Sunday Confessions on Monday

The postman is getting more and more fed up with this.He's been off sick for two weeks with the Village Flu (I think we have a mini-pandemic going on) and has now resumed his daily trudge to the door with parcels and it's taking a lot of smooth talking to keep him happy.He also keeps telling us which son he's seen with which girl in which pub and we keep saying we don't want to know.
This is a rural problem, you can have no secrets.
Realising the error of my ways in neglecting Alan Clark's diaries, two volumes quickly arrived and these, as I've said make fruitful and fascinating reading. I'm going backwards and having read about his death,my eyes are out on stalks at the sheer drudgery of his time as MP for Plymouth.
More books from the very kind Peter Owen and in there The Demanding Dead More Stories of Terror and the Supernatural by Edith Wharton, Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, a Japanese best-seller by all accounts and Loving Mephistopheles by Miranda Miller. This gets a good write up from Hilary Mantel so looks promising.
I was quickish off the mark and bagged one of the free books on offer over on Scott Pack's blog so The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson has arrived "the bleak Hungarian plain, 1914,an isolated village shrouded in superstition and rumours of witchcraft..." I've resisted opening it but have only a mere shred of willpower left. Update: willpower dissolved, 120 pages in, very good indeed thus far. Update 2: Finished will be on blog very soon.
I've done a book exchange with A who comments on here and lives partly in France, so in return for an unread hardback copy of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (it's on its way A) which was making me feel guilty I now have Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas which comes highly recommended and a couple of books in French! This will be ambitious but one is by Amelie Nothomb and not yet translated,Cosmetique De L'Ennemi so needs must when you are starving.Also Les Grands Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier also in French and yes, this could all end in beaucoup de tears avec des grosse stamping of les pieds.
I also decided to plan ahead for this attempted monthly read of a volume of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time  and so I ordered Book 2, A Buyer's Market. Book 1 is going well but this is going to be a ridiculously expensive way to read these, too late now, I'm hooked on these manageable little books.
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin has been on my list for ages.Old hunting grounds for me and many a happy hour spent in Coram's Fields as Gt. Ormond Street student nurses when we would wheel children out for some of that fresh London air.You could only go into Coram's Field if you had a child with you.This copy came from my local Indie so yes, it has the electronic tagging device stuck firmly inside the back cover, grrrrr and more grrrrr.