Binging on books

I have been very slack about stitching - the only time I have been into the sewing room for months has been to do some trouser shortening for Martin and some repairs for Helen and Kevin. I have been feeling so tired that if I wasn't sleeping I just wanted to sit. So I have been reading and rereading.

Last year I reread all the Phyrne Fisher novels by Kerry Greenwood and was delighted to discover a newly published one which I promptly devoured. Then Stephanie Laurens came out with the final book in the Bride Quartet, so I had to reread the first three before I read the new one! This series is set in India in the early 19th century and involves a group of four East India Company soldiers who discover the villain behind a vicious cult and have to take the evidence to England, hotly pursued by the cult. Naturally each encounters a lady along the way and romantic entanglement ensues. I enjoy SL's story telling, but have to skip large chunks of the sex scenes.

Then the final volume of Nora Roberts Bride Quartet came out. This is modern romantic fiction and good light reading, but of course I had to reread the first three before I could finish off the series!

I also read "Ape House" by Sara Gruen. I loved her first book "Water for Elephants". I was less taken by this, mostly because the story timing was inconsistent throughout the novel - events moved very quickly, then slowed to a crawl, then heaps of action at the end. I may have to reread it to see if my first opinion is justified.

Since New Year I have been indulging myself in the "in Death" series by JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts). I read the latest volume "Indulgence in Death" (appropriate) and started rereading the entire series from the beginning. Some days I have read two of them, so I am now half way through #11. I suspect I am getting a bit tired of them, so I may stop soon.

I have only one completely untouched book waiting - "The Distant Hours" by Kate Morton. I enjoyed her first two books "The Shifting Fog" and "The Forgotten Garden", so I expect to like this as well.