September Reading

Over the years I have gathered a number of books by Doris Lessing. They are all rather old, the most ancient, Winter in July, having been published in 1966. The freshest, The Summer Before the Dark, a mere 46 years old. Yet, until a few weeks ago I'd never read a Doris Lessing novel. Shameful, heh? I still haven't, but I have embarked upon The Grass is Singing, her first book. My copy was published in 1969. I've barely started it.

New starts since I last blogged about books are Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, H Is For Hawk, Helen Macdonald (library book), Andrea Levy's Small Island, Ammonites & Leaping Fish, by Penelope Lively, The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński (my copy 38 years old). 

The Kosiński book has been around for many years. Bert read it ages ago. When I asked him how he found it, he told me it was a harsh read. I see today that there is now a film based on the novel which played recently at the Venice Film Festival, a film so violent that there was a mass audience walk-out. The scene that prompted the rush for the exit (spoiler alert) has already taken place in my reading and it is shocking but I managed to absorb it without throwing up or panicking. All I can say about it is, cats will be cats. They like to play with their food be it alive or dead.