• Currently Listening To:

• Currently Reading: Paris 1919.  Still.  But enjoying it quite a bit now.  I'm almost halfway through, reading about the contention over how much to make Germany pay.

• Recently Read and Enjoyed:  The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent.  While it took me awhile to get into the story, once in it turned out to be an interesting account of the Salem witch trials (which included Andover, the home of our narrator, Sarah Carrier).  The topic fascinates me in general, so that wasn't a deterrent, but I often stumble over historical novels written in first person.  Some are easier to swallow than others (it's a matter of tone more than anything, I think) and it was the first person perspective that I found to be the weakest element in this novel.  While it should have brought the horror home even more forcefully, it kept me at an emotional distance for almost half the novel.  But I did enjoy it in the end and found myself reading voraciously as I neared the final pages.  

And then for some lighter fare . . . For such clever novels, they are so easy to read. Quick and enjoyable, that's Agatha Christie for you.  I've just been reading The Moving Finger:

"Miss Marple, left standing by me, twinkled a little and said, 'Mrs. Dane Calthorp is a very remarkable woman, you know. She's nearly always right.'
'It makes her rather alarming,' I said.
'Sincerity has that effect,' said Miss Marple."

So seemingly effortless, those little flashes of insight.  Christie is so much fun.

• Recently Watched and (Somewhat) Enjoyed:  The dark comedy Withnail and I (1986).  I find dark comedies rather discouraging on the whole, something not quite funny about the pathetic, but Withnail and I has some stellar acting and really good writing.  Richard E. Grant is consistently brilliant in it. So it was enjoyable, in the end.  Mr. Inkslinger is a fan of the film and wanted to watch it with me.  He manages to find the funny in dark comedy easier than I do.