The Adventures of a Constant Reader

                When A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles was nominated for reading by a member of the book club I’m in I was promised Russian spies and intrigue.   It sort of got there, but it took a while.   This book has a really slow burn.   It is full of beautiful descriptions, tasty food and wine pairings, and references to old movies like Casablanca but for the first two thirds or so that’s pretty much all we get.   The book begins in Russia in 1922 and the main character, Count Alexander Rustov, has been placed on house arrest in the beautiful Metropol hotel for writing a poem and for being an aristocrat.   The contents of the poem are not discussed until later in the book.   He lives a modest life in two small rooms in the attic of the hotel where he is eventually given the position of head waiter.   The book revolves around the people who come in and out of the ...

                Hello!   It’s been a long time since I’ve used my blog.   My husband and I are going to have a baby and it’s been a little hectic around here.   We’ve been getting ready for her arrival (she’s due in October), and I’ve had lots of doctor’s appointments and I’ve been training my replacement at work.   I’m going to be staying at home for a while so it’s a very exciting (but also a little scary!) time for me.   In the meantime, I’ve updated the look of the blog a little and I’ll be going back to re-write my old posts.   I feel that I can do a better job with them than I have done and I want to revise them.   Going forward you can expect to hear about the books I read with the book club I’m in as well as the books in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.   I’ve added tabs so that you can see what I’m reading now as well as what I’m planning to read...