The Group

I am not a huge fan of Sex and the City, so I probably should have paid attention that The Group was introduced by Candace Bushnell. I was expecting this book, originally published in 1963, to be inspirational, but it wasn't particularly. It was fairly interesting, but seemed to be very down on the male sex and didn't paint a very happy picture of marriage or even femalehood. It just felt very down-trodden and sad. It was well-written, and the characters were believable, but it just did feel quite hopeless and made it seem that being a woman is quite hard work, when actually, it isn't; it can be really quite fabulous.

I am now reading Jeeves and Wooster, because I really needed something so light-hearted to uplift me a bit. I am enjoying these and will tell you more later.

Something new...

Having read some older books, rather than from modern authors, I thought I would continue on this theme. So, I bought Cranford: and Other Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell. I don't have a television, so I hadn't seen the series on the BBC. I loved the book; the characters were so believable and enjoyable, and it was quite unusual to have the females as the dominant characters. I read the omnibus edition, which includes the stories 'The Lady Ludlow', 'Mr Harrison's Confessions' and 'The Cage at Cranford'. The stories and the characters were so delightful, and the historical element was really interesting. A lovely Winter's read, which was followed by a book from one of my usual genres. Elinor Lipman's The Family Man follows her usual style of complicated family setups with strong characters, some of which from Jewish backgrounds. This book tells the story of Henry Archer, a gay man, who used to be married, and who meets the daughter he adopted and lost about 25 years ago. This was a complicated, but easy to read story, which had me giggling in my seat. I really like the way Elinor Lipman writes. She covers some sensitive topics, but with a perfect amount of humour. Really enjoyable!