peer pressure rewarded

The title of this blog entry has no bearing on the book to discuss. I was in the Book Loft http://www.bookloft.com , which is one of the most fab bookstores around, but I digress. My friend, who was shopping with me, went on and on about this book in a way which implied that I would be failing intellectually not to have read it. So bowing to peer pressure, I purchased All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West.

This novel has blown me away. Sackville-West was close to Virginia Woolf and some comments see threads between their writing. The novel opens with the death of Lord Slane, who lived into his 90s. The elderly Lady Slane sees this as an opportunity to be true to her own nature for the first time. She evades her children's move to plan for her future and rents a small house. The book is in many ways a reflection on choices made, but it is more, much more. I found this book enchanting and giving me things to think about after the last pages were read.

Magic Carpet Ride

Audrey McClellan writes books set on a island of the coast of Scotland. You may remember my writing about Westering Home and White Rose of Scotland. Magic Carpet Ride is only loosely connected to the island series. (Our hero's father is from the island.)

Angus is the prototypical romance novel hero and is ironically writing one, when he rescues our heroine Dorcas, a carpet designer, after her car runs off the road. This novel is full of every romance novel cliche in the book. And yet after checking it out of the library, I will buy my own copy. It shouldn't be so much fun, but it is. McClellan refers to it as a spoof of the genre at her web page.

If you are looking for a fun and spicy romance novel for the beach, give Magic Carpet Ride a try.