It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday and I am not reading. I am packing. The hubs and I are getting ready to travel to Virginia for a couple of weeks, so today I am packing. And running errands. And obsessing about packing and running errands. Not doing much reading.

However, I have been doing some reading lately. June and July were much better reading months for me than May (when I read absolutely zero books). Recently I've finished:

• Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh
• Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie
• The Key by Patricia Wentworth
• Night Watch by Linda Fairstein
• Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
• Skios by Michael Frayn
• The Warden by Anthony Trollope

Haven't managed to get any reviews up yet, and that might have to wait until I get back from the trip. But I enjoyed every one of those.

So, back to getting ready for travel. And one of the things I need to do is decide what reading matter to take along. I've got the iPad loaded up with more Agatha Christie (just started Elephants Can Remember) and more Ngaio Marsh (next up: The Nursing Home Murder) and more P.G. Wodehouse, but the pad is a little heavy to read for several hours on the plane. So I need to decide which (real) book to take along.

I'm still just about three-quarters of the way through (and loving) Kate Morton's The House at Riverton, so if I don't finish that one up tonight, it'll be going along with me.


But if I do finish it, then I'll be looking for something else. Maybe I should just pick up something at the airport -- surprise myself with something completely new and different. Since I'm not a good traveler and really don't like to fly, whatever I take has to be something I can really get lost in, something that will divert my attention from helping the pilot fly the damn plane.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Teaser Tuesdays: The House at Riverton

This week my teaser lines come from The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. I started this one back around the first of the year, and then put it aside to read other (shorter) works. Then got sidetracked by our move and all the business that involved. But now I'm taking it up again -- should be a good summer read. In this snippet, 98-year-old Grace Bradley is remembering her first days as a very young maid servant in the great house at Riverton:

The room was large, rectangular and gloomy, and wore the pallor of decorous neglect. It gave the impression of desertion, of a spell in an ancient tale. It slept the sleep of a hundred-year curse. The air hung heavily, thick and cold and suspended; and in the doll's house by the fireplace the dining table was set for a party whose guests would never come....It smelled musty, of ghostly children and long-settled dust. Vaguely alive. (p.26)

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Theme Thursday: Face

Theme Thursday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between the Pages. Each Thursday, a theme is posted for that week. Participants select a conversation, snippet, or sentence from whatever book they're reading and post it for everyone to read. It's a great way to discover new books and authors.

This week's theme is Face (Features), and here's my snippet, from Agatha Christie's Dead Man's Folly:

She was wearing a big coolie-style hat of vivid magenta straw. Beneath it her face showed its pinky reflection on the dead-white surface of her skin. She was heavily made up in an exotic un-English style. Dead-white matt skin; vivid cyclamen lips, mascara applied lavishly to the eyes. Her hair showed beneath the hat, black and smooth, fitting like a velvet cap. There was a languorous un-English beauty about the face. (p.25)

Teaser Tuesdays: Dead Man's Folly

This week my teaser lines come from Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie. In this snippet, from the book's opening scene, the famous detective Hercule Poirot is being contacted by Mrs. Ariadne Oliver (the famous author of detective novels), and invited to take part in a "murder hunt" party:

"This is Mrs. Oliver. I don't know if you'll remember me--"
"But of course I remember you, Madam. Who could forget you?"
"Well, people do sometimes," said Mrs. Oliver. "Quite often, in fact. I don't think I've got a very distinctive personality. Or perhaps it's because I'm always doing different things to my hair." (p.2)

I absolutely love Ariadne Oliver -- she's my favorite Christie character. She appears in several of the Poirot novels, and she actually has a wonderfully distinctive personality -- just as (I suspect) her creator had.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Booking Through Thursday: Guilty Pleasure

This week BTT asks: "What book(s) have you read that you’re secretly ashamed to admit?"

And I have to say I honestly don't think I'm ashamed of anything I've ever read. Some of it was probably a waste of time, but never shameful. I'm only embarrassed by the multitude of things I haven't read.

Teaser Tuesdays: Right Ho, Jeeves

This week my teaser lines come from Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. Published in 1934, this was the second full-length work to feature the inimitable butler; Jeeves was introduced in a series of short stories before the novels began appearing. In this snippet (p.170), Bertie Wooster is reflecting on his valet's unsettling ability to appear as if by magic, just when he's needed:

I hadn't heard the door open, but the man was on the spot once more. My private belief, as I think I have mentioned before, is that Jeeves doesn't have to open doors. He's like one of those birds in India who bung their astral bodies about....He just seems to float from Spot A to Spot B like some form of gas.

This one has been on my TBR list for years now. Can't think why it took me so long to get to it -- it's hilarious, and now it's going on my list of all-time faves.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Teaser Tuesdays: If on a winter's night a traveler

This week my teaser lines come from Italo Calvino's novel If on a winter's night a traveler, first published in 1979. I've just started reading, and these lines are from the book's opening paragraph:

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice -- they won't hear you otherwise -- "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!"

Strange book. Well, I knew it was going to be weird, and so far it's living up to its reputation. But I like weird, so I'm expecting to enjoy this one.

And as I'm reading these opening lines, the TV really is on, in the next room. Weird.



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.