It’s an unexpectedly wintery day here. All our spring flowers – our daffodils were this close to opening – have been covered in a blanket of snow and it’s all very unseasonal. But I am ready to embrace it. For one thing, the sun is shining! That’s been a rare sight here this winter and should be celebrated regardless of how slippery and cold it might otherwise be outside.
After spending a few hours tramping about in the snow this morning, I have now settled down for a quiet, domestic day. I’ve got good music on, good food ready to be cooked (the peerless minestrone soup from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking), and many good books standing by for me to read.
This eagle was very unimpressed with his newly-snowy perch
After hitting a bit of a reading slump earlier this month I seem to have got my stride back. Nothing I picked up seemed capable of holding my interest through to the end. Adam Gopnik’s At the Strangers’ Gate (which I had been so looking forward to) was beautifully written but not enough to engage me with its main focus, a topic of absolutely zero interest to me – the 1980s arts scene in New York. However, if that is something you’re interested in it would be a fabulous book. Even I made it three quarters of the way through purely on the strength of Gopnik’s writing.
Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson, which I started during the Persephone readathon, has also proved incapable of holding my interest. I know it’s a favourite among many Persephone fans but its just not grabbing me the way the best diaries do. And perhaps I’ve just read so many wartime diaries that pedestrian ones like this don’t have much ability to impact me any more. I haven’t precisely abandoned it but I’m not racing to finish it either.
What has got me excited about reading again is one of my NetGalley books: Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley. I love Kearsley’s historical novels and, though initially skeptical about the supernatural elements in many of her novels (ghosts, inexplicable time travel, etc), she won me over with her excellent writing and superb attention to historical detail. I adored her last novel (A Desperate Fortune) so was thrilled when I heard she had a new book coming out this year. It won’t be released until April and I’ll write in more detail about it then but it is definitely up to the standard of her best works (in my opinion, A Desperate Fortune, The Firebird, and The Shadowy Horses). And, unlike those favourites which deal with European history (Jacobites in Russia, France and Italy, and a Roman legion in Britain), this book looks at the Seven Years War in North America, fought between the French and English and their respective colonists (and various First Nations groups). It’s very, very good and exactly what I needed.
I’m now bouncing between romance novels, Canadian plays, and World War Two histories, happy to be back in my very eclectic reading groove!
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The Captive Reader 
I confess I skipped over a lot of the arts scene descriptions but then thoroughly enjoyed the rest of it. 🙂 I actually listened to the audiobook version, which he read himself, which made it even better. I’m glad you’re enjoying your wintry day…although we’ve had cold, we haven’t had much snow (or it doesn’t seem like we have), but we did have a few inches last night of the pretty kind that clings to all the branches.
I loved the early essays, which focused more on him and Martha and his strange career path, but by the time they move into their loft conversion among other artists there seemed to be too much art-speak to skim easily through!
Our snow here is definitely clinging to branches – and bringing them down as it warms up and gets heavier. But at least it’s sunny!
I have only read one of Susanna Kearsley’s books (The Winter Sea), and I really liked it. I’m intrigued by the premise of Bellewether – you don’t hear a lot about the Seven Years War in fiction! Thanks for the recommendation.
You really don’t, especially when it comes to the North American theatre! Kearsley does such a good and elegant job of outlining the situation in N.A. and of showing how the roots of the next war – the American Revolution – were laid in that one.
Got to read Susannah Kearsley once my current book acquisition ban is over. I’m glad to have recommendations for the best ones.
Happy to help inspire your future reading!
We have also had a string of grey days, so the sun this weekend was especially welcome. I think it’s back to rain for the rest of the week. It sounds like you had a lovely cozy day planned. I made oatmeal molasses cookies from a recipe I clipped years ago. I have collected stacks of them over the years, and I’m determined this year to whittle the piles down (these were fine, but not a keeper recipe).
Good on your for working through your recipe clippings! I mostly finding things online now and was getting a huge, overwhelming collection of links – until my computer crashed and I lost everything. That’s one way to clear things out!
I’m really looking forward to reading Bellewether when it comes out. Susanna Kearley is a favorite of mine!
I think all Kearsley fans will be delighted with this one! I can’t wait to buy a copy when it’s released.
That’s good to hear!
I like Kearsley myself very much. I like the mix of romance, time travel, a touch of the supernatural myself so I am a fan. I have requested this from Netgalley. I do hope they will respond soon. It takes simply ages for me to get a response for some of my reads.
I hope you are approved soon! I’m certain you’ll enjoy it.