So, what have I been reading this week? Having demolished the Hamish Macbeth like the literary sponge-cake it was, I was left with ‘Petite Mort’, a crime novel set in Victorian Paris *. Alas, though the evocation of the city in 1900 was haunting (the Paris of the Hunchback of Notre Dame), though the characters were well-drawn and the authorial voice authentic, the story jumped between three sets of people and three time-frames so often that I lost track of everything and eventually returned it to the library whence it came. I have now exhausted the library’s stock of interesting crime fiction: the only two Ian Rankins they have are ones I practically known by heart; ditto the Val McDermids and Kathy Reichs – -and nothing else really grabs me. So the only excitement at the library came from being issued with a new card that had an interesting and different picture on it; and being told that two people have signed up for my ‘I Hate Poetry’ workshop on 28th Sept, for Everybody’s Reading week:
Daniel did the poster – do you like it? You should come along – it’ll be fun – and it’s free!
I also picked up a Colm Toibin novella about the Virgin Mary – but more on that next week. I will just leave you with the plans for Richard III’s new tomb in the cathedral. Simple and dignified – or a bit of a mish-mash?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-24159531
Like my week, really…
Kirk out
*and yes, I know that it wasn’t really Victorian Paris but I don’t know what else to call it because I don’t know which republic it was.