The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now... So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch ... what kind of reading do you want to do?
Well, it is hardly cold and wintry here in Southern California, but this Minnesota girl does remember those days. Why do you think I moved? When it is nasty outside, and I am barricaded in the house with a mug of hot cocoa and a book, I want something that takes me away. A mystery might be good, but some mysteries just aren't. Mostly, I want a setting that is so well-described that it jumps off the page and makes me forget about what is going on outside the windows. The young adult book that I just started, The Hunger Games, seems to have that magic. I know that the plot is going to get very dark, but I can't stop myself from reading the next chapter. Then again, the book that I just finished was good, but it didn't quite grab me strongly enough to keep out the chill.
An Unsuitable Job For A Woman by P.D. JamesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this one for my book club and it took me a little to like Cordelia or maybe it was that it took me a while to get comfortable with author P.D. James' style. Eventually, I settled in and enjoyed myself. As with all mysteries, the main discriminator for me is whether or not I guessed whodunit before the great reveal. In this case, I figured out part of the mystery, but not all of it. That was good. Still, there were a great many things I did figure out before the end and there were a number of details that didn't seem necessary. Some were and others were red herrings. One thing that I found quite interesting was that I found it difficult to guess the time period. Obviously, it is a modern story, but there weren't too many references that would pin the story to a particular decade. All in all, it was an enjoyable read, but I'm not sure that I'm interested in digging into another in the series.
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