Book number 12!

This was a bit of fun reading: Read it and Eat by Sarah Gardner. It's full of fun suggestions for book club discussions and meals to go with them. It's by month, with themes for each month (Christmas, Banned Books, June Brides, etc.) and there are four bonus sections. Every month has four books, with a brief summary, a discussion guide, and menus to go with it. Gardner is very clever, even downright funny, with some of her menus: For example, a discussion of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle features an all-vegetarian menu! For Jane Eyre, there are tea sandwiches: The Rochester (slightly toasted), The Bertha (a bit nutty), and The Jane (plain, strong, and very good). This is a terrific guide for those planning future book club meetings.

Update March 18...

Two more books, bringing my total to eleven:

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Classic romance with a good deal of humor. Forster really knew how to expose the absurdities of class differences. I love this novel! I read it through knowing how it would end, and loving every bit of it.

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

This falls under the love or hate category- I happened to love it. It's a strange story about a winged circus performer and the American journalist who follows her to get her story. "Is she fact or is she fiction?" The story is in three parts- London, St. Petersburg, and Siberia. It is a vivid portrait of the sideshow lives at the turn of the 19th/20th century. It's part fairy tale, part freak show. And it's an enjoyable ride. I need to find some of Carter's other works. It's a shame she died so young (back in 1992).

Up next, Mansfield Park (finally). And three new Torchwood novels will be out before the end of the month!

Reading log update...

I finished Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict in two nights. It was an amusing story about a 21st century woman who wakes up in the body of an Austen-era woman. I loved the idea, and it worked really well.

Next, I finished the last of the Torchwood novels that I had- Another Life. It was better than Border Princes, not as good as Slow Decay. It was the first novel published, so the characters weren't quite in tune with how they are on television.

My dad signed me up for a church Lenten study, and we had to read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I'm really not into books like these- I think they are designed for people who don't go to church regularly. It's not so bad, it's just stuff I've heard before, because I've been a churchgoer my entire life.

I'm finally reading Nights at the Circus. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's weird and wonderful.

I had to take The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen back to the library before I could finish it. I'll check it out later...much later, because I have so much else to read. Next up, A Room With A View, and Mansfield Park at last. I've put it off for too long! I have both on audio cassette.

So my total for the year so far is nine books. I'm pretty sure I'll make my goal. I've picked out a few books I want to re-read this year- Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton, a lost classic from the 1930's- being re-published in the U.S. this year (I have the U.K. edition); and Jane Austen's Emma. Nothing wrong with going back to a favorite every now and then!