Hi. Well, I haven’t been posting much because I haven’t been reading much. I know! Shocker! But I’ve been writing a lot, plus I’m trying to do the content for my new soon-to-be released website (www.joelleanthony.com). I did, however, find out that one of my articles, Tough Love, came out in the new SCBWI bulletin (mine always arrives late) and that at the bottom I mentioned this blog. I thought I better post something in case someone new visits!

I did read the first book in a three-book series of nonfiction called A LONDON CHILD OF THE 1870s by M.V. Hughes. This book was pretty great. It was memoir written in the thirties about growing up in London in the 1870s (as the title suggests). I found it fascinating. I also found it very, very interesting that some elements from it showed up in Elizabeth Enright’s fictional series The Melendy Quartet (I just read those and you can find my comments on those books back in the January archives). I am curious about this because Ms. Enright was writing her series right at the time this nonfiction series was VERY popular… I’m not saying she lifted the things, but it certainly looks like it. For all I know though, they were friends and they discussed it. Or it was just a coincidence. Here’s an example. In The Saturdays, there are four siblings and they have a whole floor of the house to themselves that they call “The Office”. In this book, there are five siblings who have a whole room, similar in description, that they call “The Study”. There are more coincidences too.

Anyway….I liked this very much but decided to read fiction before going onto book two. I picked a book that I think shall remain nameless for now because I’m really not that into it. I did love the author’s previous book, but I’ve found myself reading magazines rather than going back to this one…I’m about half way through, but I’ve been reading it for a week, which is silly for me. The length is one that would normally take me 1-2 days tops. I’m concerned that I’ve burnt out on reading a bit too. I have had an unusually long string of books that I’ve started and not finished lately. I would say that normally happens with about 1 out of 15 books, but there have been a lot lately. I am pretty bleary-eyed after writing all day, so it may just be that.

Read anything good lately?