Well, I’m afraid it’s another post of the “short and sweet” variety from me. I’m running against the clock to get the house, and the people who inhabit it, sorted out so we can get away for a short break, en famille. Yay!
I’m halfway through packing for four, I’ve cancelled the papers and made sure the house-sitter has the keys. And now, I’m facing the ultimate dilemma: what book to take away with me?
Well, I will definitely be packing the book I’m three quarters through, the fabulously talented Joanna Bourne’s The Forbidden Rose.
I am loving this book, and there is NO way I can leave it behind with Doyle and Maggie facing such turmoil! But I'll be finished it before our trip is done; what to read next?
See, this is where having a towering TBR pile is a curse. So many books make it so hard to choose. But after burrowing through my TBR pile this afternoon, I’ve narrowed it down to these choices:-
The Confessions of Catherine De Medici, by C.W. Gortner
Casanova, by Andrew Miller
The Pale Blue Eye, by Louis Bayard
... or Affinity, by Sarah Waters
And I’m stuck. Can anyone recommend one over the others? Otherwise I’ll just have to let my five year old pick, and that’ll come down to which cover has the shiniest, curliest, writing. J I suppose it's as good a way to choose as any!
Claire, so glad you are refining your writing method and finding what works best for you. It's so different for each of us, but I've struggled with some of the same issues (writing so bloated by detail it sinks instead of swims). I don't have too much problem seeing what can be cut as long as what I've written has had time to "cool." But I'm also doing what you are to some extent, trying to push on with action and dialogue. I can layer in the sensory stuff, the lovely language, the less cliched phrase, in a later draft.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide either - I've never read any of these. But the one about Catherine de Medici sounds interesting... Which one did you go for?
ReplyDeleteDeniz - the vote went to The Confessions of Catherine de Medici; not for the shiny, curly, writing on the cover, though, but because my daughter thought the lady on the front was wearing a very pretty dress, and the story was all about a queen. Who am I to argue with that? (g)
ReplyDeleteOh, and it's an excellent book, too!