Tuesday 5th November - how many books on the go at once?

 Oh, too many, has to be the answer.

'The Counter-Tenor's Daughter' by Elizabeth Falconer is one, a 'real' paperback, and the third in a loosely linked series. Many thanks to Elizabethd for recomending them. I get the next in the series when I'm putting together an order from world of books.

I'm dipping in and out of 'The Carlyles at Home' by Thea Holme is another 'real' paperback. It's a Persephone Book, and I only buy them occasionally. It's about Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane and their life in London in the mid-1800s. You have to sjile; they've only just moved in, and Jane's priority has obviously been to get his study ready for him; 'here I sit' he writes in a letter, 'all nice comfortable' while Jane is still battling with ordering the rest of their house. 

We visited the house, now a National Trust property some years ago when we were in London, so I can picture the rooms as I read.

It's taking me ages to read 'Unapologetic ' byFrancis Spufford, which is an account of why, inspite of everything, he is a Christian. I've read it before, and it's written in quite a d3nse style, and a bit sweary for some, but I find it fascinating and honest. I can read a couple of pages and then I need to step back and re-enter my normal daily life for a bit. I wonder what it would be like to actually talk to him?

The bookclub choice this month is 'Emminent Victorians' by Lytton Strachey. I've know of this book for years. My word, but LS is 'waspish' as one of the other bookclub readers said! I've just got through his opinion of Cardinal Manning, which is so uncomplimentary that I looked up Cardinal Manning on Wikipedia to get an alternative view. 

8n my mind it links to Anthony Trollope's book, 'The Warden', and the impassioned and opposing discourse between the Evangelical churchmanship and Anglo-Catholic churchmanship of the period. Who can forget Alan Rivkman as the egregious Mr Slope in the TV series all those years ago?

LS's next subject (victim?) is Florence Nightingale... 

I've finished 'The Day of the Storm', Rosamund Pilcher. Not one of her best... a bit of a pot-boiler in my view. But it was only 99p. 'University  Challenges' by Jack Sheffield was also 99p, so worth a punt, especially as it is set in a thinly disguised York University. But I won't be buying any more... it was OK, but a bit  - how can I describe it - a bit like a mug of luke warm weak coffee...

The Mary Stewart (99p) will be a cozy re-read when I need something like that, and the Penelope Lively looks intriguing, again 99p.

What else? There are more?

Another 99p Rosamund Pilcher; I've read this already, many years ago and fancied reading it againsome time. Well, I'm a just a sucker for these 99p kindle offers.

I've no idea why I bought 'The Photographer's Wife' by Nick Alexander. I started it this morning to see what it was like and have kept going... so far.

I always read Nigel Slater's 'Christmas Chronicles' at this time of year. I've bought the booze and fruits for the liqueurs (recipes on November 2nd) and have every intention of making them as soon as I have rounded up enough jars.

So, how many books is that? Don't bother counting because there are a couple of others that I haven't mentioned!