Stuck-in-a-Book’s Weekend Miscellany

Oh dear… well, it is still the weekend. But I’ve been busy planning a murder mystery party, so that’s my excuse for not blogging earlier! And great fun it was too – we played it out this evening, set in a cake shop called For Goodness Cake! (aka our lounge) and gave me an excuse to splurge on a beautiful tiered cake stand, which I’m show off soon. And I already had a beautiful non-tiered cake stand… I may be developing an obsession.

Anyway, I wrote a murder with nine parts, all unisex so they could be distributed randomly, and I think it worked quite well. Lots of fantastic acting going on all round! Great fun – and all to celebrate my housemate Debs’ birthday. The present I gave her was, of course, books… some gems I found in Malvern. I thought I’d give her books I’d loved, and hope for the best – so she got rather lovely old copies of The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, Mrs. Miniver by Jan Stuther, and the Collected Short Stories of Saki.

Anyway, enough of my news – let’s leap towards the book, blog post, and link. Not much colour this weekend, as that’s the bit which takes the most time, and I need to sleep…

1.) The link – comes courtesy of Nancy, thanks Nancy – fancy living in the house in Rye which has housed E.F. Benson, Henry James, and Rumer Godden? (Not all at the same time, you understand…) Well, you can rent it! I can’t believe this is true, and wish I had the money and the desired ability to garden… I’d love it if a SiaB reader got the gig. Have a look here.

2.) The blog post – is Simon S’s very interesting post on blog commenting. Some people find blogging-about-blogging (meta-blogging, if you will) tiresome, some find it fascinating – I am one of those who finds it fascinating, and could read about it all day. The ways people go about it, the decisions they make, etc. etc…. so interesting. And so I’ve enjoyed everyone’s thoughts on commenting on blogs. And apologise once again for my laxness in replying to comments – Must Do Better.

3.) The book – I spent much of today reading The Uncanny by Nicholas Royle. When a publisher told me they were issuing his novel Quilt, and would I like a copy, I thought – gosh, how uncanny (ahem). And said yes. And it sounds right up my street – here’s the blurb:Facing the disarray and disorientation around his father’s death, a man contends with the strange and haunting power of the house his parents once lived in.

He sets about the mundane yet exhausting process of sorting through the remnants of his father’s life – clearing away years of accumulated objects, unearthing forgotten memories and the haunted realms of everyday life. At the same time, he embarks on an eccentric side-project. And as he grows increasingly obsessed with this new project, his grip on reality seems to slip.It sounds like a combination of things I’ve loved in novels by Edward Carey and Stephen Benatar, as well as reminding me of ‘Daughters of the Late Colonel’ by Katherine Mansfield… and utterly irresistible. I think it may form part of a little project I’m intending to undertake next weekend, which I’ll tell you about soon…