Monday, June 9, 2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Well, I finished three books this week. My husband and I did a little weekend getaway to Maine and we stayed in a very quiet B&B, which was great for reading. I brought three books I had already started, and managed to finish all three by the time we checked out on Sunday. They were
  • Seven Lives and One Great Love, by Lena Divani, a light diversion I enjoyed,
  • I Married You For Happiness, by Lily Tuck, a well-composed literary novel about a long marriage, also very good, and
  • On Leave, by Daniel Anselme, one of the few novels to have emerged from the French-Algerian War, about a group of disaffected soldiers home in Paris on leave.
On Leave was definitely my favorite and the one I'd recommend the most. I'll do a full review this week.

I also finished Revolution Baby, by Joanna Gruda, about a World War 2 hidden child, which I absolutely loved. Both Revolution Baby and On Leave will be in my top favorites this year.

Now that leaves me with some openings. I'm still enjoying The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst, and Secrecy, by Rupert Thomson, but I'll need to pick something else out of my pile, probably something new or newish. I'm thinking about starting Pushkin Hills, by Sergei Dovlatov, or Arimathea, by Frank McGuinness.  Any suggestions? What are you reading?

See more at BookJourney.wordpress.com.

7 comments:

bermudaonion said...

It sounds like you had a heavenly weekend!

sylvie said...

After 2 years away from blogging, I am starting a new blog which will take a little time to arrange and be active. I have followed your blog and many others while away.
I am very interested in "ON LEAVE", being French and remembering the after effect of tbe French/Algerian war, I never was tought anything about it. What I remember was tbe sudden invasion of what where called "les pieds noirs". Of course eventually we understood, all French expatriate in Algeria had to leave a country they had occupied for generations, most came to France empty handed which was very difficult.
Thank you for mentioning this book, I went and downloaded it onto my kindle.

Mystica said...

Sounds a good weekend and these are new books for me.

Kaesey said...

A weekend of reading! Sounds wonderful. =)

I'm currently reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, which I really like. I also have The Luminaries and In Paradise on deck.

Blogger10 said...

Ooooh where in Maine? I love it up there! Sounds like it was perfect reading atmosphere too! :)

Anonymous said...

The Line of Beauty is one of my favorite books ever. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Anonymous said...

A B&B weekend sounds great to me!