The act of reading ... begins on a flat surface, counter or page, and then gets stirred and chopped and blended until what we make, in the end, is a dish, or story, all our own.
— Adam Gopnik

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April 28, 2013

Found on a Blog: Bath Tangle



When Michelle wrote about Bath Tangle on her unusual and wonderful blog, I happily put it on my list, and I was even happier to find a downloadable audiobook at the library. I use the books on my Ipod as a treat for when I'm walking, and the fact that I've been listening to this one for three months has nothing to do with whether or not I liked the book and everything to do with laziness, and then a long break with normal, and (on the good side) the fact that I didn't cheat and listen to any of it when I wasn't. :)

I could really say that any Georgette Heyer I read was found on a blog, because I only discovered her regency novels three summers ago when a lot of bloggers was reading her.  But of the three or four that I've read, I think this one is my favorite (so thank you, Michelle!)

As Michelle said, it begins with a death.  The Earl of Spenborough has suddenly died, leaving his bold, unconventional, unmarried daughter, Lady Serena, living with her stepmother, Fanny, who is a few years younger. Because she is fond of her, and for propriety's sake, Serena plans to continue living with Fanny, but she doesn't expect that her father has put her inheritance, and her ability to marry, under the control of her jilted lover, Lord Rotherham. 

After all this time, Bath Tangle untangled itself when I was almost exactly half-way through my usual loop, so I stopped to scroll through my Ipod for a new book to start on the way home. That was fun, because I had almost forgotten what was on there and I didn't want to spend a lot of time deciding. 


Here's the blurb:

On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever.

Not sure where I heard about this book, but even though I've only gotten as far as the prologue, I think this book will be perfect to walk with hopefully, in less than eighty days this time :)}. 

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'Found on a blog' is a label for books that I discover by reading
your wonderful blogs. I try
to keep track, before I read them, but I thought
I would also like to say thanks this way.

4 comments:

Lisa said...

I actually learned about Nellie Bly from The West Wing, of all places - I had known the name but not the person. I've meant to read more about her but never did - so this book sounds like a good place to start!

Lisa said...

P.S. Just checked the library catalogue, and after wading through 20+ copies of Around the World in Eighty Days, I found this book - though since there are only three copies & 20 people ahead of me, it could be 80 days before my turn :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the mention, Audrey! Glad you enjoyed Bath Tangle much. :) And now, it'll be my turn to thank you for introducing me to Nellie Bly & Elizabeth Bisland! Eighty Days sounds like something that is right up my alley. How is it that I have never heard of it before, I wonder. Thanks for the heads up!

JoAnn said...

Now that I've discovered Angela Thirkell, Georgette Heyer is next on the list.

The weather is finally warmer here, too (no doubt I'll be complaining about the heat soon), so it's definitely time to start walking again. I'm reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield for book club, but may supplement with audio, too, since it's gotten such rave reviews. Hopefully it will keep me motivated.

Thank you for visiting!

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