1. It’s Friday, which means not the end of my workweek, but something even more wonderful: Battlestar Galactica. Which let me say, is outstanding this season.
2. Beth loves my new header.
3. I found a bunch of missing books: Norton’s Critical Edition of The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (I do love Hardy most sincerely), some biographies I had been worried about. My stash of ten copies of Homestead in Chinese (which really, what am I ever going to do with them? I had twelve and gave two away to people who actually speak Chinese, and now here the rest sit.)
4. I’m reading a book that apparently the whole world has read already, but I somehow overlooked: and it’s good. Really good. Year of Wonders (OWC), by Geraldine Brooks. The only thing I don’t like is the review from Publishers Weekly which is very positive, but also manages to dismiss the rest of the historical novelists in the universe with a flick of the superior fingers:
Discriminating readers who view the term historical novel with disdain will find that this debut by praised journalist Brooks (Foreign Correspondence) is to conventional work in the genre as a diamond is to a rhinestone. With an intensely observant eye, a rigorous regard for period detail, and assured, elegant prose, Brooks…
I am indignant not for my own sake (or not much for my own sake) but for A.S. Byatt, Dorothy Dunnett, Barry Unsworth, and all the other novelists who bring such talent and passion to the daunting task of writing stories set in the past. So: a raspberry to PW.
5. This week I have written eight thousand words. Really. Iin five days. Don’t talk to me about this, okay, but that would jinx it and if I can keep up this pace, wow. That would be great. The good people of Greenbriar South Carolina are talking my ear off, Julia and Dodge are talking to each other and letting me in their heads, and words sprudel up like cheap champagne.
6. Stephen King’s new book. Cell: A Novel (OWC) should be in my hands just about the time I finish Year of Wonders. Eclectic is one of my numerous middle names.
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I loved the Year of Wonders. I’d be interested to know what you think of her new one, March. A fictionalised account of Mr March’s (the father of all the Little Women) experiences in the Civil War. Apparently loosley based on the life of Louisa May Alcott’s non conformist father.
Hey look, I’m on a list of good things!!
And ps: I REALLY love it. A lot. Like, every single element of it, mmkay, and I’m not just saying that so I stay on the list of good things, but because the more I look at it, the more I like it.
I do not, however, like Stephen King. Or PW. And now I go forth to add Year of Wonders to my amazon wishlist.
I really liked Year of Wonders…except for the ending. March was also really, really good.
Galactica is going from strength to strength this season; most of the time I am convinced it can’t top the episode I’m currently watching, but somehow the next one (nearly) always does.
I loved the Year of Wonders – thought it was a very interesting exploration of the social impact of the plague.