As I sip my Chai tea on this sunny/muggy/can't-decide-what-to-do Sunday morning, I realize I’ve stayed right on schedule regarding my reading plans for the week, which is a pleasant surprise.
I finished reading Five Days in London: May, 1940 on Wednesday, and I must say, I was happy to get to the last page. I’m not a non-fiction reader, and the few non-fiction titles I’ve read have been written more like novels than information texts, so with this one, it was a real challenge to stay focused and keep my interest level up. Good thing it was short, and I had a reading schedule to follow. It was an interesting reading experience for sure, but I think I’ll stick with fiction.
I also read The Guardians by Andrew Pyper last week. This 2011 novel tells the story of four boys who, while growing up in a small Ontario town, experienced what may have been a haunting and murder in an old abandoned house. The group is brought together again nearly 25 years later when one of the boys commits suicide. Their search for answers about their past experiences coincides with the disappearance of a young woman on the evening after the funeral, and it seems to be up to the three remaining men to find her before the house, or the spirit residing therein, takes her to join the others who seem trapped forever in that place of evil. I read Pyper’s first novel, Lost Girls, when it was first published, a novel about a cocaine-addicted Toronto lawyer who goes up north to a small town to defend an English teacher when two teenaged girls go missing. I have vague recollections of that novel as having a surreal and dreamlike quality to the narrative, where dreams and reality mingle until it is uncertain what is happening and what is imagined. I also seem to recall that I thought it was going to be more “psychological fiction” than “ghost story” or “horror” novel. But I’ve since read reviews of Pyper that call him “Canada’s Stephen King” or “Canada‘s scariest writer”, so I guess I was wrong. The novel I just finished was described as “psychological suspense”, but I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as such - it was more Stephen King than Minette Walters. I guess there’s a reason I only read his first novel and no others until now.
I also finished listening to Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. This audio book was every bit as good as any others I’ve listened to by this author. I was at the library yesterday and took out the film adaptation of this book, which I plan to watch tonight.
I’m a bit behind on my reading of Before the Poison by Peter Robinson for my next volunteer book group which meets on Friday, but I think I can get through it in time. I spoke to one of my book club ladies late last week, and while she hadn’t yet finished the novel, she told me she was loving it so far, which is great to hear! I really enjoy Peter Robinson, and, in my opinion, Before the Poison is one of his best books. I wish he would write more standalones (although I love his “Inspector Banks” books too!)
Time to get reading…
Bye for now!
Julie
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