patricia Atkinson – this is what started the change in life off. I need to add her follow up too as this is as good as the first. La Belle Saison.
- All the novels of Anne Tyler – she is such a fantastic story teller.
- Loving Frank by Nancy Horan – the story behind the love and life of Frank Lloyd Wright.
- Books of Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery – heartwarming stories of life in the country
- I know, I said 10 but I just remembered one.   The Hobbit by JR Tolkien – the first book I remember reading at school.
Having just dashed this list off without too much thought it seems I love child like stories to read! There are heaps of other books and authors I love including:
- PD James (What a thriller writer)
- Dick Francis (from my horsey obsessed days)
- Rose Tremain (if I’d thought harder her book The Colour would have made it to the top 10)
- EM Forster (even if they were my A level study books)
- Nick Hornby (easy going reading with substance)
- Annie Hawes (hilarious tales of life in Italy)
- Chris Stewart (engaging stories about life in Southern Spain)
Better stop, this could take all day.
So, blog friends. What do you recommend for me to read next? Tell me your top 3 I’ve not listed and I’ll give them a whirl and then tell you what I think.
Now that’s one thing I do not get time to do!
I think in the last 3 years I have read maybe 2 books, and that’s from start to finish probably spread over 6 months each.
The last one I read was Number 10 by Sue Townsend. Hilarious comedy based on the life of the Prime Minister and all around him. The kind of book where you could see the things happening but you are not too sure!
Just before that I struggled a bit with Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. Based on the ‘underworld’ of a English Boys Grammar School. I found it a bit loose at times and found my mind wandering, yet the ending pulled it all together nicely.
And now I have gone for something completely different. I saw this book on the table at a friends house and she said to read it. Not at all what you expect. Its the Story Of O – The Erotic Classic by Pauline Reage. Now I am only 37 pages in but already find myself thinking about the story – and not in a way you might imagine either! Will have to let you know about this one.
Reading is certainly something I do not get time for. I read about 3-4 pages a night before sleep and that’s it. If I don’t have a book I don’t search for one purposely as I get annoyed when I don’t find the time.
Good luck with the search – let us know how you get on! x
I read quite a lot though as I was teaching full-time last year there wasn’t too much time for non-work related reading. (The government churns out 100’s of pages of new education policy and curriculum documents every term.) Mostly I grab light reading from the library and no I’m not going to reveal my guilty secrets. I have a lot of Tolkein’s books though the Middle Earth histories take some concentration. I’ve just had a quick look on our bookshelves, past the 100’s of SF and military paperbacks, (Pete will not give away any of them,) and found one book that I had felt worth keeping- it’s Skallagrigg by William Horwood. An easy but well written read about children with disabilities. Unsusually it has a male author. I find (apart from Tolkein) that I only pick books by women authors. I just don’t find that men can write characters convincingly. In the days before family when I read a lot I preferred to read biographies, perhaps that’s why I enjoy reading blogs? I’m going to try and get some of your recommendations from the library. Time to get the brain into gear.
Thanks for the look into your bookshelves. Finding time to read is a real challenge and I’m like Marrisa fighting the eyelids coming down. I read most on holiday and am trying to set myself a goal of reading for 30 minutes a day.
I forgot to mention Evelyn Waugh as a favourite author and the wealth of non fiction books I read.
Mental note must be more thorough in my blogging!
I recommend Banana bread to go with all that rain and reading 😀 thanks, you just gave me a few things to add to my list.. I have been on a C.S. Lewis kick these past few weeks.
Ooooh, Tricia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, how could I forget. Loved the film Shadowlands too all about CS Lewis. Banana bread, now that’s an idea.
Such a fantastic list of books you’ve put together and many of my favourites. I often go up to bed too late and still can’t resist reading… and then go to sleep way too late! I go through days and days of averaging 6 hour’s sleep a night and then crash and need a few early night’s!
Some books to add to your list:
– NZ Authors I love – Keri Hulme, Katherine Mansfield, Elizabeth Knox, Maurice Gee (his book ‘Live Bodies’ is about Wellington’s Somes Island and a group of so called ‘aliens’ interned there during WW2).
Have you read Jean M. Auel’s ‘Earth Children’ books? A magnificent epic of life on the glacial continent of the last Ice Age, when two kinds of human beings, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, shared the earth.
I’ve recently been engrossed in Philippa Gregory’s historical novels – recent reads ‘Virgin Earth’ and ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’.
A great historical read – ‘Red, China, Blues’ by Jan Wong.
Love ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ by Barbara Kingsolver.
Some thought provoking reading – Richard Bach’s ‘One’, all Paulo Coelho’s books – particularly enjoyed ‘The Pilgrimage’ and ‘The Alchemist’.
Enjoyable light reads I’ve recently finished – Victoria Hislop’s ‘The Island’ and also ‘Eat, pray, love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Another thought provoking one I’m LOVING is ‘A New Earth’ by Eckhart Tolle.
There’s a few… right must go plant some pea-pods and herbs in the garden whilst the sun shines! Sarah x
I am reading Katherine’s Wish, by linda Lappin- about the life of Katherine Mansfield. Makes a fascinating counterpoint to her letters, journals and stories.