Reading Spree!

In the past two weeks, I have managed to clock in many hours of reading. What a relief it has been--dog curled up in a ball at my feet, tea at my elbow, gas fire pouring out heat, and book(s) in hand.

I have less than 80 pages to go in the nearly 400-page The Flight of Gemma Hardy. It has strayed deliciously from Jane Eyre. Mr. Sinclair, the Rochester character, is marvelously flawed! I love that twist.

I've found the novel to be a page-turner, but it must be said that I delight in orphan tales. UK readers' eyes will pop out when they stumble across what a novelist-friend of mine used to call "eye bumps." I think Livesy tried to write dialogue being mindful of British diction, but...she fails at times. She also can be a little careless with historical phrasing. This book takes place from 1958-1967, and she has some cliches and phrases that belong to the 1990s at the earliest. Still, I must say, they do not happen frequently, and I'm able to stay rooted in time and place. And I've thoroughly enjoyed it! That fact is uppermost!

Andrew Hudgins' poetry has figured prominently this week. I own Hudgins' The Neverending but have borrowed The Lost War Narrative. I'm not a poetry afficiando, but I enjoy reading poems from time to time, for the ideas, the emotions, the imagery, and to share with my students.