I’ve abandoned Ms. Mantel’s book since taking this photo. It was at about page 280, a good two-thirds, perhaps even three-quarters, of the way through so I gave it every chance. There were common threads between this and the extraordinary Wolf Hall: she has a great knack of weaving minute detail into her descriptions without it becoming tedious. These nuances, nicely placed and paced, keep you going. However without a strong plot (which Wolf Hall has), I just got to the point when I thought to myself, “I’m not invested enough in these characters to keep going.” I didn’t even teensy-peek at the final couple of pages, just to see how it all turned out. I am disappointed, but that doesn’t make it a ‘failure’ in my mind either.
The Brothers Grimm was my birthday present to Adam; he borrowed Cryptonomicon for me, I borrowed The Lost Dog because a friend had asked me if I had (and I haven’t); I am curious about the Sea Monsters, and I’ve always wanted to read Breath.
