Late post this morning, sorry about that! Just another (Mon)day in paradise – what can I say? The to-do list grows longer and time seems to fly faster and faster, with limited time for reading and even less time for writing about reading. But I still power through.

It was actually a pretty decent reading week, last week – pretty productive and very mysterious. I absolutely loved Death in Captivity, by Michael Gilbert, and found myself feverishly turning pages because I just had to find out what was going to happen, but at the same time dreading the last page because then it would be over and I would have to say goodbye to the characters. Next I moved on to Miss Pym Disposes, to which I’d been looking forward but which proved disappointing – the plot was slow and plodding, which wouldn’t have been a huge problem but for the casual racism displayed by many of the characters. (I will allow for a book being “of its time” and consider dated language as a drawback and a moment for reflection on social progress, but there was more of it than usual in this one and it was upsetting.) I’m not giving up on Josephine Tey, since I’ve loved her other books, but I may not return to this one for quite some time.

Finally picked up Death on the Down Beat, the latest release from British Library Crime Classics – and this is very exciting! My birthday was last week and as part of a great deal of spoiling, Steve got me a year’s membership to the British Library Crime Classics Subscription. New BL Crime Classics delivered to my door every month – does it get better than that? Death on the Down Beat was the October release and my first subscription book, and it came with a bookmark and some extra materials – a seating plan for the orchestra and a segment of score, both of which are relevant to the mystery of who shot a provincial orchestra conductor in the middle of a performance. Intrigued, aren’t you?! Bonus – this is an epistolary novel, which is one of my favorite formats. I have been flying through it and am about forty pages from the end, and still deliciously baffled.

Next up, I think I’ll probably turn back to my Classics Club list – I have my eye on Sylvia’s Lovers, which is the last Elizabeth Gaskell on the list. Watch this space!

Weekend hike at one of my favorite spots – I love a good wetland! The autumn colors were out in force and so beautiful.

What are you reading this week?