Monday, March 10, 2014

Currently reading

Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles (Katherine Pancol): Last week, in anticipation of recuperating after oral surgery (root canal; the thought of it made me want to curl up and sleep for a year), I went to the bookstore and browsed for an appropriate book. Something light, cheery, slightly trashy. The bright orange jacket and catchy title of Katherine Pancol's book--an international bestseller, translated from French--caught my eye. I'm enjoying the novel, though the first 70 pages are still "set up," and my recovery was not nearly as feet-up as I had feared. A pleasing combo of Diane Johnson and Raffaella Barker.

Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles (Margaret George): A few weeks ago, I helped Son #1 with a history project in which he wrote a report on a country, Scotland. Part of the report included a biography, and Simon chose Mary, Queen of Scots as a subject because her story kept coming up and he thought fascinating the story of the child queen who was married off and sent to France at a young age. Soon it became clear that I needed to read Margaret George's sweeping historical novel about Mary. A quick search of the shelves revealed that I did not have a copy, which I found strange. This book was one of the bestselling backlist titles when I repped for SMP. I felt fairly confident that I had at least one copy, but no, and so not the first book I've had to re-purchase. I'm on page 12, and so far, the book is easier to read than Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell series and nearly every bit as enjoyable.