Reading is good


A Good Year by Peter Mayle

I'm a reading fool this week. Someone at work recently loaned me this book and I found it quite enjoyable. The end felt rushed and I think it missed the potential big bang ending it deserved but overall, the book was enjoyable. Peter Mayle is really building quite a base of books based in France. All enjoyable.

8 to go!

Making My Way Through The Reading

I recently finished the following:


by J.K. Rowling

and


by Julia Quinn

and


by Peter Mayle

and


by Alexander Mccall Smith

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book in J.K. Rowling's series and so far her most powerful one. While the climax wasn't as action filled as her previous novels, it was more heartwrenching. I can see why the entire world is transfixed by Rowling and her work. All I could think when I finished the book was that she hadn't even started writing the seventh and last book of the series. I'm not sure that I can wait but I shall have to. Maybe I'll go back and read the previous ones again.

It's In His Kiss was a trashy romance novel which filled some time on a quiet Saturday Afternoon. It was trashy, it was full of romance and it was entertaining!

Anything Considered : A Novel was my book club selection. The book follows Bennett, a Brit espatriate as he first looks for work in Provence. Having lost his savings in an investment scam, he is intent on finding the means to reside in Saint-Martin in Provence. He advertises his services: "Anything considered except marriage"-and is hired by Julian Poe, a stupendously wealthy fellow Brit, who needs help in evading the French income tax. Pretending to be Poe in the latter's Monaco apartment, Bennett becomes involved in the hijacking of a case containing the secret formula for the successful cultivation of the elusive black truffle. The book's hijinks continue from there. While not one of Mayle's best works, I did find this to be highly entertaining and nice read. Unfortunately I missed my book club meeting so I don't know what the other members thought.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs is the first book in Alexander Mccall Smith's latest series and honestly, I don't think it was worth the overdue fines I incured. It was a quick read but I felt each chapter was a hodgepodge of the activities of Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, professor of philology and author of PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS, a scholarly tome of 1200 pages, only 200 copies of which have been sold and even fewer of which (if any) have been read. It could have been so much better but it wasn't. So I just count it as one more book toward my goal of 30.

21 books read to date.

9 to go! (I'm still reading Proust so realistically, I only need to read 8 more books and I have 5 more months to achieve this goal!)