What I've been reading

Uncle Silas
by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

"When Maud is orphaned, she is sent to live with her Uncle Silas, her father's mysterious brother and a man with a scandalous past. There she encounters Madame de la Rougierre, who plays a sinister role in Maud's destiny."

I now discover this was written in 1874 - while I was reading it I was convinced it was a much earlier work. It seemed very old-fashioned compared with my favourite Trollope and even with Les Misérables, which I'm also reading at the moment. The story was pretty slow to develop until the very end when it finally became exciting, but quite a long slog to get to the satisfactory conclusion. 

The Salt Path
by Raynor Winn

"In one devastating week, Raynor and her husband Moth lost their house and received a terminal diagnosis that took away their future together. With nowhere to call home, they instead embarked on a journey: to walk the South West Coast Path, a 630-mile trail from Somerset to Dorset."

Much easier to read than my recent choices, this was loaned to me and took just a day or two to finish. In fact, I lapsed into my habit of reading too fast, wanting to find out the next part, skipping over descriptions that would have given me great pleasure had I not been too keen to find out what's next, and what's next, and now? This is a classic example of a book that would have been better in audio than print. It was beautifully written, but has a depressing note that is entirely valid given the context of the author. Despite this, as I reached the final chapters I felt a strong desire to leave everything behind and walk along a coast path for the summer.

I'm in the middle of reading some very long books - Uncle Silas was one of these - so just two finished this month, which must be the lowest tally for ages!