More books!
I was in the library/computer room/music room this morning writing out cheques to pay for childcare when I looked over and noticed a book on the shelves and realised I had read it but not blogged about it. So I have no idea where The Ladies of Grace Adieu goes in narrativeof reading for a year. Now I loved Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell and I enjoyed the Ladies even though I rarely do collections of short stories. Jonathon Strange is one of the books/authors I came across thanks to blogs and Crooked Timber in particular. They were doing a seminar on Jonathon Strange and I thought I should read it. I actually find Crooked Timber quite good at finding books for the H. I got sent to George R.R. Martin by them (and if you find a Northern Ireland physicist reading some of the song of fire and ice it is all because of me and Crooked and look publishers, you want to increase your readership, well that is where you start) and also Mieville. Martin hasn't done a seminar on Crooked. But I am so in awe of Mieville--academic! thinker! and noted author! and on the left! It is amazing I am not consumer as a small pile of envy right here and now. Of course, I would also like to plot and narrate like Martin. Oh, so much writing envy and what do I spend my spare time doing? Playing Age of Mythology!?!?

Also this week, I went to the library and checked out more books (after returning all that Stephenson). Read Wendy Holden's Filthy Rich. Which didn't have the unreconsistituted villain of typical Holden novels and well the main couple were still in love by the end but otherwise is pretty much the same old formula. And the Wag will obviously be getting future novels of her own. I did have one particular bone to pick. The rich American couple took out the rustic aristo for sushi in london. His first experience of sushi. But they took him to Yo! Now I love yo. I love the whole conveyer belt bit of it and the sparkling water jets. However, i think any self-respecting rich American in London would have gone to Nobu before being caught dead in Yo! So that part read completely false and like something a middle class chattering class would eat and not serious New York banker. I mean really!

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Book update time.

So I finished the second and third volumes of the Barock Cycle, The Confusion and The System of the World. I think I liked The Confusion best of the lot because it was only in that volume I started to like Jack Shaftoe and well, there was quite a bit of Eliza in it too and I like Eliza a lot. Not as much as Daniel Waterhouse who is just a wonderful character. And I do think it is an amazing work. I now know so much more about the politics of early science and the beginnings of the slave trade. I do which Louis XIV would have come to a bad end, but I suppose that wasn't something I could realistically expect.

I also went to Portugal and stayed at Club Med Da Balaiai. Which was amazingly child friendly. Took child number two. The Blessing stayed with the grandparents and got bought a hand beaded £40 pair of sandals. I am planning on stealing them at the end of the summer because some people's feet will continue to grow and mine will remain the same. But having a week off meant that I read a few other things, like How to be Good, which was okay but nothing spectaccular if you ask me and then The Body Double (It came free with a woman's magazine) which was much better than I expected and The Echo. I suppose I was a bit disappointed with The Echo and I love Walters. Now reading a book about the Congo. I think I have a romantic idea of Africa.

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