Finished at last!

I've finished that book I didn't like, and here's the name: Ghost Heart by R. J. Ellory. To be fair it did have an ending which came as a complete surprise (and was very clever). The rest of it was kind of predictable though, and the main characters could have been more sympathetic.

But in other news I have the new Harlan Coben novel! It's called Long Lost and it's the latest in the Myron Bolitar series. I'm tempted to go back and read all the others in proper order first but I know I won't - I'm going to start this one tonight (and then lend it to anyone else who wants it).

Off on a course now and then on holiday so I will report back in a week with my latest reading.

Day 203; book 200

Still reading the boring book

I still can't remember what it's called, which isn't a good sign, but I have persevered and it's getting a bit more interesting. Still not thrilling though. A lonely girl has just been dumped for mysterious reasons by the love of her life ...

More photography books

My first choice was a little book of the photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron. A Victorian, she was amongst the leading exponents of photography as art, specialising in atmospheric portraits and dramatic scenes with her models dressed as biblical or literary characters. (It helped that she moved in artistic and literary circles). Her niece, also Julia, was the mother of Virginia Woolf, and there is a very beautiful photograph of her. You really can see her fine and lovely features (surprisingly, because often women described as great beauties of the day would not meet our expectations today). Speaking of modern standards, we would consider each and every one of the models photographed to be having a very bad hair day. No hair straighteners of Frizz-Ease for them! Yes, it's a shallow observation, but mine own ...

The next book was The Commissar Vanishes by David King. This was an eye-opening work about the revision of history under Stalin, specifically by altering photographs to exclude the one who had gone out of favour. King illustrates this dramatically by comparing the original photographs with the altered ones (sometimes they went through several incarnations). It is shocking to look at the people shown and to realise that at least 90% of them did not die a natural death. The photographs were altered by air brushing or cropping (as a scrapbooker I flinched at the evil use cropping was being put to here). Even more horribly, private citizens and schoolchildren were expected to carry out their own revision of books in their possession, blanking out the faces of the out of favour. These pages look particulary creepy and upsetting with just the face gone. Despite the horror of the situation, in some cases the altering of the photographs was carried out in rather an amateur manner and the author points this up with some humorous titles which serve to puncture the pomposity of Stalin and his minions. A very interesting read.

Day 201; Book 199

Boring book

The one I'm reading is so boring I can't remember the title or the author. I did buy it for only £1 in Asda, so maybe that should have been a clue (on the other hand some of my best books have been bargain books). I may just abandon it or I may try to persist in the hope that it gets better. It's not a bad book, just uninspiring. *sighs*

Mrs Ames by E F Benson

This was published in 1912, so a good decade before the Lucia books. Lucia fans will still enjoy this, but it has a much more serious undertone. There is still the manipulation of others for social dominance but there are more important matters at stake here, so the book cannot be so light-hearted. In Lucia the problems are usually all of the participants' own making so we can enjoy their Machiavellian manoeuvrings for their own sake.

I also read The Only Problem by Muriel Spark. I couldn't decide if this was meant to be funny or not. (I didn't find it so). The characters were all tedious and self-obsessed. It ends in tragedy but you don't care.

What a relief to read Cranford (by Mrs Gaskell) again. The characters are drawn warmly and wittily, times past are poignantly evoked - and there is a happy ending! I've never seen the TV series and I'm planning to keep avoiding it, as they may have altered things and I wouldn't like that (plus I have my own ideas about how the characters should look).

Day 199; book 197

Paying Guests by E F Benson

This is very much in the style of Benson's Lucia books and was equally funny. The editor writes in the introduction of Benson's "biting satire", but I would have to say I don't really agree with that interpretation of his work. It implies that Benson has no sympathy with his creations, yet he does. Part of the enjoyment is in recognising the faults of characters, yet coming to sympathise with at least some of them. We end up hoping they will get out of the scrapes for which they have only themselves to blame. There's more of these, so back to the shelves for me.

Day 196 ; Book 194

Calum Colvin exhibition in St Andrews

It's at the Gateway. Here are the details.