A part of me loathes grad school as it takes away all (or almost all) of my reading for pleasure time. Regardless, I've finished up some reading recently and hope to knock out a couple more books before going back for another quarter next week.
Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett. This is one of the books on my 100 book list that I'm slowly plowing through. It follows the lives of two sisters, Constance and Sophia, through the 19th century, from their lives starting as teens in England to their deaths in the same town in which they were born. Constance remained in the same town, Bursely, her whole life, marrying, raising her son, then becoming a widow, all in one town. Sophia, conversely, married young in a scandal that severed ties with her immediate family for a lengthy time. After moving to Paris with her new husband, she realizes he's a bit a loser, squanders their money, and then finally leaves her. Playing off the assumption that she's a recent widower, Sophia establishes a hotel which, eventually, becomes somewhat well known and makes Sophia a wealthy women. After a small stroke slows her down, she moves back to England and reunites with the sister, Constance, she hasn't seen or spoken to in years and years.
Water Witch by Juliet Dark. Juliet Dark is a pen name for Carol Goodman, who's books I've loved since I was given Lake of Dead Languages a decade ago. She ventured away from her usual, best-selling style and moved into a more fantasy type of writing. Water Witch is the second book of the trilogy, in which the heroine, a professor of fairy tales, finds herself living in a world inhabited by witches and other fantastical creatures. Callie's forte is the sex lives of demon lovers, the subject of her dissertation and the title of her popular class. It's not as titillating as one would think, but still an interesting read. I don't know if I would have picked it up had I not known it was written by Carol Goodman. Ironically, the third book seems the most interesting of the series, which I might order from amazon, and give it a try. Some common elements from her other books remain: boarding school, single, somewhat lonely heroine, setting of New England or upstate NY.
The Inferno by Dan Brown. I seldom read books reviews, but I saw a review for this on a plane and continued reading against my better judgement. I don't remember anything else about the review except that the author complained the book read like a tour book in many places. I couldn't shake that feelings while reading it. Regardless, having been to Venice, Florence, and Istanbul, the descriptions intrigued me, made me remember places that have faded from memory, and made me want to plan trips to go back for all the sights I missed. Robert Langdon wakes up with a nasty head injury in a Florence hospital, and has no recollections of getting to Europe, much less Florence. The entire book takes place in a very short period of time. Following clues from Dante's Inferno, Langdon and his new doctor friend traipse around Italy trying to discover why Langdon was injured, who is chasing him, and why Langdon is linked to an incredibly intelligent billionaire who recently committed suicide. It lacks the panache of many of his other books, but The Inferno is a fast read with some interesting plot twists.
