Wednesday, February 08, 2017

WWW.WEDNESDAY




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1. What are you currently reading? Wonderland, by Ace Atkins. I just picked it up, but I'm happy to be spending time again with Spencer, Robert Parker's most famous creation. Henry Cimoli was a bit player in previous books, good buddy to Spencer and Hawk. In this volume he moves to the fore. Developers want to buy the condo building where Henry lives. In fact, they rather brutally insist on it. So Henry hires his old friend Spencer to help him keep his home.

2. What did you recently finish reading? Royal Sisters by Anne Edwards. A sympathetic look at Elizabeth and Margaret Rose before and after the older sister became Queen Elizabeth II. I found myself unexpectedly touched by the two love affairs at the center of the book: Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and Princess Margaret and the divorced commoner Peter Townsend. A decorated RAF pilot, Capt. Townsend was a genuine war hero. It's shocking to me that he was considered "not good enough" for the Queen's younger sister, especially now, when divorced Prince Charles is about to ascend to the throne as the husband of divorced Camilla. But Margaret's ill-fated affair was 60 years ago, not so long after the Edward/Wallis mess. Queen Elizabeth didn't think she could put the country, or the Church of England, through more turmoil, so Margaret was stuck with a broken heart. So unfair!
 
3.  What will you read next? A biography from my tall TBR pile.