Sunday Caught My Interest

Life has been very hectic this week – so much so I often forgot what day it was. So not much reading was done and, in fact, I had to turn in two books I was in the middle of because I wasn’t able to finish them and they were not available for renewal. I did do lots of walking in preparation for our upcoming vacation which did take a fair amount of time. And we had our annual picnic at the Symphony last night meeting with friends and having a scrumptious buffet. The weather was perfect, the music fantastic, and the lemon drops over ice – divine.

Programing note: Himself and I leave at crack of dawn for a vacation. We will have internet access during a few short days of it while we visit his brother’s family. But other than that we are planning on camping and hiking. And as I did not get any posts into the queue, content may be sporadic for a few weeks.

Here is what caught my interest this week:

I really enjoyed M.E. Braddon’s novel Lady Audley’s Secret (a delicious romp with bigamy, murder, madness, and various other nefarious deeds).  And now I may have to add another one of her novels to my Kindle list based on Guy Savages – His Futile Preoccupations review which will appear in multiple posts. The Doctor’s Wife (published in 1864) is Braddon’s response to Madame Bovary. A dreamy romantic young girl marries a simple, provincial doctor who is unable to meet her emotional needs. Guy mentions that Braddon attempts to rise above the sensationalism of her previous work and strive for something more literary. I want to see if she succeeded.

Available free on electronic readers is what Fleur Fisher calls “a lovely, old-fashioned romance” in her review of The Rose Garden Husband by Margaret Widdemer. Widdemer was both a poet and a novelist (one of my favorite combinations) and she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (then known as the Columbia University Prize). Written in 1915, the novel is about Phyllis a single children’s librarian and a very positive person. An encounter makes her wonder if there is more out there, especially if she married…Everything I can find about this book raves about how uplifting and fun it is. Sounds worth downloading.

Finally, Eva (A Striped Armchair) has a wonderful post on Ecuadorian Literature.

Happy reading!

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