It's hard to categorize this book. Penelope Lively herself describes it as fiction, but it's not really. Not in the traditional sense. It's imagined social history, based on observations and facts. Faction? I broke the "Rule of 50" on this one. I read only 30 pages before giving up, and I'm not yet (and probably never will be) 70 - the age declared by Nancy Pearl's rule as one at which you only need to read 30 pages to make a decision. Of course the principle behind Pearl's rule is that the older you get, the less you can afford to waste time reading books you really don't like. I claim an exemption because I started reading late in life, and I expect to die young.

OK, on to my next book in my Festival of Lively Reading: "According to Mark" (by Penelope Lively, of course!) ( )

This is such an interesting book! Lively is one of my favourite British authors, and this book is woven around the family home in Somerset that her grandparents bought in 1923. She uses it to show how apparently unchanging buildings and landscapes can reveal both momentous events in history and changes in technology from trains to needlecraft.
See more at http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/200... ( )