Book-y stuff

Hello! I missed you!

Anyway, while I wasn't flogging (FREUDIAN SLIP! I MEANT BLOGGING!), I managed to read two books, A WEEK IN DECEMBER by Sebastian Faulks and THE TOWERS OF TREBIZOND by Rose Macaulay. Liked them both very much. A WEEK is kind of a sprawling satire/soap opera set in contemporary London, and kids there's a drunk character at the end who does the best job of clearly explaining why our global economies are collapsing than any single thing I've heard or read. NOT KIDDING.

TOWERS is pure quirk. It's all Thomas Merton meets Monty Python--daffy British humor with the underpinnings of tough real questions about religion and faith. It's not a book everyone would like, but I kind of adored it.

Meanwhile I've spent the morning trolling local libraries for Austen pastiches. WHO KNEW THERE WERE SO VERY, VERY MANY? Including pastiches where familiar characters (think Jane Fairfax) are vampires?

I SO missed the vampire boat . . .